Late summer and early fall is one of my favorite times of year for “dry flies.” I use that term loosely because honestly what I am talking about right now is big foam bugs that are very difficult to sink. One of my favorite flies for this season is a […]
This has been an extraordinary season for steelhead on the Babine River in British Columbia. I was fortunate to spend Week 3 of the eight-week season at the Babine Steelhead Lodge (babinesteelheadlodge.com) and share in that experience. The Babine River, about 60 miles long, drains Babine Lake and is a […]
It’s one of the most common requests we get here at the shop, “I bought a beginner kit a few years ago and I want to get something a little nicer.” When these customers come in, the first item we suggest anglers to upgrade is their rod of choice. This […]
This past summer, my partner Deb and I toured through Eastern Europe, and I sampled some of the fly fishing available along the way. In earlier blog articles, I recounted my experiences in Estonia and Croatia. This article will focus on Slovenia. As far as I can tell, Slovenia is Europe’s […]
Hi, folks! Welcome to another session of unethical tying with me, @Troutmadness. Today’s session features the diabolical tungsten egg. What makes this fly unethical, you ask? Well, she’s more gorgeous than Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and catches more fish than Bill Dance in the 80’s. There is also the […]
I’m feeling spoiled. Genuinely spoiled. Putting a new fly line on a reel is such a great feeling. It is a magical feeling that left me feeling, like I said, spoiled! A quality new fly line makes such a difference over an old, cracked, beaten, and heavily used fly line. […]
On a sunny morning in late August, I closed my car door in front of my storage unit and prepared for a lengthy drive. The last of my furniture was packed. The boxes were all loaded neatly into the trailer. It was time for a change that’s been on my […]
Ice off is a special time of year around here, especially in high mountain lakes. Most of Alberta’s higher elevation lakes are stocked with beautiful cutthroat trout, who thrive in the cold mountain waters. As the ice starts to rot away, the cutthroat begin their transformation into fire belly monsters. […]
The Mop Fly. Yeah, this fly could be viewed as blasphemous by dry fly purists, but I’m here to tell you that it is fly style that I don’t see going anywhere any time soon. Mop flies can be as simple or as complicated as you would like. I could […]
Pink is often regarded as this feminine color that only belongs on cotton candy and Hello Kitty merchandise. Ostracized by much of the male population, pink is overlooked in the fly tying community in favor of the more neutral colors found within the natural world. However, pink has a special […]
Fishing for steelhead on the Skeena River in British Columbia was destination number four for me in “my year of steelhead.” A spot opened up at “The Steelhead House” (www.steelheadhouse.com) in Terrace, B.C. this August … and it took me less than a millisecond to jump for it. The Skeena […]
I can’t begin to explain how excited I was to try this product out. When I first heard of it, I searched high and low locally for it, but it wasn’t available yet at the shops I stopped in at. I was so close to buying it online when one […]