Darin’s Coho Candy is a Great Lakes tributary dry fly for coho salmon. The fly is intended to be fished down and across stream (on the swing) as a waking fly. It can also be stripped like a popper to add additional surface disturbance in slower pools and runs. Fly Material List: Black thread 1…
There are many great articles that explain wonderful ways to fight and land a steelhead. The advice is solid, the tactics work and they all prove there are many ways to get from A to B and successfully land a steelhead. If you are skilled at landing steelhead, in all likelihood you can attribute…
When the down and across angler becomes competent with casting and basic mending techniques the next step in the progression of line control is tension management. When and how you apply tension controls both speed and position of the fly and assists in managing belly in the line, sink tip and leader. Unless you are fishing…
Over the past few years I have met a number of two-handed anglers that can boom big, beautiful Spey casts and look absolutely poetic doing it. They work hard, fish often and are occasionally rewarded with a tug and breath-taking chrome fish. Sadly, for many of these anglers their skills dwindle the moment their…
I was recently listening to April Volkey’s podcast, “Anchored”, where she interviewed Jeff Liskay. During the podcast Jeff & April briefly discussed swinging egg flies. Both agreed that it was an effective method for catching steelhead but didn’t delve into the topic at great length — but should have. Setting aside the purist debate over swinging…
Great Lakes fly anglers have a history of treating salmon and steelhead different than their west-coast ancestors. For decades, third-coast anglers were convinced that steelhead would only eat egg flies bounced along the bottom until they made a commitment to using west-coast streamer tactics and were rewarded for their efforts. It’s not surprising that salmon…
Join me on Monday, September 18, 2017 at 7pm for a FREE seminar on Fly Fishing Wisconsin’s Tributary rivers for trout and salmon. The event will be hosted by the Trout Unlimited, Blackhawk Chapter #390 at: Blackhawk Technical College 6004 S County G Highway Janesville, WI 53546
Like most fly tiers, I spend a lot of time at the vise fiddling with color options of proven fly patterns. As both a design student and angler, I appreciate the value of contrasting colors in fly patterns because contrast can bring both a painting and fly to life. In steelhead circles, purple has long been…
Swinging a fly on skinny water presents the down and across angler with a myriad of technical challenges. Like larger rivers, runs, pools and riffles occur through these small waters however, by virtue of the stream size, current speeds and transitions occur in small, compact spaces. While fishing a popular Wisconsin tributary recently I ran…
Fishing gravel for steelhead is a touchy subject – for valid reasons. There are two types of steelhead rivers; those that support natural reproduction, and those that exist purely through stocking programs. In the case of wild steelhead rivers, the abundance of fish relies solely on natural reproduction. In these instances, I fully support the…
I ran across a recent post on a Facebook fly fishing group where an angler was asking for helping getting his child interested in fly fishing and away from his youthful, digital lifestyle. As expected, the advice he received ranged from basic common sense to extreme beatings and violent disposal of his iPad and video…
Two years ago I decided to visit some of the local trout streams near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where I was introduced to The Way of a Trout with a Fly (thank you G. E. M. Skues). Despite the advance of civilization, the drive was a refreshing tour past Amish farms and rural countryside that, it…
An old TV show-which name I can’t recall- had the main character make a very profound statement on life which was “Find out what you don’t do well and then DON”T DO IT’. I have watched a lot of You Tube and Vimeo videos lately and have notice that a lot of the fly fishers…
To paraphrase W. C. Fields, “ I never drink water, I know what fish do in it.” I have been warned by my editor not to pick on bass or carp fishermen so I will assume that every fly angler has a favorite beverage they drink to keep snakes away and that THE favorite drink…
Spey rods and Switch rods are new to me. In Europe I saw salmon fishermen with extra long rods and figured, “OK big fish, big rivers you need a BIG rod”, sort of like boat rods for salt water. Fast forward to today. Steelhead fishermen on the West Coast have been using Spey rods for…
