Here’s a variation of the great pattern invented by Dan Byford in the mid-70’s. Replacing the mylar body with a conehead and dubbed Hare’e Ice body is a fantastic sculpin/leach pattern that should be tied in several colors. This first night pattern is simple yet effective and students tied some very nice flies. CLICK HERE […]
Summer hatches are a distant memory, and the weather is turning colder. As the water cools, the sun gets lower in the sky, and the hours of daylight shorten, brown trout and brook trout put on their brilliant spawning colors and get aggressive as they build their spawning redds and begin the spawning ritual. Watching […]
The Lovells Township Historical Society Museum has a great series of podcasts featuring many interesting fly fishing and fly tying experts that share a great history of the sport in the Grayling area. This month’s podcast features our own Dave Leonhard who shares nearly 60 years of fly fishing in the area. I think you’ll […]
As the summer months arrive and the giant mayfly hatches slowly fade into distant memories of late nights, big fish, and massive riseforms, many fly anglers retire their gear for the season. Others embrace the midday warm sunshine and grassy banks to wander the river listening for the clicking of grasshoppers along the banks as […]
Fifty years ago, I visited a northern Michigan fly shop in early June. Ignorant about basic aquatic entomology and the concept of “matching the hatch”, I naively asked the shop owner, “What’s hatching?”. The other two customers, whose conversation I had interrupted, turned to hear the shop owner’s answer. “The Howdie”, was his reply. The […]
The Sulfur Hatch Springtime brings warmer water, feeding fish, and emerging mayflies. April and opening day of trout season typically brings emergences that occur in the mid-afternoons, and spinnerfalls that come later in the evening. Often fish are not metabolizing yet, and separating the emergences and spinnerfalls makes it difficult to be on the […]
Early season trout fly fishing in Northern Michigan is typically centered on the Hendrickson (ephemerella subvaria #14) hatch. This three-tailed mayfly was given it’s common name by Theodore Gordon who tied flies to imitate the hatch for Albert Everett Hendrickson. The Hendricksons are sometimes referred to as the “Gentleman’s” hatch because of its late morning […]
Early season trout fly fishing in Northern Michigan is typically centered on the Hendrickson (ephemerella subvaria #14) hatch. This three-tailed mayfly was given it’s common name by Theodore Gordon who tied flies to imitate the hatch for Albert Everett Hendrickson. The Hendricksons are sometimes referred to as the “Gentleman’s” hatch because of its late morning […]
There are three important choices to consider when choosing the right leader for fly fishing. They are the length of the leader, and the size of the diameter of the butt section and diameter of the tippet (or level portion at the end of the leader). Length Three factors determine what length leader to […]
These knots are easily learned and can be viewed in an animated form by going to Orvis.com and visiting the Fly Fishing Learning Center. https://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/fly-fishing-knots/