Whenever you venture astream, you carry the accu­mulated wisdom and technological advances of gen­erations of an­gling predecessors. 

Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young” by Rusty Dunn It is a glorious late April day in England in the early 1800s.  Daffodils trumpet… Read More

The hopes and dreams of most dry fly anglers rest on the shoulders of but two groups of insects, the mayflies and the caddisflies. 

A time-honored Scottish proverb states, “There are two things a Highlander likes naked, and one of them is malt whisky”.  If that Highlander be a fly fisher, the other naked delight is a trout fly. 

Casting locally designed flies to wild native trout is hard to beat. 

The technology of fly tying took a giant leap forward in 2,640 BC when, according to legend, a Chinese Em­press named Leizu discovered that the natural glue of silk­worm cocoons could be softened in hot water and a long thin filament of pure silk unwound from each cocoon.

Today’s most popular cased caddis pattern is prob­a­bly that of George Anderson, owner of a well-known fly shop in Livingston, MT. He designed the ‘Peeking Cad­dis’ in the 1970s to imitate Mother’s Day cad­dis of the Yellowstone River.

Tie an Iron Blue Nymph on a #16 hook, and you’ve recreated the most famous fly of perhaps the most famous angler to ever cast a wet fly before trout.

Which is more important when fishing dry flies to ris­ing trout: A good presentation? Or, a fly that imi­tates prevailing insects? The correct answer is “A”, a good presentation. Quality presentations are more important than everything else combined when it comes to fooling trout. Fly size, pattern, and color are important, but excellent presentations will al­ways bring trout to hand, even with flies that look nothing like the insects du jour. On the other hand, you’ll rarely catch trout when your fly drags or floats unnaturally, no matter how perfect the imitation.