Bottle Cap Crab

Feather Brain: Durability, Castability, and Fishability

Feather Brain / /

Yak Hair Sailfish Tube Flies

I admit over the last 20+ years, I have created some really scary  flies that cast like trash can lids or disintegrate with the first round of false casts, but that’s how you learn. Spot-on realistic flies and extremely delicate shadow-box flies that will never touch the water have their place, but if your aim is to wrestle fish, then you need to take a few more things into consideration.  I like to start with ” The 3 Abilities  I thing all flies should have; Durability, Castability and Fishabiility” Read More

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Feather Brain: Designing A New Pattern

Feather Brain / /

P1020137

Although there are how-to’s for my favorite patterns, my goal is not only to teach you how to tie a particular fly, but rather to explain how to create new productive flies and the reasons why one material may work better in a given situation than another. If you understand why historically productive patterns work so well, it will help you design flies that look cool and catch fish too. My process starts with the fish! Read More

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Essential Permit Patterns

Essential Permit Patterns / /

If you have ever tried to catch a permit on fly you are acutely aware that the deck is stacked against you. The notorious crustacean crunchers are nefariously critical of any crab-like offering and this is one of the reasons there are thousands of crab fly patterns existing today. In an effort to narrow the search and increase your success rate, here are step-by-step tying instructions for the Kung Fu Crab, Rag Head Crab, Inverted Merkin Crab, Bottle Cap Crab, and the McCrab. Read More

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