A single sentence sent me gasping in apoplexy, but I’ll save the tantrum until I get another corresponding data point. I’d suggest you do the same. Denver’s WestWord News mentions in today’s article on the feather trade, suggests Thomas Whiting of Whiting farms has stopped selling feathers to fly shops … When demand for his [...]

I’ve got additional defective scissors to dispense should your fly casting club wish to assist prospective students in defraying their new vice … … yes, vice. You didn’t think it was possible to promote immoral behavior with such innocent intentions, but by urging them to tie flies, and given their well known propensities for spiraling [...]

It’s a simple question really. Given that Grizzly hackle is critical to most western dry flies, bass bugs, saltwater streamers, and most minnow imitations, just how long can you last on your current stockpile? … or are you waiting for the saddles to breach the $500 per barrier on eBay, before unloading while the market’s [...]

I can finally ditch the expensive gear and G-suit necessary to keep arm, rod, and line in the same dimension. Shortly, I’ll be donating a Semi worth of rotting pelts, feathers and synthetics to the local casting club, along with my collection of waders and never used, newly illegal, felt soled wading shoes … … [...]

I wouldn’t worry too much unless you tie dry flies or fish for steelhead. Your prayers of this being an overnight fad are simply not working … The drain on fancy hackles and ostrich plumes will be growing in the foreseeable future, rather than winding down. The fashionistas have spoken and both sexes are scrambling [...]

Sure I get death threats, and when I mentioned household pets there was a brief spike over the weekly contingent of, “if you tell them about Lake X, or stream Y, or if your shadow darkens my refrigerator ever again, I’ll  …” I was unfazed at the outpouring of hatred when I claimed the household [...]

Much of Saturday was spent sending out all the sample packets of dander I’d been promising those that had requested “Free Range” dubbing. Reed Curry, author of The New Scientific Angling, Trout and Ultraviolet Vision, received his and was nice enough to send their UV footprint back for those interested in such things. I was [...]

I was in one of many petulant moods, lower lip pooched mightily resolved never to play parachute ever again. Every so often I’d produce a decent one, and then it was back to eleven anguished attempts to wrestle balky deer hair into a right-side up configuration just long enough for me to pin it in [...]

The problem with fly tying is that it’s so blasted untidy that it’s impossible to sit down with something in mind without being lured by something bright or shiny, and the result is a handful of something entirely different. Most new tiers never see it coming, as the “Shoe-Box” phase, when everything they own can [...]

You hear the term often in fly tying, you just don’t see anyone actually doing the deed – outside of the occasional Peacock eye made hairless by swishing it around in caustic bleach, which is about all I’ve ever seen anyone do … Which makes a lot of sense, as everytime I’ve touched the bottle [...]