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Ode to the Olive
It's a tiny little bug, but it — and its many variants — might be the single-most important fly of fall. The venerable Blue-winged Olive, the vise-borne imitation of the tiny baetis mayfly, is the dry-fly king of autumn, even though it rarely materializes on the water in any form larger than a size 20.…
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Conehead Bunny Leach
Brown trout across the nation are on the move—fall is when they're most active and most aggressive as they're preparing to spawn or defending redds. And, often, the best way to elicit strikes from big browns is to chase them with streamers. https://youtu.be/UzPxgE7yruw Step-by-step instructions. And there might not be a better leach pattern than…
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The Woolly Worm
The Woolly Bugger's less-sophisticated cousin, the Woolly Worm, is an excellent searching pattern for subsurface trout, and it has the added benefit of being an excellent pattern for panfish, like crappy and bluegill. https://youtu.be/0T8CBIE5-Lc Above, Tim Flagler ties a really durable version of this venerable pattern. If it's meant for non-stop action on bluegill, it…
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Red Tag Wet Fly
Wet flies fished on the swing can be among the most effective patterns for trout, particularly in late summer and early fall when migratory fish, like brown trout and brook trout, are aggressive and hungry. https://youtu.be/j9Pp2Xuq-J0 Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions ties a great wet fly pattern in the video above. Although originally tied in…
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The mouse-muncher
I can feel myself shaking but for some reason I still hold my hand out for visual verification. The sort of tremble a fish hasn’t left with since putting a rooster fish in the net or landing my first steelhead. My adrenaline is spiked and the only way my grin could be any bigger is if I’d brought the fish to hand, but that’s of surprisingly…
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Pine Squirrel Trout Spey Streamer
My streamer fishing has been on hold this summer—I've been on a dry-fly kick, what with hopper season in full swing here in the West. But, when it comes time in just a few weeks, I'm going to tie a few Pine Squirrel Trout Spey streamers, thanks to the video below from Tim Flagler of…
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Natural dubbing materials
Fly tying is so sophisticated these days, that sometimes it pays to take a step back and really examine the materials we use as we conjure up the next great pattern at the vise. Take dubbing, for instance. This is the material used in both dry flies and nymphs, generally to craft fly bodies for…
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