Tag: flies

This week's fly-tying video come from Swedish tier Jon Hson, who describes himself as a "middle-aged trout lover with low standards and high cholesterol." This imitation of a caddis larva or pupa looks super buggy and natural (the RD stands for "real deal"), and Hson claims that it works especially well in pressured trout waters, where the fish have seen a...

"Another fishy pattern that uses deer hair, moose mane, and CDC for a great emerger that can be used for both caddis and mayfly hatches. A cheeky segmented quill body made from 3 Moose mane hairs, a wing of deer hair and CDC, and finished with a super easy deer hair hackle." The Tactical Emerger Hook: Mustad Heritage C49 # 14 Thread: Sheer 14/0 Olive...

"We use manufacturers like MFC, Umpqua, Fulling Mill, and Solitude. However, we do use custom tiers for those unique flies or fly patterns specific to a certain fishery."

As Cheech from Fly Fish Food says, "Sometimes, you gotta get fancy." And this pattern features some wild and weird techniques and materials that John Goddard, the pattern's namesake, never even considered. The first time your eyebrows might be raised is when, instead of spinning the hair around the hook shank, Cheech instead uses a dubbing noodle to achieve...

Hopper season is still a few months away, but here's the thing: You've got the time to tie these patterns now, before the the insect hatches kick off in earnest. So load up those boxes while you can; you'll thank yourself come July. In this great video, Cheech from from Fly Fish Food in Orem, Utah, teaches you to tie a cool sunken hopper imitation. "Why...

Excerpted from Tim Cammisa's Tying Euro Nymphs and Other Competition Favorites (Stackpole Books, 2025). Let’s talk about a critical component of fly fishing with Euro nymphs: confidence. This was something so many of the anglers I interviewed spoke of—their ability to select a fly they know fish will eat, then execute with it on the water. How do they...

Here’s a fantastic mayfly imitation created by Madison Losee from Fly Fish Food in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It’s a pattern that's got a lot of cool features: a trailing shuck, a segmented body with a little iridescence, and a CDC wing that guarantees that the fly lands lightly, the body sits low in the surface film, and it all floats well. This particular...

Question: I recently went to a presentation on winter fly-fishing, and all the dry flies discussed were smaller than size 20. I am almost 70 years old, and there’s no way I’ll be able to see those patterns on the water. What’s my best option? —Jeff K., CT Answer: For those of us in our bifocal years, this is a real problem. If we can barely see...

Here's a killer Skwala imitation created by Cheech from Fly Fish Food in Orem, Utah. It's the kind of pattern that you can tie to imitate almost any stonefly, so feel free to play around with different colors and sizes to match your local hatches. Here's what Cheech has to say about the fly: I had the great opportunity to work in Idaho Falls while we opened...

Winter is the most frustrating time to be a fly angler. The weather is cold, the rivers are frozen, and warm sunny days of casting dry flies to rising trout seem so far away. Most of us just deal with it or find another hobby to keep them occupied during the cold months. Perhaps you’ll do a bit of winter nymphing here and there just to stay in shape, and...