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Fly tying: The Bluegill Belly Bean
Here in the West, we're officially in the Dog Days — it's hot. As Niel Simon wrote in Biloxi Blues, "Man, it's hot. It's like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn't take this kind of hot." OK, maybe I'm being a little dramatic. But, when it gets this hot, it stresses our lower-elevation trout strea ms—water temperatures…
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Fly tying: CDC Micro Caddis
How many times have you stood at the tail of a run that's just boiling with rising fish, but you have no idea what, exactly, they're after? Yeah, dozens, right? Me, too. Video of CDC Micro CaddisAbove, Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions, ties his CDC Micro Caddis, a fly that he uses in these situations…
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Fly tying: SBR Light Cahill Nymph
Fly fishers on the East Coast are likely familiar with Cahill nymph patterns. From the Housatonic to the Delaware, the Cahill patterns, both nymph and dry, are go-to flies in the late spring and summer. Video of SBR Light Cahill NymphAbove, Tim Flagler ties his version of the SBR (South Branch Raritan) Light Cahill Nymph,…
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Fly tying: The Squirmie Worm
With all the new synthetic tying materials available today, it's becoming easier and easier to craft patterns that are at the same time wickedly accurate imitations of natural fish food and oddly surreal. A couple weeks back, my son and I spent eight days chasing pike in northern Manitoba, where I put to use the…
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Fly tying: McKenna’s Rumble Bug
Sometimes, flies just work, and there's no real explanation as to why. Take the Royal Coachman, for instance. It doesn't imitate any one hatching insect, yet with its peacock herl body broken by red floss, it seems to work often enough that trout recognize it as food. I think the same thing can be said…
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Fly tying: The pinch wrap
Sometimes, we take the little things for granted. As a long-time (but hardly accomplished) fly tier, I've incorporated a few of the basic tying tactics into just about every fly I produce at the vise. Video of How to do a Pinch WrapAs you'll see above in this great little Orvis video, Tim Flagler demonstrates…
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Fly tying: The Parachute Hendrickson
The venerable Hendrickson, the fly tied to imitate the famous hatch that's well under way on rivers in the East, is more than just a match-the-hatch pattern. Here in the West, we use the Hendrickson as an attractor mayfly pattern starting in spring and early summer, because it does a serviceable job imitating one of…
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