This was a fly in "Hatches" magazine. The author uses it for trout. I have done well on panfish with it.

As most fly fishermen know, spend any amount of time on the water and eventually you will take the plunge. Not the type of plunge as in going to bamboo rods, high-end gear or two-handed spey casting. I'm referring to the literal "plunge" where one's self gets fully immersed in the waters we wade. Some get that initiation out of the way as a novice just learning to wade. In this case you are lucky and have an excuse. You didn't know any better, "I'll never make that mistake again" often applies to this situation. Hence, you save face to a large degree, but for others it often comes later in our fly fishing journey.

Frequently we get questions from people that find FAOL on the Internet. They either indicate that they found our site through some search engine or I can tell by the way they form the question that they are not regular readers. The writer will often begin their question with a statement like; "I have never been fly fishing," or "I've been fly fishing a few times." Then they want me to tell them, in fifty words or less, what type of rod to buy, what length of leader to use, etc., etc., etc. It always proves a challenge to provide an answer to those types of questions, and basically there are no easy answers.

The White Miller caddis (Nectopsyche) hatch was excellent along the meadow section of Madison River. I enjoyed it very much though yesterday evening's experience was slightly nagging me. After the hatch and rise were over, besides lunch break, I went back to the town of West Yellowstone. I dropped by Blue Ribbon Flies (www.blue-ribbon-flies.com). I brought my camera with me to show the little caddis in question.

BAIT, now there is a term that makes many fly fishers cringe, however if you fish the saltwater the talk is always about what baits are running or what baits the fish are eating. You might say that the discussion of baits is part of the saltwater fly fishing culture, at least in my area. The importance of the bait can not be over stated, this is what the fish are eating and what we strive to create imitations of in hopes that the fish will eat our creations. Therefore, we need to understand where the bait is found, how it swims and acts, is it a solitary creature or does it move in groups or schools and finally what is the availability of the bait to the fish? Find the Bait and you will find the gamefish it really is as simple as that!

I had to many things to do for a retired guy, so I missed going out on the warm days. Thus I went out after a cold front came through. The weather dropped about 1.5 inches of rain on us. I had to walk in since there were too many places to get stuck going to most of the ponds.

I grabbed two rods some flies and headed for a pond. After I hiked in I decided to go to the south end to be able to cast with the wind. I had two 5 weights with me, and one had a yellow boa yarn leech on the leader and a black furl tailed mohair leech on the other.

This volume will only by found on the shelves of dealers of out-of-print-angling books. The information provided will put you on the trail and you should be able to obtain a copy costing from $25.00 to $40.00 and trust me it is worth the cost.

I don't normally like to fish around other people unless they are part of a group of mutual friends so I tend to be unhappy when I find an angler in a spot that I consider secret. That was my reaction when I noticed tire tracks on the dirt track that led down to a long flat and a deep pool where I had enjoyed many great times fishing the evening hatch.

Fly Angler's Online is a reader supported online magazine. We depend on articles submitted by our readers to provide content and recently the pickings have become rather slim. We have several faithful writers that provide a steady flow of material but it would be helpful if we had contributions from a greater number of individuals. We especially need how-to- pieces, fly of the week, and first-hand experience material. Many of our readers regularly post information on the Bulletin Board and many of those posts could easily be developed into an article. If you have something that you think would be interesting to our general readership send it to the editor, neilmtrv@aol.com. So my spam filter does not reject your email put FAOL article in the subject line.