The entire spectrum of flies

Fly Tying: Proven Flies for the Pacific Northwest
by Don Haaheim

Surrey: Hancock House, 2024
$24.95  /  9780888397683

Reviewed by DC Reid

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Don Haaheim‘s new book Fly Tying lays out instruction for 67 BC flies for catching trout, salmon, and steelhead. Many of the patterns are for lake fishing while the salmon and steelhead flies are intended mainly for rivers, and secondarily, for ocean beaches near rivers. They cross the entire spectrum of chironomid, wet, dry, salmon, and steelhead flies. The interior of BC has oodles of lakes without outlet streams, and with stocking some years ago, now have healthy populations of large rainbow trout and, in some, large brown trout. Each of these populations replenish themselves and now many lakes allow retention of a fish or species, after many years of fly fishing only.

What Don has done is create a succinct pattern for each fly, in two or three pages and repeats it for the entire book. The pattern includes a photo of the fly in question, a background story, a trimmed down list of materials and tying instructions in the same pattern for all flies, making this a very quick read for dozens of flies that work in BC.

Don has won the largest trout nine years in his career with summer derbies in the Okanagan region. This says that the flies work and his technical abilities match the flies. This takes decades to learn and this book gives you the knowledge behind the flies overnight. You are on your own to develop your skills, for example, learning to cast a single-handed rod, and then later, a Spey, or double-handed rod for added distance. But the lake techniques he lays out, save hundreds of hours of learning.

Don has written stories of where he found the flies or developed versions that worked better than the original by talking with other fly anglers and endless variations in the flies. Often very small changes result in flies that work wondrously better. This means that if a reader takes a specific fly to the specific lake that it is recommended for, that he/she has a killer in the box. An example is the short red tail on the Hart Lake Vixen. While it is a very small addition, it makes all the difference in stimulating strikes.

Providing a list of lakes where the flies are fished, his description of techniques are also aimed at specific bodies of water. Very useful. For example, Dragon Lake has huge fish. Among the fishing techniques that are relayed, he points out that the snaggy trees at the bottom of man-made
lakes are good spots to find Brook trout. An example of technique that saves flies and catches fish is to anchor off the snags and cast into them, rather than floating over them and becoming tangled.

With the Doc Spratley, a well-known BC fly, Haaheim gives background stories into the Doctor Spratley in Washington State who invented it, something you won’t find anywhere else. There are many of these informational stories among many flies that fly fishers will already know. These include well known patterns like Muddler Minnows, leech patterns, and Micky Finns. Patterns also reveal other useful information. For example, most flies with tails end within a half inch of the hook bend. The obvious reason why is that farther than this and the fish chomps down on the tail but does not get far enough up to get the hook caught in its jaw.

Other well-known flies include the bloodworm, and the standard Woolly Bugger, early fly tiers go-to patterns. Perhaps the one I use most often in rivers is the Stonefly Nymph, with their long legs being the obvious attractant for trout and steelhead. Remember that unless you intentionally fish greased line which brings the fly directly upcurrent, that if you cast across the current and have the line move the fly past the eyes of fish in different cross sections of water (something that jittery steelhead hit bang on) results in more fish. Having fleeced other expert fly anglers’ tips, Haaheim passes these hard to come by tips to those who read his book, taking years off the time needed to learn them any other way, and become competent with technique.

Haaheim takes the well-known Muddler Minnow and makes a shorter, slimmer fly that works better in internal BC lakes, the point being that only flies that work get in this book.

Don lays out useful information: “Many days of experimenting taught me that a thinly dressed Muddler with a gold body and elk hair wings rather than deer hair seemed to work much better than the standard fully dressed muddler minnow.” This is the kind of information that fly anglers need to tie flies that work. Either it is gained by talking with other anglers over the years or with diehard years of experimentation. The point being to save the many years, read the information already here, and tie the amended fly tomorrow.

Haaheim goes on with other useful information that only experience can bring. If a new fly fisher pays attention, the information will speed up his/her learning dramatically. “I slowed down my wet fly retrieve to the point where the fly began to hit weeds near the end of the cast. Soon the joy of hitting wildly leaping Kamloops trout dancing across the riffled water was mine.” The point being that a sparsely tied Muddler when fished slowly, near the bottom, brought in fish that were ho-hum on other presentations and fat Muddlers. If the reader pays attention to such information and gives it a try in the interior lakes mentioned, then fish will come. That he often mentions a specific lake for a specific fly and gives a story of how he came to tie the fly and how to fish it, gives a good, complete story.

Haaheim branches out into other useful information. He points out that once that fish is on your line, you need to keep the rod taut so that the hook will not fall out of the fish’s mouth. We do fish with barbless hooks after all, and a loose line lends itself to having the hook fall right out of the mouth as there is no barb to keep it there.

One useful tip is how to tie multiple lengths of marabou along the back of the hook so that they all end up at the same length behind the hook bend. There are other flies where this technique becomes useful to know; fly 51, the Purple Bitch, also uses this layering of marabou technique. Fly 59, the Bill Shea Oiler, is another that uses this technique. One of the most useful points about this book is that each fly has a number and thus they can be easily found when looking back for specific instructions.

One of the odd notions in fishing is that having confidence in the fly Haaheim is using makes them work better. He points out that being confident of success leads to catching more fish. Odd, but true.

Fly 45, the New Age Leech, demonstrates the point that it is worth trying new materials. Check out the list and the ‘Tail’ line has ‘one eighth inch wide chocolate scud-back midge’ material that as a set distance wide makes for simple tying of the right dimensions. “The scud-back material appears to have a stretchy, rubbery base that I felt would add terrific realism to a leech pattern.”

As for the standard bloodworm, Haaheim has learned to ty a long shank back. In other words, he ties it much larger than the actual bloodworms commonly found in interior waters. It also features a more dynamic red colouring. He feels that it is so unusual ‘that trout cannot resist taking a swipe at it.’ This is contrary to what most fishers would ty, but it is worth tying a few such flies for use in your fly box. He uses red seal or swannundaze tied from bend to hook eye, and that’s all, other than an optional small, ostrich herl head.

Haaheim notes that the Vedder Chum Fly looks a lot like a standard Micky Finn. He points out that the fly catches all five species of salmon as well as steelhead, a fall to winter fly. In other words, this is a river fly, and as its name implies, it works best for chum salmon. His tips
also add that chum have the sharpest teeth of all salmonids and it is worth keeping your fingers out of the way of those digit biters.

However, something Haaheim does not mention is that when drifting a river, two vehicles are required. Once the two anglers meet, one car is taken to the top of the drift and dropped off. Once the drift is completed, the second car, already stationed at the bottom of the drift, is required to take anglers and equipment back to the top drop off point to pick up the other vehicle. But this is uncommon for this well thought out book.

Fly 53, the Faithful Woolly Worm is a standard for winter steelhead. After a Bulkeley River drift, where the other angler caught all the fish on this fly, Haaheim learned to tie it. It is another fly that a miniscule tail of pink yarn makes all the difference, as a fall and winter colour, to the
efficiency of the fly. In favour of invisible tying monofilament thread, it is pointed out that a much more secure fly can be made by tying down the hackle fibres with invisible thread, which is what mono makes. Such line makes the fly much stronger and less likely to break down during fishing with bites. The other solution is to make the back secure with fishing cement, commonly Hard as Hull. Stonefly flies tend to fall apart for this reason and should always be covered with cement to prevent them falling apart, often in the first hour of fishing. As steelhead hit as hard as coho, the fly is badly damaged unless cemented in place.

For fast running water, extra weight is often required. A few turns of lead on the shank can solve this problem. Other solutions include a rib of silver or gold wire, as is silver or gold bead heads, depending on season. On the opposite end, when making floating flies, one of the useful additions is foam, either as the first material on the shank or as a structural addition, for example made of cut foam.

Fittingly, this book ends with the Steelhead Bee, one of Roderick Haig-Brown’s original patterns for hitting steelhead. This is a nice fat fly that makes it great for surface action, either a downstream drifted dry from above or a skated fly on a set distance below the rod. Go for the fat version – much fatter than Haig-Brown tied them – as it makes it a better dry fly than one that looks a little famished.

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DC Reid’s latest book, A Man and His River: a 25-year love affair with a wild island waterway was the Gold Medal Winner for 2023 by the Professional Outdoor Media Association of Canada. He is the author of nine other books, writes a sports-fishing column for the Times-Colonist, and lives in Victoria.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-25: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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