Sunday, January 20, 2019

The History & Tying the Roberts Yellow Drake

When I said the other day that northern Michigan fly tier Bob Smock Sr. told me years ago that there were just two patterns needed (see the Borchers Special post) in your fly box, in a mix of sizes from tiny small to big large, the Roberts Yellow Drake was that second pattern.

Now, as a teenager who was getting completely sucked into everything fly fishing, the idea of just two old looking fly patterns in my fly box when there were so many others in the fly shop bins with catchy names and flashy synthetic materials, it just didn't make sense.  Fast forward to now and it makes all the sense in the world.


Ray Schmidt's videos on Classic Great Lakes Fly Patterns continue these two video cover the history and then the tying instructions for this northern Michigan favorite.  I've fished the hex hatch and even had an "An Epic Night of the Hex" a few years ago where a twenty-two inch brown took a large Roberts Yellow Drake in the dark.





Subscribe to the Ray Schmidt YouTube channel for other fly tying tutorials and don't be surprised if you see others shared with a T.F.M. post in the future as well. I have a real soft spot for these northern Michigan classic flies.

2 comments:

Roger Bird said...

I really enjoy finding out the history behind how flies or equipment originated. Looking forward to more!

Mike Fielder said...

What a cool fly. Simple, yet effective. When I started fly fishing the local shop had an older gentlemen named Carl that would tie flies on Saturday mornings, and he would always make a statement to those hanging around that every fly should only use 4 materials. Any more than that and you were complicating the fly and just showing out.

Mike