Welcome to the J. Stockard Fly Fishing Blog. We’re here to share advice, how-to’s, news and inspiration about fly tying and fly fishing.

Nymphing Subtleties: Part 1

Guest Blogger: Joe Dellaria, Woodbury MN

This is a two-part series on nymphing in low water conditions.

A few years ago, Wisconsin changed the opener of the pre-season catch and release season from the first Saturday in March to the first Saturday in January. If you live in the upper Midwest, you know that January is usually when we experience a stretch of sub-zero weather. You may be thinking, is this guy nuts (That’s a separate discussion we can have over a beer or two!)? However, in this case, we were experiencing a heat wave with temperatures approaching freezing and bright sunshine. The radiant energy in the sunshine is enough to minimize the ice in the guides and the reel, so I decided to go fly fishing.

I checked my fishing log to see what I usually use in the early pre-season and proceeded to rig my rod with a float indicator, a #6 bead head olive wooly bugger, and an 18-inch dropper to a bead head silver lightning bug. Within a few casts it became clear this was not a good choice as I was spending most of my time walking through my best spots getting my flies unsnagged from rocks and other debris on the bottom of the river. more…

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Cycles of the Stream: Robbing the Cradle

Guest Blogger: Michael Vorhis, author of ARCHANGEL suspense thriller, OPEN DISTANCE adventure thriller & more to come

Some time back I offered up a streamer pattern of my own design. Built on an inverted “swimming nymph” hook, it has many advantages, including:

— Serious snag resistance without need of a point guard

— Natural upright swimming

— Ease of tying

— Ease of adding weight to achieve various depths without impacting its swimming posture

— Hair body that moves like water itself

— Ability to mimic nearly any small baitfish

— Positive hooking when a fish takes it

— Easy casting, courtesy of minimal water-holding materials
more…

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Announcing! New FASTER! 2 to 4 Day Shipping

You asked for faster shipping and we listened! We’ve just launched a new delivery option that we’re dubbing FASTER! Priced at just $6, our FASTER! service will arrive at your doorstep in 2 to 4 business days after leaving our warehouse.

For example, if you live in Pennsylvania and order on Tuesday, you can expect to get your order on Friday, and sometimes sooner. You’ll get the same service for all of New England and most of New York, Florida and California, too! In most cases, your order will be delivered via the USPS First Class or Priority Mail.

You can still take advantage of our low-cost ECONOMY service which is free on any order over $100 and $5 for all other orders. And, for those in need of super fast delivery we continue to offer premium expedited services like Next Day.

To get the details on all our shipping options go here. And, you can see state by state (continental US only) delivery estimates for our new FASTER! service here: