Joe’s Hopper is one of my favorite terrestrial/hopper patterns to tie. It is a simple and straightforward fly and even if you don’t get everything just right you can still catch fish with it. The pattern was originally tied by Art Winnie and was call the Michigan Hopper. I think he created it sometime in … Read more
The Henry’s Fork Hopper was created by Mike Lawson back on the 1970’s. Specifically, he created it for fishing on the Henry’s Fork river and specifically when hoppers were prevalent (a.k.a terrestrial or “hopper” season). Like many great flies, there is not much to it but it is put together in such a way as … Read more
The Bumblepuppy is a fly created by Theodore Gordon around the 1890s. It is an interesting fly pattern in that he never considered it a “completed” fly. That is to say, he never saw any versions of the fly as the one he thought was the best and therefore not needing any more development. All … Read more
In last weeks video, on the Black Turkey, I mentioned that the Black Turkey is very similar to the Leadwing Coachman. After doing that video I realized many tiers might not know about the Leadwing Coachman let alone how it is tied so I decided to do a video on it. The primary focus is … Read more
Like most things in life, there is always more than one way to accomplish many things in fly tying. Instead of dubbing you can use chenille, instead of direct dubbing you can use a dubbing loop, instead of one hook you can use another, etc, etc, etc. Such is the case for this weeks fly. … Read more
When I was asked awhile back to tie a leech pattern or two one of the first flies I thought of was John Barr’s Slump Buster. Although, maybe not a true leech pattern, it certainly can be swung and fished as a leech with a sleek and flowing profile and action. Which is one of … Read more
Probably the most well known and most popular fly ever created is the Woolly Bugger. It is certainly one of the first flies that most people tie when they start making their own flies. Although, this post and video is not about the Woolly Bugger it is about a simple adaptation of this fly that … Read more
The Electric Leech is one of those flies that is good fished deep as a leech or swung in the mid-water column as a baitfish. Not all together different from a Zonker fly, it is a heavily weighted fly with a lot of action and minimal flash. I first ran across this fly a number … Read more
From time to time I get requests to tie a certain pattern or style of fly as well as demonstrate a certain technique. I try to honor these requests, when I can, because the folks that follow my videos and give me so much positive comments and suggestions are one of the major reason I … Read more
If you have been tying flies for any length of time and fishing them longer you have probably run across a Jack Gartside fly. Jack Gartside developed a number of patterns in the later half of the 20th century for coldwater, warmwater and even saltwater species. He was very innovative and focused on keeping his … Read more
Wrapping up soft hackles (for a while) with the Craven’s Purple Soft Hackle. I generally refer to it as the Craven’s Soft Hackle as you can change the color of the body and you then you have a Craven’s Orange Soft Hackle, or a Craven’s Chartreuse Soft Hackle (you get the idea). I ran across … Read more