A day at the Montana Fly Fishing Museum (part 2)

Here's the second installment of photos from the Montana Fly Fishing Museum display at the Visitor Center in Butte, Montana.

Bill Blackstone Flies:

Bill Blackstone Fly Emerger

Bill Blackstone must have been one of the original super-realistic fly tyers.  You've really got to see this one in real life.  There is a joke in the fly fishing world about "stonefly emergers" because stonflies don't emerge at the surface of the water like caddis or mayflies.  They crawl out onto the rocks or vegetation and are usually not available to the trout as emergers.  So fly fisherpeople joke about the existence of stonefly emergers much like a carpenter will joke about a board stretcher or mechanics do about muffler bearings etc.  Anyway, if your tying flies like this for art and not use, the stonefly emerger can be an interesting subject.

Salmonfly adult

Stonefly nymph

Norman Means (AKA Paul Bunyan)

Bunyan bugs were the flies they were "using" in that famous scene in "A River Runs Through It."

Norman Means' Bunyan Bug

Don Martinez Flies:

Don Martinez dry flies

Classic dry flies from Don Martinez

More classic dry flies from Don Martinez

Before there was fly tying blogs and Youtube, this is how people displayed the steps of tying flies:

"Tying the 'Dr. Dummy' Wet Fly 

I forgot these awesome woven sculpins in the last post with the George Grant flies.

Again, all of these displays and much more can be seen all year long for free in the Butte, Montana Visitor Center.

One more reason why Butte is the coolest city in Montana...

A day at the Montana Fly Fishing Museum (part 1)

I've been looking forward to this post for some time now.  However, a research proposal and statistics exam delayed it a bit.  In the Butte, Montana Visitor Center, there is an awesome display of flies from the icons of Western US fly fishing.  George Grant, Franz Pott, Don Martinez, Norman Means, and Bill Blackstone all have flies on display.

George Grant Flies:

George Grant soft hackle stonefly

George Grant was a Butte area resident and his feather bodies wrapped with various materials are well known classic wet flies.  The bodies were wrapped with different brands of monofiliment line and v-rib.  The hackles are all woven.

Grant's Soft Hackle Stonefly

Black Creeper with woven hair body

The Banded Featherback Nymph

A display of just the bodies

Woven body flies

The original Muddler Minnow with a woven body 

Woven body salmonflies

Split wing salmonflies

The Bloody Butcher streamer

The Big Hole Demon

Grant squirrel body and collar - white and red streamer

Monofilament-bodied Hairtail Minnows 

God, those are sexy!

Fanz Pott Flies:

This guy was supposedly a wig maker which makes a lot of sense.

Pott Woven Body Soft Hackle

The hairs Pott used

Woven body hair fly patent

Woven body wet ant flies

This is the first installment of two for my trip to the Fly Fishing Museum Display at the visitor center in Butte, Montana.

Next time you drive through Montana on I-90 on your way to a fishing destination, stop in Butte, get some lunch, check out this amazing town with incredibly history.  Then, go to the visitor center and check out this great display!