All articles from section

A short article about adding weight to a fly – and make it do what you want and stay where you put it

We should fish crayfish imitations more than we do. Crayfish can be used to target trout, bass, carp and other species

Minnows upcycle small lifeforms into a tasty package of protein for bigger fish to eat, so minnow imitations make effective flies

Plain and simple bead chain is one of the cheapest fly tying materials around, but very useful and a great addition to many flies.

With names that sounded fresh, in-your-face and downright sexy, the Optic Fly series entered the stage like a warm summer wind in the 1960’s cold war era.

A slight variation of an really old fly of mine, which again was a derivative of Bob Nauheim's famed Crazy Charlie. It's simple and really mundane, and simpler than the already very simple original!

These eyes are actually quite easy to make, but can tease a bit if you want to do them both on the same piece of monofile -- which is the neatest way to do things.

You will see that many of the Danish saltwater flies - The Magnus, Bjarke and Grey Frede are prime examples - have bead chain eyes. These eyes serve two purposes: weight and imitation. The eyes will add quite a bit of weight in the front end of the fly and the beads obviously look like eyes. Their shiny surface even adds an attractive feature that will glimpse and get the attention of the fish.

There are other ways than bead chain eyes to make eyes for a fly. Here are two ways: Copper thread and pearls and melted monofile.