fly-tying videos

The Zug Bug was one of the first flies I ever purchased when I started fly fishing, part of a selection that also included such stand-bys as the Hare’s Ear Nymph and the Pheasant Tail Nymph. The guys behind the counter at my local fly shop assured me that the Zug Bug would slay the brookies on our local ponds, and they were right. The pattern has also produced for me on. . .

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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 species, even from other genera, also called “sulphurs” locally, and frankly it doesn’t really matter. If there are yellowish mayflies. . .

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The folks at Tightline Productions have outdone themselves this week. When was the last time you saw a video that shows you a natural insect, offers step-by-step instruction on how to tie an imitation, teaches you how to fish it in a tandem rig, and then shows a beautiful brown trout being caught on the finished fly? I don’t think you can offer more compelling fare than that in a. . .

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Are you a natural-materials kind of fly tier, or do you love using all the cool synthetics hanging on the walls of your local shop? This week’s fly-tying selection from our friends at Tightline Productions is a two-fer, pitting the all-natural stylings of Matt Grobert against a more modern pattern by Tim Flagler. Of course, you could simply tie up both and see which. . .

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Before the rains came over the weekend, the hatches of American grannoms (Brachycentrus americanus) on the Battenkill were monstrous. Each evening, driving home from work, I’d have to turn on the windshield wipers because so many of these caddisflies were in the air. My kids first thought that it was raining when they heard the sound of the bugs hitting. . .

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Back in February, we featured a video on tying a Single-Wing Flatwing streamer, and this lesson builds on the techniques you learned to tie that simple fly. A Multi-Feather Flatwing offers a much bigger profile and moves a lot more water, which can create fish-attracting commotion. However, it also requires that you layer a lot of stuff on a single hook. This fly looks complicated and . . .

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Over the past year or so, we’ve seen author and blogger Matt Grobert tie innovative patterns and his unique variations on classics. In this great video from Tightline Productions, he takes on the venerable Catskill-style dry fly, which is actually pretty brave. For some tiers, the importance of getting every detail correct in tying Catskill-style patterns is of the utmost performance, and . . .

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I met author and blogger Matt Grobert at The Fly-Fishing Show in Somerset, New Jersey, back in January. He seems like a nice enough, regular guy, but you would peg him as a fly-tying genius. The more I watch him tie in these videos from from Tightline Productions, however, the more impressed I am by both his technique and his innovation. This mayfly-emerger pattern. . .

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Fly fishing sometimes feels like it’s bound by a lot of rules. Some are truly old-school: thou shalt fish a dry fly upstream only, for instance. But even in the 21st century there’s a lot of hair-splitting about many aspects of the sport. Some guys don’t like to use beadheads, while others consider a strike indicator nothing more than a bobber and therefore unacceptable. It seems. . .

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Fish a Matt’s Gnat any time and place where you’d try a Griffith’s Gnat. photo by Tim Flagler, Tightline Productions

One of the cool things about fly tying is that there are so many options when you sit down at the vise. You can tie a classic pattern, a newfangled one you just saw in a magazine, or you can invent your own. A fourth option is to take an. . .

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