Brooks Stone Archives

The Girdle Bug: Ninety Years of Fooling Big Trout

Capt. Grumpy/Casting Salt Montana Fishing, On The Fly Big Hole River, Brooks Stone, Charles Brooks, fly tying tutorial, Frank McGinnis, Girdle Bug, Montana fly fishing, nymph fishing, runoff fly fishing, stonefly nymph, tying in the round, western fly fishing

90-year history of the Girdle Bug fly, from Frank McGinnis to Charles Brooks's tying in the round — plus tying steps and high-to-low water tactics.

There’s a certain kind of fly that never needs reinventing. It’s ugly, it’s heavy, and it catches fish in every water condition you’ll ever fish. The Girdle Bug is that fly. It’s been doing its job on Montana rivers since the 1930s, and it’s still doing it today-