Now that I live in Ennis, MT I get
to fish the Madison River as often as I please.
In other words, I’m on the Maddie almost everyday.The Madison is a bug factory. There are days when these fish will eat
almost anything you put in front of them.
Just the other day my buddy Chad got a 18†rainbow to eat a bright
orange hopper. Fish regularly eat
hoppers in late summer, but its only April 27th, further proving my
argument that these fish will eat almost anything. With that in mind, you can imagine how fun it
is tie your own fly and test it out.
Ever since I started fly fishing I’ve
wanted to tie my own bugs. I remember my
parents getting me a tying kit for Christmas one year and I was very excited to
start tying. My dad is an engineer and
he loves to create his own stuff.
Whether its designing gardens for the back yard or designing a bridge
over a river, my dad loves to create his own stuff. That desire is in my blood and I think that’s
why I enjoy tying so much. So as excited
as I was to start tying, the tying kit I got for Christmas sat under my bed for
God knows how long. Like fly fishing
itself, tying can be very overwhelming and kind of intimidating. I had no idea what I was doing so I would rely
on fly shops and my parents bank account to support my fly fishing
addiction. A few years down the road,
after I started guiding, my dad got me a really nice vise (a Peak vise) for Christmas
and at the same time my good buddy and long time fishing friend, Chad Merten,
started tying as well. He and I would
sit down and tie up dozens of string leeches.
They were easy to tie and they looked really fishy. That lasted for several months before we
finally decided to challenge ourselves.
