Hopper time in Yellowstone country

We all know Craig Mathews. He is the co-founder of the renown fly shop, Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. He's known for several books and DVDs about fishing in Yellowstone country and Madison river. He's also known for the Sparkle Dun, X-Caddis and several other flies we probably don't know it's his creation. Craig is also the co-founder of 1% for the Planet and a very active conservationist.

I met Craig at Blue Ribbon Flies in 1992 (I looked up in my journal and that day was July 31th). That summer day I bought the legendary Sage 490-4 LL after he let me cast it at a lawn (I think that stretch of lawn is gone long ago...) outside the shop.

After 26 years I stopped at the shop on my way to the Henry's Fork. Although he and his partner John Juracek sold the shop, he frequently helps out at the shop. Unfortunately Craig wasn't at the shop that day in August.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak this year I cancelled all of my fishing plans. One of my favourite way to fish during the summer months is casting an Alien Bug against the banks of a river. I sent a few Alien Bugs to Craig a few weeks ago. Shipping to and from the USA has been very unreliable since the Covid-19 outbreak. I was hoping the flies arrived on time for the hopper season.

Fortunately they arrived on time. Craig wrote me earlier this week:

"I wanted you to know your Aliens worked yesterday on huge Yellowstone cutthroat trout to 24”. A friend and I fished them all afternoon. We took 20 plus big fish on them"

Thanks for the pictures Craig and congratulations (it's his birthday today)!


Update June 15, 2025:

A great interview with Craig on the Waypoints podcast.

Update December, 2023:

Some business tips from Craig & Yvon.

Update June 20, 2021:

Craig thinks it should be outlawed... 😳

Update December, 2020:

Craig ties his favourite flies

Fishing evening spinner falls

The Jensens (Dave and Amelia) are one of the very few people that consistently produce top quality video's about fly fishing for trout, on both Youtube, video-on-demand and DVD. Their video's are both very well filmed and entertaining, as well as contain very valuable tips on situations we as fly fishermen encounter. They just released a (long!) video on fishing evening spinner falls.

I haven't fished many evening spinner falls in my life. The few I have encountered were on the Bow river and Missouri. If you're not used to fishing after dusk, it's a pretty tough job (not used to following your fly in such low light situation and those pesky mosquitoes!).

Here in Europe I rarely fish till dusk because I want to have dinner after starting early in the morning 😀. Fishing till dark you'll need a head lamp to tie a fly in dusk or see my way back to the car in the dark. Especially the rivers I fish I have rocky bottoms so the risk of taking a tumble or a swim while crossing in the dark is too high.

Well anyway, this video by the Jensens is by far the best I've seen so far on this subject. I'm pretty sure they have had their bloopers during this project but they sure make it look easy!