Fly Tying

The first step in any fly recipe is ‘choose your fly hook’! Therefore, understanding the various shapes, components, or parts of a fly hook, the ‘ fly hook anatomy’, is a great place for any beginner fly tyer to start.

J. Stockard Pro Tyer John Satkowski reviews Anadromous Fly Company and their line of high-quality, reasonably priced fly tying scissors.

Guest Blogger: Joe Dellaria, Learning from the River  Years ago, I thought parachute st...

Blogger Joe Dellaria tells the back story of the girdle bug, an easy-to-tie, durable fly. He then goes in depth on how to tie it, useful variations, and the products he finds work best to tie this reliable fly.

I assumed the grasshopper was floating (I find assumptions most often get me into more trouble!). I kept thinking about this as I had been using a grasshopper for over a month and had caught a few browns and turned a couple of decent fish in riffles that had missed the fly (I have often wondered whether lending these trout my trifocals would help them see the fly better!). None of the fish I had seen were anywhere near 16”. Eventually it occurred to me, maybe the grasshopper wasn’t floating. I asked him at church the next week.

About the Gurgler Fly Fundamentally, there couldn’t be a more straightforward, simple steps fly ...

The Mighty Myakka Minnow was born out of frustration. I’m sure you’ve been there. Imagine a day on the water with fish busting minnows throughout the morning. But after several hours, you still have nothing to show for your efforts. You cast into the spray of minnows, but your offerings are ignored repeatedly.

Guest Blogger: Joe Dellaria, Woodbury MN Over the years I have made friends with numerous people who hunt bi...

As the air crisps, the leaves start changing color, and the baitfish abound, fall creeps steadily upon the rivers and lakes. The fish start feeding and bulking up as they prepare for the harsh winter ahead. For me this means one thing, the pike rush into the shallows. I love chasing these toothy freight trains as they inhale any meal that happens to be unlucky enough to swim within their territory. Pike have always fascinated me with their sheer predatory abilities. I have encountered numerous pike sitting with their belly resting on the bottom and a very large sucker sticking out of their mouth. The fish don’t seem to mind as I walk by and watch them try to digest their prey. They just have this mystique about them, as if they can just appear and crush a fly when you are about to recast. They strike with such brutality and speed, it has startled me on more than one occasion. When fall approaches, the bigger fish come out of the depths and vegetation and are center stage for flinging half a chicken’s worth of feathers at these magical freshwater barracudas.

I couldn’t find any reliable information as to when we anglers started calling the free swimming larva of Rhyacophilidae caddis “Rock Worms”. In late 19th and early 20th century literature, such worms were lumped into a category called “creepers” and there weren’t to my knowledge any specific patterns to replicate them. However, in Montana Flies (Grant, 1981) George Grant gives Franz Potts of Missoula, Montana credit for the term “Rock Worm”.

These rather bizarre fly patterns come to us from the reservoir trout fisheries in the U. K. An Internet search of “Blob Fly” will reveal an array of information on tying these patterns, the materials used, how to fish them, and also a lot of controversy—which is not unexpected.

While I can’t say I’ve exactly “mopped up” with the Mop Fly, I have used it with some success. Like a lot of ugly flies that don’t fit our theories of imitation, but sometimes work very well nevertheless, the Mop Fly has its detractors. If you wouldn’t be caught dead with a Mop Fly on the end of your leader, of course you are under no obligation to use one. On the other hand those of us who are more open-minded are under no obligation not to. All of the wise cracks about the fine line between being open-minded and having a hole in one’s head notwithstanding.