Through the years I’ve spent fly fishing and fly tying, I have seen a whole lot of flies. Having an art background I have found that I tend to look at all of them with a critical eye; noting each small hard fought victory at the vise as well as their imperfections. Over time I have found that, regardless of the style of fly, the care given to the head of the fly is indicative of the care used at each step along the way. I try …

This fly is a variation of a pike fly pattern tied by Simon Graham called a Widow Angel.  As you will see, the body of the fly is created by using a split-string dubbing technique.  It is for this reason that I like to go with Danville’s 210 denier Flat Waxed Nylon thread when tying this pattern.  It is strong enough to bear relatively high tension while using the split-thread dubbing method.  The polar chenille shines through between the hairs, so you can substantially vary the effect by using contrasting …

The Chubby Muffin is a sculpin imitation which uses a craft fur dubbing brush for the head. Craft fur is inexpensive, comes in a large variety of colors, and takes markers well. But more importantly, it has a neutral buoyancy after being soaked through.

A few summers ago, I noticed a small mouse swimming in my pool. He struggled and fought for dear life, nose barely breaking the surface, legs churning like it was on a hamster wheel. I was inspired by his heroic efforts and chose to create a fly that mimicked his final death dance. Most mouse patterns have the mouse floating on top of the water, while this is great at imitating a mouse which is dead and bloated, I wanted something that would fire up the bass and cause the …