When I read about the scud fly on today's home page, and the mention that there nearly aren't any truly 'new' fly patterns out there these days, it set me to thinking.

My mind took me back to 1969, and I was about to spend that spring, summer, and fall fishing Oregon's fabulous North Umpqua river.

In the Sunday St. Paul Pioneer Press Newspaper, I was reading the "Parade" magazine insert that is every weeks Sunday Newspaper that my, 82-year old newspaper delivery carrier place in my newspaper tube at the front door of my house.

There was a "Flourless Chocolate Cake" in the "Parade" section, which caused me to remember almost an identical recipe in "Parnelli's Recipe Box"!

I had a chance to get out. Not the best of conditions since the wind was blowing about 30 mph with gusts up to about 40 mph. Temperature was about 55 degrees. The main thing was that there was time to get out to the water.

I grabbed two 5 weights, the vest, basket and headed out, and went to a pond where I knew the wind would be blowing toward the dam. I thought this would be the best place to try to find fish. Harder to cast, but the fly must go where the fish are.

On a regular basis I am asked just what the draw is exactly that pulls me to fly fishing, and in particular, dry fly fishing? At times I can bring to mind a particular example of an experience on the water, or that perfect rise that has stuck in my head. Or, I will refer to the challenge or chess-match that matching a hatch can often be. Quite often the person asking is a non-fisherman, so it stands to reason that the response they would more readily grasp or relate to is the romantic aspect of the experiences fly fishing can provide.

Recently I had a rather animated discussion with a local fishing outfitter. Not exactly a novice, he has been guiding fly fishing clients for over 30 years, and over those years has probably spent more time helping clients connect to wild trout on our local rivers and spring creeks than most of us will spend fishing in two lifetimes. While he doesn't like the title 'expert' anyone that knows him would consider that he fits the title.

Long time ago, in a place far away (Great Britain in the 1880's) dry fly hooks were "Eye-Up"! Back then the attachment of tippet line to dress dry fly pattern was different than most fly anglers use today.

One of the most important insects on many trout streams across the country is the Aquatic Sowbug [Isopoda], especially in spring creeks. There are four families of Aquatic Sowbugs in North America, and the most common and thus the most important one to the angler is Asellidae.

The 2011 season is up and running full steam! Yes, on my home waters, the season starts late, salmon arrive early in June. Over the past few days salmon have moved up from the fjord and are starting to take up holding lies up and down the river.

A couple of months ago I wrote about our dream trip to fly fish our way to the Idaho Fish-In and promised an update every couple of months.

This started as a "What If?" last year at the Michigan Fish-In. Brad Sherrick (aka kaboom1) was asking about the Idaho Fish-In and was thinking about attending. "What if we drove and did some fishing along the way?"!!

The man stood outside of the large building staring at his cell phone. On his phone was the picture of his son holding a big fish. The man had left home at 4:30 a.m. and he wouldn't be home until nearly 8. He left for work before the boy was awake, and if he was lucky he would return in time to kiss the boy good night and tuck him in bed. This time of year the pictures on his cell phone was treasured.

Our second night on the road returning to Montana from spending the winter in Tucson Arizona put us in Idaho Falls, ID. We knew there was a fly tying show going on there and that some of our FAOL folks were involved with the show, but we just weren't able to be there when the folks were tying - only missed it by a couple of hours.