Ever wonder how fly uber-vendor Umpqua decides which flies will make the catalog in any given year? Charlie Meyers explains in the Denver Post. "'We get many hundreds of submissions from all over the world from people who think they've invented something new,' [Bruce] Olson said of a process that ends with a sort of summit meeting that includes sales representatives from across the nation. 'They all get to vote on what they think will sell best in each geographic territory. A lot of things go into each decision.'"

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 4:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Mayfly nymphs live a life in the cold, rocky dungeon of the floor of a trout stream only to emerge for a few brief moments of glory before breaking down into their elemental parts. But the stillborns never make it clear of the water to enjoy that shining moment in the silver air. Instead, some brief bout of bad luck at a crucial moment changes their destiny." An unnamed but clever writer talks about stillborns and how to imitate them in the Cadillac, Michigan Cadillac News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Interestingly, Red Quill names the fly that imitates the male and Hendrickson the female. The two genders look so different from one another that fly rodders use a different imitation. The male has a mahogany-colored, slender body and the female pinkish and chunky. Both have smoky-gray wings, tails and legs." Ken Allen offers a primer on the first dry flies of spring, including insight into the appearance of Red Quills: "Interestingly, Red Quill names the fly that imitates the male and Hendrickson the female. The two genders look so different from one another that fly rodders use a different imitation. The male has a mahogany-colored, slender body and the female pinkish and chunky. Both have smoky-gray wings, tails and legs." On MaineToday.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The BBC is often lauded for its nature cinematography, and David Attenborough's "Life in the Undergrowth" is a perfect example of why. Take a look at the detailed camera work in the segment in which they capture the life cycle of mayflies on video.

More information on "Life in the Undergrowth" can be found on the BBC Web site.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Hare's Ear nymph is one of those patterns that belongs in any trout fisher's fly box, in almost any season. The folks at The Hollywood Casting Couch demonstrate -- in a decidedly un-classic atmosphere -- the key steps in tying and finishing this useful pattern. This tying clip is from "Fly Tying: The Beginning" (The Hollywood Casting Couch, 2007, 2 hours and 35 minutes), a two-DVD set that teaches several classic patterns, including the Black-Nose Dace, Hare's Ear Nymph, Hendrickson, Caddis, and the Black Leech. As Fly Tyer editor David Klausmeyer said in his review of this DVD set: "If I were giving away awards for the best fly-tying DVDs, then 'Fly Tying: The Beginning' would walk away with the trophy for Learn While You Laugh...."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes it takes only a glance to know a fly is a killer pattern. So it is with the Blackus Biggisus, a nymph tied originally by John Fennick and later modified by Jeff Phelan of Westbrookville, New York. "'John would fish the Blackus Biggisus as a single fly, casting it across and downstream,' Phelan said. 'Then he'd just jerk the rod and jig the fly. I always fish it pretty much the same way but cast it upstream and across and let it sink. I always weight my Biggisus heavier than John did,' Phelan said." On RecordOnline.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the Detroit Free Press, Eric Sharp says forget about trying to match the indecipherable early season hatch -- carry little black stoneflies, BWOs, Hendricksons, some caddis and a few Adamses and you'll be just fine. "If it turns out that the river you fish requires an imitation of a bow-legged yellow pine borer in size 21, you can buy some at the local fly shop. Otherwise, get out on the stream, see what's hatching and pull something out of your box that's close."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"She was fishing a green butt (my favorite soft-hackle pattern that imitates the emerging rhyacophilia caddis that was coming off then). She also was immediately into fish and was really whacking them. In fact, if the truth be known, she was outfishing me (it happens fairly often). About that time, Lori hit a big fish. I looked over and her Winston rod was bent nearly double." Arkansas guide and fly tier John Berry discovers that giving away all of his flies comes with a price higher than simply an empty box. In the Baxter Bulletin.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jarkko Suominen of Finland took first place in the national competition, which was also open to the teams competing in the World Fly Fishing Championships that start today. Second place went to Sando Soldarini of Italy while Suominen's teammate Janne Pirkkalainen was third. Judges also gave special commendation to ten-year old Jacob Bond from Lake Rotoma, who has been tying flies for just a year.

Read the extended entry for the full press release.

Continue reading "Finnish Tier Wins First New Zealand Fly Tying Championship" »

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Author and soft-hackle fly expert Sylvester Nemes ties the Tup's Indespensible, a fly first popularized in England in the late 1800s and early 1900s but still a terrific pattern.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Morgan Lyle found that with less time on his hands, he made some obvious choices about which flies to tie -- choices he probably should have made earlier. Among the decisions: tie more caddisflies, and tie smaller. "Sure, the mayfly is the 'fly' in fly-fishing. But as Rick Hafele, in his recent excellent book, Nymph-Fishing Rivers and Streams, writes 'there are more species of caddisflies than all the mayflies and stoneflies put together . . . you will encounter caddisflies, often in abundance, in just about any water you fish.' It’s time to tie some rock worms, Elk-Hair Caddis and soft-hackles." On DailyGazette.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The truth is that 'bug Latin' is really a misnomer. The classification of insects by genus, family and species really has nothing to do with classical languages; it was just a convenience for scientists (particularly Carolus Linnaeus) who needed to make up a unique name for every living thing a few hundred years ago.

And that really is why scientific bug names are important. It's the only way to refer to one specific sulphur or blue-winged olive, for example, as being different from another. But as Rick Hafele points out in "Basic Bug ID, Part I: Mayflies," the minute differences between bugs are mostly impractical to learn. More important is knowing what a bug is likely to be, based where it is and what it is doing. Only then should you break out the hand lens, and if you do, this article will give you the details you need to impress your friends (and antagonize your enemies). New on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When Ray Schmidt let us peek inside his fly box last week (see "Inside the Box: Ray Schmidt"), we got curious about sculpin flies and who was tying effective imitations. We found André Brun's clever patterns, developed for Norwegian rivers and lakes, in the midst of our search. Brun uses Antron bodies and grizzly marabou dubbing to form the thick-bodied patterns.

Arkansas guide Duane Hada also wrote an interesting introduction to sculpins on his Web site. His advice on presentation is specific, and based on sculpin behavior: "Once I sight a target fish I cast well away and up current of the fish as not to spook him with the entry of the fly. I also want to have enough space to properly retrieve the fly. I allow the fly to settle to the bottom; hook up, by design, often will keep the fly motionless for some time depending on the spookiness of the fish. I then start crawling the fly slowly across the bottom toward the window of the target fish."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HERE'S A QUIZ: If big trout eat both large flies and tiny midges, how do you know which to carry in your fly box?

a. I carry both; you never know what you are going to come across.
b. I look at the food sources in the waters I'm fishing.
c. Not an issue -- I carry a dozen fly boxes in a vest the size of a type I Offshore Personal Flotation Device.
d. I use only flies that are enormous, because little fish can't eat them.

All of those answers are valid, of course. But if you are long-time Michigan fly fisher Ray Schmidt, there is only one correct choice: d. This week Schmidt, who owns the venerable Schmidt Outfitters in Wellston, Michigan and who has been guiding area rivers for decades, shares his personal fly box with MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If there is a "classic" largemouth bass fly, the Gerbubble Bug -- originally a square-bodied cork or balsa-wood fly developed by Tom Loving for fly fishing bass in the tidal waters of the Chesapeake -- would get many votes for the top position. But writer Amy Hotz is stymied in her search for the Bartlett's version, which is mentioned by Lefty Kreh in his 2004 book Fly Fishing for Bass. "My search for the elusive Bartlett's Gerbubble Bug continues. So far, I've visited every outfitter in Wilmington. I've traveled to Myrtle Beach and given the Bass Pro Shop the third degree. I've searched the library and the Internet and enlisted others to do the same. Still, no Gerbubble. Not even a recipe to make one." In North Carolina's Star News Online.

Well, Amy, we suggest noting William Tapply's description of the original Gerbubble's features -- hackle feathers inserted into slits cut along both sides of the cork body so that the fibers stuck out perpendicular to the hook shank, creating the effect of dozens of legs kicking at the water’s surface -- and substituting marabou for the hackle feathers. Then take the recipe to a handy fly tier who should be able to whip one up in about 5 minutes. It doesn't answer the question of why you can't find a commercially tied Bartlett's Gerbubble, but it's guaranteed to feed your addiction.

For more on the history of bass bugs, see "From Bobs to Bugs" on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In northern climes, those of us who have been trout fishing all winter are ready to say goodbye to the midge and hello to a nice, fat mayfly. But anyone who fishes spring creeks and tailwaters will remind you that midges make up an important part of the trout's diet throughout the year.

This week on MidCurrent we add a new video for anyone wanting to add midges to their fly box, Charles Meck tying the Zebra Midge. It's one of the simplest ties there is, but in the past decade or so the Zebra Midge has proven itself in all sorts of water, in all kinds of conditions.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chester Allen is prompted to try a ninety-year-old pattern, the yellow Knudsen Spider, after finding that all the new flies he's tied stopped working on sea-run cutthroats. "The fly, which was first tied by an Everett angler named Al Knudsen, has fooled fish since the 1920s. But I forgot about this terrific fly during the past few years -- mostly because I started tying sea-run cutthroat flies to match the little fish and crustaceans in Puget Sound." In The Olympian.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The development of what became known as the gaudy salmon fly is attributed to Irish fly tyers who were pioneers in the development of bright and complicated salmon patterns. These Irish tyers took advantage of silk, silver and gold tinsel and rare feathers imported for the millinery trade." Don MacLean gives short history lesson on the origins of the Atlantic salmon fly in Canada's Cape Breton Post.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Arkansas guide John Berry was first turned on to soft hackles by author and tier Sylvester Nemes, whom he happened upon in West Yellowstone pizza joint. He offers some commentary on their use in this morning's Baxter Bulletin.
"The soft hackle is most effective when used as a searching pattern. Use it to cover large sections of water, when you do not know exactly where the trout are. I look for broken water, particularly below rapids. I face downstream and cast downstream to the right at a 45-degree angle to the bank. As soon as the fly hits the water, I strip it back a foot or so to sink the fly into the film. I keep my rod tip low to the water and track it as it swings in the current."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My first exposure to flies tied on jig hooks was while casting oversized flies to snook. I was impressed with two things: the way the light wire of the hook made even four-inch flies easy to cast, and the hook-up rate. At first glance the 60-degree bend behind the hook eye makes flies look odd, like something that fell out of a hardware-chucker's Plano. But indeed they are castable, and very fishy. In fact while jig hook flies got their start with West coast anglers, many of the top permit guides in the Keys now tie their flies on variations of the bent-shank design.

Henry Cowen walks us through the beginnings of jig hook use by fly tiers and shows several patterns that have proven themselves effective not just for stripers, but for just about any saltwater fish that will fall for a streamer. Read "The Jig Is Up" on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Though these patterns got their start on steelhead streams, a Times Herald-Record columnist notes that flies imitating sucker spawn can work on virtually any water with a population of suckers, even Catskill streams. "Here's what [guide Ron] Bierstine has to say about this peculiar but effective fly pattern: 'It was created to imitate sucker spawn in the inland streams which trout feed upon,' he said. 'It's perhaps the ultimate egg pattern. A small, soft, silhouetted fly that looks snotty in the water, not hard and unnatural. Drifts well and traps small air bubbles.'"

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As a preview to his appearance in Ohio, A. K. Best gave Cleveland Plain Dealer writer D'Arcy Egan some insight into his sometimes contrarian take on the sport and how it is practiced. Among the tidbits: use a rod that allows you to land a fish quickly, even if you are fishing a small stream, and use common sense when tying mayflies. "Fly tiers leave a lot of stuff out, trying to match an insect perfectly. But they don't. Most every mayfly has a darker thorax than abdomen, but most flies don't reflect that. And they don't tie the wings long enough. Mayflies don't read proportion charts. Their wings are going to be as long as nature wants them."

You can also read A. K.'s thoughts on basic casting techniques on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"I always start my winter fly-tying frenzy by creating the flies I’ll need in late February and all through March on the Yakima River. Blue wing olive mayflies hatch in waves — even during snowstorms — and I need lots of flies to match this hatch." Chester Allen explores needs versus wants as he fills the dark winter hours tying and getting ready for the first fishing days. In The Olympian.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a bit of a muddle after ringing in the new year? Go for the fur cure. Mark Vagn Hansen offers a grub/shrimp pattern guaranteed to produce a baleful stare from any of your doggy friends. "Notice that puppet hair is best and that you want all the hair - guard hairs and underfur. The long often soft guard hairs combine well with the finer and often lighter underfur. Use a coffee grinder to mix the different materials and be careful not to overload it with too much material at once." On GlobalFlyFisher.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"My clients frequently ask how a fish can see and be caught by such a small fly. You have to consider a full-grown man eating M&Ms. They are small in relation to his total body size but he eats several of them at a single setting. Midges are the most available food source at certain times and the fish eat a lot of them." Arkansas guide John Berry suggests a few different techniques for feeding trout one of their favorite wintertime foods. In the Baxter Bulletin.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Don’t try dying your own fly tying materials. If you can’t resist, know that the most easily dyed color is purple. It is achieved by trying to dye something black." Larry Myhre offers several bits of essential advice for the dedicated fly tier -- all with tongue firmly planted in cheek. In the Souix City Journal.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How to know without a trace of doubt that your recently tied fly is a good imitation? A spider crawls across the desk and steals it. Welshman Moc Morgan illustrates his column on flies with the example.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are probably as many midge aficionados in the state of Colorado as in any other region of the world, so looking at the variety of choices made by anglers who swear by these tiny flies can be educational indeed. "As if you really needed to be reminded, all of us carry too many flies in our vests, even in the winter when nothing is hatching. Honestly, however, a handful of midge patterns chosen carefully for shape, color and size will catch 99 percent of the trout." Dave Buchanan gives a list in the Grand Junction, Colorado Daily Sentinel.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Why will a trout eat a fly that looks to us like a bare hook? Think “negative match.” John Merwin comments on a trout's willingness to ignore hooks while searching for its food of choice. On MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Originally tied by Frank Sawyer, the Pheasant Tail Nymph is one of the oldest of modern nymphs. A few good wrinkles have been added over the years, such as the peacock thorax, optional beadhead, etc., but when you peel them away, it's still Sawyer's elegantly simple, generically suggestive, devastatingly effective nymph." Westfly.com delivers the recipe for the very popular and important nymph with typical care and detail.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After catching a nice landlocked salmon on a wet fly last week, Maine blogger Nick Mills asks why wet flies are so often overlooked. A bit of political trivia is attached to his sample fly, the "Parmachene, named for the secluded and very private water where President Dwight Eisenhower cast into the waters below Little Boy Falls to catch one of the many trout that had been dumped there in advance of the presidential rustication." On Mainetoday.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Carl Hiaasen is not your typical bonefish fanatic. For one thing, he is best known as a fiction writer, not a fly fisher. His name often appears when something ludicrous happens in Florida environmental politics, because he is outspoken about preserving what remains of the state's resources. But backstage he is, as one top guide noted, "one of the fishiest anglers out there."

This week Hiaasen shares the contents of his fly box with MidCurrent readers. How he describes his collection -- as a "horrendous mess" -- says a lot about how he manages to catch so many fish: he refuses to obsess over details, and he picks fly patterns based on experience and instinct rather than their popularity.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"The fly floats like a cork because its underbody is a loosely bound clump of elk hair. A vertical elk hair post makes it highly visible and is wrapped with brown or grizzly hackle. The fly's outer body is dubbed with glittery 'Ice Dub.'" CMO author Charles M. Obermeyer, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, describes the durable, high-floating caddis fly that uses synthetic and natural materials to make it a standout in swift mountain waters. Ed Dentry in the Rocky Mountain News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It would be hard to think of a fly pattern that is more versatile than the Muddler Minnow. Most of that utility, of course, comes from the fact that spun deer hair can be crafted to produce almost any profile of any prey that fish eat, from frogs and crabs to caddisflies and sculpins.

But it's also no secret that spinning deer hair is considered a secondary skill by most fly tiers. It's enough unlike other skills in fly tying that many of us never try it, which is a shame because it is both easy and rewarding. This week on MidCurrent John Likakis gives us a head start on deer hair flies and the Muddler in particular. In "Muddlers Made Easy," he tells what to look for in materials and how to tie both basic and streamer-style versions of this classic fly.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While it may be true that salmonflies share something in common with cinder and palolo worms, pass crabs, guppy hatches, and trico spinner falls -- namely the ability to thrash us into a Quixotic frenzy -- it's also true we'd rather be there than not. "Trouble with big, juicy flies is that they're like all those other larger-than-life events we dream about, yet only seldom are allowed to touch. Something generally gets in the way: Too much sun, howling wind, water the color of a mocha milkshake. We get there too early or too late, or find a small army bivouacked in the only spot where there's real action." Charlie Meyers in the Denver Post.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We often get inquiries from readers who are looking for advice about what they should put in their fly box for a specific region of the U.S. If they are planning to fish in Idaho, Oregon, Washington or Montana, we almost always include a suggestion to look at Westfly.com's detailed hatch charts. Although they provide the most detail for Oregon waters, the Westfly charts are a good start if you want an overview of the insects and associated patterns in each state. To get to the charts, click on the opening photo, then on a state, then on "Hatches" in either the top navigation or the text.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alastair Robertson manages to throw in a bit of comic relief as he rails against the new Scottish law prohibiting fly tiers from using the fur from endangered animals. "If the rule extends to badger sporrans then I can tell you that Billy Connolly is in trouble. I once saw him narrowly avoid castration at a Highland games when a Dandidinmont, a breed of dog bred to kill badgers, had to be hauled back into the crowd before it savaged Connolly while he judged the junior Highland dancing in his kilt and badger." On Scotsman.com.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The western terrestrials are, as a group, totally different. They often are made of foam with rubber legs and almost always have some sort of quick sight on them. They are oversized and resemble nothing I have seen in nature. When I first saw them, I snickered and passed on by." Arkansas guide John Berry discovers that the big, gaudy flies that stuff fly bins out west are effective on just about any water where trout feed on terrestrials. In The Baxter Bulletin.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The Deschutes River boasts some of the best fly-fishing in North America. Anglers from all over the world travel to Central Oregon in search of the river's bounties of steelhead and trout. And late spring marks one of the best times to fish – when the salmon flies are hatching." For NPR, David Welch spends time on the Deschutes chatting with a salmon fly devotee, Jamie Zartler.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Stonefly hatches on western rivers are like that: Covered with muddy water one year, launching a surface onslaught by hungry trout the next. So it is on the upper Colorado, which harbors a dense population of these oversized bugs, along with all the water vagaries to make a successful fishing scenario a sometime thing, maybe two out of five years if we're lucky." Charlie Meyers writes about the serendipity of chasing the stonefly hatch in Colorado in the Denver Post.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Wolf makes an interesting suggestion in his coverage of the frenzy surrounding the annual green drake hatch in Pennsylvania: watch for the concurrent hatch of smaller bugs that will often be the target of the bigger fish. "Last but not least be vigilant for a 'masking hatch,' a smaller sized fly like the sulphur that is hatching at the same time the drakes are. If you want to take a trout on a drake imitation, keep on fishing. If you want to take more trout and large trout, switch over to the smaller pattern." In Pennsylvania's Lebanon Daily News.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Charles R. Meck's supervisor at Penn State thought Meck was crazy when he retired in 1987 after only 25 years with the university. 'I quit the day I received my retirement health care benefits,' said Meck, who lives in Pennsylvania Furnace. 'My vice president asked me, "What are you going to do?" " Eric Smith profiles author Charles Meck, whose extraordinary knowledge of Pennsylvania hatches and trout techniques led to a second career in writing, for Pennyslvania's CentreDaily.com. Smith mentions Meck's new book, Fishing Tandem Flies: Tactics, Techniques, and Rigs to Catch More Trout, coming out in August.

Fishing Tandem Flies: Tactics, Techniques, and Rigs to Catch More Trout on Amazon.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Get out your flashlights. "Though numerous books and Internet sites list the brown drake emergence as June 1-July 4 on most Michigan rivers, anglers in recent years usually have found strong drake hatches under way by the third week of May." Eric Sharp records that brown drake hatches are already happening on the North Branch of the Au Sable, then gives the lowdown on feeding trout during those terrific evenings when the big mayflies fill the air. In the Detroit Free Press.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It may be that a fly pattern that once matched no living bug on Montana's Bighorn has grown into a classic. The lowly sow bug, according to local experts, is now providing a large percentage of the protein for Bighorn trout. And the favored fly is the Ray Charles, according to Ed Dentry in the Rocky Mountain News. "The Ray Charles is easy to tie. On a scud hook Size 14-18, tie in pearl mylar tinsel below the bend. Wrap two ostrich herls forward and tie off. Then pull the mylar over the fly's back and secure it at the head. Red 8/0 tying thread is used for eye appeal at the head."

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"I smirked as Lori tied on the Big Ugly and cast toward the blow down. The gargantuan fly was all but too much for her delicate rod. It hit the water with a loud kerplunk and drifted downstream about two feet." John Berry fishes Buffalo Ford in Yellowstone National Park with his wife and discovers that even smart fish with plenty of insects to choose from will fall for an outsized, inelegant pattern. In Arkansas's Baxter Bulletin.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Craig Mathews is one of those guys who seems to have done it all. Formerly sheriff of West Yellowstone, Montana, he started his fly shop, Blue Ribbon Flies, there in the early 1980s. Then he and Yvon Chouinard teamed up to form 1% For The Planet, which organizes conservation donations by member businesses. Meanwhile he wrote a few books and produced a few videos on fly fishing Yellowstone Park and the Madison. And oh yeah, he authored a bunch of important fly patterns for both trout and saltwater fishing.

Given Mathews's energy, we had no idea what we would discover in his personal fly box. But here's what we found: Flies that are tied in 2 minutes but that can be made only from materials locked in his fly shop freezer. PMD nymphs that float six inches below the surface. And the signature of a custom fly box builder who lives in a teepee and charges hundreds of dollars for a single creation.

See Craig Mathews's personal fly selection.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Mention Bob Clouser's name in a room full of fly fishers and you are likely to see heads nod, mostly in recognition of the Clouser Deep Minnow. But the Minnow is only a small part of Clouser's contribution to fly fishing -- an offshoot, really, of his passion for smallmouth bass. Lefty Kreh calls Clouser "the best flyrod smallmouth man I have ever fished with." Perhaps it is because Clouser has spent more than a quarter century studying smallmouth habits and guiding for them on the Susquehanna River.

Clouser finally collected his extensive knowledge of smallmouth fishing in a well-written book that came out in January. Fly Fishing for Smallmouth in Rivers and Streams (Stackpole, 226 pages) is a treatise on all aspects of fly fishing for smallmouth: finding them, feeding them, casting to them and landing them. This week we're happy to share an excerpt describing the tactics Clouser recommends for presenting surface flies to his favorite fish. New on MidCurrent.

Fly-Fishing for Smallmouth on Amazon.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"One of the first advantages a beginner notices with dry flies is this: With a submerged fly, you are never quite sure that a cast has covered the fish's lie properly." Ken Allen writes about the coincidence of quill gordon and red quill hatches with the activity of Maine flora, and includes this great quote from William Tapply on dry fly purism: "However, at the risk of getting booted out of the Fellowship of Purists, I'll expose our secret: We dry-fly snobs like to catch fish as much as anybody. Sportsmanship, tradition, artfulness and aesthetic values have nothing to do with it." In the Kennebec Journal.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During my first few weeks of fishing in Montana in the late 1980s, I developed a bad habit. The problem was that every time I rigged my leader with a fly, I had a hard time not reaching for a size 16 or 18 parachute Adams. This was all well and good except for the fact that some of the places we were fishing -- Nelson's spring creek, Buffalo Ford, the upper Missouri, and Slough Creek -- deserved more attention than that. There were specific hatches coming off, and I usually caught fish when I tied on a close imitation.

Still, my guides invariably responded, when I dared to suggest trying an Adams, "Yeah, that'll prolly work." "Prolly work" from an experienced guide carries about the same weight as any do-or-die command, so I happily tied on a highly visible, high-floating and all-around pleasant-to-fish Adams at every opportunity. I didn't learn as much as I could have about the hatches specific to those streams and rivers. But I sure had fun.

In "A Great Salesman," Paul Schullery ponders those things that make the Adams such an important fly: its versatility, its simplicity, its irresistibility. But its pedigree, Schullery finds out, is what makes it really interesting. New on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Diana Rudolph is the subject of this month's "What's In Your Fly Box?" feature on MidCurrent. We've written about her before (see "Subsurface With Diana Rudolph"), but not until recently did we have the privilege of seeing the contents of her personal tarpon fly box.

Rudolph, who owns the current 16# tippet record and was the first woman to win the prestigious Don Hawley tournament, loves tarpon. And she loves tying with chicken feathers. We got more than a few good ideas from her choices for clear-water and backcountry fishing (the Mullet Toads sent us on a frenzied gray yarn hunt), and we're guessing you will too. Wonder what is the most current and effective selection of tarpon flies for difficult fish? This is as good a look as you're likely to get.

By the way, if you happen to be anywhere near the Florida east coast, Rudolph will be the speaker at tonight's meeting of the Florida Sport Fishing Association at 7:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Center off State Road 520 on Merritt Island.

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Besides editing Fly Tyer magazine, David Klausmeyer was winner of the inaugural Poul Jorgensen Golden Hook Award given by the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum last October. His fly photos also grace many pages on MidCurrent. John Holyoke ran into him goofing off with fly tying buddies at a Penobscot Fly Fishers advanced tying class in Maine, and writes that for Klausmeyer, tying is mostly about having fun. In the Bangor Daily News.

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Selene Dumaine is widely regarded as one of the premiere tiers of classic fly patterns in the U.S. But she spends a lot of her time creating new custom designs for her customers, one of which, the aptly named Sure Bet, recently grabbed the attention of fly shop owners and anglers in Maine. ''I thought, "Well, pike like to eat yellow perch. I'll make something that looks like a little yellow perch," 'Dumaine said this week at Chandler Pond Outfitters, where she sets up a fly-tying operation for a couple of days each week to try and meet the quaint little store's surging demand." Travis Barrett in the Kennebec Journal.

If you're curious what tools this modern-day Carrie Stevens recommends for fellow tiers, read Dumaine's "The Fly Tier's Toolbox" on MidCurrent.

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"A large stonefly that appears in late March on certain rivers of the northern Rockies, the skwala is a bug shrouded in considerable mystery. It receives little mention in angling literature and is even less known to most anglers outside the area." Charlie Meyers hints at being confounded by the skwala in the Denver Post. Then he writes about how skwala-mania strikes Montanans and others fishing the Bitterroot and nearby rivers. "'You've got to fish the skwala hatch,' Kerry Gubits had said. 'It drives trout crazy.'"

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It's all about the wiggle, glug, and burble. This week we're happy to feature William Tapply's extensive look at the history of bass flies. "From Bobs to Bugs" is from his newest book, Trout Eyes, just out from Skyhorse Publishing (Tony Lyons's new company) and it traces the history of bass bug development from deer tails and cork to finely crafted works of art.

Trout Eyes on Amazon.

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"The concept of exact imitation eventually caused Halford to abandon the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear dry fly. He loved its effectiveness, but it worked with too many different hatches, therefore it wasn’t an exact imitation. Using the GRHE just wasn’t up to his high standards of sportsmanship." Some interesting history here surrounding one of the most popular "early" dry flies, the GRHE, which in the beginning of the 20th century served the same varied purposes as the Adams does today. George Grant on Tri-Cities.com.

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"Pinned to a drawer above his fly-tying bench is a note that reads: 'Next month,' with a laundry list from one of his clients: a dozen and a half green drake parachutes, a dozen No. 16 Griffith gnats, a dozen No. 16 black gnats, a dozen No. 16 Adams." Sam Cook profiles Wisconsin's David Lucca, who before scaling back tied almost 15,000 flies a year, and whose sparse ties and Hexagenia flies have made him something of a fly tying celebrity. In Wisconsin's Pierce County Herald.

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Yesterday the Seattle Times republished a column by trout bum Randall Sumner on artistic ownership of fly patterns. We caught it when it first appeared last January, but it's worth rereading, especially if you are a minimalist when it comes to tying. "When you're a little kid, do you dream of a fly with your name; like a bridge or an opera? What if Pablo Picasso had been born in Montana to a fly-fishing clan? He could have left us with the Picasso midge, instead of a world visually enriched beyond imagination."

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"In its wet form the speckled feather is very similar in hue to the wings of many natural flies. However, anglers have a tendency to judge flies in their dry form whereas the elusive trout always judges them in their wet form." Moc Morgan talks partridge feathers, a tying component with a long history in Wales, on icWales.co.uk.

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"It certainly comes as no surprise that the major spawning periods - spring and early summer for rainbow and cutthroat, fall for brook trout and brown trout - provide the best opportunity for this strategy. What many anglers don't realize is that some kind of fish egg is prominent in the drift almost any time of the year." Charlie Meyers sat down with Dr. Robert J. Behnke and Wendell Ozefovich (see our entry on Ozefovich's underwater trout studies) to talk about why eggs are such an important year-round source of food for salmonids. In the Denver Post.

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"If you're a newcomer on a budget, instead of buying a $200 vise, I'd suggest spending $50 on a solid basic vise and putting the other $150 into a couple of pairs of high-quality scissors, three or four good tying bobbins and a selection of other tools like a hair stacker and whip finisher. For hackle and tail feathers, buy grade 3 necks for $10-$15 in gray, reddish brown, medium olive and black." Beyond not marrying a woman smarter than yourself, Eric Sharp advises those getting started in fly tying to spend money on the essentials and ignore the frou-frou. In the Detroit Free Press.

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When we first came up with the notion of looking inside people's fly boxes, it was because we were tired of reading lists. After all, what does a list tell you, other than what someone thinks they're going to fish with? Reality is often much different.

We wanted to open our new monthly feature, "What's In Your Fly Box?," with a unique personality and with someone who wouldn't take the time to gussy up their collection. Fortunately, the idea appealed to Steve Huff, who by virtue of guiding fly fishers to dozens of world records on the flats of the Florida Keys pretty much proved that others' opinions of his fly choices didn't matter. Steve, for those who don't know, is the most famous guide you will never hear about. Despite being sought after for decades by anglers who want to learn from one of the sports icons, he shuns media and attention generally. "It's all about fishing," he says, "nothing else." We're lucky to have Steve talk about his personal fly choices for tarpon and snook in our first installment.

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"Pott's favorite material for the hackles - fibers that extend from the woven body of the fly to keep it afloat - was hair from the Asiatic badger. He found that the hair is different, and more attractive to a trout, than that of the American badger. It sells for $398 a pound these days." Kim Briggeman writes about Franz Pott, a master of Montana tying, whose trademarked wet flies taught Montanans that a fly could be more effective than a worm. In The Missoulian.

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In what could be seen as a counterpoint to a recent article on saving money by tying your own, Larry Myhre lends some cogent advice on the realities of fly tying. Plenty of humor here: "Obtain all the catalogs possible from vendors of fly tying equipment and materials. This will give you a good idea of what is out there. Unfortunately, the longer you look at the offerings, the more imperative it will be that you possess them. You will learn that the worst possible reason to begin to tie your own flies is to save money." In the Sioux City Journal.

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Andrew Kumler recently discovered that coyote fur is dense with guard hairs and makes a mean streamer for Metiolus River bull trout and rainbows. His new pattern: the coyote ugly. "'Those bull trout on the Metolius are smart,' said Kumler, a 33-year-old Army veteran who lives in Springfield. He works in the maintenance department at The Register-Guard in Eugene and grew up fishing most of Oregon's waters. 'Guys up there are using articulated leeches made from rabbit fur, but the fish are wising up. I have to go bigger.'" Bill Monroe in The Oregonian.

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"Conventional wisdom holds that midwinter is the time for midges, the smaller the better. Felt had other ideas. A three-nymph rig did include the standard election of tiny midges, but his blue-plate special was much bigger and bolder. To an angler accustomed to winter minutiae, the size 16 epoxy-back golden stone seemed like a battleship among rowboats." As Charlie Meyers reports about the recent opportunities between winter storms on the Arkansas and other Colorado rivers, successful cold-weather fly fishing is not always about micro-flies. In the Denver Post.

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"From Ron Ahlers' Yellow Breeches Orange to Kathy Weigl's Herb's Zebra Shrimp, the 53 patterns were born of experience on some of trout fishing's most challenging and revered waters, such as Letort Spring Run, the Yellow Breeches, Big Spring Creek, Falling Springs and other midstate spring creeks and freestone streams." Marcus Schneck reports on PennLive.com that the Cumberland Valley (Pennsylvania) Chapter of Trout Unlimited has published a new 86-page, spiral-bound book of new and classic favorite member patterns. If you have thoughts of fishing central Pennsylvania's classic waters, CVTU's Favorite Flies - Fifty-three Productive Fly Patterns from Cumberland Valley Trout Unlimited is worth a look. The book is available for purchase via the CVTU Web site.

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Though a slightly specious argument, most of us need all the logical underpinnings we can find for our habit of tying flies. John McCoy takes on the math in the Charleston, West Virginia Gazette-Times. "Let’s say a Woolly Bugger -- a simple, universal wet fly/streamer that catches trout, bass and other gamefish with equal success -- costs $1.50 at a store. I can tie that fly for 18 cents." Now how many flies could John have tied while he was figuring all that out?

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Unless you are lucky enough to be chasing trout in New Zealand or Argentina or shuffling across sand ripples in Belize right now, you might be doing what we're doing: thinking about how many flies need to be tied before the weather turns the corner.

You might even be digging out the vise for the first time in a while. If so, do yourself a favor and read Al and Gretchen Beatty's "10 Tying Tips of the Pros." These good folks -- self-confessed "stream people" -- share some very helpful advice about tying smooth dry fly bodies, rough-and-tumble one-feather hackles, and finishing flies with aplomb. New on MidCurrent.

Posted by Marshall Cutchin at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Discover midges and you'll also discover that fly fishing doesn't end with the last Baetis hatch in November. "What got me interested in midges was the book, Midge Magic by Don Holbrook and Ed Koch (Stackpole Books, 2001). That, and watching Trout Babe (not her real name) land a fat 15-inch rainbow on a #22 midge tied to a 7X tippet on the Farmington River one afternoon." Nick Mills describes the source of his fascination with tiny flies: they are easy to tie, and they almost always catch fish. On MaineToday.com.

Midge Magic on Amazon.

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