Bastard Midge

Done in ink and colored pencil, here is a simple bastard midge.

Winged Ant

Here is an inked winged ant done late in the day.

Summer On Flies cont.

Bigerrfish and AYOTF Summer on the flies continue with this new fly we call the Fire Chicken.  This painting is a 8 x 10 and all watercolors. Check out bigerrfish.blogspot.com for the recipe and a tied example of this fly done on a #22 size hook.
I think this fly will fish, but I leave it to you

Small Brookie

Here is a quick brookie sketched out and a bit of watercolors dropped in. My buddy Jason hooked into a lot of these guys in a recent trip to the WV mountains. Check out his videos at KillbilliesOutdoors.com http://www.killbilliesoutdoors.com/fishing-video.html

Yellow Tail

Here is a stimulating fly that might  make a trout rise and investigate.

Redhead Soft Hackle

An 8 x 8 in. attempt at a soft hackle fly.
Also asking my fellow Bloggers out there for a bit of information on gsmnp. Planning a little trip I hope will come together for a back country trip next month to the shores of Lake Fontana.  If anybody has inside knowledge of this area and is willing to share it, shoot me a line.
Of course if I can't make it to the park, there is always the waters of the Chattooga.

Random Atlantic

I was lucky enough to catch the US soccer game yesterday and enjoy a truly dramatic game winning goal in the final minutes. In a must win or be eliminated, the us rose to the challenge to quench to group.  Having played four years of highschool and a few in college I try to keep up with a few teams around the world and needless to say, yesterdays victory made my day.
Anyway, enjoy this fly and try to catch the next game on the 26th.

Green Humpy

Here is another roughly sketched fly, this one, a green bug, was done with watercolor pencil and pen.

Here is a quick sketch of a dry fly done with pencil, pen, watercolors, and beer. Yes it is slightly more erratic than most posts but hey, what do you expect... Enjoy

Crane Fly

I hope all you fathers out there had a good day. Mine was a great day with the chance to hang out with friends and family and watch a bit of golf. A little side note - It was tough to watch our SC native drop from -6 yesterday to post an end score of +4 and choke in the last round. Phil, Tiger, and Else, couldn't even get it together. I visited that pebble beach two years ago... NO I DID NOT PLAY IT, are you kidding? One I could never afford it and two I think they would throw me out before I finished due to BAD golfing.. No, I visited it while out there on a family vacation. It is truly a great looking course.
Also, For those that follow this blog you might just notice a new button near the top of the page that will direct you to another page. Buy A Fly has come as the requests for how to purchase one of these flies has grown. I have settled on a opening price for these small pieces of art of a mere $25 plus $3 shipping. The larger painting of fish are not part of this offer. Enjoy your day all you fly addicts

Orange Atlantic

Here is an Atlantic Streamer with a little orange and yellow thrown in for color. I also got a few stickers from Cameron Mortenson over at
thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.com the other day. A nice large one I will be adding to my collection currently clogging my Jeeps rear window. He runs a very nice blog from the midlands of South Carolina and if you got minute and haven't visited his site, drop in and tell him A Year On The Fly sent you.

Christmas Downwing Wulff

Here is a variation of the standard Wulff sketched in colored pencil. Taking the advice of a fellow Blogger, I looked beyond the standard dry royal and 'tweeked' it. I believe I am going to try and tie this variation myself and see how it handles. Basically its your royal wulff with a red segmented green hurl body (christmas colors), red head and a bit more wing to cast a bigger above water silhouette.  

Summer On The Flies #2

Here Is the second installment of Bigerrfish and AYearOnTheFly joint posts. It is a Sulfur Emerger Josh tied direct from my blog. The original Post was done some time ago and not wanting to duplicate the same fly in the same manner again I came up with this presentation. This is a pencil sketch with the only color added is a bit of paint to the fly. Measuring 18 x 12 in. It is much larger than most of my posts but I have been enjoying the larger format pictures lately. I think with all the work I've been doing with the small stuff It has paid off in my larger works.


This is the original posted fly. Bigerrfish sent me a great photo of this fly tied up in a very professional way. It was a joy to see it in the real form and know I had some hand in its creation. He also sent along a great pic of this fly in the water from a fishes eye which is all the inspiration I needed to sketch out this post. I hope you fellow bloggers and a year on the fly viewers enjoy it.

Mikes Popper

Here is a piece direct from mikesgonefishing.blogspot.com The technique I used is new to me but thought Id try it out. Basically its downgrading an existing photo, poached from mikes blog, to is basic lines then adding a bit of my own watercolor. I know some of you are thinking, 'Hey, That's Cheating." And Yes Id have to agree with you which is why I probably wont use this process again. I do like the effect though.
http://mikesgonefishing.blogspot.com/

Tenkara-style Fly

Here is a small sketch of a  a reverse hackle tenkara-style fly.  Suggested by troutrageous, I had planned to post a painted version of this fly but time has not permitted it lately. Hopefully I can do this simple fly some justice later but for now, ink and colored pencil will do. http://troutrageous.blogspot.com/    http://www.tenkarabum.com/ishigaki-fly.html

A Splash of a Fly

A Summer On The Fly #1

With the aid of my first follower - Josh, over at http://bigerrfish.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-on-flies-1.html - we have teamed up to do some joint blogging on a shared passion. The art of the fly. Both in tied form, with bigerrfish skill at the vise, and in paint, with my attempts at the drawing board.  I had started this blog with the intended effect of learning more about fly fishing as well as improving my artistic talents and with the aid and encouragement of family friends and my Bloggers like josh over at bigerrfish.blogspot.com I am achieving that goal. Keep an eye out for more of these joint posts in the coming weeks. I look forward to the challenge.

Parachute Follow-up

Here's a follow-up fly from yesterday. Keep an eye out for mondays joint fly post with bigerrfish.

Rainbow & Parachute

....

Random Wet Fly

Small Caddis Pupae

Here is a small caddis variant of the z-wing caddis. Painted small scale at less than 1.5". 

Copper John

Tarpon & A Tarpon Killer Fly

Tarpon are considered by many the ultimate big game saltwater fish to hook on a fly.  Heavyweight rods with precise sight casting across long distances add to the thrill of these fish.  Bonefish and permit are the two other flats fish that with the big tarpon, make up the salt flats grand slam of fly fishing. 

As of now I am not in a position to be able to fish any of these flats fish so I have to spend what free time I have reading up on them and dreaming.
This tarpon is a small 7.5"x5.5" watercolor.  The fly is a typical long nose, weight aft, tarpon killer. 

Also I am going to 'float' this idea out there. If any fellow Bloggers or blog followers out there have a good fish picture you want painted, please email it to me. A year of painting a pic a day is a big project and I often find myself searching for new takes on painting. I can't promise your pic will make it to paint & paper but any pic submitted will get consideration & who knows, the next painting post might just be yours...  Enjoy.

Wet Woolly

Here is another fly done in the same wet on wet technique as yesterdays fly.  Also done in the 3"x2" size.

Wet Water Fly

Here is an 11th hour fly done in watercolor.  It has no name.  It measures less than 3.5 x 2". 

Rusty Parachute

I had planed on posting another large scale painting soon but have been unable to free up enough time to do so.   This little parachute will have to do.  An absolute must have fly for any dry fly spinner action.

Pencil & Pen Sketch

Green Back Streamer

Kiwi Streamer & WV Report

On a recent trip to WV, I was able to take a little time in the morning and go out into the country side and wet a fly or two. I will save you the reason, and the hassles in getting to WV except to say that the raging thunderstorms over the Midwest and east coast nearly prevented my outing.
My buddy Jason(from Killbillies Outdoors) was kind enough to act as 'guide' to the local waters outside Charleston WV. Our day began before the sun had begun to shine and after an hour drive through the hills we met up with a J.T. who had a line on some good browns. While driving over bridges and next to rivers we began to realize that finding good water was going to be next to impossible. The same rains that had made the previous days travel so taxing had also muddied the streams and made the flows rise to nearly unfishable torrents.
J.T. came through though with a only slightly off color stream. So setting out with high hopes and my 2W, we made our attempt to hang a trout or two. Unfortunately the same rains that had muddied every other stream, had also raised the water temperatures of our stream. After a few hours of futile fishing we only managed to hook into a few river smallies. On the plus side this was my first smallies on a fly rod so now I can check off that from my list.
We soon moved on to another free stone river below an old grist mill. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that this local would be an astounding fishery if it had not been for the muddy waters clouding the visibility. The pictures of the mill could be a post card but you might be amazed to find out that they are simple pics from a cell phone.
We ended the day with only a few smallies to our credit but I now have a reason to come back and take revenge on the trout of WV for ignoring every fly I tossed their way. Beyond that, I want to thank Jason And J.T. for sharing their great state with an outsider and also promise them I will take their invitation to return in the not to distant future.

What Midge Is It?

Late post today due to fishn and flyn so here is an easy one. What's the name of this midge?
If you are expecting a fishing report check back tomorrow for pics but the short story is; warm thunder showers, muddy waters, beautiful country, good friends, 2 small smallies, no love from the trout, and plenty of reasons to return to WV.