Recent content by Richard Olmstead

Nice photos. Thanks. Beautiful country and a time of year that most of us don’t experience it.

I recall maybe 25 years ago encountering a F&W officer on the banks of the Skykomish with binoculars watching fishermen in drift boats. I asked what he was up to and he said he was looking for equipment violations or other infractions, to the extent he could tell with the available technology...

Excellent! Love the photos and historical context. Sounds like a great trip. One possible correction on the wildlife ID. I don’t think capybara make it into Panama, but tapirs do, and your photo looks more like a tapir, too.

I doubt that there was a single image that was accurately associated with the body of water being mentioned in the video at the time the image was shown!

Lolly, my doggie companion of 14 years, from riverbanks to mountain tops, departed for the big dog park in the sky last week. The loss is far too fresh to contemplate when or if there will be another.

Damn you, Dr. Pavlov…

i have tried a variety of patterns for damsel fly nymphs. Here’s my current fave. Marabou tail, abdomen and thorax, swiss straw carapace, and olive glass bead eyes.

For whatever reason, I've come to favor orange or burnt orange for our native coastal cutts in lakes. I'd like to think it is because that choice has been reinforced by positive feedback from the fishes, but I'm enough of a scientist to realize I have no statistically valid evidence for this...

I use a couple hopper-specific patterns, including a parachute hopper (I've come to hate tying hopper legs out of pheasant tail) and an extended body hopper, but I find myself using a parachute madame X with a yellow body for a variety of large, high floating attractor applications.

I second all of the above, but for excellent fly fishing writing with a PNW flavor, you can't beat anything by Steve Raymond.

Here's a simple flying ant that works for me.