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. 

Shown below is the best video I've ever seen for learning how trout & a trout stream works. An hour long, it's been broken up into four 15 minute sections. This is definitely worth your time if you fish for trout.

The presenter in the video is aquatic biologist & fly fishing author Rick Hafele, who gives one of the clearest & most useful explanations on reading water I've seen. With on the stream demonstrations & descriptions of what's actually going on below the surface, this is one of the most useful videos for any fly angler. I really can't recommend it enough. 

Although it's from 1984, the information here is not dated in any way, as trout streams still work the same way - indeed the way they did 100 years ago. Do yourself a favor: help your fishing abilities & catch more trout by watching these videos. What can take an angler a lifetime to learn on the stream is presented here in an hour.

I saw this on TV the other night & it cracked me up. Have yourself a good laugh......

As promised in the previous post, here we'll discuss the different knots that are best for attaching your backing, fly line, & leader all together in this really good video I found.

A couple of points to consider: I always load my reel up backwards at first, by putting the fly line on first. In this way I'll know exactly how much backing will fill the reel. Then I remove it all from the spool, turn it around & load the reel up with the backing first, so it's all going in the right direction. 

Also, I don't like to use the loop connections when attaching my leader to my fly line. I know it's silly, but I prefer the added security of a nail knot there. Plus, a nail knot is much thinner than the loops & will slip through the small tip top on a fly rod easier. I don't want my line & leader connection getting stuck in the tip top!!

One last point on the nail knot: the trick to tie this knot shown in the video is fantastic - using a straight piece of metal, etc & a loop. However, they are not absolutely essential to tie this knot. Back in the day (if I may use that phrase) we never used any tools to tie the nail knot. Yes, this trick makes it a million times easier, but before I knew about it I just tied the nail knot without any loops or other tools & you can too if you need to do this along the stream. Practice makes perfect, so don't fear the nail knot!

Backing to reel; fly line to backing; leader to fly line - here are the knots you'll need to get your fly reel all rigged up!

When you get a new fly reel (or a vintage rod that's new to you) & you're going to put all new line & backing on it, one of the things you need to figure out is how much backing to use.

How I do this is to actually load the reel I'm going to use in reverse to start. That's right, first I load the fly line onto the reel, then I attach the backing to know how much is needed to fill the reel spool. Then I put it all onto a spare spool, or anything I can wrap it all around. I do this a couple of times to get the backing to the front & then load my reel. 

What's good about my method is that you can do it anywhere, say, at a picnic table along the stream for example & you don't need any fancy equipment. What's bad about my method is that it's time consuming.

The video below demonstrates a better method, though you'll need a few tools for it. If you're doing this at home that should be no problem & the method shown below will really save you some time. This is especially good if you've got more than one fly reel, or spool, to do in the same session. It will really save you some time & - with some modifications - will work on any fly reel.

(Note: we'll look at the special knots you need to use for fly line & backing in a later post)