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.

If someone hands you a Pheasant Tail Nymph and asks what it imitates, you’ll likely say “mayfly nymph”. Receive an Elk Hair Caddis, and you might say “adult caddisfly, probably an egg-laying female”. One of the many hopper patterns? You reply without hesitation, “grasshopper … no doubt about it”. But if you’re handed a Prince Nymph, you might be stumped. “Uhh … umm … I’m not sure … maybe an earring?”

We are a nation of immigrants … a melting pot, where cultures and traditions imported from abroad adapt, evolve, and meld into a uniquely new society. The history of American fly fishing is much the same. Fly an­gling as we know it developed in Great Britain, often by a privileged upper class. The methods, how­ever, emigrated to America along with the hard work­ing early settlers. Fly angling then adapted to the new geography, took root in America’s tremen­dous natural resources, and grew into the magnifi­cent pas­time that we honor and protect today.