One of the horrors of being thoroughly enamored of a hobby is the fits of giddy that result when something attempted actually lives up to the original idea, versus flaming out midway through the development process. My ambition was to develop a dubbing that mimicked the superfine aquatic mammal fur we’ve reserved for dry flies, yet was cheap [...]

Tying these fuzzballs reminded me of all the notes on competition hooks and their efficacy I’ve been scribbling over the last couple of seasons. I find myself having so many defective hooks of late, and at thirty-five cents a hook I keep trying to make up for poor quality control and fix them with tying [...]

Bobbing away in some nameless lake last summer, I’d attributed my lack of success to a poorly designed floating midge imitation, and if I combined the air intake of an F-18E Super Hornet with a bit of deer hair, I could  produce a better imitation that could showcase the body color to best advantage. … [...]

When tying on hackle tip wings you can save yourself grief if you take the time to prune the duff that is part of the tie-in area created when the tips were mounted. Most tiers simply leave the fibers trapped by the thread, lifting and pushing them back towards the wing when the hackle is [...]

“Feelers” and Latin have gone hand in hand with one another for the last half century. Each time we get enamored over insect science via the teachings of some new prophet, we tiers feel compelled to add them to everything that floats, sinks, or simply drifts fetchingly between the two … … and us fishermen [...]

Whether you’re following the teachings of some past master or merely becoming enamored of steelhead fishing, at some point you’ll enter a tangled web of materials poorly suited to fly tying – all of which will be proof against brute force or coaxing … Most Atlantic Salmon tiers will admit to being frustrated by many aspects [...]

The nature of our business typically has us arriving a week too late and a dollar short. If it’s not the fishing, then its the enormous fabled garage full of old bamboo rods, or a couple wandering crates of Jungle Cock necks, or something rarer that we’d gladly divorce the spouse over. I see it [...]

It’s the only part of the fly that works entirely against you, whose real value is the spot of color it leaves when closing the gap between tail and wing. It absorbs water, resists drying, and if ever there was a case for “less is more” this is it. Dry fly dubbing is comparatively humdrum [...]

I’m reminded how much of the skill is in the hands of the tier, and how much of the finished look is in the materials he selects, and for many flies the mechanical attention to proportions simply cannot fix a bad choice of materials and their effect on the final look. Which is why we [...]

The Thrill: Noticing that Bass flies look nearly identical to flies for rockfish and perch. The Thrill that Comes Once in a Lifetime: Confirming that theory by prying the brightly colored SOB out of the wrong fishes mouth … and noting that the hint of rust didn’t appear to spoil the reception nor the lust [...]