Murray’s Fly Shop Indicators
Choosing the Right Strike Indicators for Fly Fishing Many anglers find that Strike Indicators are essential tools for fly fishing, helping anglers detect [...]
flyfishing
Fly Fishing for Trout with Harry Murray
After many requests, we have moved into the digital age with our “Fly Fishing for Trout with Harry Murray” video. This is the [...]
Leaf Hoppers
When the trout streams get low and the insect hatches become sparse, you will occasionally see very delicate rise forms resulting from trout [...]
Catching Bass Over the Grass
By mid-summer, many large, slow pools in the river have aquatic grassbeds that grow from the streambottom up to the surface of the [...]
What Smallmouth Bass Like
An abundance of natural foods such as minnows, hellgrammites, and crayfish are essential for smallmouth bass to live on and grow well. This [...]
Thermometer
My Stream Thermometer is a very important part of my trout and smallmouth bass angling. For example, on mountain trout streams the first [...]
Murray’s Pop Strike
When the dry fly fishing is fast and I am catching many cutthroats in the mountain trout streams in the Rockies or brook [...]
Keep Your Car Ready
I keep a variety of tools in the back of my Jeep to help when unexpected events occur. It is amazing how often [...]
Calendar
On a very large yearly calendar on my kitchen wall for the past thirty years I have recorded my daily fishing information as [...]
Trip Information – Good Stream Notes
Trip Information in the form of Good Stream Notes help ensure fishing success in the future. When I return home from a fishing [...]
New Scientific Anglers Fly Line, Part Two
Part Two Blog on Scientific Anglers Sonar Sink 30 Warm Fly Line The new Scientific Anglers Sink 30 Warm is an outstanding fast sinking [...]
Bass Streamers
There are times when fishing streamers along the banks when floating smallmouth bass rivers can be very effective. However, some anglers on our [...]
Ostrich Plume
This pound of Ostrich will tie enough flies to catch many thousand fish. Ostrich Plume is used to tie streamers, Murray’s Pearl Marauder [...]
Simple Flies
Several years ago I stopped in a fly shop in Montana which was owned by a good friend. One of his employees was [...]
Where are the Natural Nymphs?
Many natural nymphs move to the downstream side of the cobblestones in the lower sections of the riffles at this time of the [...]
Selective Trout
A large trout comes up and looks at your dry fly but refuses it. There is a natural tendency to cast back to [...]
Wood Duck Flank
This is part one of three parts on dry fly winging material. The woodduck flank feathers you see here are one of my [...]
Smallmouth Bass Feed Heavily on Brown Drake Mayflies
Some of the most exciting smallmouth fly fishing takes place when they feed on natural Brown Drake mayflies. There are actually three different [...]
Switch Lines in Mid-River
You are standing in mid-river using a 9 foot rod and you decide you would like to switch from a floating fly line [...]
Calf Tail
Calf (Kip) Tail is a very useful material with many applications in tying dry flies, streamers and bass bugs. The yellow calf tail [...]
Dry Fly Cleaning
Dry flies that are coated with old floatant that have matted hackles can easily be brought back to life by carefully steaming them [...]
Murray’s Magnum Creek Chub
There are probably more creek chub minnows in most smallmouth rivers than any other single minnows. These are readily available to the bass [...]
Find the Good Water
Late last summer I drove a long distance to fish a mountain trout stream. When I arrived at the lower end of the [...]
Murray’s Magnum Hog Sucker Streamer Fly Tying Kit
In the forties and fifties, smallmouth bait fishermen on the Shenandoah River who were after the largest bass used live Hog Suckers for [...]
Murray’s Czech Nymph Leader
The NEW Murray’s Two Color Czech Nymphing Leaders are very popular for the way they help detect strikes. These come in 7 foot, [...]
Drag Free Drift
The speed of the current just inches below the stream surface is usually moving faster than the current on the surface where our [...]
Cold Hands?
During the winter and spring I always carry Simms Freestone Half Finger Fishing Gloves in my vest. Experience has shown me that if [...]
Hot Spots
I always mentally mark a spot where I have caught or moved some large fish…any kind fish. This was the spot on the [...]
Releasing Trout
Always land your trout with a net as quickly as possible to prevent stressing them. Revive your trout completely before releasing him. Choose [...]
Popper Casting
When we make a back cast to pick a popping bug up off the stream to make another cast we may cause that [...]
Be Nice To Your Fly Rod
A friend recently purchased a new fly rod and broke it while casting the first day out. When I asked him if he [...]
Line Hand Strike
The more I fish, the more I find that I rely strongly on my line-hand strike to set the hook on the fishes [...]
Length of Casts
Experienced anglers know it is best to never cast further than is necessary to keep from scaring the fish when in freshwater. Excessively [...]
Drag Free Dry Fly Drift
I have been doing a great amount of experimenting this year with many different casts that are helpful in throwing slack line casts [...]
Quick Water
Heavy rains that last less than a day but deposit two or three inches of rain definitely cause our rivers to become too [...]
Riffle Hitch
Last year at my son’s encouragement, we started experimenting with the “Riffle Hitch” technique for smallmouth bass which I used many years ago [...]
Healthy Trout
Many beginning trout anglers are amazed to see a nice trout turn belly-up and die when they return him to the stream with [...]
Cooling Bass Rivers
The smallmouth rivers are cooling and although I am catching nice bass throughout the rivers, I am aware that some of the largest [...]
Escape Technique
I had outstanding smallmouth bass fishing on the North Fork of the Shenandoah River with a method of streamer fishing I am calling, [...]
Bass Rod
Sure you can land a nice size smallmouth bass on your five weight rod. However, you are limiting the size of the flies [...]
Tying a Deer Hair Bass Bug
When I teach my winter fly tying classes, the beginning fly tyers are amazed how quickly they learn to tie great deer hair [...]
Wading Staff
Wading safely is an important part of fly fishing. I use a Folstaff Wading Staff (3/4″ X 50″) in all of my fly [...]
Night Smallmouth Bass Fishing
You just might catch your largest smallmouth bass of the year by fishing at night. They feed heavily in the low light levels [...]
Change of Pace Flies
Large trout in heavily fished streams become very tough to catch this time of year. I believe part of the reason for this [...]
Wary Smallmouth Bass
As the smallmouth rivers get low and clear I find that I can prevent scaring the largest bass by wading upstream and fishing [...]