My friend, Theo Bakelaar from Holland, has been fishing a foam ant over the last few days, and doing very well with it. It’s very fast and easy to tie, and uses readily available materials. His precut bodies have a narrow waist, but I tie it with a strip of foam that is all the […]
My Dutch friend, Theo Bakelaar, came up with a great idea for a new version of the San Juan Worm—a double worm tied from Powercord or other similar material used in beading. Powercord is stretchy and comes in a variety of colors and clear. It’s used in beading to make necklaces and bracelets. On his […]
I tie a series of “down and dirty flies” whose intent is speed without sacrificing fish-catching ability. Actually my definition of a “Down and Fly” is one that can be tied while sitting in the back seat of a van going 55 mph over a dirt road in Canada with your son driving. This egg […]
Our friend from Holland, Theo Bakelaar, has started his spring season with a trout fishing excursion to a Dutch stream that harbors trout. His successful fly of the day was a black and chartreuse streamer. This is the original color of the Black Strip Leech—the contrast of the black and chartreuse colors makes the fly […]
It’s hard to imagine after the coldest February on record, that the warm weather this week is a reality. But it is, and the snow is receding rapidly each day. I’ve begun my tying for the start of the season with a simple bead head Fur Bug. It works well in many situations, and so […]
Our friend, Theo Bakelaar, from Holland is always exploring fly designs using freshwater eel skin. His latest “Mr. Twister,” using a tail of eel skin whallops walleyes, pike, sea trout, and others. Its secret is the tail of eel skin that vibrates as it whips back and forth on the retrieve. Further, the fish skull […]
Our friend, Theo Bakelaar from Holland has started growing his nose hairs for fly tying material. They tend to be a little curly, but make very good, inexpensive flies, especially for pike–according to Theo.
My friend, Theo Bakelaar, and I get a chance to fish for stripers and blues with our mutual friend Chuck Furimsky just prior to his International Fly Fishing Symposium in November (go here). The last time we fished, the weather was cold and windy, and fishing out on the ocean was not possible. We focused […]
Our friend Theo Bakelaar, also know as Mr. Gold Bead, and now also as Mr. Eel Skin, has been at it again. These beauties are his latest sand eels tied with fish skulls. I can just see the stripers and blues zeroing in on these delectable looking, and highly-active-when-wet, tough-as-nails imitations. Can’t wait to see […]
Nancy and I have been camping, spending some great time together in the wonderful forest lands of the U.S. In addition to the usual “camp chores,” there’s time for some needed reading, writing, lounging, fishing or course, and generally resetting one’s self. I also took some time to dress flies for a soon-upcoming trip to […]