At TU, many of us live to fish. For many of us here at the organization, the art of angling is what drew us to the need to protect the trout and salmon that we spend much of our lives chasing.
Nick Halle is no different. As a volunteer operations coordinator, Nick is well-known among TU’s membership — but many don’t know he’s an enthusiastic crafter of quality flies. Like a lot of us, his passion is fly fishing, and, like a lot of us, he ties his own flies to enhance his experience on the water.
But now, his experience — at least at the fly-tying vise — can help you, too. We’re introducing a new series of fly-tying videos featuring Nick’s flies. He’ll craft a couple of flies a month for us and shoot some video showing you how it’s done. We’ll blast them out on social media so you can give them a try at the vise.
Above is Nick’s first video — he ties his Snowcone Shiner, a fly he designed for Great Lake steelhead. As Nick explains, steelhead migrating into Great Lakes tributaries like to eat small shiners, and they also go after the eggs of spawning brown trout that are also running up the rivers this time of year. The Snowcone Shiner is an impressionistic pattern designed to imitate both an egg and a small baitfish. Nick says the steelhead love it.