No. 176

"Swiss Army Fly" Waterproof ink and watercolor. The alway versatile knife transformed into a fly.

No. 175

" Carved Apple Fly" I took my apple to go from the camp dinning hall and decided to carve a fly into it.

No. 174

"Leave No Trace Fly" White gouache on tree bark - I spent the last week at Boy Scout Summer camp with my youngest Son. I am one of the Assistant Scout Masters for his troop. I was going to use my knife to carve the fly into the bark, but that would permanently scar the tree and would be against the "Leave No Trace" policy we try to teach the kids. So instead, I pulled out my white water soluble gouache and painted the fly on the tree. It rained a couple of times during our stay and all traces of the fly are now gone.

Away for a week - no computer

I will be without computer access for the 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.

No. 173

"Ole Red Eye - Again" 8" x 12" Watercolor and ink. Had to try it again in color.

No. 172

" Old red Eye" - Revisited" A quick hand skerch with some digital color added.

No. 171

" Negative Fly" 14" x 10" Watercolor. Just experimenting with some negative shape painting and different techniques.

No. 170

"Cherry of a Dry" Cherry juice on watercolor paper. Around this time every year, our cherry tree provides a beautiful bounty of sour pie cherries. My 7th grade son who could be described as an amateur tree climber, can scurry up and down a tree like no one else I know. Anyway, it is his job to pluck the cherries from the tree. This was a good year for cherries. You have to time it just right so that the cherries are ripe enough but not too ripe that the birds strip the tree before we can harvest the cherries. My son picked as many cherries as he could reach and we proceeded to pit them using corn cob holders. The same son that climbs the trees is also a speed demon at pitting cherries. He can out pit me 3 to 1. We used some of the cherries to make a pie this evening and we froze the remainder for use in future pies during the Summer. The dry fly was painted using cherry juice and a few smashed cherries as a brush. I had to use Marachino cherry juice, because the fresh cherry juice does not have enough color to it.

No. 169

"Impromptu" 8" x 10" watercolor. I just picked up a brush and started to paint. No planning, no sketches, no value studies.

No. 168

"Serendipity" 8" x 11" Pen, watercolor and a digital gradient.

No. 167

"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!

No. 166

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

No. 165

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

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No. 164

"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.

No. 163

" 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.

No. 162

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

No. 161

"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

No. 160

"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.

No. 159

"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.