Curtis Fry – The Double D

Curtis Fry, who hails from Eastern Oregon originally, grew up fishing the high mountain lakes, arid high desert lakes and streams as well as the impoundments of the Snake River along the Oregon-Idaho border. He became interested in tying flies in high school and actually tied his first flies, mosquitoes and black ants, before he even owned a fly rod as a means of fooling picky Brook Trout in a nearby alpine lake. After a move to Utah in the early 90’s, Curtis worked his way through college tying flies, guiding and working for local fly shops.

He has a rather analytic approach to tying flies, trying to combine both aesthetics and functional appeal  into the patterns he develops. He’s a fly innovator for Rainy’s Flies and has appeared as a regular contributor to the Salt Lake Tribune’s “Outdoors” sections with his popular “Fly of the Week” column. In addition to being involved in a number of fly fishing and tying expos around the western US, Curtis also has an active Youtube fly tying channel with around 100 fly tying and fishing videos. He also usually has a camera at his side and his photos and flies have been featured in a variety of magazines, catalogs and web publications.

Curtis indicates “The Double “D” Mating Damsel is a pattern he developed to handle some finicky trout on a few high mountain lakes that had a penchant for feeding on adult damsels. The pattern has proven to be effective before, during and after damsel fly activity. In many cases, the fish are so aggressive that they’ll torpedo out of the water to eat the insects in mid-air. Most often, these aerobatic hits are targeting the “two-fer” special whilst the two insects are engaged in activities other than looking out for hungry trout.