Few years ago, recalling the Tube flies that are constructed of metal tubes or plastic to get big flies, to be used in fresh and salt water, I had the idea to create a dry tube fly.
This is one of the flies that cannot be missing in the box of any dry fly addict. The attractor pattern is similar to the Irresistible Adams in its design. It has great buoyancy because it is tied with deer h...
This fly, credited to Art Flick from the early days of fly-fishing in the USA, is probably one of the simplest yet effective trout dry flies, both for rivers and lakes.Gray Fox, Cream, and Dun are some of the...
This is one of my favorite flies for fishing trout and grayling on the rivers of northern Italy and Austria. I started to tie this beetle in 2000 and over the years I kept improving it, changing its materials and shap...
The Royal Trude is a classic fly that remained in time. The down wing provides fish with a different silhouette than most attractor flies. It is a universal pattern that could be used everywhere.This fly is cre...
When beginning to fly fish, one wonders if a big fish might be caught using such small fly…Created by George Griffith, one of the founders of Trout Unlimited, this pattern imitates midges, midge emergers, m...
Many times I have shared great fishing trips with friends that catch tarariras, or wolf fish, with lures, and the only way to get similar results to theirs is by using flies that are actual lures adapted to be cast with ...
Rubber legged flies have always been very popular in Patagonia. Bitch Creek and Rubber Legs patterns were used a lot during the 70´s as well as the Leoni´s Barbarous and Montana flies with antennae and rubber tails....
Fly fishing is something much deeper than catching fish, and something similar happens with fly tying, where a passionate fly tyer can find amazing stories and knowledge that will be invaluable in the river.
The Tup's I...
This is another fly that every fly fisherman must consider when stocking his dry fly box before a trip. The story of this fly goes back to the 40´s when it was named “Algonquin” and used by northern Michigan Indians...
The Blue Dun is a classic dry fly pattern that was originated to imitate the early mayfly hatches. This dry fly works for a number of hatches including the Blue Winged Olives, Hendricksons, Blue Quills and Quill Gordo...
I designed this Midge Pupa-emerger pattern for a specific lime-ish green midge hatch that occurs towards the end of the summer in the Colorado Rockies. The pattern is absolutely killer during this hatch, and can be fish...
Articulated flies are no novelty, they have been with us since a long time. Even before Richard Waddington started to use an articulated hook fly in English rivers in the 50’s, there already were old books on diverse f...
Shuri Shumakov was a key character on reviving the popularity of tube flies. His short patterns, with cone heads, soon lead the way to countless variants, combining plastic tubes with metallic pieces to achieve highly...
Small pearly glass beads can be used creatively to tie many different flies. These give us a chance to experiment with transparency, iridescence and density of our flies. Fly tiers willing to try new things will find tha...
Traditional wet flies are coming back to the fly fishing. In the shadows of nymphs and emergers for a while, this kind of flies that served well for years is today studied again by the finest anglers that find unique sol...
Flies with a given action used to be more common but seem to be forgotten today, yet they can be very effective.For many years, miniature versions of bass lures were very popular, flies with helixes a...
The idea was to design a different fly for tarpon. I wanted the shape of the body and the way it pushed water to be related with the pressure waves generated by the fish tarpon prey on. I also wanted it to move naturall...
The use of silicon to achieve a special effect and body in different flies is not a new thing, but we have not yet seen that many designs, even when we know it allows us to tie designs that are lightweight and capable...
The first tube flies came around the year 1945 in Scotland. They were tied on turkey wing feather quills that were later replaced by plastic tubes, the ones used for medical surgery. The possibility of tying the mater...
Fishing for golden dorados with top water flies is definitely the ultimate adventure if you are looking for high levels of adrenaline. Of all the flies we have tried, not one matches the results one gets with the Titanic...
Designed to attract fish and not fishermen, Ed Surryn flies were innovative from the very moment of its appearance. They are built with balsa wood, a particularly suitable material for making bodies of terrestrial ins...
This page is lacking a very important subtype of flies: Atlantic salmon flies (traditional and tube-flies). They can't be listed under the name of "streamers". I am no creating any type of new fly on this post....
At the moment there is not a lot different variations of the tarpon fly, which could possibly be due to the fact that Tarpon are not plentiful in many places. Therefore anglers prefer to use proven flies then test new pa...
Most fishermen usually associate fly fishing to small artificial lures. This is true if you focus on trout species, fish that feed on nymphs and adult insects or even on smaller fish. Few anglers dare to experiment with ...
There are many different styles of fly tying English flies, one of the more distinct is the one used for flies used in the rapid and structured waters of the northern rivers.The way the hackle is tied, with long so...
Competition nymphs are simple to tie and deadly effective on the river. As a fishing guide one must trust in simple flies, flies we can tie in enough numbers to replenish the exhaust boxes well in the middle of the ni...
George Francis Grant was without a doubt an accomplished artist at developing techniques to shape hackles using animal hair. His skill went beyond the ones of a regular tier. In his books, “Master Fly Weaver” and ...
Originally, bucktails were streamers whose wings were made with white-tail deer hair. Today, bucktails are those streamers whose wings are made with different hairs, and not only deer tail.The first elegant fli...
I’ve always been impressed by the European tiers because of the originality of their designs and wise use of natural and traditional materials, like deer hairs of all types. Francesco Palú’s flies guided me to explo...
The Popsicle was created by George Cook in the 80’s. It belongs to a group of patterns he created called the Alaskabou Series. Among this group are the Volcano and the Blue Moon. These are flies that have been designed...
Rabbit strip flies are an effective aid when we go for big emotions while streamer fishing in the fall. The way the strips move in the water and the size they give to flies are very special, all kinds of trout seem to be...
When I began to tie artificial flies, my role models were the classic ones.
I tried to tie the best known and what seemed to me the most innovative, such as the Thorax by the great Vincent Marinaro.
I tried fishing all...
My romance with tube flies began over 32 years ago. The construction of Kautapen lodge was being finished and I was lucky to guide the first groups of anglers together with Rolland Holmberg, a known Swedish guide with...
Most adult dragonfly imitations have the same defect: the wings that we can see in commercial flies make a terrible sound when cast, and also tangle up the line, making us use thick tippets; and therefore limiting our...
I always considered the tying Paraloop incomplete because, even if it highlight the entire body of imitation and provide it an awful lot rooster’s fibers support, cannot provide it vertical wings, key feature of the ...
I started experimenting with models that imitate minnows after several trips to the main golden dorado destinations, such as Goya, Esquina and La Paz, all in Argentina. During certain moments of the season, millions...
I was fishing in Baja for Rooster Fish last year and going back in a few weeks. After looking at a number of flies the guides were using, researching on the internet, I have come up with a few flies that I am going to t...
After creating the R Nimph, I thought that I could add to the group of emerging flies also the Cripple imitation. The Cripple imitates the nymphs emerging, having trouble to get rid of shuck, remain trapped in the surfac...
Flies made with tubes of different materials are getting more and more useful to me. These last long because we can change the hooks if they break or loosen, and we can use hooks for different kinds of water, like saltwa...
Pellets are nymphs designed to sink rapidly due to its tungsten head, much heavier than bronze or lead. The smooth body offers no resistance to water and its conic head with prominent thorax is enough to perfectly imitat...
Many of you have probably experimented with the effectiveness of the flies with bodies made with quills, using for example peeled peacock quills in their natural or dyed color.
The attractive color of the peacock quill,...
In our visit to the Zambezi River searching for tiger fish the most effective flies were Clouser Minnow-like streamers. In the Lower Zambezi, in Zambia, where we fished, there are many fishing eagles that watch the ri...
CDC feathers have unique properties due to the characteristics of their structure. Properties that make them ideal for certain type of flies of streamlined and ethereal silhouettes, more similar to real insects, especial...
There was a time when Marabou Muddlers were the flies to catch big trout. I still remember some strikes at the bend of the Chimehuin River’s La Boca (river inlet) in Patagonia with some black Marabou Muddlers almost at...
Any popper can fool a fish if it is moved correctly in the water surface. Yet, when we pause this movement and fish can see the fly up close, then a popper needs an extra lure to be more appealing. This is what the Kryst...