Every spring, beginning in early May and peaking around Mother's Day weekend, our area rivers experience an explosion of caddis flies, and a subsequent explosion of active, feeding, and often easy-to-catch trout. The trick of the whole thing, like any other fishing situation, is to hit the river at just the right time. This year, with my fiance's family (and two fellow … [Read more...] about Mother’s Day Caddis Hatch
Archives for May 2010
The Tying Bench: Elk Hair Caddis
Since I'm still very new to fly tying, I decided to look up a few basic fly patterns online and tinker around with the materials I have on hand. This was my first attempt at the basic elk hair caddis. The elk hair caddis is one of the most popular flies around, particularly in the West. It imitates an adult caddis fly (duh!). The fly floats high on the water, is easy to … [Read more...] about The Tying Bench: Elk Hair Caddis
I’m Not a Patient Teacher
I love my bride-to-be, but I have some serious issues with patience when taking someone new out on the water. Especially when they're just learning to fly fish. I'm working on getting better, but I'm definitely not a good teacher. Heck, I can hardly explain how I cast, strip, and mend a fly line, let alone teach others how it's done. So we got off to a rough start the other … [Read more...] about I’m Not a Patient Teacher
The New Ride
The Outcast Pac 1200 is going to revolutionize the way I fish this summer. After a long summer of fishing from shore and in friends' boats last year, and a long winter of thinking it over, my neighbor and I ordered this two-man pontoon boat that should handle all of the local rivers we like to fish. The boat was delivered to the house early Thursday afternoon in several … [Read more...] about The New Ride
Take Your Neighbor Fishing
It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day in April (we get some of those in the Mountain West on occasion) when I went over to see my neighbor. We had a few other things to talk about, but as is usually the case in our conversations, the topic turned to fishing before very long. I told him how I'd been having some pretty good luck on the local streams lately, and he mentioned, as … [Read more...] about Take Your Neighbor Fishing