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Fly tying: Stripping quills
Quill-body flies are some of the most beautiful creations tiers can craft at the vise, but stripping feather quills can be kind of a pain. Video of How to Strip a QuillHere, the process is somewhat demystified by Tim Flagler, who shows us the best ways to strip both hackle quills and peacock quills, and,…
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Trout Tips: Tenkara in winter
Tom Sadler fishes Tenkara for winter brookies in a small Appalachian trout stream. I've tried everything to keep ice from accumulating on my fly rod guides during cold winter fishing trips. I've tried the paste and the sprays, and while they might work for a few minutes, they'll eventually fail. It's gotten to where I'll…
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Fly tying: Electric caddis larva
With a good 80 percent of the country feeling like a deep freeze these days, it's a good time to be talking about winter fly fishing. And winter flies, of course. Video of JC's Electric Caddis LarvaAbove, Tim Flagler walks through the process of tying John Collins' Electric Caddis Larva, a great wintertime searching pattern…
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Short casts: Fly tying Zen; women in fly fishing; Salalah, and more
Photo by Becca Skinner, New York Times. I read this piece the other day in the online edition of Sierra Magazine, and immediately identified with author Christopher Schaberg, a professor of Englis and Environmental Studies at Loyola University in New Orleans. The gist is this: the intense pressures being put on our environment by a…
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Fly tying: Why use a rotary vise?
I've been tying (well, some would call it that, anyway) for a good 20 years, and while I tie generally for necessity and a bit of the pleasure that keeps me connected to fly fishing on days like today, when it's all of 9 degrees outside, I'm not terribly accomplished at the vise. But I…
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Fly Tying: The Yellow Humpy
My favorite backcountry attractor dry fly might be the venerable humpy. Tied in yellow or red (or even "royal" fashion), the Humpy is a high-floating dry fly that imitates a host of bugs, from larger mayflies to caddis, but doesn't exactly resemble anything in particular. It just looks buggy. Video of Yellow HumpyAnd backcountry trout…
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Fly tying: Jig hooks and slotted beads
I'm seeing more jig hooks on shelves in fly shops than I ever have before. For a while, I thought maybe it was just a fad ... a passing trend. But it appears, because of the effectiveness of jig hooks used in nymph patterns, the hooks and the slotted beads that go with them are…
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