Dark Skies Youtube Channel
The Partridge and Orange and Partridge and Olive are classic soft hackle patterns that date back several centuries. These were some of the first flies ever tied and used on English chalk streams, and they still work today.
The Zug Bug was one of the first nymphs I ever learned to tie when I was 14 years old. Some might say my fly tying skills haven’t improved much since then, but that’s okay. You don’t have to be a great tier to tie flies that catch fish, and decades later, the Zug Bug still catches fish!
Every year, I add a handful of new patterns to my fly box, and this year I decided one of those should be the Blow Torch. Developed my competition fly fisherman Devin Olsen, this pattern exceeded expectations and soon became one of my go-to flies on every stream and river I fished.
Ultra chenille on a hook. That essentially sums up the Green Weenie. But just because it’s easy to tie doesn’t mean it doesn’t catch the heck out of trout! Both wild and stocked fish love this pattern, and come late spring and summer, you can bet I don’t hit the water without a good selection of weenies in my box!
The Squirmy Wormy work everywhere and will catch stocked and wild trout equally well. In this video, we tie our favorite color of Squirmy Wormy and talk a little bit about how to fish it.
The Sulphur Soft Hackle Emerger hits its stride come mid-May and continues producing all summer long on most waters. I like to fish the larger sizes (14 and 16) as I do typical soft hackle flies and nymphs, but the smaller sizes (18 and 20) can be treated with floatant and fished as a dry fly to match the hatch.
The Pale Morning Dun appears on many waters across the country. This pattern is one of Ralph Scherder’s designs, a combination soft hackle/emerger nymph that utilizes a CDC collar.
Steelhead get the reputation as being finicky, but sometimes all they really want is something different. After all, how would you react if you worked your way into a low, crystal clear tributary only to be bombarded with egg pattern after egg pattern? That’s where the Steelhead Killer comes in. This nymph has the right combination of bugginess and flash. Tied in a variety of colors, it offers that changeup needed to catch steelhead (and trout!) on high pressured waters.
The Baetis Emerger Cripple Fly is a confidence pattern. I carry this in sizes 16-20, and occasionally you’ll even find a size 22 in my box. Baetis are some of the most prolific insects on trout streams across the country, and this pattern does a great job of matching many of them. When you see trout sipping something on the surface but don’t know exactly what it is, that’s when it’s time to tie on a Baetis Emerger Cripple Fly!
Fly fishing in the summer time can be challenging due to low and clear water. In this video, we discuss how to approach trout, how to modify your setup, and a few other tips for catching more fish while nymphing in the summer time.
The Frenchie is a Euro-style nymph variation of the Pheasant Tail Nymph. Tied with a hot spot collar, the Frenchie is a deadly pattern on trout in waters around the world. In this video, Ralph Scherder ties a variation of the Frenchie called the Caddis Frenchie. This variation doubles as a caddis pupa and mayfly emerger.
Follow DSFF contributor Justin Leidy on a small limestone stream in Central Pennsylvania in search of wild browns! Along the way, Justin discusses Euro nymphing tactics for small streams, how to set up the leader and sighter, and best options for tying in the tag fly in a tandem rig.
A trip to Maine for brook trout is a visit to some of the most famous streams in the Eastern United States. In June 2024, Ralph Scherder and Justin Leidy joined Maine natives Michael Burchianti and Ira Gross for an adventure in the Northwoods. Although the trip started slow, it quickly got “epic” once weather conditions started to cooperate. Dry fly fishing in the morning, dry dropper all afternoon, and plenty of beautiful native brook trout to the net…it doesn’t get any better than that!
In this video, Ralph Scherder demonstrates how to tie the France Fly, a simple but deadly tactical, Euro-style nymph.
Summer can provide good but challenging dry fly fishing. Low, clear water can make trout spooky, and even though you can still hit the occasional hatch and find rising fish, they can be hard to catch in these conditions. In this video, Ralph Scherder offers a number of suggestions for how to approach and catch more trout in small streams during the summer months. He starts out fishing a general attractor pattern, and once the catch rates slow down, he then dials it in to specifically match the hatch and land many more fish.
Join Ralph Scherder on the Chimehuin River for one of those rare days when the stars align and the big browns are on the feed! For more information about hosted trips to Patagonia with Dark Skies Fly Fishing.
Sometimes the pools with the most trout are the ones that are hardest to fish. They require truckloads of patience to fish correctly…but sometimes even that isn’t enough! We hope you enjoy this snapshot of Ralph Scherder fighting trees and bushes as he also picks a few trout from this “interesting” piece of water.
In certain situations, using an indicator, tight-lining, and even Euro nymphing just isn’t an effective way to catch trout. When trout are spooky due to low and clear water, these approaches may send fish for cover. That’s when it’s time to rig up a dry-dropper and get to work!
Caddis are notoriously odd hatches to fish over. The water can be blanketed with insects, yet trout will sometimes ignore them on top completely. But that doesn’t mean they’re not gorging on the pupa underneath, and that’s where the Green-Assed Walts (GAW for short!) comes in. From mid-April through mid-May, I carry a hefty assortment of GAWs in my fly box!
Palomino trout go by many names. Some people call them golden trout, banana fish, and (when they can’t get them to bite) any number of expletives! Palomino trout originated in 1955 in West Virginia when fisheries biologists cross-bred a rainbow trout with a Virginia golden trout. One of the offspring was a trout with golden color, and over the years, through selective breeding, that trait was slowly developed so that palomino trout are now commonly stocked in waters throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and a number of states in the Eastern U.S.
Euro nymphing with a mono rig is a simple and effective technique for catching lots of trout. I’m fairly new to Euro nymphing. Although I have tight-lined, I have made the jump to an actual Euro nymphing rod and set up, and it has made a huge difference. In this video, I discuss a few techniques that have helped me become a more proficient Euro nympher.
This pattern rode around in my fly box for a couple years before I actually gave it a shot. A fly fishing guide from California tied up a bunch of these using CDL feathers that I had donated to her for a project she was working on.
Steelhead season of 2023 started out slow thanks to low and clear water. Fish that entered the tributaries had nowhere to go due to low flows and piled up in the lower parts of the streams where anglers relentlessly pursued them.
The Cumberland Valley is home to a number of great limestone-influenced trout streams. Among them, Yellow Breeches Creek is perhaps at the best. With good numbers of wild trout as well as being heavily stocked with rainbows, the “Breeches” is a very high quality fishery with excellent hatches.
The Hare and Copper Variant is a slight variation of the venerable Hare and Copper, which is really just a Euro nymph variation of the classic Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymph. As with most patterns, contrast and natural colors make this a great fly for fish almost anywhere trout are found.
In this video, Justin Leidy catches a beautiful wild brown on one of his confidence flies, the Killer Bug. Ralph Scherder then shows how to tie this simple and effective pattern as well as a variation of this pattern that works well as a Baetis imitation.
Steelhead are known to be finicky. In this video, we show you how to tie and fish three of our favorite fly patterns that we use for 90% of the Great Lakes steelhead we catch. These patterns are simple and deadly, beginning with the Y2K.
Sometimes the trout are easy to figure out. Many times, they’re not. In this video, we spend an evening on the water and dive deep into our bag of tricks, catching fish using five different methods.
Big dry flies are a lot of fun to fish, but they can also present a few problems. In this video, we show you how to deal with line twist to make better presentations and catch more trout on big attractor dry flies.
The Royal Coachman is among the most recognizable fly patterns of all time. In this video, Ralph Scherder uses the pattern for the first time ever and quickly finds out why it’s so popular…it catches fish!
In this video, Justin Leidy discusses four ways to adjust the weight on your Euro rig. Also, and perhaps even more beneficial, he makes an on-stream adjustment and shows viewers how to work a small stream pool to catch more trout.
Join Ralph Scherder on a fishing adventure as he turns to Slate Drakes to prospect for native brook trout on this mountain stream in northcental Pennsylvania. As it turns out, Slate Drakes were on the menu, and the brookies were hungry!
The X Caddis is not only an effective caddis pattern, it also doubles as a mayfly emerges. In this video, Ralph Scherder discusses how to tie and fish this fly.
If you’re looking for a simple but deadly nymph that’s easy to tie, this video shows what has become one of Ralph’s go-to patterns and confidence flies.
Ralph Scherder explores First Fork Sinnemahoning Creek in early September. Expecting to use hoppers, he has to change his plans when a massive baetis hatch materializes. This video includes tips for fishing both big and small flies!
Small stream smallmouth bass on the fly are fun. They’re not always huge, and most will range only 7-12 inches long, but for what they lack in size, they make up for with heart. Their aggressive personalities and ferocious strike make them prime candidates for fishing for them with streamers.
In this video, we tie up one of George Harvey’s legendary Pusher Flies. George Harvey, often referred to as the “Dean of Fly Fishing,” created the fly fishing and fly tying course at Penn State University back in 1934, where he taught thousands of students over his 40-year career. The Pusher Fly has been used to catch many big brown trout at night, including Joe Humphreys’s huge 15-pound brown that was once the state record.
Follow Dark Skies Fly Fishing contributor Justin Leidy as he explores a Class A trout stream in Cameron County, where the brookies are always hungry…usually! But this is summer, and although the trout will still readily take any fly that resembles food, they’re cautious beyond belief, and the slightest movement can spoil the whole approach.
Join Ralph Scherder as he explores the Lackawanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania. Once a dead river, the Lackawanna is now a thriving wild brown trout fishery, and definitely worth a visit if you’re traveling through the area.
This video shows step by step how to tie the Sexy Walt and two variations, the Rainbow Dubbed Walt and the CDC Walt. It’s no secret that the Walt’s Worm is one of the deadliest nymphs ever developed.
In this video, Dark Skies Fly Fishing contributor Justin Leidy discusses the importance of color changes in riffles and runs and how to locate the seams where fish are most likely to be feeding.
Join Ralph Scherder of Dark Skies Fly Fishing for some midsummer fishing after a rainstorm. He set out to catch a big wild brown, but he wasn’t expecting to find one quite like this!
While fishing the Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only section of Pine Creek in the PA Grand Canyon, Ralph encounters an unexpected mayfly hatch…and lots of rising trout!
Shot on Yellow Creek in Bedford County, PA, this short, instructional video teaches the basics of Euro nymphing, including gear needed (or not needed) and a simple approach to fishing productive water.
Ever wonder how biologists survey trout streams to assess populations? This video shows the process as well as a few surprising finds along the way!