Bumble Muddler Variant Some flies you see, and you just know they will work. That is how I felt the first time I saw aBumble Muddler Variant. My second thought was that I just wanted to keep saying itsname over and over and over.I saw the Bumble Muddler Variant in the winter issue of Fly…
S.S. Baitfish
The super simple baitfish came about as I rushed to tie some flies for a trip to Mexico. Not a fishing trip per se, but I almost never travel where there isn’t water, and I almost never am around water without at least trying to catch a fish. We were mostly going to be around…
Pat’s Rubberlegs Variant
Well it’s not time yet, but the multiple different types of stoneflies will start their yearly migrations to the rocky shores of streams and rivers across the West in month or two. It is time to start stocking fly boxes in anticipation of the fun to come. Mr. Pat Bennet came up with a simple…
Metal-head Sculpin
It’s a cold and snowy day here in Western Montana, which is as it should be. December was a rainy mess with a major spike in our rivers, no snow in the valleys, and a muddy brown Christmas. But now, it seems to be back to normal. The ski hills are open, the valley is…
A Christmas Fly
A Christmas Perdigon Welcome to winter! As I’m writing this, we in Western Montana are having our first major snow storm. Most of the birds that are going to leave have left. The ones that stay sit puffily in the mornings waiting for the late rising sun and a few more degrees before they get…
A Most Unusual Catch
Day four of a seven day backpacking / car camping / fishing trip found me exhausted. On day one, after a car camp at Lola Creek Campground near Stanley, Idaho, we packed down Marsh Creek to the confluence that forms the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, fished our way up Bear Valley Creek, discovering…
Pig Bait
November is a great month to be fishing. Browns and Brookies are spawning and if you fish the right waters, the rainbows are as fat as they’ll be all year, feasting on eggs of the aforementioned spawners. Until the weather really turns, the fish will feed aggressively for at least a few hours every day….
October Caddis
October Caddis Well, it’s been a long time since I posted any flies. Summer came and I admit I got busier and lazier at the same time. But now we are in to Fall, and I am stoked to get back to tying and posting some cool patterns. As summer wanes and the grasshoppers die…
Woolly Worm
Last month I mentioned fishing a Woolly Worm as part of a duo of flies that I consistently use when fishing lakes. I realized that there are a number of younger fly tiers and some older ones that have never tied or used a Woolly Worm. Almost everyone has heard of this fly’s modified cousin…
Mini Leech
Spring is here in Western Montana. The Glacier lilies are blooming, Bitterroots and Arrowleaf Balsamroots are popping up. The geese can’t shut up and fight the Redwing blackbirds for the title of noisiest birds around. Of course, it still snows and blows and when it rains the temps are in the 40’s and it’s pretty…