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The Flies of Mike Foster |
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I have been tying flies for
fifty-seven years. In that time I have created
several original patterns, mostly for steelhead and
Pacific salmon. Some of my fly patterns have
been featured in fishing magazines and books.
I have also written columns for Angler magazine and Fly Fishing and Tying Journal. I have also taught fly fishing for over twenty years with Mel Krieger and the Fenwick Fly Fishing and Krieger Schools. During my career as a public school teacher, I established a fly tying and rod building course for credit for high school students.
When I was thirteen, my fishing career began in Northern California’s Russian River. There I was fortunate enough to be mentored in fly tying by Bernie Butler, Irwin Thompson, and Grant King. For the past forty-five years I have fished North Coast rivers such as the Eel, Smith, Trinity, and Klamath. My favorite trout waters are the upper Sacramento and McCloud in California and the Madison and Gallatin in Montana."
Mike Foster
Egg Head Flies "I did the Egg Head for Fly Tyer magazine in 1981, but it was part of a series that I came up with in the late 70's inspired by a fly that Bill Schaadt gave me while I was still in high school. His was a ball of chenille with mixed red and orange hackle ahead. He called it his gob of bait fly. I would think his later Egg Nymph patterns evolved from this. I put the egg ahead of the hackle to make it more visible...at least to me." Mike's Marabous
"The marabou flies, the Midnight Scruffy, Rotor Special, and Buzzard's Delight came about in the late 80's and early 90's. They were my reaction to the growing popularity of the popsicle in this area. I was too old fashioned to fish with a fly that didn't have a body, so I started developing my own. I also wanted a fly that presented a little more of a silhouette than the all marabou flies did. So, I put the ice chenille in to puff the marabou a little while it was swinging in the water. I picked colors that worked in local waters first, and went from there. I also gave some thought to the success that the lure guys were having, so I tried to add some flash to the natural movement of the marabou." Shrimp Flies
"Sparkle shrimps came into being the month they released pearl Flash-a-bou. I loved the stuff. I gave a dozen to Ed Rice and he used them in the Bahamas instead of for Pacific salmon because he got there without his other fly boxes." Green Flies
"The Green Machine pattern had numerous versions just by changing the hackle and tail material and keeping the fluorescent green body theme. Al Perryman gave me the original when we were teaching together in the Fenwick flyfishing schools. I did a green fly article in Flyfishing the West in the 80's and included several theme flies."
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