Today's Flavor ....
Today’s flavor is Hendricksons. There’s a steady drip from the roof eaves as the snow melts and the forest floor outside my window is...
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The Busy Season ....
In "A River Runs Through It" Norman Maclean writes "we were left to assume , as my brother and I did, that all first-class fisherman on...
Another Hendrickson ....
I love seeing all the different versions of Hendricksons that fly tyers are posting on social media lately. Last week I went traditional...
Coq de Leon .....
There are so many ways to use these beautiful feathers. While they certainly see their share of use in nymph tails and have fibers that...
Fly Archives ....
Tucked away deep in my collection of clutter is a few Riker mount boxes of flies from an earlier time in my fly tying career. There was a...
Ants that Fly ....
Late summer / early fall is the time when flying ant swarms become a daily possibility on the water. Ant swarms never follow the logic of...
Anting the Hatch ....
I’ve always been fond of ant patterns, having learned early on that trout are terribly fond of the real ones. Ant patterns and...
Summertime Blues ....
It’s early August already, hotter than hell, and tough to find the motivation to do much writing lately. Standing in a stream and...
In-ˌflü-ən(t)s ….
“Influence” according to the wisdom of Merriam Webster is “to have an effect on the condition or development of”. I’ve been fortunate to...
Keeping it Smooth ....Part III
Two weeks ago I talked about the need for creating a level, smooth under body when making a fly body from goose or turkey biots. Last...
Keeping it Smooth .... Part II
Biots can be used to make a segmented fly body that imitates a mayfly’s abdomen better than many other materials. The challenge is...
Keeping it Smooth ...... Part I
Many fly tiers I talk to find working with turkey and goose biots frustrating. They can be, but once mastered they make a really slick...
The Warmup .....
While I seldom take many breaks from tying flies, it happens from time to time especially during the late summer when my customer orders...
Bigger Isn't Always Better ....
Years ago it was pretty common to find streamer flies in smaller sizes in most shops and fly boxes. They took many forms, from bucktails...
Diversions ....
One of my neighbors is a premier breeder of Llamas, which are pretty cool animals. The fur from llamas is known as “fiber” and is used to...
Roots ....
We can all trace our paths back to the beginning of something, back to the roots. I was an 11 year-old kid that was always drawn to the...
Clip it Good ......
In more than 45 years of tying flies things have piled up. There are boxes and bins and totes and bags of materials everywhere. It just...
Dances with CDC .....
Cul de Canard feathers are one of my favorite materials and play a big role in many of my “Signature Fly” patterns. Anyone that’s ever...
A Little Twist .....
There are multiple angles on the topic of thread control, which is one of the key elements in fly tying. While learning how and when to...
Tying One .....
I taught a fly tying class yesterday with the Anglers Club of Philadelphia at the TCO Fly Shop in Haverford, Pennsylvania. This a very...
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