s

Flymen Blog

Fly Tying Tutorial: Matt Meahan's Steelhead Shank Intruder



Intruder Style Flies Are Designed to Provoke Aggressive Strikes From Steelhead.

As the name suggests, the idea is to "intrude" on the steelhead's territory and trigger the "fight" response of fight or flight.

Meahan's Intruder is an approachable pattern for all fly tyers. So many Intruder fly patterns call for some exotic material, but with everyday materials Meahan's Intruder is a good fly for beginning steelhead tyers, but also a quick, good-looking fly for veterans as well.

The small rear loop on the Fish-Skull Senyo's Articulated Shank makes it easy to attach the rear Kona Big Game Hunter hook and allows the shank to be held straight in any vise, avoiding the need to tie the fly at strange angles. Not to mention, the splash of color added from the Senyo's Articulated Shank and the different variations available give you nearly endless color combination options for this fly.

Fly Tying Recipe

Hook Section

Shank Section

How to tackle big water fly fishing

Something about pulling a fish out of a big body of water makes you feel heroic.

Walking up to a big body of water, so big that your cast doesn’t even cover a fraction of the water, can be daunting and even downright discouraging.

You almost feel nervous to make your first cast. Where do I start? How do I tackle this water without a boat?

But when everything comes together and you hook into that fish, you feel like you won the lottery!

Here are a few things to help make swinging your fly rod feel a little more like fishing and a little less like… flailing.

Fly tying: There's no new black.

black fishing flies

It doesn't matter what happens in the fashion industry – when it comes to fly fishing, there's no new black.

We've all heard it!

"Orange is the new black," or "purple is the new black," or even that olive would be the new black.

Don't get me wrong – I know there are a lot of colors that are really effective in different types of flies. I love throwing white deceivers to snappers and other saltwater species, and big olive flies to pike, not to mention fishing a banana-colored zonker for salmon or a big gray articulated streamer for trout.

There are so many colors that are important when it comes to flies and fly tying, but none more important than black. Continue reading

Fly fishing etiquette: 6 easy things to consider when fishing in a crowd.

Flymen Fishing Company, Martin Bawden and Abbi Bagwell fly fishing

Angler overcrowding and fishing pressure aren't limited to just weekends. Any given weekday can look like a Saturday during peak salmon season.

With this overcrowding comes the question of how close is too close to fish next to someone?

Here are 6 easy things to consider when someone is occupying water you think holds fish. Continue reading