Category: Fly Tying
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A Texas Drum at Redfish Bay
April 9, 2019: Today I paddled out for the third day in a row, an unbroken string of sunny skies and bearable winds. Yesterday was almost prime, though the water clarity was still off from the last northern. After almost 4 months in Texas, hoping for a chance to sight fish to reds, I finally…
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Trout Spey and Preparing for the Madison Fall Run
I’m staked out here on Hebgen Lake near West Yellowstone, Montana and I’m getting excited to fish the Madison River Fall Run. The town had a fly fishing and art festival last weekend called “Wretched Mess Fest“, which is just a damn great name. My first motorcycle was a Yamaha XS500 that I lovingly referred…
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Bugs of Fly Fishing Seasons Past
One of the things that draws me to fly fishing is the consistently interesting topic of, “what are the fish eating today?” Sure, some people like bugs more than others, and maybe go a little too far down the rabbit hole. Some little boys that play with bugs grow up to be scientists, some grow…
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Texas Specks (Salty Toothy Trout)
In 2019, I spent a few winter months pursuing Texas redfish on the fly from North Padre Island eastward over to Matagorda Bay. I caught plenty of small puppy drum blind casting into murky water, but the goal of sight fishing to big reds in clear water was elusive. I did finally find those fish…
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A Madison River Fall Run Flybox
I’ve got a story simmering about the experience of fishing the Madison River above Hebgen lake in the Fall and it just isn’t coming together the way I want it to yet. In the meantime, let’s take a look at some of the flies that I’ve tied for that event, in West Yellowstone, Montana. Probably…
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A Week on the Big Mo in July
Tricos, Caddis and PMDs, Oh My! The Missouri river in Montana is one of the top destinations in America for fly fishers who prefer the art of the dry fly over chucking bobbers and lead. I first visited “the Big Mo” in 2018, the year that I spent trying to hit all of the big…
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August on the Bighorn: 2021
I had spent a couple of weeks on Hebgen lake near West Yellowstone, and after getting my fill of that top notch dry fly action, I decided it was time to move on. As often happens in my meandering travels, I didn’t have a plan set in stone. The skies had been getting more smoky from…
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Gulpers on the South Fork Arm of Hebgen Lake
July, 2021 I caught a few fish on the first day out from the float tube, but they were on a leech pattern under the surface, and I was searching for gulpers. They are the famous Hebgen trout that methodically eat emerging and spent callibaetis mayflies over a long stretch of the summer, making this…
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Eight Species in an Afternoon
I’ve moved farther south along the Rio Grande and have set up shop for a while at Caballo Lake State Park. Yesterday I fished the river below the dam, which has almost zero flow coming out of the lake, so it is a series of ponds, really. The one closest to the dam was packed…
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Fly Tying Friday
Let’s take a look at my San Juan flybox from my recent not-so-stellar visit to the northern New Mexican tailwater. About half of the flies in this box were tied while camped at the Crusher campground at the end of the “Quality Water”. The holdovers from previous trips include the terrestrial patterns in the lower…
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