55 on the fly

What a day! I took this big male coyote at 7:30 ..... and this fine buck in the afternoon...

Today was an excellent morning to be out in the woods.  I harvested several squirrels, both red and gray's for fly tying dubbing and the tails. My old 22 LR did the job. There's nothing like a little lunch in the woods.

I've been tying dozens of these: Korn's Tinsel Caddis

I just recently bought a new set of Jvice Pro-jaws with the Salmon Head and Goose Neck the other day. The new head design and tension adjustment is machined from white Ertalyte.  It's more stream line than the original head and it looks good too... But the proofs in the pudding, right?  So the last few days I've been just playing around tying some flies and enjoying this new vise and the pro-jaws.   these Pro-jaws will be great for tying smaller fly sizes... Here's a close up of the Pro-jaws and the Salmon Head. If your looking to upgrade your current fly tying vise and want the very best available today. IMHO y ou can't go wrong with a Jvice, they are top quality and precision made.  I've tied well over 20,000 flies on my Original Goose Neck Jvice with the standard jaws without a single failure or problem of any kind.  Jay also stands behind everything they make and you won't find better customer service if you ever do have a problem.   ...

My friend Dave had lots of luck on Soda Butte Creek in YNP using an unknown blue mylar backed nymph.  It looked similar to my Wire Head Stone fly nymphs, so I just added the Mylar backing and a rib to that pattern.  I think it looks great and the nice thing is you can make them any color Sharpie you've got!  Yellow and Amber make nice Yellow Sally's and Golden Stonefly nymphs others include; olive, tan, black, purple, etc. Thread: Danville 6/0 olive brown Hook: Nymph 2xl #14 (#12-18) Bead: gold 3.0 mm or Wire Head. Rib: gold wire 24 gauge (med.) Tail: and body: Turkey Tail Shellback and wing case: Uni-Mylar 3/64" in Pearl and colored with blue Sharpie marker on both sides of the Mylar. After tying I brush super glue on the shellback and wing case to bring out the color even more. Note: try other color markers too...

Wow - time sure flies when you're having fun and our trip is drawing to a close... Today Dave and I fished Soda Butte Creek.  We had a great time. The canyon had willing fish and the water was clear and cold.  We found that various caddis patterns and a black and blue nymph that Dave had worked very well. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be packing up and then heading home on Sunday.  It's been great to see all our friends here in Montana and to fish and spend time with them. The Yellowstone area has much to offer and Michelle and I enjoyed it all --- "On the Fly". Here's Dave doing a little rock hopping in the canyon section. Fishing pocket water like this is one of my favorite things to do... The further up the canyon you go the smaller the fish.  We each caught a dozen or more of the beautiful Cutthroat Trout. I fished my Winston Binney Para 15 bamboo - 8' - 5wt. today, what a sweet casting fly rod.  

My buddy Ben and I fished the XYZ River this morning for a try at some big Brown Trout.  Ben with a nice fish right off the bat! Stepping back in time we used some older fly fishing gear for this trip. Ben used my 1960's rebuilt fiberglass rod an 8'6" 6wt. heavy nymphing rod taylor made for handling two heavy nymphs and an indicator. I used my 1949 Orvis Battenkill 9' 6wt. 3/2 bamboo fly rod fitted with an 60's Orvis Madison reel. It's a slow rod for dry flies on the Delaware really, but I just had to try and get a big fish on it. These big fish and the fast current put both fly rods to the test... that's me with a Brown ~ 17 inches 1949 Orvis Battenkill bamboo ~ Brown Trout Ben - another good one. My fish-of-the-day - Brown Trout (Runner) 18 1/2 inches, he took me 50 yards down stream in the fast current before we could land him. What a great day. Ben and I caught more than o...

The "new guy" at Parks Fly Shop is Jordan Laughlin.  He and I hiked into the Lamar River and fished the stretch up to near Cache Creek.  The fishing was slow to say the least and we had to work for every fish we took.  The Lamar River's water level is way down and a bit warmer than in past years having less river water to mix with the hot springs feeding into it's mountain snow melt. The bottom of the river was slick as ever and rock hopping was difficult to say the least.  I only caught four fish today but one was a good one and Jordan caught two until he hit a honey hole and caught six out of it.  Most of the fish ran in the 10-12 inch range.  We hiked and fished about 7-8 miles today, my knee is swollen and a bit sore.  To aid in the recovery Michelle and I had dinner at the Raven with our friends Bernard and Katherine, best steaks anywhere! Cutthroat Trout ~ 16 inches Jordan fishing the Lamar River

Michelle went for a run today and me well, lets see, running or fishing.... Yeah right fishing of course! So off to fish the Yellowstone River and do some rock hopping.  I had a good time too catching a couple of nice rainbow trout but whoops, forgot the camera... Then after catching 5 or 6 white fish I remembered my phone, ah-ha I have a camera on the phone!  I'm old school and keep forgetting that I have a "smart" phone now.  I caught some rainbows, browns and cutthroats and of course several white fish, a good couple of hours on the river. my first Cutthroat of the trip ~ 16 inches and the best fish-of-the-day Hey - my fishing buddies are here! Walked right up on this little band of elk in the Yellowstone River, 5 in total, there was one still laying down in the cool grass.  I let them have their pool and headed for home. Tonight we were invited to a BBQ with some of our fly fishing friends.  We had a great time visiting with everyone.  The...

Yesterday 7/27 Saturday , was a rest day with Michelle and I driving out to West Yellowstone.  We split up after having coffee with Michelle hitting the gift shops and me going to all 6 fly shops in town where I picked up a few fly tying items.  The shop has special requested that I tie a bunch of flies for them while I'm here especially my Korn's Spent Wing Caddis which has been a killer in the Northeast corner of the park.  The guides are gobbling them up as fast as I can tie them with none of them making it to the fly rack for sale! We had a nice time in West Yellowstone but as we got back to Gardiner it looked very dark over the mountains. We stopped in the shop and no sooner said hi to my guiding buddies; Ben, Richard and Wilson when the skies opened up with heavy rain for a good 45 minutes which is a lot in this high plains desert.  It's been great catching up with my old friends.  Wally had my two copies of his book "Yellowstone Country Flies" saved for...

Michelle and I hit a small brook trout stream in YNP today.  Michelle hasn't fly fished since our trip out here in 2011 so this was a good first outing for her to "practice" on some willing brookies.  It's like riding a bike for her and she was back in form in no time. Great pocket water fishing with lots of wild brook trout. tough to beat the beauty of a brook trout... Michelle with one of many on the day. Michelle working up the middle of the creek in this photo.  "Picking-the-Pockets" with accurate casting and fly placement behind the boulders and in the runs. We only used two flies today, a Coachman Trude and a Wiese's Clacka Caddis. Today I used my Ben Turpin custom G-series fly rod. I thought it was an appropriate choice with the Turpin's hand painted brook trout on the rod.  

Summer is coming and it's time to stock up on the trinity of terrestrials; hoppers, beetles and ants.  Today, let's talk beetles the most underrated of the three in my opinion. There are all kinds of beetles in the great outdoors but I just tie them in black and tan size #14-18 because that's all you really need, with June bugs and Japanese beetles being my primary target species in size #14-16. I tie #18's in black only to represent a wide variety of the smaller beetles. Oh, and lady bugs too using this same simple pattern but with orange foam for the shellback and a Sharpe marker for the spots on a #18 hook. All you need is some 2mm craft foam and some peacock quills.  Use the foam to create the shellback and head and the peacock herl for the underbelly and legs... use some super glue in the process to hold things firmly in place and add a small thin piece of brightly colored foam for an indicator and your good to go. A simple fly to tie and supe...

It was a cold morning with far too many fisherman on the stream today... Doesn't anybody work anymore? the smallest the biggest

I've been sitting here tying a bunch of these white buggers as the rain continues to pour down outside.  It's been raining almost non-stop for two full days with more rain on the way for tomorrow.  Needless to say the rivers are blown out and will be un-fishable for a while...  But, when those creeks start to fall and the water is just starting to clear, that's when I like to fish this fly for the big boys.  With days of high water, fast current and the poor visibility the fish are going to be hungry, can you say;  "Happy Meal". tied and photographed by Doug Korn materials list: hook: 3xl streamer size #8  thread: Uni white 6/0 tail: white marabou plume  body: Hareline speckled chenille pearl/white over marabou to build body. hackle: white bugger

Hi folks - 55 On the Fly here with my  "Bird in the hand"  Kuska.  It's made of basswood and has an antler toggle that is attached with braided deer sinew. The cup is the first Kuska I have ever made and was finished with pure tung oil.  It should go nicely with my hand made spoons.