Sparse Grey Hackle

A nice video about Alfred W. Miller, better known as 'Sparse Grey Hackle'. He was a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and an author of several novels.

A brief history of the Catskills

Last week I gave a Zoom presentation about the history of the Catskills, the tiers and how much of fly fishing and tying as we know now originated in the Catskill region.

Watch the Youtube presentation below

Easy framing your flies

Here's a short video on how to frame your flies. Especially with flies with hackle collars the frame needs some depth to avoid the hackle getting crushed.

CDC Henryville Special

This fly was inspired by the Henryville Special.

The Henryville Special is supposed to originated from the 1930's!

I replaced the underbody and the palmer wraps with a single CDC feather wrapped forward with the straggly CDC fibers emulating the legs of the caddis. The CDC both adds floatation as well as movement to the fly.

Henryville Special tied by Winnie Dette

Here's a video how to tie the original Henryville Special

Ray Bergman's Yellow Spinner

What to do on a very wet Sunday afternoon? Enjoy a moment of history. 
A Ray Bergman’s Yellow Spinner from his monumental book ‘Trout’. Mike Valla also celebrates this fly in his book ‘The Classic Dry Fly Box' with many Catskill dry flies. I substituted the yellow dyed mallard flank feather with Mandrin flank feather.