Jr. Flyfishergirls & Fly Tying
Dan “Rooster” Leavens, of the www.thestoneflyinn.com who is a guide on the Olympic Peninsula, shares with us this picture of his daughter, McCall tying a fly she aptly named the ‘big fish catcher’, while fishing with her proud dad on the Beaverhead River in Montana.
Reeling & Healing – Renew Spirt, Renew Hope.
Reeling & Healing Midwest is a non-profit organization that is 100% donor-supported with a 100% volunteer staff, that champions fly-fishing wellness retreats for women and men battling and surviving cancer.
“The sport of fly-fishing has endured for thousands of years. Its therapeutic powers are renowned and have been well documented. Cancer has yet to be eradicated. Its destruction to the human spirit is unique to each individual affected, yet understood by all who walk the path to overcome the disease.”
“When the human spirit, combined with courage and faith to overcome cancer, meets up with a river and the chance to fly-fish, well, magic just seems to happen. How do we know that? Many years of experiencing the magic at Reeling and Healing Midwest’s retreat programs shows this to be true. Each individual who participates in the Reeling & Healing Midwest Retreat Programs is touched in a way that renews their spirit, their joy, their hope and their view of life. It truly happens…every single time.”
Reeling & Healing’s mission is to provide participants with a one-of-a-kind experience, on and off the river, which renews their spirit and hope through the elements of fly fishing, nature, peer coaching, positive camaraderie and support.
Recently, fellow flyfishergirl Kathy Scott passed along Cathy Sero’s (President – Reeling & Healing Midwest) information to me. This came on the heels of forum member fflutterffly sharing her story of a sister who has battled cancer twice in her life, the first time at the tender age of 27.
fflutterffly is an endless promoter of women in fly fishing and is constantly organizing a fly swap or donation for a worthy cause, and this time she is organizing a fly donation for Reeling & Healing.
If you would like to donate to this cause, please register on the forum, and pm fflutterffly. For those who do not want to tie, The Fly Stop has offered to donate a few extra flies for each order placed through them when mentioning this fly donation program.
What Constitutes As Fly Fishing?
Wikipedia describes it as…
In fly fishing, fish are caught by using artificial flies that are cast with a fly rod and a fly line. The fly line (today, almost always coated with plastic) is heavy enough in order to send the fly to the target. This is one of the main differences between spinner and bait rods, which use heavy weight on the line to cast lures, bait, etc. Artificial flies can vary dramatically in all morphological characteristics (size, weight, colour, etc.).
Artificial flies are created by tying hair, fur, feathers, or other materials, both natural and synthetic, onto a hook with thread. The first flies were tied with natural materials, but synthetic materials are now very popular and prevalent. The flies are tied in sizes, colours and patterns to match local terrestrial and aquatic insects, baitfish, or other prey attractive to the target fish species.
Sounds good to me.
Yes, synthetic materials are the norm now, and are in many cases a great advancement in angling and fly tying, both from a price and a usability point. However, i am wondering where you draw the line in regard to using synthetic materials and then labeling the finished products as ‘flies’.
What constitutes as a lure and what constitutes as a fly? What would you deem this monstrosity as? Fly or Lure?
And most importantly, would you fish it?
Hand tied quality flies from only 50 cents!
The Fly Stop was recommended to me by one of our forum members, and at the time i wondered if flies this cheap could be any good. She assured me that they were of good quality and had seen them herself.
So we ordered a bunch of dry flies and some fly boxes. I must say, i am amazed at the quality! Not only are they very well made from quality materials and hooks, the public relations are excellent too.
The flies were shipped out very quickly, arriving within a week. Emails that were sent from us were replied to within a few hours, which in my books goes a long way.
Without a doubt i will recommend The Fly Stop to anyone interested in quality trout flies (at amazingly affordable prices). Check them out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Gear Review – Tube Dry Flies
I recently received some innovative tube dry flies from Jesper Fohrmann of www.fishmadman.com. They are simply amazing. Hand tied Monster Tube-Caddis and Tube Bombers. I know they are going to be deadly for steelhead.
They are tied on very light plastic tubes, and are feather light because of that. Tying on a tube instead of a metal hook will allow the fly to stay on top longer, if not all the time, without the need for floatant or a riffle hitch.
The quality of workmanship in these flies is very evident at first glace. The deer hair is spun extremely tight, clipped smoothly, and the hackles spun equally and evenly down the fly. These flies have an extremely pleasing silhouette. An added aesthetic of opal flashabou sets them apart from the industry standard.
Without a doubt i will recommend these flies to anyone interested in fishing for salmon or steelhead on the surface.
Cheap & Free Tying Materials
I tied up some dries a couple of nights ago. They are a little ragged, I admit, but in my defense it was late, dark, and my 6 year old headlight is on its way out. However, what I used for the bodies on most of them was cat hair. I stalked the two cats and dubbed the flies with their fur. I found that their hair worked better than synthetic materials, and I will continue to use cat hair for bodies over store bought materials any day. Now I just need to find some purple cats…
Can anyone share with me some tips & tricks for cheap & free materials that worked out well?
does the exact pattern really matter?
My friend Mike W. ties some beautiful flies. Clearly, he follows a pattern. And sticks to it. Me, on the other hand, cannot seem to ever pull off a fly that is 100% true. I have great intentions, but I simply end up experimenting rather than following the rules.
In my experience, black and blue pretty much hits a home run on any west coast Steelhead. And, for trout, isn’t a Woolly Bugger the ticket?
Sizes aside (because I believe that matters), do we really need all of these patterns in our boxes? Are the fish REALLY that picky?
Do you follow patterns, or throw caution into the wind?