BIG KAHUNA: Hey fly anglers, what flies are you tying nowadays?

I tend to find myself going back to the classics. I've been tying rusty breadcrusts and diawel bachs in larger sizes for steelhead use (most successful, by the way) and of course I take liberties with patterns by tying with different colors and schemes so really one pattern becomes 4-5 different variants.

I find it very interesting (and amusing) when meeting some of the young bucks on the stream and we (of course) compare patterns. Fascinating that alot of the younger generation DON'T carry muskrat nymphs, telicos, breadcrusts, butcher flys, muddler minnows or wet flys of any kind. I always get the

"where did you come up with that pattern" question asked and a nice conversation of fly fishing lore generally evolves.

I just tie flash flies and egg pattern flies for pacific salmon. They are simple, but they are very effective.

I have tried tying other fly patterns and I always found that those two simple flies...that I tie work better and the materials to make those two patterns are cheap.

I tell myself every year...that I will tie up some flies over the winter and then BAM!!!! The season will hit and I will only have about... a dozen flies tied up and that just isn't enough for the salmon season.

pretty much everything is on my list but more dry-flies than anything else. i have a very large family that blows through town (i live in the BC Rockies) and they raid my boxes without mercy. i also have a guiding business that specializes in river dry-fly fishing so spare time in the winter is spent tying for customers to use. my 13 year old sons help out a bit but their attention span lasts about as long as a fart in a windstorm and sometimes their efforts are poor.

my main targets are rainbows, cutthroat trout, eastern brook trout, and char later in the season. i had a good friend go to New Zealand for a fishing trip and he was out mainly for rainbows and browns and told me that most of the flies were based on ones we use in north america and little variations but some are completely unique so i tried some with great success on streams and lakes here.

http://www.fishingmag.co.nz/Cicadas-Canterbury-Hig...

one example that kills them when hoppers are around. don't be afraid to experiment because i know i have and have a couple of patterns that i tie that produce about 75% of the fish that hit the shore or net. once you know the basics of fly-tying you can pretty much tie any pattern and maybe add your own little variation or twist then try it out.

BK

l been tying one up to use at my local lake for some big, stocked, "Nebraska Tailwalkers".

it looks surprisingly like a ball of berkley "Gulp" rainbow candy sparkle.