General Fishing Articles
Find some general fishing articles that may be of interest to you.
Fly Balance
Fly Balance From a practical perspective a fly should fulfill a number of criteria in order to consistently catch fish. There are obvious criteria such as the right size or the right colour. However, all the very good fly patterns have other, less obvious, qualities....
How To Rig Hooks With Tapam Special Tube Flies
How To Rig Hooks With Tapam Special Tube Flies The “Tapam Special” is a large baitfish pattern that I developed for the big tarpon at Tapam Lodge in Nicaragua. One of the reasons for using a tube fly is better hook holds. When tarpon jump and shake their head the big...
How to Choose the Best Double Handed Fly Rod and Line Combination for Steelhead
How to Choose the Best Double Handed Fly Rod and Line Combination for Steelhead The selection of a good rod and line combination can be challenging. I commonly get requests from clients to check their rod and line combination and help them out with proper set up. With...
Steelhead Fly Pattern Variation – Does It Matter?
Steelhead Fly Pattern Variation - Does It Matter? In steelhead fly fishing there appear to be two schools of thought; the first school attributes very little importance to the fly pattern and supporters will argue that presentation is what mostly counts. The second...
The Franc ‘n Snaelda Crustacean and Iron Maiden
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End of Season – Start of an Adventure
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Fly Fishing for Spring-Run Steelhead
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How to Rig Tube Flies
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The King’s Candy Bait Fish Pattern
The King’s Candy Bait Fish Pattern Chinook salmon, also known as King Salmon, are 100% piscivores; that means they only forage on bait fish. The most common bait fish that they feed on is the Pacific Herring. It is therefore rather surprising that fly patterns for...
Interview: Derek Barber on Chinook Rigging
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Battling Giants in Southern Chile
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Metal Tubes: A Review
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Practical Tips On The Use of Snow Runner
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A DOT Tube Closer Pattern Variation of the Classic Green Butt Skunk
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Nutria Hackle – the better alternative to traditional feather hackle.
When I started testing Frances, Snaelda and Franc 'n Snaelda patterns for steelhead I ran into a couple of "issues" with the patterns. Firstly the traditional body with ribbing did not hold up very well to repeated catches. Maybe a luxury problem, but still I wanted a...
Preparing for Battle
Each year I find myself travelling more and more to fishing destinations around the globe...... Some might say my life is one big fishing trip. But I am talking, fishing outside northern BC for species other than Steelhead and Pacific Salmon. Every spring I travel to...
Management of Nutria (Coypu)
Although this is a great fur, there are some very important points in its use: The skin upon which you find the Nutria is good leather, provided it has been cured and dyed well. The fur itself consists of the most diverse fibres I have ever worked with; the guard...
Doubling Hackles
This is the method I use for doubling a hackle feather for any type of fly. This works for whatever type of hackle feather is used; cock hackle, hen hackle, schlappen or saddle hackle feather, provided the feather is even in the distribution of the hackle barbs - ie....
“UV or not UV; that is the question.”
Most fish have a vision that is similar to ours, but with better low light and contrast detection, and many species can see light in a lower spectrum than we can. The lower range that we cannot see, but some fish can, is called the Ultra Violet (UV) range. Sockeye...
“Seek & Destroy” Steelhead Dry Flies
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“Formula 1”; a novel wing support method
In order to create the most volume and action in a fly pattern, I came up with this variation on the "dubbing ball" technique. Rather then using dubbing, or chenille I use a brass bead. The benefit of a brass bead is that it forms a much better barrier to tie your...
The Jaap Kalkman Signature Series
This series of steelhead flies has been developed over the past 30 years. It is based on my own fishing experience here in the Skeena drainage and knowledge that I acquired over my years of guiding on the Bulkley River. Many of the patterns have been refined...
Keep It Simple
Here is a very simple and easy way of rigging your tube flies. This is how I rig all of my wet flies. Whether fishing Steelhead and Salmon here at home or Atlantic salmon, sea trout or saltwater species abroad. I tie on the 3mm tube. No liner tube or junction...
The Snow Runner Brush Fly – a concept pattern.
Below is a sequence of tying steps for a Snow Runner brush fly. This patterns utilizes a number of specific materials and techniques that make it an attractive pattern for a wide variety of applications, such as saltwater baitfish patterns, steelhead patterns, chinook...
Cone Heads: variations and use
Cone heads are commonly used to finish the head of a tube fly. They can also be used to finish the head on shanks or hooks, or as a support for wings. Cone heads are usually made of brass, and thus add weight to the fly. For additional weight cone heads made of...
Foxes
Foxes In this article the different breeds and species of fox are described. The characteristics of the fur varieties, and their importance to the fly tier is discussed. In spite of a wide variety of fox breeds all of them are in fact mutations of only two species....