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Fly tying: The Insult
Some flies are so simple to tie that you wonder how, with such little effort at the vise, they can be effective. The Insult, tied below by Tim Flagler, is such a fly. Designed to imitate active nymphs that either swim or end up in the current quite often, The Insult is a great pattern…
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Fly tying: SBR Sulphur Nymph
Nymphing has come a long way over the last couple of decades—many fly anglers will start with attractor nymphs on new water, simply because they make great searching patterns and tend to be top-of-mind when nothing is obviously hatching. But, even searching with attractors like a Prince or a basic hare's ear or pheasant tail…
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Skills: Cording and uncording fly-tying thread
Those of us who tie flies have dealt with the challenges of uncooperative thread, and it's possible that many of us don't even know that "we're doing it wrong." In the video below, Tim Flagler shows us how to cord and uncord tying thread for various situations. Corded thread—or twisted thread—is smaller in diameter and…
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Fly tying: The Last Walt’s
Attractor patterns occupy a special spot in my heart—I love flies that are versatile and might represent any number of buggy possibilities, but no one bug in particular. Such is the case with the Last Walt's, a fly Tim Flagler ties in the video below. As he notes, this bug doesn't match anything specific, but…
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Fly tying: Damselfly nymph
If you fish in froggy water—slow-moving, maybe a bit muddy—you need to have damselfly nymphs in your fly box. They work well in long slicks in trout water or even in high-elevation trout ponds and lakes. And, of course, they're great for warm-water critters like bass and bluegill in waters where they're found. The originator…
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Fly Tying: Catskill-style Red Quill
I love our fly fishing heritage. I love the way our craft is steeped in tradition. And there are some flies that just emote the glorious past of fly fishing—flies like the Red Quill, tied in the video below by Joe Fox. As Tim Flagler describes it, Fox is "fly-tying royalty," based largely on his…
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Fly tying: Whip finishing by hand
About a decade ago, while sitting at a table in the dining room at what is now Calder Mountain Lodge on the northern, roadless tip of Prince of Wales Island, I busied myself tying up a few bright orange streamers for the next day's fishing for Dolly Varden in the island's tannin-stained salmon streams. An…
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