In spring, I usually forget about dry-fly fishing and plan to nymph fish to catch big fish. Water temperatures in most freestone streams are in the high 30s or low 40s. Smaller browns and rainbows can be found rising to midge hatches, but until the first active...
In the world of fly tying, simple tools and procedures often go overlooked. Quite a bit of the process is complicated and requires extreme focus. When mistakes happen, we want to make sure that nothing goes wrong with tools like the bobbin, hair stacker and especially...
It has been often said that trout spend as much as 90 percent of their feeding tie eating aquatic invertebrates that are drifting in the currents below the surface. If you want to catch more trout on flies, you must be able to fish nymphs on dead-drift. Favorite...
IF YOU CAN’T GO NYMPHING for trout as often as you would like, you can sharpen your nymph-fishing skills between trips by pursuing panfish and bass in your local streams, ponds, and reservoirs. These warmwater fish can be your best opportunity to hone your basic...
When I first started tying flies, I learned the majority of the steps quickly and felt confident in my fly tying abilities. When I first tested my flies, however, I realized that they were falling apart and I was going through them at a disappointing rate. I learned...
When I was a young man, my grandmother had a strong desire to teach me how to sew. I wasn’t super excited about the idea of it, but looking back, many of the skills have transitioned well. Little did I know, these skills were going to come in handy when I started...
When I first started tying flies, I found myself overwhelmed with the amount of tools and equipment I could use to tie flies. After a year or so of tying, I was finally able to learn what tools were necessary and others that I didn’t need to use. One tool I learned I...
The world of fly tying can be overwhelming for anglers to enter. The idea of using fine motor skills to tie a fly in hopes that it looks somewhat realistic isn’t always the most inviting thought. Spending all that time tying flies just for them not to work can be...
I’ve told this story countless times, but I grew up in a family of committed dry-fly fishermen. If you didn’t catch fish on a dry fly, then in my grandpa’s eyes, you didn’t go fishing. Fast-forward to today, and I have two Euro nymphing rods, and the biggest fish I’ve...
Just like any hobby, fly fishing can become stagnant if you aren’t willing to test your skills and learn something new. Many people avoid trying something different out of fear of failing. For me, I avoided using a multi-fly rig because I didn’t think I was skilled...