I was working a heavily wooded shoreline of a local pond late one afternoon when I observed a little commotion on the water. A bright green object around two inches long was fluttering about on the surface.
Read moreThe Stayner Ducktail
The Stayner Ducktail is a streamer pattern that has been knocking around in my fly boxes for a long time. It has caught more than its share of trout and landlocked salmon for me over the years and like all successful flies it eventually migrated into my warm water boxes. However, this one did not find its way there by accident.
Read moreThe Ugly Cricket
As I held the fly in my hand, I could see that it was probably an early attempt at some sort of terrestrial pattern, possibly a cricket, by the fly tier who donated the materials. The fly was crudely tied with heavy sewing thread. It had a preformed foam spider body and knotted rubber legs tied in all helter-skelter. The knotted legs are what makes me believe it was meant to imitate a cricket.
Read moreImprove where you tie to improve what you tie.
I was recently a guest blogger for The Flymen Fishing Company. I wrote on the subject of setting up an ideal space for your fly tying. If you are not familiar with The Flymen Fishing Company they produce a number fly tying products that you have probably heard of.
Read moreThe Creature
The purist, dry fly anglers turn their noses up to this ugly easy to tie style of fly because it can be nothing more than a piece of your bath mat lashed to a hook shank. But the thing they hate the most about the fly is that it will likely catch more fish than their exquisitely tied Catskill style dry fly!
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