New Fly: The Foxybead Sculpin

For me personally, my best flies spawn from ideas developed on the water, in the act of pursuing my intended quarry. Without time on the water, I would have bored of fly tying years ago. But there's few things that I get excited for more than rushing home after a day of fishing to bring new ideas to fruition. Such was the case for this little creation. It incorporates plastic beads for the abdomen and a cool Enrico Puglisi material called a "foxy brush" for the head. 

I developed the pattern after a recent trip to a couple of Montana spring creeks, and wanted to create a small to mid-size sculpin pattern that could get down quick and had plenty of natural movement. I've been pretty pleased after testing it out recently around Bozeman.

This pattern is available for sale, at $6 per fly, and for inquiries on ordering, email me at: westonthier@gmail.com.

January on the MO

A few photos from last weekends mission to the Missouri with my friends Nort and Ryan. The air temp never got above the mid 20s, and we were the only fly fisherman on the river. Around 2 p.m., after about an hour of braving stiff winds ripping off Holter Lake, we took a coffee/beer break in Ryan's truck. That turned out to be a solid move, as we fished til' dark, landing plenty of big rainbows on little pink patterns. Anything pink, they were on it. My goal of fishing clear through my first Montana winter has worked out much better than I could have fathomed.. If I had time to get excited about the amazing skiing others have been enjoying lately, I probably would. But for now, fuck skiing!

Not this buck's first rodeo.

Romanticizing about next weekend's trip to the Bighorn.

Notes From A Basement in Bozeman

Winter here in Montana has allowed for a lot more fishing opportunities than I would have previously imagined (it's forecasted to be 40s all this week), so my off-days from the coffee and fly shops have thankfully been spent on the water testing out new patterns. This fly is a take on a streamer that I have been using all year long in different colors with incredible success. The most crucial aspect to this fly is actually maybe the least noticeable at first glance.

There are two Gamakatsu B10S hooks in tandem on this guy, but instead of articulating them with streamer wire and beads, which also works well, I threaded 20 lb. backing along and through a magnum zonker strip and secured it with a few turns of thread and a dab of glue once on the rear  hook (size 6) and once on the front (size 2). This technique of threading backing through the zonker allows for a "fluttering" action that works well swung, stripped and dead drifted in the current. The threading technique on the zonker was not altogether an original creation. I was shown the idea by fellow Troutfitters employee Johnny Mac in the shop, who in turn took the technique from a couple streamers we sell there.

I have not fished the chartreuse yet, but have smashed fish on a similar tie in white, purple, and silver. If it fishes alright, I may start calling this specific sculpinish variation "Mr. Fo," due to the unruly Senyo's left long on the top part of the head. We will see. Special thanks to Pete Atkins for taking the photos while visiting on a ski trip.

Film- Roll #1

For most of this year, the only camera I've been using to record my wanderings is the one on my iPhone 4s. To its credit, it does a pretty good job for basic outdoor-related stuff. Eventually I plan on getting a nice dSLR with good HD video capabilities, but with a semester and a half of college courses left, that remains a future investment.
About a month ago, as I was instagramming a bright picture of a colorful brook trout and trying to find the most appropriate artificial filter to convey a "vintage look," I remembered my dad's old film camera.
He'd described his forays into photography multiple times during my childhood and I had always been a little intimated by the technical aspects of aperture, shutter speed, etc. to give it due attention. But recently, after owning multiple point and shoot cameras and wanting to learn more about photography itself, I became real excited about film photography.

So I asked my dad if I could borrow his old film camera, a 1978 Pentax k100, he was thrilled about my interest in it, and the following unaltered photos are the product of my first roll of film. All in all, I was pretty excited about the quality of some of the prints. And as you might expect, it does feel a little like time travel learning how to correctly load/unload film and adjusting the camera's purely mechanical settings to the appropriate values. Next time I make it home I'll ask my pops if he has any of those old prints from his younger days and post them on here as well.
All of the photos shown were taken in Western Wisconsin.

grouse hunting-opening day

9/15/12-photo credit Nate Wick

9/15/12-photo credit Nate Wick

mailbox

fly vise

My pal Bleu.

9/19/12

9/19/12

Summer Fly Tying Studio