The Latest News from the Bench

Welcome to The Latest News from the Bench!

A new book, podcast, article, talk, fly, or any fly-fishing- or fly-tying-related topic we dive into, will be posted here.

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Third Thursday Flies with Skip Morris

Every third Thursday, Skip introduces you to yet another solidly established fly—he tells you what kind of fish it's meant to catch, where it's best fished, how it's best fished, under what conditions it's best fished, a little of its history, and, in case you tie flies, he gives you the pattern (or dressing).

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Third Thursday Flies 12. Morris Minnow

Third Thursday Flies 12. Morris Minnow. Over the past fifteen years or so, nearly all my biggest stream-caught trout--the three-, four-, six-pounders, even a ten-pound wild rainbow--have taken my Minnow.

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Third Thursday Flies 11. Parmachene Belle

Third Thursday Flies 11 Parmachene Belle. The Parmachene Belle is arguably as lovely as any of the many traditional wet-fly patterns. ('Belle' meaning a 'pretty or the prettiest girl'; 'Parmachene' for Parmachene Lake in Maine, odd because the fly has surely been fished mostly in streams.)

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First Tuesday Tips with Skip Morris

From Skip's book 365 Fly-Fishing Tips, a new, really practical tip every month that'll catch you more fish.

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First Tuesday Tips, Tip 10: Meet the Basses and Panfish

From Skip's book, 365 Fly-Fishing Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish, this is Tip 10: Meet the Basses and Panfish. The basses and panfish (with a very few exceptions) prefer warmer to much warmer water than trout can tolerate.

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Third Thursday Flies 10. Partridge and Orange and March Brown Spider

Third Thursday Flies 10 Partridge and Orange and March Brown Spider. Trout flies come as nymphs, dry flies, emergers and streamers, and these categories each comprise unimagineable numbers of patterns. Not so, however, when it comes to soft-ackled flies; they pretty much conform: a slim to rarely stout body or abdomen, a supple cone of overlong fibers in front.

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First Tuesday Tips, Tip 9: Carry a Foundation Set of Flies to Trout Lakes

From Skip's book, 365 Fly-Fishing Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish, this is Tip 9: Carry a Foundation Set of Flies to Trout Lakes. Gathering up a sound group of flies for trout lakes, flies that cover all the important bases and work together as a team, is a daunting task even to the seasoned lake fly fisher who takes up the lake habit. Overwhelming for the beginning fly fisher. My purpose here is to de-daunt and underwhelm that task.

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Third Thursday Flies 9. Miracle Midge

Third Thursday Flies 9 Miracle Midge. The first time you see a catalog page of midge larva/pupa patterns, the first thing you'll notice is that these flies all look a lot alike. Each has a slim untapered body, a fine rib (though some lack a rib), a bulging thorax (of built-up thread or dubbing or suggested by a metal or glass bead). What you cannot see on the page but will see if you're looking at a bunch of midge flies in someone's fly box or in fly shop bins is that they're always very small to downright damned tiny.

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First Tuesday Tips, Tip 8: Adult Dragonflies Can Make for Exciting Fishing

From Skip's book, 365 Fly-Fishing Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish, this is Tip 8: Adult Dragonflies Can Make for Exciting Fishing. In FLY FISHING FOR WESTERN SMALLMOUTH, author David Paul Williams says, “Dragonflies are a smallmouth favorite. Nymph patterns catch fish but adult imitations are great fun to fish.” Amen to all three points, David, but especially to your last.

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Third Thursday Flies 8. Dave's Hopper

Third Thursday Flies 8 Dave's Hopper. For some decades, most fly shops and fly-fishing catalogs have wisely carried the Dave's Hopper: fly fishers have learned it catches hopper-seeking trout, fly fishers want it in their boxes, and it's really everything a grasshopper fly should be.

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First Tuesday Tips, Tip 7: Here's What to Do about Wind Knots'

From Skip's book, 365 Fly-Fishing Tips for Trout, Bass, and Panfish, this is Tip 7: Here's What to Do about Wind Knots. Knots that creep into your leader and tippet as you cast, “wind knots,” may or may not matter much. If I get one up high in a tapered leader and it’s become too tight to open, I usually ignore it—the leader up there is so much stronger than the tippet that the weakness created by the knot probably doesn’t matter. Of course, if I can work it open, easily, with the point of a large hook, or some other needlelike point or just by pushing the ends of the knot together, I’ll do it.

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PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint and Zoom presentations by noted author Skip Morris cover a variety of fly fishing and tying topics to inform and entertain.

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Fly Tying Clinics

Skip Morris fly tying clinics cover a variety of fly tying tips and topics to teach, inform and entertain.

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Skip Morris Presentations: Fly-Fishing & Tying Talks and Clinics

Skip Morris Presentations: Master tier Skip Morris offers a variety of talks and clinics on fly fishing and fly tying that have been popular at fly fishing clubs and shows around the world.

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Third Thursday Flies 7. Anatomical Green Drake

Third Thursday Flies 7 Anatomical Green Drake. Putting wing cases in fly patterns that suggest wing-cased mayfly nymphs and stonefly nymphs is almost standard operating procedure. So my Anatomical Green Drake has one (though its wing case, like a real mayfly wing case, is shiny). But the fly has lots of other trout-convincing parts: three divided tails, a hard-looking and glossy back over its abdomen, gills fringing its abdomen, quiet natural-copper-wire ribs up its abdomen (they show smartly against the smooth back), and speckled fibers from a partridge feather fanned at its sides like real mayfly nymph legs.

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