Who says fly fishers can’t appreciate art just like anyone else? If you’ve ever watched a true fly-tying artist craft an Atlantic salmon fly at the vise, you know that really good tiers have a flare for the artistic.
Tim Flagler is no different.
As you’ll see above, the Stonefly Creeper is a conglomeration of new ideas—artistic rather than realistic, to be sure—into an old, dependable nymph pattern. This fly, tied to imitate a golden stonefly, is simply gorgeous, with its pheasant tail, back-turned hackle and opossum-fur body, died gold and tied tightly. Flagler talks about the origins of the fly and at the end concedes that this pattern is “more impressionistic than realistic.”
Long live the artistic fly tier.
— Chris Hunt