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I always loved the Red Tag. I have tied and fished this fly a thousand times, but tend to basically do it the same way every time. Not so anymore!

My venture into the history and legacy of the classic March Brown led to a whole lot of variations over the theme

When it comes to books, there's nothing I like more than focus. A book that has a well defined subject and covers in depth rather than broad has my vote already before I have opened it.
When I then open it and find well structured, thoroughly researched and beautifully presented content from cover to cover, I'm sold!
Such a book is Robert L. Smith's "The North Country Fly".

Martin Westbeek's Coq de Leon Hen Caddis Emerger has soft contours and soft materials that suggest the movements of an insect struggling to break free.

The soft hackle is supposed to be - as the name implies - soft. Soft hackle can come from many birds. Chickens, gamebirds like partridge, grouse and quail, pheasant and even crows and jackdaws.

This book is based on a collection of 133 Welsh flies, collected and documented by the author, and photographed by his son-in-law.

Kelvin Kleinman shows us how to tie a really different saltwater fly based on the freshwater spider style, adapted for cutthroat stream fishing and then reversed to become a saltwater shrimp from outer space! A very special but also efficient pattern.

To borrow a phrase from the great G.E.M. Skues, wet fly fishing continues to be a minor tactic among fly anglers. Granted, there has been an increase in the amount of print (and electronic) media devoted to all manor of wet flies, but if you inspect the bins of your local fly shop or glossy catalog, dry flies and nymphs still rule the trout waters of America. It is not surprising, then, that fishing wet flies, and to a large extent their distant cousin streamers, is the realm of fly tyers who provide their own flies.

On a shelf in the shop was a little book that was propped open. It was Leisenring and Hidy's The Art of Tying The Wet-Fly and Fishing The Flymph. Inside, I found a treasure of patterns and some fishing instructions and I suddenly switched gears and began fishing these great little flies.

All trout anglers should tie one

The least dressed fly of all. The classic spider fly has to be one of the least dressed flies of all times. A slender body and a thin hackle - and that's it.

Some thoughts on hackle ...or living with less than the best

Hen hackles have long been the source of confusion to many fly tyers. Whether they are looking for wings for their dry flies or hackles for their wet flies, there seems to plenty of head scratching when it comes time to purchase the appropriate feathers.

More than 30 years ago I tied some of the North Country Flies on blind hooks. At that time Veniard Ltd. had them in their catalogue - but I had no silk-worm gut, so I tied them to fine monofile nylon.

Learn to tie a really classical wet fly hackle.