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...