Fly Talk

Your Guide to Gifting an Angler   Buying a gift for a fly fisher can be tough. There is a technical aspect of this challenge – being familiar with the right gear for their specific fly fishing technique and style. In addition, picking a perfect gift that matches their unique taste can add to the…

Your Guide to Gifting a Fly Tyer Many fly fishers like to tie their own flies. They take special pride in catching a fish with a fly they tied themselves. Tying flies is an art, often called a functional art form. Whatever the case, it is definitely a very impressive skill for which you need…

Since we do not see much fly activity before May when the Hendrickson fly appears, this is a happy time for a fly fisherman. Before I go into further detail describing this fly, as well as how we approach fishing the Hendrickson hatch, the name of this fly had always puzzled me. Who was the…

When Frosty Fly asked me to do an article on fly fishing with kids and raising them on the river, I felt very grateful for the opportunity and humbled to know that I had the chance to help inspire others, while getting more kids out on the water. Life is always changing from one minute…

They say that nothing good comes easy – this is definitely true in the world of fly tying. Even a simple pattern, without the right skill set and techniques, can turn into a disaster in a hurry. Countless hours combined with trial and error at the vice is the only way to master the craft…

Finding time to hit the stream and throw some casts (and try out that new pricey rod you just got) is becoming a real challenge in today’s way of living. Finding time to fish when you become a parent of a new, tiny baby for many of us sounds like mission impossible. Or, at the…

As a fly fisherman and a fly tier, tying artificial flies that look as close as possible to aquatic insects, was always a challenge to me. However, no matter how much one succeeds in imitating them, the questions many would ask is: “Are realistic flies more effective than traditional?” Most fly fisherman come to a…

I try to be generous with my younger self as I recall my early days fly fishing. Not only because my internal size chart was skewed, typically by half-a-palm, but because I related a great fish directly to a long fight. One of the first questions that accompanied a big fish photo was an ecstatic…

Fly fishing as a culture tears us from the mundane. I crave the return of my boots to a river bottom like a chain smoker craves that familiar smoke break. Our everyday life is haunted by the tug of a trout and the security of pine painted canyons. Well, haunted doesn’t seem to fit, but…