Category: Fly Tying
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Doin’ the San Juan Shuffle
The San Juan river in New Mexico, below the Navajo Dam, is one of the more frequently mentioned tailwaters in the country when it comes to fish size and quantity. I’ve heard some people even assert that it is the best river in the whole country, if not the world! There are supposedly around 10,000…
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Big Hoppers in the Nevada Desert
A Trip to the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge On my way north from So Cal heading back to Montana, I stopped at a BLM campsite in the Owens river valley that had a tiny blue line running through it on the map. I walked for a couple of hours looking for gaps in the…
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Another June Day on the Henrys Fork in Idaho
Some Fish, Some Bugs and a Bugatti When I only have to go back three posts to find last year’s story about brown drakes on the Henrys Fork river, it’s a pretty clear indication I’ve not been keeping up with the demands of my little stake on the Internet here. Well, I’ve been busier than…
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Brown Drakes on the Henry’s Fork
A few days chasing brown drakes on the Henry’s Fork near Last Chance, ID.
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Henry’s Bugs: Opening Day at Harriman Ranch, Henry’s Fork, Idaho
I’ve turned over a lot of rocks in the knee-deep waters of the Henry’s Fork, the famous Snake River tributary that flows past Last Chance, Idaho. There are long stretches of time where there are no rising fish to be spotted, and my curiosity leads me to wonder what they are eating when they are…
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Boondocking for Flyfishers: Steiner Flat, Trinity River, CA
In the winter of 2017, I attempted to catch a California winter steelhead on the swing. I spent three months on the attempt, and did not succeed… though I did get one under a damn bobber with an egg pattern (but that’s another story). That winter, the long drought broke, and all of the rivers…
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Paydirt
I could not have asked for a better start back on the water, after a two week break. The second stretch of water I swung produced a really beautifully colored rainbow and the third seam had a nice brown eat the soft hackle I tied yesterday. The winning fly I tied was a variant of…
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Mangled Madison Mandibles
I fished the Madison between Raynolds Pass and Three Dollar Bridge yesterday, focusing on a group of rising fish in a big slick behind a series of boulders. There were no observable bugs on the water, apart from the odd caddis or two. The reliable hatch of the moment is supposed to be blue winged…
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Getting Closer
The weather here on the Gulf Coast of Texas is still dark and wet, with thunderstorms the last two mornings and visibility of perhaps a mile. Watching the ten day forecast on WeatherUnderground , there are two partly sunny days out of a chain of cloudy, stormy, gray predictions ahead. Last Sunday, the sun did…
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Chasing Bugs on the Madison
When I started my fly fishing adventure in 2015, I did not have any particular goals or targets in mind, beyond spending time on some iconic waters of the West. In total that year I fished 57 distinct bodies of water, including the visit to Florida at the end. I’ve stumbled across seasonal highlights without…
TRAVELINGWITHTOOLS 