flyartist

"Serendipity" 8" x 11" Pen, watercolor and a digital gradient. View the full article

"Pancake Fly" Happy Fathers Day to all! Today my palette consisted of a frying pan, pancake batter and a few blueberries. The pictures tell the rest of the story! View the full article

"Practice" Watercolor, indigo pencil and gouache. Just sketching the shapes and form in advance of a painting for this fly. Story to follow. View the full article

"Yellow Sallie" Ink and watercolor. Tried this patter a couple of times on the AuSable when the stoneflies were coming off the water. View the full article

I participate in a fair amount of camping with my family and with Boy Scouts. If you are looking for some great gear for your next outing, checkout Get Out Outfitters. They have all kinds of cool stuff! View the full article

"Rat Mouse!" Pen and Watercolor. I tried this pattern for the first time last year. It was around 11:00 pm and I decided to try the only mouse I had in my fly box. I tied it on and cast to some dead fall along the bank. The mouse hit with a "PLOP" before I could get my first strip in, the water erupted. It sounded like a depth charge hit the water. I set the hook and the reel started to scream. The fish took off for cover and broke me off in the submerged logs. I picked up a few more mice to give it another try this trip. I had a difficult time of not setting the hook right away and stripping the fly from the fish. My buddy Corey used the mouse with much greater success. He really knows how to strip in the line after the take and then sets the hook. It was great watching him hookup on some nice fish using this pattern. View the full article

" Parachute Adams" Pen and Watercolor. Another classic high confidence pattern. I fished this early on our last evening and picked up 2 nice brookies. There were numerous mayfly species in the air that evening. The Adams does a great job as a general multipurpose imitator. View the full article

"Bead Head Prince Nymph" Pen and Watercolor. A great pattern that never fails me. View the full article

"Olive Madonna" Pen and Watercolor. I love swinging this fly after dark on my 6 weight. I have caught many a good size brown on a down and across swing. I have been known to fish until 12:30 - 1:00 in the morning swinging this fly in total darkness. Caught a few this trip on it, but not as many as previous years. It is still one of my high confidence patterns and it works equally as well on smallmouth View the full article

"Drake Emerger" Pen and Watercolor. The last evening of the trip was by far the most productive fishing dries. After the sun went down, we switched to an emerger and started back down river. Fished the emerger down and across on a swing. Corey expertly cast the emerger in a spot where he was earlier rejected while fishing a dry. The first cast in the area resulted in a nice brown. Persistence pays off. View the full article

"Roberts Drake" Pen and Watercolor. I just returned home from fishing the Au Sable River in Michigan. The next six fly installments are the flies that I fished with during the trip. There was a lot of rain, so fishing was off a bit from previous years. although conditions were a bit tough, I had a great time fishing with my buddy Corey and the rest of the regulars who make the trip every year. I fished this drake pattern in the evening when the drakes were coming off the water. There is nothing like experiencing squadrons of drakes looking for a mate. View the full article

I will be gone on a fishing trip until Thursday of next week. Never fear, I have my sketching and painting supplies all packed up. I will still be creating my daily sketches and I will post them when I return. View the full article

"Old Skool Drawing Flies Template" Digital. I use to use these templates back in the day. Actually, even though I do a lot of my design work in 3D on the computer, I still pull out my templates when I do some sketching. I did retire the slide rule! View the full article

Quick pen drawing. View the full article

"Lite Brite Soft Hackle" 8" x 10" ink and watercolor. I just finished tying up a half dozen of these soft hackles. At our annual end of the year dinner/ fly swap, I picked a couple of these up in the swap. I used these on the Au Sable in Michigan last year with great success. The actual name and the tier are unknown. The body is pearl ice dub with a silver bead. The collar is a partridge soft hackle. View the full article

"Finger Fly" I laid down a watercolor wash on YUPO which is a synthetic paper that repels water and water based pigments. After the wash was complete, I used my finger to push paint away and paint the fly. Kind of takes me back to grade school when you would finger paint. View the full article

"Crazy Charlie" 10" x 8"color and gouache. I have been wanting to get to a saltwater patter for a while. Today it was over 80 degrees here, so it was time for some salt! This pattern is so simple and a classic. View the full article

The winner for the month of May drawing is (drum roll) ... Kerry P. Kerry wins a print of his choice from the Drawing Flies archive for emailing fly suggestions. Congrats Kerry. View the full article

Brook has a new tattoo! I am sure that you will be able to find it. Brook will be featured in a twelve month 2009 calendar. Stay tuned for the update. View the full article

"One Fly Logo" Tomorrow is our annual one fly contest. this is the logo that we use on our score sheets. Rules are you get one fly to use. Catch as many fish as you can in a 3 hour period. We use this cool score sheet which has a "No Cheatum Ruler" that you use to measure the fish before you release them. The person with the highest number of inches of fish is the winner. If you loose your fly during the competition, you are done. View the full article

"Akroyd Sketch" Watercolor - This is a quick study of the classic Akroyd Dee fly. There will be a full blown painting to come. Just experimenting with the shape and character. View the full article

"Generic Dry" Just a quick pen sketch of a quill wing dry. Very simple in it's shape and form. View the full article

"Electric Fly" Digital. This is for the Electrical Engineers in the crowd. I have always appreciated the beautiful shapes that are etched on the PC board. View the full article

"SCUD!" Pen and ink. Scuds are so cool. I love finding these little babies in the stream. I have plucked some big ones out of a few spring creeks that I frequent. Some of them are so big, all you would need is some cocktail sauce for dipping and you would have a stream side appetizer. View the full article

"Morning Light" Watercolor and graphite sketch composite. There is nothing like the feeling of the morning sun hitting you in the face. The bugs start to come off and it is just a peaceful time on the water. View the full article