fly-tying videos

Video: How to Tie Tom Rosenbauer’s Rabbit’s Foot Emerger


Tom’s version is slightly different, but of course you can tie this in various colors to match the naturals.
Photo via orvis.com

A while ago, we posted an article by Tom Rosenbauer on his most successful fly pattern, the Rabbit’s Foot Emerger. The immediate response from readers was, “Show us how to tie it!” Luckily, our friends from Tightline Productions were on the case, and Tim Flagler quickly produced this excellent video (which is the only kind of video they make, of course). After Tim made the video, he sent it to us to see what. . .

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Video: How to Tie an Isonychia Nymph and Emerger


Isonychia nymphs are always moving, so you should fish them with some action.
Photo via freshwater-science.org

Last week, we featured a video lesson on tying an Isonychia Parachute, which imitates an adult insect, so here are the two previous stages—the nymph and emerger. Iso nymphs are active for most of the fishing season, which makes a nymph imitation a good searching pattern if you can’t tell what the fish are feeding on. These are predatory “swimmer” nymphs, which means that you don’t want to. . .

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Video: How to Tie a Simple Gartside Gurgler


Jack Gartside’s Gurgler is sort of the Woolly Bugger of topwater flies: it will catch anything.
Photo via orvis.com

The Gurgler, invented by the late fly tier and iconoclast Jack Gartside, is one of those all-around useful patterns than will catch everything from panfish to tarpon. It’s sort of the topwater version of a Woolly Bugger, and like the Bugger, it can be tied in many different sizes and colors, with a variety of materials and accoutrements. Gartside wrote about. . .

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Video: How to Tie an Isonychia Parachute


Isonychia hatch from late May through October in some waters.

Isonychia mayflies go by many names—Mahogany Dun, Slate Drake, and Leadwing Coachman, among others—and they are among the more important sporadically hatching bugs in the East and Midwest. These insects rarely provide the blanket hatches that make sulfurs and caddisflies so exciting, but Isonychia emerge in light numbers almost every evening for much of the season, long after the “sexier” hatches are over. Although these bugs are generally not as. . .

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Video: How to Tie a Sulphur Emerger


Sulfurs are important hatches in early summer.

[Editor’s note: It’s getting to be time for sulfurs across much of the country—in fact, we’re already seeing a few on the Battenkill—so it seems a good time to repost this excellent video from Tim Flagler of Tightline Productions.]

The name “sulphur” (or “sulfur”) is attached to several mayfly species in the genus Ephemerella. The “big sulphurs” of the East are usually E. invaria (also called the “light Hendrickson”), and its smaller cousin is E. dorothea dorothea, the pale evening dun. There are other. . .

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Video: How to Tie Les’s Lemon Cahill

Les Shannon opened his fly shop in Califon, New Jersey in 1973, and he produced brilliant Catskill-style flies from his vise there. He passed away a decade ago, but his flies still fool trout. In this video from Tightline Productions, blogger and author Matt Grobert walks us through. . .

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Video: How to Tie a Goddard Caddis

goddard caddis

The Goddard Caddis floats like a cork and has a realistic silhouette.
photo courtesy Tightline productions

The Goddard Caddis was the result of a true collaborative project. English fly-fishing author John Goddard (who sadly passed away at the end of last year) and his angling pal, Clive Henry, came up with an idea for a stillwater pattern. They thought that a fly with a spun deer-hair body could be clipped into shape to mimic the body silhouette of a caddisfly. To a fish below, this sharp silhouette would look delicious. They relayed their idea to American tier Andre Puyans, who created the first prototype of what was to become the. . .

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Video: How to Tie the Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear Nymph

Hare's Ear Nymphs

A great all-around nymph, the Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear should be in every trout angler’s box.

photo courtesy Tightline Productions

Victorian tier James Ogden is often credited with inventing the Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear, but Ogden’s version was, in fact, a dry fly. In fact, it is listed in the great Frederick M. Halford’s Floating Flies and How to Dress Them. The dry version of the Hare’s Ear (now often tied as a parachute) is now considerably less popular than the nymph, mostly because dry flies are usually more exact imitations of naturals. Of course, a greased beadless Hare’s Ear fished in the film can be. . .

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Video: How to Tie the Hendrickson Sparkle Dun

The Hendrickson hatch is both the kickoff and the highlight of dry-fly season on the Battenkill, right down the road from Orvis HQ, and springtime emergences of Ephemerella subvaria are celebrated throughout the East and the Midwest. These bugs spend a lot of time sitting on the water after they emerge, and a low-profile pattern often works best to foo. . .

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