I love tying flies.  I have never found another activity that I can lose myself in like tying flies for trout. Self taught at first but then studying under a mentor for some time really helped expand my skill, technique, and creativity. Learning how different material can help create a near perfect representation…not to the angler…but to the trout. I tie flies for trout, they may not look pretty enough for the bin, but trout don’t care about that…flies look very different to trout than they do to angler. 

Size, silhouette, shape, and to some extent color are the things that run through my mind before I throw feathers and thread to hook. Right now it’s Golden Stones. The skwalla rides low, is slow, and small, I tie a non foam pattern for it because those bugs are damn near sunk during the hatch. For salmon flies I tie big flies with moose main because it’s super buggy and floats like a cork. It also does a good job of making the fly look all twitchy without having to actually twitch the fly. Salmon flies are like big chinook helicopters, and when they crash in the water…they make a huge mess of themselves. They are clumsy as all hell. 

Golden’s though, they dance and jump like a mayfly when they hatch, they float high, and they move a lot. I tie foam for Golden’s, use moose for a dark flat good floating wing, and throw six silly legs on there to give the fly movement. I use yellow gold foam and color it with a sharpie, and I use a larger hook gap because fish like to play with Golden’s so a wider hook gap usually helps with fish that don’t get the large fly in their mouth. 

When I tie flies, all I think about is fish eating them. With every thread wrap another fish is tricked and netted and released. It’s like pre drinking before a party, warming up before the big game, or studying before a big test. Either way it’s a good way to prep before a trip. 

Anyway, I’m going fishin, hope to see ya out there. This season is gonna be amazing. 
Tamarack