I saw this very short video & wanted to share it with you. It from the folks at National Geographic. In the video they show a generalized description of the lifespan of a mayfly. The footage is gorgeous & offers us anglers some new views of what goes on with these flies, in general. It's a gorgeous, short video that proves once again that those beautiful mayflies truly are the bottom of the food chain. 

I've said it many times & I'll say it again: if you've never gone fly fishing for bass, you just don't know what you're missing. Catching bass on a fly rod is some of the most fun you can have on the water. They fight like monsters! While they're an easily accessible fish, they can sometimes be very difficult to fool. You must approach them with the same caution & carefulness that you sneak up to trout with. In fact, in the heat of summer you'll often find that bass have moved up into many of the places where the trout were earlier in the year.

During those hot, sticky evenings of summer, catching bass on a fly rod is a blast. You don't have to slow down in your fishing just because the trout have slowed down their feeding - if that's the case where you are. No, a summer spent fly fishing for bass is fantastic! 

Below is a longer video from the Orvis company. It's their primer on fly fishing for bass hosted by Tom Rosenbauer. It gives very sound advice & is aimed at the fly fisher who's never tried for bass before. Check it out & give those bass a try - you'll be glad you did!! 

I don't think there's any aspect or item associated with the sport of fly fishing that someone doesn't have a collection of. Leather fly reel cases, in the traditional style, are no exception. Sometimes folks have an old reel & they want a case that would have come with the reel originally, when it was new, to make a nice outfit. Having a matching case will increase the value of your vintage, collectible fly reel. 

However, some folks have modern made reels that they cherish & want to protect better than a soft-sided case can. Maybe they have a modern reel that's made with classic aesthetics & they want a vintage-style leather case to house it in? A perfect fit for those folks would be the clamshell or D-block reel cases I make & offer on the Leather Accessories page. Considering what some of the vintage leather cases can sell for, my cases can be a very affordable & appropriately styled alternative.

The video below discusses these vintage cases, what's collectible, & the prices that they can fetch. If you've got one or more gathering dust on the shelf, or if you enjoy collecting these cases, you might find this information very interesting. You'll also note that it's mentioned in the video that while Hardy, Farlow's, & other reel makers were often assumed to have also made the cases for their reels, they did not. The vast majority of the English made vintage reel cases were made by Wheatley - the same folks who were famous for making those luxurious metal fly boxes! 

Just the other evening, before the deluge of rain filled my local streams to conditions impossible to fish, I was having a ball fishing a hatch of light cahills. I love this hatch because its easy to see, predictable, & locally are in great abundance. The run that I was fishing called for a wet fly, at least for me as my skills with a dry fly in faster water are lacking. 

Below is a great video showing how to tie up a version of a Light Cahill wet fly. You can apply this same style to any bug on the water, mayfly or caddis, just by changing the color of materials used. It's a great pattern that will fool trout.

Work continues in the making of a film about the famous angler & writer Joe Brooks. In the video below we see the impact he had on fly fishing in Argentina & Patagonia. These locations are now destinations for fly anglers, but 60 + years ago when Joe first went there, they were unknown to all but the locals. Joe fished there, wrote about it, & as a result helped to create a whole new haven for anglers & economy for the locals. 

If you're unfamiliar with who Joe Brooks was you need to do yourself a favor & pick up any of the books he wrote. In the last half of the twentieth century Joe was a legend among fly anglers. He changed the way many folks fish. The techniques that many of us use today were his. If you've not read any of his works, you seriously owe it to yourself to check out his writings. I promise you it will make you a better fly angler. 

Enjoy this short film about how Joe Brooks put fly fishing in Patagonia on the map & learn a little about what an incredible angler he was. 

For you fly tiers who own or have used a Regal vise, you know that they are a fine piece of equipment. They're very well made & easy to use. As you can imagine, a lot of labor goes into making them at the Regal factory. In the short videos below, we see just how they're made & the work involved. It's a fascinating look into how these tools come to life.

Are you a collector of old fly boxes, particularly those made by the Richard Wheatley Company? These fine fly boxes have been in production for well over one hundred years. In that time, they've gone through a few minor changes which can help you to figure out just how old a Wheatley box might be.

In the video below, filmed at the Richard Wheatley Museum in England, we're taken through a very informative lecture showing how to date any Wheatley fly box. Most often you can tell the age of a box by the markings & stamping on it. This can be tricky, as these are subtle differences, but after watching this video you'll know if you have a rare vintage fly box & what to look for when collecting. 

For generations Wheatley boxes have been the best made, best designed fly boxes you can attain. They are a luxury for any fly angler to carry. They are a fun item for anglers to collect as well. Don't be fooled by cheaply made modern imitations - Wheatley boxes are the best you can get, in my opinion. Watch this video & you'll know the era in which any of their boxes were made.

I thought you might enjoy seeing this older film of Joan Wulff & her husband Lee fishing for Atlantic salmon. Both of them were very famous anglers. Joan is perhaps one of the best fly casters & instructors we've ever had. She is also a master angler - her husban Lee wasn't too bad either.

Step back in time for a few minutes & enjoy some beautiful scenes of two very good anglers bringing to hand the might Atlantic salmon.

I just put together another video for you to enjoy. It's just a 2 minute slide show of some gorgeous trout streams & some custom fly rods I've been honored to make. There's some video of the streams mixed in as well.

​The idea behind this video was that we'd have something to watch on those cold winter days that are surely coming. When the snow is falling & the wind's howling outside we can sit back & escape for a couple of minutes by visiting some beautiful trout streams & looking at a few fine fly rods. Enjoy!!

If you liked that video, be sure to check out all my other ones over on my YouTube channel. There you can see more videos like this one, but focusing on different topics like bamboo fly rods or take a look into the rod shop & even see some of the accessories that are made in my shop as well. Thanks for watching!!

Coq De Leon feathers are taken from a specific line of chickens that originated in the village of Leon in northern Spain. For those of you not familiar, these birds grow some very special feathers. Hackles made on them are the cleanest, neatest hackles you will ever use. Each barb of each feather is perfect & so very fine - like gossamer silk. This makes for a superior hackle on wet flies, streamers, & nymphs, as the feather moves so well in the water. No feather looks as life-like in the water as the Coq De Leon.

Spain has a very rich history of fly fishing - especially in the northern mountain region. Anglers from all over the world have coveted these feathers for generations because they're the best you can get. Some believe that it has something to do with the soil & environment in Leon that made these chickens grow special feathers. At any rate, these extremely desirable feathers were rarely available to fly tiers on the market until Whiting Farms in Colorado got involved in breeding these birds.

Below is a video taken on Whiting Farms explaining all about how they got into raising these birds & all about their special feathers. To anyone who ties their own flies, this is very interesting.