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Fly tying: SBR Light Cahill Nymph
Fly fishers on the East Coast are likely familiar with Cahill nymph patterns. From the Housatonic to the Delaware, the Cahill patterns, both nymph and dry, are go-to flies in the late spring and summer. Video of SBR Light Cahill NymphAbove, Tim Flagler ties his version of the SBR (South Branch Raritan) Light Cahill Nymph,…
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Fly tying: The Squirmie Worm
With all the new synthetic tying materials available today, it's becoming easier and easier to craft patterns that are at the same time wickedly accurate imitations of natural fish food and oddly surreal. A couple weeks back, my son and I spent eight days chasing pike in northern Manitoba, where I put to use the…
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Fly tying: McKenna’s Rumble Bug
Sometimes, flies just work, and there's no real explanation as to why. Take the Royal Coachman, for instance. It doesn't imitate any one hatching insect, yet with its peacock herl body broken by red floss, it seems to work often enough that trout recognize it as food. I think the same thing can be said…
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Fly tying: The pinch wrap
Sometimes, we take the little things for granted. As a long-time (but hardly accomplished) fly tier, I've incorporated a few of the basic tying tactics into just about every fly I produce at the vise. Video of How to do a Pinch WrapAs you'll see above in this great little Orvis video, Tim Flagler demonstrates…
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Fly tying: The Parachute Hendrickson
The venerable Hendrickson, the fly tied to imitate the famous hatch that's well under way on rivers in the East, is more than just a match-the-hatch pattern. Here in the West, we use the Hendrickson as an attractor mayfly pattern starting in spring and early summer, because it does a serviceable job imitating one of…
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Fly tying: Mixing hackle fibers for tails
Tying small-ish mayfly patterns might be one of the most common fly-tying applications, but it doesn't mean it's super easy. Like any tying activity, it takes practice, particularly for the more detailed aspects of your average mayfly pattern, including the hackle fibers use for the tail. Video of How to Make Mixed Hackle Fiber TailAbove,…
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Fly tying: UV resin to secure parachute hackle
Proof that really good fly tiers are also real innovators, Tim Flagler, in the short video below, demonstrates yet another way to tie a parachute-style dry fly. The method he demonstrates below seemed pretty dubious to me, but Flagler swears by it. Video of Parachute Hackle Method - "UV to the Post"Parachute-style dry flies are…
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