Tying Flies for the Okanagan

  For all the fishermen that are dreaming about fishing in the winter, it is a good time to learn to do fly tying. For the creative person fly tying is a great hobby. For about $200 or so you can get most of what you need to start tying flies. After the initial cost of materials, tying flies will save you money. One of the advantages of tying flies, is that you can customize them to the way you want them or make variations of the pattern you're using. If you are living in the Okanagan, the store Trout Waters in Kelowna carries everything you need to start fly tying. You can find their website at,  http://www.troutwaters.ca

  Some of my favorite flies for the Okanagan, are a green Doc Spratly, leech patterns, including micro leeches. These two patterns are great year-round trolling patterns. The other pattern that I tie a lot of is the dry caddis. The lakes of the Okanagan have great caddis dry fly fishing in the summer. For instance Jack Pine Lake which is not far from Kelowna has an excellent caddis hatch. This lake can have a dry fly hatch all day, but you're guaranteed there will be dry fly action in the evening.

  You can learn most everything you need to know about fly tying on the internet these days. There are many sites with good patterns. Also you can see demonstrations of flies being tied on youtube. I really like this site for patterns http://www.kalflyfishers.ca/pages/flypatterns.htm. And this next site has some great step-by-step tying patterns http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw2/archive.php .

                                                                                                  Keep it sharp,  Alex Mentes