Drawing Flies 52 Sofa Pillow. The big salmonflies are out and about in some places, so this fly seemed appropriate. Tech info: Strathmore paper with charcoal, Pigma pen and watercolor. Like the Doc Oatman, I used all 30 minutes here. I had to do an underdrawing/painting first, then rinse/wipe it, and then do the pen [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Caddis (Sparkle) Pupa. Pigma detail pen with watercolor. Tech info: I had gotten a request for one of my “old school” style pen-and-ink pieces, and while I didn’t have the time to do what I would normally do with intense detail work, this drawing has more little bits to it that last [...]

Rumor has it that 2010 could be a crazy grasshopper year. I fished the Bighorn in the summer of 1986, when hoppers were absolutely everywhere. I caught more truly big fish on top there that summer than any other time since. If the predictions hold true, there will be a run on hopper patterns come [...]