When fishing stillwaters, attractor flies are extremely under utilized here in the states. I think because of two things; most stillwater anglers don’t know how or why to use stillwater attractor flies, and because the materials to tie them and the flies are not usually stocked in fly shops. This […]
lake
Buoyancy is an incredible principle that as fly anglers, we need to take more advantage of. Buoyancy can be achieved through a variety of materials like cervid hair (deer, elk, moose, caribou), dubbing (like alpaca), yarns (like poly yarn), and foam. I’m going to talk about foam in this article. […]
I went and fished East Lake in the Newbery Crater last year in June. The fishing was tough but we squeaked out a few fish and a couple of them were browns! If you have any questions leave them down below.
So I was back at the Santiam Fly Casters a few weeks ago and spoke there about some stillwater strategies. I specifically talked to them about strategies for a new angler to approach a stillwater. I broke down gear, locations, terms, where to find fish, and more. There are some […]
Last fall I fished Diamond Lake and was able to squeak out a Diamond Lake Slam. It was a fun but tough day of fishing. I was able to get 3 out of my 4 fish on film, missed the brown because I wasn’t recording, and luckily my fiancee was […]
Heading back to see if we do a repeat of the previous week!
In this video I head out to an Oregon lake in search of tiger, brown, & rainbow trout. Luckily in this video we find all three! Watch as we fish using loch style tactics where we pull flies, use indicators, and washing line techniques.
Stillwater fly fishing has become my hyperfocus within fly fishing. Don’t get me wrong I still hit the rivers for trout or jetty for rockfish or some of the best smallmouth bass water in the world, from time to time, but stillwater trout has been so much fun and produces […]
Pulling flies is verbiage from across the pond. They use that term whenever they are fishing stillwaters and presenting the flies in a cast and retrieve style. I like the term pulling better than cast and retrieve or stripping for the reasons that it describes the action and presentation accurately. […]
The blog doesn’t have a lot of trip reports but I thought the fly fishing community should have a modern report on Diamond Lake. I was recently out at Diamond Lake to do some fishing with a buddy of mine. It was a great trip that you’re here to […]
Most anglers interested in competitive fly fishing only think of rivers when they think of a venue for a competition. This isn’t the case at all. Rivers play a massive role in the competitive scene and are integral to the success of an individual or the team, but there is […]
The other other factor that goes into hook choice is the shape. This can be inconsequential or it can matter a lot. To me when the stakes are the lowest is when you are tying nymphs and you are tying to get the shape correct for just aesthetic purposes. It […]
As a fly tyer who geeks out hard about tying, materials, and flies it would be totally justified to think hooks would be top of mind for me when deciding how to tie a fly. Hooks are the foundation to every fly tyed, but criminally overlooked, especially when it comes […]
This past weekend was my first fly fishing competition. I’m going to go over the prep work I did for this comp, gear I brought, gear I wish I had brought, how fishing went, my mind set, and the results of the comp. I’m hoping this is the first of […]
The Clouser Minnow was a gateway fly for me. When I was just starting my fly fishing and tying journey way back in the day of 2009, this was one of the first flies that I tied to terrorize the local smallmouth. The fly was simple and quick to tie […]
Pre-spawn time is the one of the best times of the year to catch massive smallmouths. Anglers that go after record fish, fish the pre-spawn. This is when the fish are moving out of cooler deep water to stage for the spawn and are ready to feed to have enough […]
I need a wading jacket The Middle Fork of the Willamette is one of the most under fished trout fisheries in the Willamette Valley if you asked me. There are others, but this is up there. I never make any sense to me. It’s not far from population centers like […]
I recently did some experimenting with clear coating on foam popper heads. I’ve wanted to find a better way to coat and protect my popper heads than what I was doing before. Like those who tie flies for big predatory fish like bass, pike, muskie, dorado, peacocks, etc. you want […]