Archive for the ‘Fly Fishing Tactics’ Category

Austria Fishing Day 2

      On  Wednesday April 17, Hans Aigner fished the Ager River with Jorg Schuft and me. Hans began guiding for Hans Gebetsroither in 1959 when he was just 12 years old, and fished with a large variety of world class anglers over the years, including Joe Brooks. On today’s outing, Hans caught his first […]

Croc-A-Brown

Our friend, Theo Bakelaar, was in Africa recently, fishing for trout, when he encountered a very unusual and very fierce strain of browns. He was only able to land the smaller ones, and one look at them shows why. The  bigger of these Croc-A-Browns will take a full dress Gnu or Zebra imitation very strongly. […]

Spring Steelies

This spring has been a difficult one for the steelhead fishers here in Wisconsin. Too much water. Cold and ugly weather is no problem, but rivers that are ripping at 5000 cfs when they normally flow around 200 cfs are just too much of a challenge. Well, one of our favorite rivers took a brief […]

South Africa’s Yellowfish

South African fly fishers have both rainbow and brown trout that can be sought with imitations of feathers, fur, and steel, but like anglers everywhere, many fly rodders seek other species as well. The yellowfish is a group of giant minnows of the family Cyprinidae that fits the fly fisher’s bill very well. They feed […]

Highland Browns

As promised, Theo Bakelaar has sent along a photo essay on fishing the mountain streams and lochs (lakes) of the Scottish Highlands for brown trout. The morning starts early. Today will be a walk into the high country lochs and the small streams that feed them in search of absolutely wild, native browns. The hike […]

Marker Fly

The Madison River often gives up its fish with some reluctance, like a small child not wanting to share candies but being encouraged to do so by a watchful parent. At least that’s the idea that one often gets when fishing under a bright sun—as is often the case in Montana’s summer. But nightfall brings […]

Holland Pike Flies

I asked Theo to please send along some shots of the long flies that they use for pike in Holland. He was kind enough to send them right back to me, along with some more pike photos. Note that these flies are big, as in really big, and have to be tied with plenty of […]

Baitfish From L Upstream

Long Flies will be off the press in about a week. I should have my advance copy by April 5th. Copies should begin shipping the next week. In the meantime, here’s another look “under the hood,” as it were. Below is a story about the Baitfish from L, a tactic that I developed for fishing […]

Long Flies & Big Fish

As I’ve noted a couple of times in the past few weeks, the next book in the Fly Fishing series, entitled Long Flies—Streamers, Bucktails, & Other Big Fish Flies, is at the press and will be available the first week in April. Below is an excerpt from Chapter One. It’s a story about fishing for […]

Anti-Jigging

My friend, Theo Bakelaar, from Holland sends his salute to all U. S. fly fishers. He has been experimenting with eel skin sculpin designs for European waters. These are foam headed flies that are fished on a sinking line. In my forthcoming book, Long Flies — Streamers, Bucktails, and Other Big Fish Flies, I discuss […]