Author: johnnysain

A Flow Through The Bob: A Montana Pack-Rafting Adventure

"It had been exactly 10 years since Neil and I made our first voyage into "The Bob", a vast wilderness complex in northwestern Montana, full of jagged peaks, wildlife, and pristine rivers. A wild and scenic landscape of the highest order. The crown of the continent. That first trip opened our eyes to a world of DIY adventures, and the following decade...

An Autumn Wet Fly

"This is a wet fly inspired by the Mickey Finn, one of my favorite fall attractor patterns. It’s a great fly to swing through the current in the fall, and the oversized feathers have lots of movement to help trigger those finicky fall fish. This is quite a large one, but you can always downsize or modify it to fish better in a nymph rig or for smaller...

MidCurrent Tested and Trusted: Orvis Ultralight Wading Boots

As a professional fly angler, I practically live in my waders. Outside of the summer guide season, when I prefer to wet wade in sandals, I spend almost every day awkwardly contorting beside my truck to get my waders on. Whether I'm hitting the local hatch before work or swinging flies for steelhead for weeks at a time, my waders have become part of my...

Last Fish of the Season

Editor’s Note: This is the seventeenth article in our series on fly fishing conservation.  This series appears with the support of Epic Fly Rods. When the remote ponds, woodland streams, and large rivers near my home in central Maine warm up, rather than stress the fish, I turn my attention to the headwater freestone streams of New Hampshire's White...

Ins and Outs of Trout Spey

As an avid steelhead angler, I love swinging flies on a Spey rod. The calm serenity of the casting, the hypnotic rhythm of the swing and step, all interrupted abruptly and violently when you get a grab. I honestly can't get enough of it, but the reality is there's only so much steelheading a person can do. The fish are only in certain rivers at specific...

Fly Tying The Pink Panther

"I love pink flies in cold water conditions, there's something that trout find appealing about it. This wee mini lure does great stuff out in open water on the reservoirs and it works as a dropper with a bigger black lure on the point position on smaller lakes."

Simon's Jigged Ace: Super Effective Searching Nymph

"This fly Simon developed came out of slowly experimenting with a small jigged soft hackle that not only works as a searching jigged nymph, but also one that could be swung like a traditional soft hackle."

Bead Thorax Pheasant Tail Soft-Hackle

"I am doing a series on Pheasant Tail Soft-Hackle variations and this is the next fly in that series. I use this fly primarily for fishing a little deeper when I'm prospect nymphing or as a point fly on a two or three nymph/wet fly rig in order to weight the system and detect strikes on any of the flies. The Krystal Flash tail really attracts attention when...

Dubbed Rabbit Leech

"This is a super easy and quick small streamer to tie for filling your box. I would fish this a lot on the San Juan River during the time they would stock because those big brown trout would come out from the depths and start chasing these small fingerling. They are small enough to nymph, and move well enough to look like a fish fighting the current. You...

Tying and Fishing the Ice Prince Nymph

"A simple fly pattern based loosely on the famed Prince Nymph, but takes a fraction of the time to tie. Vary the color of the bead and ice dubbing and you can make several versions of this one."