Super-burly articulated streamer from Idaho tyer

Gregory Lowry from Boise, Idaho was showing fishermen how to tie some articulated streamers with two hooks. The pattern he was showing was called Dan's Streamer, named after his 12-year old fly-tying protege, Danielle Lowry.

From MattStansberry

Dan's Streamer is an extremely burly pattern. Gregory tied the tail first, a big marabou plume, then wraps the marabou around the shank of the hook to form the body. Add a little flash, and then you attach it to the next hook. He uses 20lb mono to attach the hooks together with a bead in between. The front hook is dressed in much the same way as the tail, but it has a big wool head. The pattern looks a lot like a sculpin, but Gregory has better sucess fishing it unweighted.

His home waters are the South Fork of the Boise River and South Fork of the Snake River. He fishes it in non-traditional streamer water, back eddies with slow currents. He will cast it into the slow pool and twitch it back slowly.

From MattStansberry

The other fly Gregory showed was called a Slumpbuster. It's a big puff of pine squirrel fur -- seriously 99% of this fly is squirrel. Gregory actually wraps (palmers) the pine squirrel strips backwards on the hook to give it more action. He said pine squirrel strips are pretty expensive, so he reccomended Bass Pro Shops' Zonked Pine Squirrell.

Here are some similar patterns:

From Fly Anglers Online

Barr's Slumpbuster

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.

Blood midge for stillwater trout

Gordon Cordova from Northern Calif. tied this blood midge at the show. It's a size 20 scud hook with a cross stitch embroidery bead for a head. He uses a smaller version of flash called liquid flash for the body and antron yarn for the shuck. He wraps the red all the way to the curve to make it look like it's swimming a little.

If there is one thing I've learned this week, it's that I should be buying my materials at the craft store if I want to save some loot. Cordova's beads were way cool -- and he said there were plenty of colors and sizes to pick from.

This first photo shows how gorgeous the fly is, the second shows the scale we're dealing with here.

From MattStansberry

From MattStansberry

Here are a couple other blood midge patterns: Westfly, California School of Fly Fishing.

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.

Warmwater poppers for West Coast bass

West Coast bass bugs: Charlie Kears from Arroyo Grande, Calif. specializes in warmwater fly fishing. He was tying these colorful bugs for the fishermen mostly, he said.

His real innovation is a fly called the voodoo popper which is made of cork, not balsa like the ones pictured below. It's made from "salt & pepper" size corks you buy at a hardware store. "You can tie it right in the boat and throw it," Kears said.

He was shooting a video on tying his poppers for the FFF that afternoon.

From MattStansberry

Fly Fisherman magazine ran an article on Kears' home waters this month. The San Joaquin Delta (everybody just calls it the Delta) is supposed to have the best bass fishing in the country.

This post is part of a series of profiles of fly tyers at the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, OR.

Foam mouse flies

This is the fifth in a series of fly tying photos from the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, Oregon.

Douglas Fear from San Jose, Calif. stumbled onto this mouse pattern on accident while tying a topwater burbler for bass. Pretty soon he tweaked his pattern and came up with the mouse you see here.

From MattStansberry

He uses 2mm craft foam on a size 4 Mustad hook. He also uses thick thread that doesn't cut the foam. I'm going to take one up to Alaska this May and see if they work on those rainbows as well as they do on California bass.

Puget Sound surf flies -- Coastal Cutthroat patterns

This is the second in a series of fly tying photos from the Northwest Fly Tyers Expo in Albany, Oregon.

From MattStansberry

Roger Swengel was tying flies for coastal sea-run cutthroat trout in Puget Sound. Seems like fishing for these coastal bruisers is getting more popular. I think this book, Fly-Fishing for Coastal Cutthroat Trout was on every shop's table.

From MattStansberry

This is Roger's online bio: Roger has been tying flies and fly fishing for about 45 years in Washington and Oregon. He has taught fly tying classes at local fly shops for approximately 20 years and has tied at the Oregon Fly Tying Expo for the past 10 years. While living in the Puget Sound Area, he has been fishing the salt water for sea run cutthroats and salmon. Therefore, his tying now is more for the local salt water fishing.