Hackle (again)

This very lengthy video about hackle is the best I've seen so far.

It's (unfortunately) basically only about Whiting hackles, but it does show a plethora of types of hackle for different uses.

Joan Wulff Speical (again)

The Catskill Fly Tyers Guild fly of the week is the Joan Wulff Special.

Iron blue dun

Iron blue dun is originally an old English wet fly pattern.

The Iron blue dun showed here is from a magazine article from 1946 with illustrations by John Atherton.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grayling Society

This past weekend we had our annual Grayling Society meeting.
Lots of (aging) members attending, great stories exchanged & interesting presentations.

Look back to Tuscany

A short look back to a few days fishing with my friend Tommaso in Tuscany earlier this fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scott GT

The G series from Scott is one of the longest running rod series of modern fly rods and it's for a reason. These are medium action (some call it slow action 🙄) that has a small but loyal following.

The original G series was released in 1976 (!), only to be followed up the G2 series in 2006. In 2019 Scott upgraded it with the GS series and now just before the end of 2025 they released the GT series. It looks like the life span of Scott rods is looking like Sage...

While Scott always offered odd lengths like 8.4ft, 8.8ft next to the popular 9ft, with the GT series the 9ft is absent. There's now the 8.10ft and a 9.8ft length. The action is still labeled as medium, the recovery speed seems to have increased to 'fast'. Why Scott decided to 'speed up' the G series, I don't get it. Why change a rod series that really distinguishes from all other brands that are all just fast rods. 

For me I have no reason to replace my G2 9ft #5 weight. When casting this rod you wonder why anyone would need a fast action rod. It's a great rod for larger rivers and will handle anything from dries, (heavy) nymphs and small streamers. I still regret selling the G2 883... 

 

 

Bivisible themes

The basic brown Bivisible is the most known version.

I have seen variations on classic Catskill dry flies with the palmering of the body and the white front hackle that's typical of the Bivisible.

This Adams Bivisible is a variation on the Bivisible theme. I left out the wings as it would get a bit too crowded.

Tying a Bomber on Sunday

It was a chilly Sunday, so I staying home was what felt the most comfortable.

Recently I have been thinking about spinning some deer hair again.

Here is a step-by-step of the Green Bomber I tied. 

The ginger hackle feather was too short in my opinion to get enough turns, so decided to tie in a longer hackle feather. Since I sold most of my Whiting saddles, the choice was rather limited. The choice was either a Cree or a Black feather. I also slimmed the body a bit too.

 

 

Mill House Podcast - Documenting the great saltwater fly fishermen

Andy Mill and his son Nicky have a podcast that's probably not for everyone. It's solely focused on saltwater fly fishing. They collect great talks with (aging) legends, guides and innovators in the game. 

What they are doing is partly similar to why I started my Q&A's. Document the stories told by the people themselves and get to know a little more of them before it's too late. Some guests have already passed away, like Flip Pallot and Bob Popovics. I've never entered the saltwater arena myself, but these podcasts is doing a great job to preserve and document the stories we would otherwise never would have heard.

Yesterday I was listening (you can also watch on Youtube) to their recent Q&A episode and one of the questions was about the saltwater rods they like to use. Their answer was surprising (and refreshing)!

So myself fishing only for trout, I never understood why people bought trout rods based on how far the rod casts at the parking lot rather than feeling if the rod responds well on short distances. Distances from 15 (sometimes even closer) to 25 feet of fly line (don't forget to add the length of the rod and the leader!) is what the majority of trout fishing is done. Now, Andy explains that it's similar with saltwater fishing, albeit the distances are a bit longer but rarely the distances most people think it is.

Lefty Kreh passed away

This post was originally posted on March 15, 2018

Lefty Kreh has left us at the age of 93.
Here is an article in the New York Times about Lefty's passing and what he meant for the fly fishing community.

Update Oct 1, 2025:

This is a new documentary about the remarkable life of Lefty

History of Hardy bamboo rods

What great presentation of the history of bamboo rods made by Hardy!

Unfortunately Hardy stopped making bamboo rods a few years ago (2018?). They ended a legacy of their roots and became a contractor of plastic rods only.

The wonderful presentation is by Andrew Herd, an author who wrote 'The Fly'. A fabulous book about the history of the fly as lure to catch fish.

Unusual review of bamboo rods

Here's an unusual review of bamboo fly rods.

Ben from Trident fly shop usually reviews graphite fly rods but seeing him review two rather pricey older (around 30 years old) bamboo rods is kinda surprising. Especially the idea that these (3 weights) rods he is reviewing should cast 30-40ft shows he knows very little about how bamboo fishermen fish their 3 weights...

History of the legendary F.E. Thomas rod company

Fred Thomas, like so many great names in bamboo like Payne and Hawes, learnt making bamboo fly rods at Leonard in the late 1870's. Here's a video on how Fred Thomas started his own company and the current owner of the Thomas rod company Steve Campbell continues the legacy of the legendary rod company.

Yvon Chouinard on fishing the Flymph

Yvon Chouinard shows how he likes to fish the flymph.

And here is how Yvon likes to tie his flymph.

More post I did on Yvon:

1) Yvon's approach to fly fishing is how a rock climber climbs

2) Yvon thinks fly fishing is on the wrong path

3) Yvon's business lessons

Ed van Put's last book

Finally got the last book by the late Ed van Put.

Rest in peace Ed.

Yellowstone Angler's 2025 3 weight shootout

We probably missed a few years and here's another very elaborate shootout by Yellowstone Angler, this time it's 3 weights. 

So many (basically all big name brand) rods that are so beefy that one can cast 40ft. One does wonder whether a 3 weight rod needs to allow one to fish anything beyond small streams... Obviously boutique fiberglass and bamboo rods that are specifically designed to fish small streams by contemporary rod builders like Chris Barclay, Larry Kenney, Katsumi Harada, Yamame or Yoshiharu (and many more builders) are not included in this shootout.

 

 

 

Montana - wild fish, wild places

Here's a nice video about Montana and what makes us love it so much.

I've fallen in love with Montana since 1992. But Montana also has its challenges to keep the habitat pristine despite the fishing pressure, development and climate change.

Humpy artwork from SA (again!)

What to say except ‘Wow!’ about this recent artwork of the Humpy by the South African fly fisher and artist Marcel Terblanche.

I’m happy to add this to my other Humpy artwork from artists around the world 😀

My other Humpy paintings by:

Gavin Erwin

Ryan Keane

Cindy Day

Henk Peeters RIP

Two days ago the legendary Dutch angling author and retailer Henk Peeters passed away. His father Jos started working in a tackle shop in Amsterdam in 1925. Jos opened his own shop short after the 2nd WW. Henk continued the shop, relocating the shop several times, until the mid 2010s. 

The shop 'Peeters Hengelsport' was one of the first fishing tackle shop in The Netherlands with an, for that time, extensive fly fishing and tying section back in the early 1980s. Their annual catalog was very much awaited. His shop was also the first and only Orvis dealer in western Europe back in the mid 1980's to early 1990s. I too bought my very first Orvis fly rod here.

 

Henk was since the late 1960s, together with the late Kees Ketting, the foremost authors of many books and articles on spin fishing as well as fly fishing. I too grew up with their books in the early 80s. 

Earlier this year (Feb 25th) I said goodbye to Henk as his health was deteriorating. 

Rest in peace Henk

 

Tribute

This Matuka sculpin is my small tribute to three wonderful tiers, the late Darwin Atkin, Chris Helm and Dave Whitlock.

The hair scissors in the background were gifted to me by Chris just a few months before his passing.

The Feather Thief

This fascinating book came out in 2018. It describes the theft of priceless exotic, mostly tropical, birds by a young salmon fly tier named Edwin Rist at the British Natural History Museum.

The bird collection in the museum was collected during the colonial era by naturalists like Alfred Wallace. Edwin, an American music student studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London, planned an idea to break into the Museum and steal nearly 300, some irreplaceable, bird skins.

It has been years ago I read the book and was thinking about re-reading it. Then this morning I listened to this excellent concise summary of the book which almost feels like reading a detective story. The narrator is obviously not a fly tier as she regularly talks about 'the art of tie flying' rather than 'fly tying'. 😄

Lance Hidy on his father's Trout flies

Here's a rather unusual but very good presentation by Lance Hidy about the flies his father. Vernon 'Pete' Hidy, tied. The audience seems to be a non fly fishing public, and Lance's non technical phrasing of what fly fishing & tying is, is especially refreshing.

Hidy's approach to emergers called the Flymph is in a previous post from a few years ago.

More about the flies by Pete Hidy.