Drawing Flies 52 Doctor Oatman. A really cool streamer pattern that just begs to be drawn or painted lovingly over the space of a day or two. Jeff and I had 30 minutes. Tech info: Pentalic paper with four different pens (Pigma in 02, 05, 1, and “brush tip”) and watercolor. I’ll add some more [...]

Promised instructions for GB’s version of the Loop-Wing Dun weeks ago, so here it is (with instructions that I wrote for FlyTalk)… 1. Get the hook into the vise and wrap the shank with thread. 2. Tie in the tails. I typically use hackle-fibers tied in a fan-style. Colors to match the natural, or an [...]

Here’s a pic from the (getting closer to done) Fishing the Film book. Anyone care to guess what the shot is of (the general subject), and from what position it was taken? First correct answer (or close enough to correct, in my estimation) gets a prize (answer with a comment below or an e-mail, both [...]

For the tyers here at FF&W, if you want a simple caddis imitation for the coming season, check out the latest over at FlyTalk. The fly is the Poly-Caddis (not the only pattern with that name), GB’s synthetic take-off on the Elk Hair Caddis from back in 1972 (must be 70′s week here at FF&W). [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Strip Leech. A pattern of my father’s from a long time back (the glorious 70′s). This fly caught me my first ever 6+ pound brown trout (from Wyoming’s Green River) when I was 10 years old. It has done the deed all over the world, and for a broad spectrum of fish. [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Woolly Worm. A little break from the usual. When I drew/painted this, I was thinking of the dim, dusty corners of the old Weber Tackle building in Steven’s Point, Wisconsin. Weber is long gone, but my father still has sets of drawers from the place, bought many years ago. A lot of [...]

So, finally got the illustration issues sorted for the book series, and am neck deep in the new stuff right now (well, in the early mornings and late evenings, at least). I had a friend ask me if I do the illustrations like I do a dedicated drawing or painting for sale—in other words, one [...]

Just another Fishing the Film reject (Slide-Ball Slider this time). At least I’m getting some extra experience in fine-tuning certain aspects of the paper-drawing-to-vector-art process…. On a related note, there will be a “special offer” Fishing the Film announcement shortly!

A Bunyan Bug illustration from the first round of drawings that I did for the upcoming book, Fishing the Film. Once this drawing (and a bunch of others like it) were placed in the layout, we felt that it was too “heavy” for the look and feel of the text. So, it became a reject. Of [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Sand Shrimp (variation). This fly is for everyone dealing with the Gulf oil spill, and hoping that disaster can somehow be averted in the marshes and beaches of “sportsman’s paradise.” Tech info: Brush-tip Pigma pen with watercolor. Feeling like I got my “drawing mojo” back after two weeks of mediocrity! This one [...]

An old friend from LA, Al Quattrocchi, has been quite active in conservation efforts in Southern California. One of the projects that he has been a key player in is the “One Surf Fly” event. The most recent “OSF” was just completed with some $1,600 going toward the Matilija Dam project. If you are in [...]

These are a couple of shots that I had posted over at FlyTalk, but I thought they’d be of interest here, too. Basically a trout’s eye view of a real hopper, along with a furled variation of the Bow Legged Hopper pattern (original, non-furled recipe below). You can see the edge of the fish’s window in [...]