Drawing Flies 52 Sculpin (Yellowstone Sculpin, to be specific). I am a big fan of sculpin flies in general, and grew up chucking them in the tea-stained waters of the Upper Midwest, as well as the inky-blue deeps of brawling western rivers like the Madison and the Yellowstone. To me, sculpins are meat-and-potatoes patterns for [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Wickham’s Fancy. Drew it like I imagined I’d have tied it when I was still in grade-school: Wings too thin and perhaps too high, an overly bushy tail, scattered hackle, an old Mustad hook that looked like it was formed with a pair of pliers, and near-perfect tinsel. I was obsessed with [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Bunyan Bug. Where do I even start with this fly? For me, it has so much meaning in my fly-fishing life. I’ll have to expand this post this weekend with a few memories about this pattern and “the movie.” Until then, though, here’s a bit of the DF 52 info: Notes: This [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Hopper (Dave’s). A classic terrestrial pattern. Worked just fine in Montana this last week. Notes: Went for a fast, plein air style here, using only the small collection of media that I took with me on a trip to Montana. Usually when doing a trip, I’ll draw the fly beforehand and post-date the [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Rusty Spinner. In many variations, one of the great “all-around” trout flies (spinner fall or not). Notes: I knew what I wanted to do with this fly when I sat down (actually I had been sitting for hours, finishing off the last bits of Fishing the Film). What I didn’t expect was [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Dahlberg Diver. If you grew up where I did, you eventually had one of these tied to the end of your line/bite tippet (assuming you wanted to take a shot at northern pike). Notes: Wanted to experiment a bit with a cross between ink-and-brush and pen-and-ink. Added some watercolor to spice up [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Crazy Charlie. Went the retro pop-art route for this one (did Warhol ever do a fly?). Knew well ahead of time where I was going with it, and just took my time getting there. Beat the 30 minute mark, and didn’t have to rush to do it. Notes: This began as a [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Hornberg (this isn’t your daddy’s Hornberg). I know: When one envisions a Hornberg (I grew up not far from where it was created), once tends to see this lovely dry/wet fly with jungle cock cheeks and flowing, mallard-flank wings. A nostalgic fly from a nostalgic era, perhaps. With my current state of [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Sakasa Kebari (Reverse Hackle) for Tenkara-style fishing. To my eye, a pattern of elegant simplicity and beauty. Was doing some editing in the section on dapping in the upcoming Fishing the Film book, and got to thinking about the Japanese Tenkara angling approach. E-mailed Jeff about doing an “artist’s choice” of a Tenkara [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Serendipity. Seemed like this fly went together much like the day that preceded it: A lot of thinking things were going alright, then discovering that nothing worked out exactly as planned. Not that it means it was bad, just not at the level that I had really wanted. It just feels like [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Brassie (gold beadhead). I grew up fishing Brassies, and they were a staple midge pattern for me in spring creeks all over the Rocky Mountain West. The flies I fished as a kid (well, the flies I still often fish) were/are simpler than this. They use the same skinny wire body, but [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Leadwing Coachman. This pattern caught my father his first trout back in the day (when GB was 11). A lot happened after that! Actually the Leadwing Coachman features prominently in the first story in the upcoming Fishing the Film book, and is the second illustration in Chapter One. I drew several Leadwings [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Loop Wing Dun. One of my all-time favorite patterns for spring creek trout (or any trout looking for small mayflies, actually). This fly has done the trick all over the world for me, and it is a permanent resident of my boxes. Notes: It may be 11pm, but at least I wasn’t [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Chironomid (giant lake midge, in this case). Notes: Five minutes after 11 (pm). Asleep on the couch. Kel wakes me up with “Hey, did you do your fly for today?” So, here it is (at 11:31pm). Update: Went with what I know by heart—a big lake chironomid pupa. Got it done and [...]