There’s no shortage of fly pattern tutorial videos these days. Many of them are an impressive display of the fly tyer’s art, but one has to wonder if some of them actually catch fish. I get on a creative streak from time to time, whipping up experimental patterns that look great but most of them
Category: Flies and fly tying
At the Bench: Organization
It’s March, but right now it’s 18 degrees with a 22 mph wind out of the northwest; perfect fly tying weather. I’ve had an enjoyable tying season so far, filling boxes with old reliables and some new stuff. Whether I’m in production mode with a list of patterns to tie, or tinkering with experimentals, it’s
Salute to the Patriot Dry Fly
Thank you to In the Riffle for this YouTube video on tying the Patriot Dry Fly. The Patriot is my stuck-on-a-desert-island dry fly. If I had to pick a single dry fly as the only one I could use for a given day, it would be this one. Originally tied by Charles Meck in the
At the Vise: Kelly Galloup’s Hare’s Ear
If you want to simplify your fly selection in the spring, a good tandem to fish is a Pheasant Tail and a Hare’s Ear. The former mimics a swimming nymph (e.g., a BWO) and the latter can represent a clinger nymph (e.g., a March Brown), both of which are very common in the drift in