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The renowned streamer aficionado site streamers365.com is shutting down, but GFF has "inherited" all its fantastic content.

Italian fly tyer Giuseppe Finardi is intrigued by US Ora Smith's streamers featuring wings made almost exclusively from golden pheasant crest.

A small series of flies from Roy Patrick's pattern book converted into streamers

Italian master fly tyer Stefano Farkas has tied a Carrie Stevens streamer in the style of his full dressed salmon flies.

The Rattlesnake Streamer is a large, articulated fly originated by US tyer and guide Ray Schmidt.

Finnish fly tyer Rane Olsen decided to tie all 93 Carrie Stevens streamer patterns mentioned in Graydon R. Hilyard and Leslie K. Hilyard's book on her and the flies.

Flies are becoming more and more realistic - even the saltwater flies. Gammarus with transparent backs and scud patterns, shrimps tied with clear legs, looped tails and pulsating mouth parts and antennas. Now it is time for the bait fish.

I saw a post by Ted Patlen on a fly tying bulletin board. It was a simple post - a photo of a group of flies and a short statement stating his intention of tying the flies as close as possible to the way the originator tied the flies.

The Mickey Finn is one of the all time classic streamers. Simple, beautiful and fairly easy to tie - and a catcher.

The Streamers 365 project has delighted streamer aficionados worldwide by delivering a new and beautiful streamer photo online every day. We have talked to Darren MacEachern, the man behind the project.

I can still remember the fist fish I caught on a streamer, a stocked brook trout on a Royal Coachman streamer. Since that time I have had success many times fishing these long flies. In my early days of fly fishing I bought all of my flies.

Growing up on the West Coast, I learned about East Coast fly patterns and tyers mostly from books, and the occasional television show. I remember seeing Lee Wulff and Joe Brooks on the American Sportsman show as a youngster, fishing for Brookies.

Bright, colorful and visible. A perfect fly for slow fish in cold or murky water. It earned its name because the creator hooked his own nose with it on its maiden voyage! Seatrout like it, but other trout will too.

The flies of Ora Smith that have captured my imagination were the little casting streamers with duck flank wings. They are like elongated wet flies. I sat down one weekend and tied up a selection, imaging some late spring day when I could cast these flies on a light line to some spooky trout.

Someone asked me how to create the "slightly tapered" body on an Oatman Silver Darter and it was pretty difficult to describe in words, so I tied up a sample and took some photos along the way. Here for your enjoyment is a Lew Oatman favorite, the Silver Darter

In this streamer swap we are dealing with the 17 patterns designed by Lew Oatman, avid fly fisher and professional tyer from Shushan, New York.

Jim Warner has been one of the most influential fly tyers in New England, especially for those who spend their time trolling and fishing streamers in the many lakes and ponds of the region. The gang of the streamers@ list recently had a swap of his great fly patterns.

Back in 2002 a bunch of guys on the streamers@ mailing list decided to tie some flies "in the hand" without the benefit of a vise. This year a new crop took up the challenge with a different fly - Carrie's Favorite - and tackled the Look Ma, No Vise challange.

Some of these flies are among the most well known of any genre of fishing flies others are a little on the obscure side. Some are simple and some are a bit complicated. I like 'em all. They all have their place on the water, and they all have a story to tell.

While tying up a batch of streamers for a fly swap, GFF partner Bob Petti remembered an old tinsel trick that reduced some of the hand cramping thread wrapping that is all too common with long shanked streamers.

Kelly Galloup's Zoo Cougar is a pattern with some years on its back, but Martin recently discovered and started tying this staple big trout streamer. Large fly, goudy colors, deer hair! Just his kind of fly.

Remember the line from "The Graduate"?
"PLASTICS!"
The hook was dressed with thread and body braid... fine makings for a proper foundation were in place... Temperamental pheatherz were spot welded in place without complaint nor defiance...

There's nothing like a good fly swap to get the fly tying knuckles cracked, the creative juices flowing again. The reasons for joining a swap are many - but for me it's fun to tie flies for something other than my fly boxes, and I truly enjoy the friendship and comraderie that comes with participating in a swap. It's not about who ties the best flies or who has the best feathers.

A jigging fly for almost any predatory fish originated by Bob Popvics. After a trip to Danish island Bornholm in 2007 Kasper Mühlbach wanted to tie and try this successful pattern and ordered a special color. But someone else came first and bought his custom dyed bucktail.

Dick Stewart and Bob Leeman's book "Trolling Flies for Trout and Salmon" has inspired fly tyers for the 24 years since it's publication in 1982. Here, finally, we get to see some of the patterns listed in the back of the book that did not have supporting photographs.

The flies Mary documented were, invariably, ornate wet flies. They were, and are, the legacy of centuries of British salmon fly design spiced by the natural resources and original thinking available to their American interpreters.

Converting a fly from one form to another is certainly an educational
process, as it requires you to look at materials in a new way, especially the wing materials. A wet fly that calls for a wing of mallard flank or mottled turkey has no obvious equivalent in a hairwing.

How small can you tie a streamer and still call it a streamer? The folks on the streamers@ mailing list decided to challenge themselves to a swap of streamers no larger than a size 12. The results were move interesting.

Converting a classic salmon fly to hairwing form has been done for many years among salmon anglers. Recently, the gang on the streamers@ mailing list tried their hand at converting classic salmon patterns to trout flies.

Ray Bergman is the originator of these three simple mixed wing streamers. The three were included in the updated version of Col. Bate's wonderful book "Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing". The combination of materials, the overall shape and color of the streamers really caught Bob Petti's eye.

Another entry in the continuing series of features highlighting the flies of the founders of the art of streamer tying. Bert Quimby is not as well known as many, but his flies are just as beautiful and original.

Internationally known streamer tyer Mike Martinek shares some of his flies

Looking for some juicy streamers to swing in your favorite trout stream or pond in the coming Fall? Check out these attractive flies from a streamer swap hosted by Scott Daskiewich.

This article should rightly be subtitled "what to do when you don't have the right material that a pattern calls for?"

The first swap of the winter tying season, the Arctic Fox Pattern Swap Page hilights the latest creations/conversions by Streamer List members. All of the patterns in this swap utilize Arctic Fox as a major component.

Truly influential fly tyers are rare. Mike Martinek is such a tyer. He has been the initiator and a major contributor to the revival of the American streamers. Read Bob Petti's article about Mike's beautiful, classical streamer patterns.

I have never used a vise; I have never seen anyone tie a fly and noone has ever seen me tie one. I have never read or had any fly tying instructions. Said by Carrie Stevens in a letter to Jospeh Bates. The words of a trailblazer. How fortunate we are to reap the benefits of a road paved by innovators before us, such as Mrs. Stevens.

GFF co-webmaster Bob Petti coordinated an effort to share Grizzly Streamer Patterns by members of the Streamer List.

Guest writers Mike Martinek and Chris DelPlato have teamed up to write, the Jim Warner - A New England Classic which hilights the contribution of this well known New Hampshire angler to streamer anglers.

This is a well know species that is easily identified. Key characteristics are the strongly compressed rather elliptical body, a small pointed head, strongly downward curving lateral ling, a long sickle-shaped anal fin, and a thin scaleless keel on the midline of the belly behind the pelvic fins.

"All dace are not created equal". Although they may look pretty much the same to us, fish much prefer the females with their orange and yellow bellies. I soon noticed that when I sewed on this colorful variation, a strike was not far off.

Last spring, the members of the Streamer email list participated in a Flatwing Streamer Swap. This swap, hosted by Ron McKusick, was a very enjoyable affair and a number of innovative and productive patterns were shared amongst the swap participants.

This is a very unique and interesting little book. No fly patterns. No fishing techniques. It is basically what the title implies - a portal into the past of one of the most historically significant states in the U.S. with regards to fishing and in particular, fly-fishing.

The Hornberg can be cast out upstream and drifted as a dry fly. It can be pulled under the surface and stripped as a streamer. Is it a caddis? Stonely? A minnow? In early '01, a bunch of guys swapped their favorite Hornberg patterns.

This in one of several articles in a series being created as a group effort by members of the Streamer List to provide some background information on the species of forage fish we most commonly try to immitate with streamer patterns.

One of the things most often asked by neophyte streamer tyers is what types of hackle are best suited for streamer wings. The short answer is... there is no single source best suited for streamer wings. The long answer... well... I'll ramble on about it for the remainder of this essay!

This swap has gathered a collection of patterns from diverse sources, including Maine regional favorites, patterns from the wider northeast, regional patterns from the West and from Alberta, and newly created patterns. They all share three things in common - hair wings, small hooks, and a tremendous attraction to brook trout.

The Matuka will always be one of my favorite patterns. The style of tying (lashing the wing to the top of the hook by ribbing through the fibers of the feathers) lends itself to infinite possibilities.

The idea of a swap of patterns originated by Lew Oatman came from interaction by the participants on The Streamer Board on this site. The swap was hosted by Bob Petti.

The "king of baitfish", the American Smelt is the inspiration for the vast majority of New England Streamer patterns. Though there are a number of smelt species throughout the world, it's the Atlantic Rainbow Smelt that populates New England's waters, and is the one most-commonly immitated.

Undoubtedly, most fly fishermen will relate the name Bill Edson with the Dark and Light Edson Tiger streamers that bear his name. They are prominent in streamer lore, fly catalogs, fly wallets, and with just cause - they have been exceptional fish takers from their inception.

The Rangeley Style of streamer tying is the style used by Carrie Stevens to tie her famous Grey Ghost pattern. This unique features of this style of tying are that the wing components are assembled and glued together before attaching to the hook, and that the wings are not mounted on top of the hook shank but slightly down the sides of the hook shank.

Although the subject of this article may seem like heresy to dedicated tyers of classic atlantic salmon patterns, I thought it might be a fun exercise this winter to adapt some of these classic patterns to New England streamers. It was indeed a challenging and enjoyable tying experience.

Preston Jennings was one of those rare individuals who saw things differently than most folks. It would certainly be in our best interested to learn more about his work and his thoughts on color separation when we design our own flies. Bob Petti shows you a few patterns in the Streamer Section.

The second streamer swap to have originated from the forums on this site, Doug Saball's Marabou Streamer Swap was a great success! The theme for the swap was that participants would contribute an original or established streamer pattern which used marabou for the wing material.

This forage fish feature (say that 5 times fast!) is a the third in a series of articles being created as a group effort by members of the Streamer List. There are over 300 species of sculpins, most of them are salt water or brackish water occupants, but several are found in North America.

A recent article in Fly Tyer magazine sparked quite a debate on the streamer list about the use of this popular and effective saltwater fly in fresh water. The debate found the authors "defending" the fresh water deceiver and prompted us to write a small 

The three original Carrie Stevens Patterns on this page are shared with us from Mike Martinek's private collection with his comments.

The flatwing streamer style has been a consistant producer for me over the years, particularly in the smaller casting sizes for brook trout.

What's so exciting about a simple white marabou streamer? It doesn't have any exotic ingredients. No epoxy. No goggle eyes. No genetic hackle. You could tie a million of them for the cost of a gallon of milk. There are no fancy techniques in the tying, so everyone who can wrap thread can tie their own.

One style of streamer that is very effective here in Maine in the smaller casting sizes, is the flatwing streamer. The feature that defines this style, the flat wing, normally consists of a flank feather from some species of duck tied flat on top of the hook, instead of in the classic "upright" manner that the classic New England Streamer patterns specify.

The brook trout is native to North America. It is found from the Canadian Maritime Provinces, including offshore islands, Newfoundland, Labrador, and Quebec.

Of the numerous videotapes available to aid and instruct the tyer in the various fly types, relatively few fall under the category of the streamer fly. For the streamer-fanatic, to have another tape available on the subject is a treat. Read Chris Del Plato's review of this new video by Mike Martinek.

If I was sitting with ten fellow trout fisherman and mentioned the name "Herbie Welch", I would probably get ten quizzical looks.

Kieth Fulsher was particularly concerned with the size of the head and the eyes. He didn't feel that thread heads with painted eyes or jungle cock eyes appropriately represented the large head of a minnow.

It was inevitable that the folks on Raske's "Streamers" mailing list would eventually partake in a swap of Rangeley style streamers.

Undoubtedly, when one thinks of attractor streamer and bucktail patterns, the venerable Mickey Finn comes to mind. More often than not, it's the very first pattern streamer aficionados are introduced to when learning to tie...and rightly so, as it remains a productive pattern in our streamer wallets.

The hook is the foundation on which a good streamer is built. When streamer anglers meet, quite often it's the subject of heated debate! I've listed a variety of the streamer hooks available on the market today (and some no longer available) in the table in the article.

One of the most difficult things for today's streamer tyer to find is suitable hackle for winging Rangeley Style streamers.

One of the true parents of streamer fly fishing, particularly in New England, she brought forth the Gray Ghost. The popularity of her 25 years of fly tying is exemplified by this fly, a streamer that has traveled not only throughout the United States but all over the world.

No page featuring New England Streamers would be complete without a portion dedicated to Carrie G. Stevens, of Madison, Maine. Mrs. Stevens is the originator or the Grey Ghost, one of the most well-known and effective New England Streamer patterns to have been tied, and still a popular choice as a trolling and casting streamer today.

The inspiration for this feature was the birth of the author's granddaughter, Caitlin Nicole, and collectively members of the Streamer List began to formulate and describe the uniqueness of their own children and grandchildren. It was proposed that list member's design a streamer unique to their individual child or grandchild and that was most depictive of the individual child's personality.

The intent of this swap was for each member to provide a dozen streamers which represented the Rainbow Smelt in casting sizes. Some of the entries were "recognized" patterns, but many were original dressings.

A discussion on the New England Streamer List began on the merits of copper as a material in streamer tying. It seems the consensus was that copper has always been a productive "metal" in the pursuit of landlocked salmon or trout in New England

Who would have guessed that a fly tied to fish the lakes of New Zealand would have such an impact all around the world?