My friend, Henry Kanemoto, sent me a photo of 3 size 16 hooks laid out on a scale with 1/16 inch hash marks. It is most revealing. I was reminded again about the importance of knowing the hooks that one ties on. When we were shooting “Nymphing” in the summer of 1982, I noticed that […]
I asked Theo to please send along some shots of the long flies that they use for pike in Holland. He was kind enough to send them right back to me, along with some more pike photos. Note that these flies are big, as in really big, and have to be tied with plenty of […]
This is the imitation that I find particularly effective for cranefly adults. It’s n elk hair skater. There’s not much to it, but then again, there’s not much to a cranefly adult, either. The chief design element is the super-sized hackle made from very stiff elk hair. It’s a quick fly to tie, and it […]
Bunyan Bugs aren’t just for movies anymore (A River Runs Through It). My old friend, John Beth, has breathed new life into this nearly century old imitation, using the basic design of a balsa body and hair wing as the foundation for a series of terrestrial imitations. They not only look tasty, but the fish […]
Fly tying is the mechanical application of materials to the hook. It can be done by any skilled craftsman, whether that person fishes or not. Fly designing is the process of combining the mechanical skills of fly tying with a knowledge of materials, the physical characteristics and life habits of the fish’s food organisms, the […]
The Wet/Dry fly is an “accidental” discovery design. I had tied some of them as wet flies to fish during a hatch of Blue winged Olived (Ephemerella rotunda/invaria), and on the first cast the fly floated. The little brown rose and confidently sucked in the rumpled-looking wet fly that was riding the film. I tried […]
Carrie J. Frost was born in La Crosse Wisconsin Oct. 14, 1868, and educated as a teacher. She started tying flies for her father and his friends in 1880, but in 1896 opened a fly tying firm under the name of Miss C. J. Frost. She employed other women in the Stevens Point area to […]
This imitation apes Stage 2 in the emergence process. It is meant t suggest the nymph as the wings are just beginning to emerge from the case. The insect is riding in the surface film, its legs extended its body simply trapped by the surface tension, and its wings pushing up and out. This is […]
Fly Tying in Germany The fly show season is winding down here and in Europe. My old pal, Theo Bakelaar, was tying in Germany a few days ago, demonstrating his squid imitations. True to form, he had to do something to help the audience more clearly understand not only the tying, but the tyer as […]
In Fishing the Film, there’s discussion of the various stages of emergence and the files that imitate them. Several people asked me to post the tying steps for these imitations, so here’s the first one, the Low Rider Emerging Nymph. Jason developed it a couple of decades ago, when he was fishing Montana’s DePuy’s spring […]