Author: Brady Laehr

Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Beadhead Jigged 20 Incher Fly

The Beadhead Jigged 20 Incher

The 20 Incher fly pattern has been around for some time. I don’t suspect it will be going anywhere anytime soon either. Our version varies slightly from the original as we are using the speckled chenille rather than the natural peacock herl. While it is hard to beat the look of natural peacock herl the speckled crystal chenille makes this tie a breeze and gives an excellent look as well. With added weight and a tungsten bead this is a great fly to utilize if you need to find the bottom of a deep hole and don’t want to overload your system with shot. If you have never fished it, you must!

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Beadhead Czech Catnip Fly

The Beadhead Czech Catnip

While exploring Czech, European, contact, tight line nymphing, or whatever you want to call it, this pattern comes up time and time again, and for good reason. It works great! It features a heavy tungsten bead and added lead wire to help you get down to where the fish are holding. For that reason it fits well in a tight line nymphing box. Using the Hareline Midge Cactus Chenille this pattern is easy enough to whip out a dozen in no time. Fish it deep and find those picky trout

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Nitro Caddis Pupae

The Nitro Caddis Pupa

Created by Andrij Hordysky, the Nitro caddis pupa is an awesome realistic imitation of just that, a pupating caddis. For a lot of caddis flies, it takes a good while for this stage. If they are a free formed caddis fly they have to create their entire casing vs. simply closing the existing casing a case caddis features. This means they could be working on this for weeks or even months. Considering that, I tend to tie this fly on pretty often. It is a perfect dropper fly under a hefty stimulator or foam dry fly.

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Micro Foam Ant (Rainy’s Foam Ant Bodies)

The Micro Foam Ant (Rainy’s Foam Ant Bodies)

Simple and effective, Rainy’s Ant Bodies have made things easy. Put a hook in the vise, add the foam, some hackle, and a wing and you’re done. I love tying this fly and maybe enjoy fishing it even more. The white web wing helps you see it and the hackle gives this dry fly the perfect amount of movement on the water. Try Black and Brown to match the ants on your local water.

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Sparkle Emerger | McFlylon Variation

The Sparkle Emerger (McFlylon Variation)

Originally created by Gary LaFontaine, master of the caddis lifecycle, this pattern varies only slightly. Using McFlylon in place of the Antron (Sparkle Emerger) yarn the rest of this pattern remains. I find that this material is a little easier to work with as you don’t have to card your fibers together and can clip right from the hank. If you are fishing a caddis hatch and the fish don’t seem to be slamming the top water they might be gorging on the emergence. Try this guy and it will undoubtedly put fish in the net.

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Darth Baetis | Variation

Another great fly from Umpqua Feather Merchants signature tier Greg Garcia. Today we tie a variation of the Darth Baetis. Click here to see the original version of the Darth Baetis.

I love this fly! Using a UV finish to help create a translucent abdomen for an excellent looking fly. Possibly most popularly tied in the brown variation this fly works great in olive, grey and the black variation shown here. This is a great fly to fish year round and will consistently turn fish. Get it down and get hooked up!

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Beadhead Cased Caddis

This fly has a quite generic name but fishes lights out! I had never seen it until I received a sample from Umpqua Feather Merchants. From there began the reverse engineering at the vise. It didn’t take long as this is a fairly simple pattern all in all. Theirs has an added wire rib but I forgo that in an effort to make it somewhat quicker to tie. This is a great choice of fly to dreg deep holes with on your next fly fishing adventure!

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Fish Skull Sculpin

Enter Flymen fishing company and their Scuplin Helmet. As fly tiers we love our beads. Flymen Fish Co has taken this love to the next level with a wide assortment of lifelike beads and helmets. The Sculpin helmet is one of my favorites from them as it takes a simple pattern and makes it super lifelike. This variation uses some of our favorite materials to create one solid scuplin pattern. Trout, Bass, Pike whatever. This fly will hook them all!

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Fly Tying

How To Tie: The Serendipity Midge Emerger

Serendipity indeed! This is a versatile pattern that can imitate midges and caddis pupa easily with a simple change in size and or color. Typically we see this pattern in red but it can also be tied in brown (seen here) olive or black. With only a couple of materials this fly is a great option if you need to fill a box fast with really effective flies. I like to fish this pattern as my lead fly keeping it slightly higher in the water column than my point fly.

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