Currently browsing… fly tying
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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…
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Loon tying tools help keep winter at bay
The drift hanging over the eves on the house this morning is quite impressive. And it's cold. Damn cold. The thought of sneaking off for an afternoon on the Henry's Fork is now more of a pathetic inside joke—fighting frozen guides, frozen fingers and frozen toes while the the wind whips snow around my wadered…
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The passing of two giants
The calls came 24 hours after each other. I was driving down I-95 on New Years Day. Brian Cowden, a former Trout Unlimited employee, called to say that Rick Ege, a former chapter president and council chair had passed away. I last spoke with Rick a few years ago. Another New Jersey guy had mentioned…
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Tying the Flash Mob
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyzt1YeXtMo It’s starting to look a lot like winter up here in Northern Michigan. We’ve got snow, we’ve occasionally got rain and we haven’t seen the sun in weeks. The neighborhoods are lit up, the shop windows are beautifully displaying the latest and greatest and the steelhead are starting to get lazy. The folks at…
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Isonychia Parachute
I'm less than a week away from a much-anticipated trip to Argentina, where I'll be fishing the country's northern Patagonia region. When I arrive, summer will be on the horizon, and bigger mayflies will be in my fly box. Tim Flagler ties an excellent big mayfly pattern—size 12—in his Isonychia Parachute pattern, a dependable dry…
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The RS2
For you masochistic anglers out there who actually enjoy fishing tiny emerger patterns, this one's for you. (And, yes, on occasion, I'm one of you. Insert face-palm emoji here). The RS2, which stands for Rim's Semblance 2, is one of the most effective small emerger flies ever crafted—it can be absolutely deadly in the fall…
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Icy Hot Jig
Winter flies that work dependably often don't look like anything found naturally in the water. For instance, I do really well using a size 12 Prince Nymph here in eastern Idaho, where winter fishing is doable on a few local rivers, like the Bear and the Henry's Fork. I suppose the Prince might be a…