
guide fly /ɡīd – flī/ noun. An artificial imitation designed to catch maximum numbers of fish with minimum effort or production time. Typically comprised of inexpensive, durable, and/or readily available materials.
Guide flies are a crucial part of a fishing guide’s arsenal. The ability to turn out a day’s worth of flies in an evening allows guides to consistently put anglers on fish as conditions change, while also leaving enough money/time at the end of the day for important things like beer, fishing gear, and sleep. That’s difficult to do with rhea intruders that can take upwards of 45 minutes or longer to tie.
But guide flies aren’t only valuable to fishing guides. After all, who wouldn’t like to spend less time at the vise and more time on the water actually catching fish?
Our good friends from North 40 Fly Shop teemed up with steelhead guru and Deneki alum, Trevor Covich, to produce a great video on how to tie one of Trevor’s go-to patterns when guiding for steelhead. Trevor’s been putting anglers on andramous fish for a long time, he knows a thing or two about effective steelhead flies, which is why we strongly suggest giving the video a watch below.
Enjoy!
Note: If you’re viewing this in a newsletter or a reader, click here to see the video on our website.