Fly Tying: The Intriguing Back Asswards Dry Fly

I like the idea of this pattern and have seen it around by others. I have tied maybe a half dozen and honestly not tested them enough to cast doubt or praise. A couple other more notable fly fishers have some opinions….

Tom Chandler at TroutUnderground has a detailed 2010 piece on this concept here….and Mick Hall of Kossiedun has put some effort into the reverse concept as well. Roy Christie has done a lot of work with it as well. Intriguing design concept though for certain. The three notables offer some inspiration here for experimentation. You don’t have to use the name I coined above.

Emerging Lambda "Compressed" Dun by Mick Hall

Fly Tying: Keep It Simple Perhaps?

There is a simple, practical elegance to an ‘ancient’ wet fly. Malcolm Greenhalgh at Fly Fishing & Fly Tying writes on the use of flies in general and about the Ancients….

“For 25 years I wandered the length and breadth of Great Britain yattering with either pictures or my fly-tying kit to fly-fishing clubs….. The interesting thing is that, in youth and early middle age, most of us love to ‘invent’ new flies or modify older flies, the new or modified being (we tell ourselves) better than the old or unmodified. Then, in later middle age, I think that most of us have flies that we can tie easily and, the most ingredient of any good fly, flies that we confidence in.”

A few 'Ancient' wet fly patterns from Malcolm Green

There should be a few such patterns in your boxes…simply think Partridge and thread (vary the colors) or Starling and thread. Throw in a rib or a tiny thorax if you must, but keep it simple and believe.

Fly Fishing & Greece: Inviting

Greece is more than the current economic crisis and chaos of Athens. It is a beautiful country and as you look at the photographs in Κωστής post, you will think it has a Western U.S. look to it.  Fly Fishing in Greece in a beautiful locale.