At one time in my past life, I commercially tied flies to support my fly fishing addiction while in high school. I tied thousands of #22 Blue Duns! Tieing these fly has always been one of my favorite aspects of fishing; making something out of feathers and baiting fish into taking a bite was truly fascinating to me! Once upon a time I even illustrated recipes I had created for local lakes in the Eastern Sierra. Jake took an interest in art at an early age and has quickly outshone me when it comes to skills and presentation. I absolutely adore watching him create his masterpieces while fishing together like we will this weekend; watching my little artist create art can only bring out more enjoyment for both of us! This weekend we are both giving the Skwala hatch a try for the first time, something neither one of us have experienced before. I was in need of some new flies for this hatch so headed over to my tying bench where a conversation I had last month with Nikon Tom came back up. Tom was giving me grief on his excellent podcast for my lack of macro, particularly bug photography. If I had been quicker, I may have come up with an answer like this to prove my point – although I realize this may not have been what Tom was referring to when discussing bug photography! Now I can officially call myself a photographer of insects by showing this photo of an Oswald’s Rastaman Stonefly (and part of my wet fly box below, with all flies that I tied) pattern I tied this weekend for this weekend’s outing. While Tom may have meant real insects rather than reproductions of imitation ones, this kind of photography suits my interests!
