This weekend we’re running a table for Trout Unlimited 678 at the Northwest Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo in Albany, Oregon. I spent most of the day at the booth yesterday, but I did manage to sneak away to get some photos of the exceptional tyers and new ideas.
Henry Hoffman, the Oregon-based hackle innovator and fly tying guru, had some impressive flies on display, including a cased caddis pattern that I really liked (pictured below). For more on Hoffman, check out this profile on him in the Astorian.
William Lovelace, a Baker City, Oregon-based tyer, was cranking out some steelhead patterns for the Wallowa and Grande Ronde River. He ties traditional looking steelhead patterns with ice dub and uses Arctic Fox tail for the wing. He also had a cool muddler minnow pattern, a stripped down version with a bright orange clump of shaped deer hair for a hot-spot on the head. He fishes it chuck-and-duck style off a fast sinking line or with split shot.
On the complete opposite side of the state, Butch Minich is a member of the new Oregon FFF chapter on the Central Coast. He was tying up an east coast streamer pattern called the Sawbelly Special. He says it makes a decent steelhead pattern on the coastal streams. It’s tied on a Tiemco 300, tinsel body, white bucktail and flashabou and peacock herl wing, with mallard flank on either side and small eyes attached to the mallard feathers. The Sawbelly doesn’t look like it would hold up to more than one or two fish, but that may be all you need.
