Currently browsing… fly tying
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The final eight: how to tie some great trout flies
Eight flies, one tournament. May the best fly win
The TU-Loon Outdoors Spring Fly Showdown is in its final week, and the tournament is down to its final eight flies. Not surprisingly, given that most of us learn to fly fish for trout before we branch off and try to tackle other species, like bass and pike, or saltwater critters like bonefish and tarpon,…
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Spring Fly Showdown: Chernobyl Ant vs. the RS2
Vote in the Spring Fly Showdown
This matchup in the Spring Fly Showdown pits one of the best big-fly attractors against maybe the best emerger pattern ever tied for picky trout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GaOWLOM9rE Tying the Chernobyl. Honestly, this fly pattern might be the only good thing to come out of the disastrous nuclear meltdown in the former Soviet Union in 1986 (too…
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Spring Fly Showdown: Bead-head Hare’s Ear vs. March Brown wet fly
Editor’s note: The biggest sporting event of spring, the NCAA basketball tournament, is simply not happening this year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Anglers, though, can still effectively “social distance” and go fishing in areas where it’s safe and legal to leave the house, using their favorite flies. In that spirit, TU and our friends…
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The TU-Loon Outdoors Spring Fly Showdown
The coronavirus outbreak has changed our lives this spring. Here's a small diversion to take your mind off the crisis for a bit. Right about now, in a normal world, we’d be in the throes of the NCAA National Championship basketball tournament. Many of us would have agonized over the completion of tournament brackets, invested…
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Surf candy
Fly fishing on both coasts for striped bass wouldn't be the same without Bob Popovic's Surf Candy. It's one of the best patterns anglers can use for stripers that are crushing bait in the salt, and even for fish that are migrating upriver en route to spawning water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBkSZoX-TMo Tim Flagler ties the Surf Candy…
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Tying with bucktail
When I first started tying flies, I would avoid tying with bucktail altogether—it was unwieldy and my flies never seemed to come out the way I liked them. But, when I started fishing bigger water, and when I started chasing fish in saltwater, I had to get my head around tying with bucktail, and now,…
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Phat and Phunky Pheasant Tail Nymph
If you nymph at all, chances are you have a few Pheasant Tail Nymphs already in your fly box. The venerable fly is a nymphing staple—it works, and it's an excellent all-around mayfly nymph indicator pattern that can work throughout the year in virtually any conditions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RURof9qkhlA Above, Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions puts a…