The Smokejumper was developed by Montana fly fishing guide Mike Hoiness for fishing the Bighorn River. The fly works everywhere, though, and is particularly good in small sizes for matching midge hatches here in the Eastern U.S. One of the things I appreciate about this pattern, other than its effectiveness at catching trout, is that […]
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The Micro Mayfly did not make my initial list of confidence flies. Nevertheless, it is just too effective to leave off. As with the Frenchie and Shop Vac, the Micro Mayfly is one of my go-to tag patterns. As a matter of fact, fishing the Micro Mayfly is identical to fishing the Shop Vac as
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Summertime wild browns love eating the Green Weenie. I will never, ever be caught dead on a Class A brown trout stream in July, August, and September without a dubious quantity of Green Weenies in my fly box. In fact, both limestone and freestone wild browns crush the Green Weenie in the summertime when fished
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Other than a standard Walt’s Worm, the Shop Vac has likely taken more small limestone spring creek fish for me than any other fly. This is a Western pattern from West Yellowstone, MT, also introduced to me by Grumpy Dave. He discovered this nymph on a fishing trip to the Madison River. Let me tell
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The Frenchie is the first Euro nymphing-specific pattern that I ever encountered. As a matter of fact, the Frenchie fly is so similar to Frank Sawyer’s Pheasant Tail Nymph that only the addition of a hotspot and heavy weight really separates it from the original. From what I’ve read, Lance Egan developed, or introduced this
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The France Fly is a pattern that I recently discovered and started fishing the spring season of 2024. I first came across this simple pattern in Josh Miller’s book Euro Nymphing: Tips, Tactics and Techniques. Rarely does a new nymph pattern outperform my favorite confidence flies such as Walt’s Worm, Hare and Copper, Eggstasy
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Fly tiers today have a vast assortment of materials available to them, including hooks of almost every style and design imaginable. One of those variations is the wide gap hook, sometimes called a wide “gape” hook. The fact that it’s called wide means that there must be a standard gap. But what exactly is a
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At this juncture, the merits of Walt’s Worm are no longer classified information. As a matter of fact, knowledge of the effectiveness of this simple and humble fly pattern from Pennsylvania has extended far beyond my home state’s borders. A quick Google search to purchase this pattern online will bring the internet shopper to stores
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The Green-Assed Walts, GAW for short, is an exceptionally easy peeking caddis fly pattern to tie and fish. This article lists step by step instructions for tying this deadly fly.
Best Grannom Caddis Pattern: The Green-Assed Walt’s Read More »
With so many colors and brands of beads available to fly tiers today, it can be hard to determine which ones you should be using and when. This article helps demystify the process by providing insights into why certain beads work and when.
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