The Art of Fishing Fly Tying

One of my favourite dry fly styles both to tie and fish is the parachute style. The parachute acts as an indicator for the fly, and thus allows you to see very small flies easily, and also allows you to see larger flies at great distances. Usually used to imitate the dun stage of mayflies, the style is useful when incorporated into other patterns as well such as emerger patterns. Step One: Set the hook in the vise. Step Two: Start a thread base. Step Three: Stack your deer or elk hair in a stacker, remove the underfur and line up the tips so ... Read Full Story

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This fly resembles a black stonefly larva. It’s tied to be about an inch in lenght from tail tips to the front of the antennae. Used mainly as a steelhead and migratory brown trout fly, its also useful in smaller streams and when fishing rivers for resident trout species. Read Full Story

The ‘Badger Butt’ nymph is a neat little nymph that will imitate a number of mayfly nymphs. The badger I used for this fly was grey/tan in colour, while the very tips of the fur were thin and black. When you snip off the badger fur from the hide, be sure to snip it off right at the base, as you’ll want to use the underfur as dubbing for this fly. Beads can be the colour of your choice. I try to use dark coloured beads when fishing clear water, and I’ll switch to a gold or silver bead when the water is a ... Read Full Story

This is a fast sinking, plump caddis larva imitation. The bead can be just about any colour. You’d be hard pressed to find a stream in Ontario that doesn’t have a healthy caddis population, so when you just can’t seem to find the right fly, toss one of these on and see if the action picks up a little. Work the fly on bottom slowly in slower sections of the stream to imitate it crawling about. Optionally, try high sticking this fly in pocket water and around rocks and submerged logs. Read Full Story