During this year's Midwest Fly Fishing Show in Michigan, one of my purposes of attending this year was to meet this years show guest "fly tyer", Mr. Al Ritt in person. Al is a member of my pro staff fishing team for http://www.fishingforacause.com/. You see, Al resides in Colorado and I live in Michigan, so we have not had a chance to meet in person until this event. (read more about my meeting Al and that event here)

One great advantage to attending any fly fishing trade show is that you can personally talk to all the vendors and discover what type of fly fishing you may want to experience next...you can create your own experience in advance - for example at the Midwest Fly Fishin Expo, I reserved a fishing trip with an expert guide, Brent Borcherdt of http://www.riverscoutflyfishing.com/  to dry fly fish for brown trout on the AuSable river in Michigan this May.

I then asked Al to use his expertise and design a few custom tied flies for this trip. I simply asked Al to talk to Brent (my dry fly fishing guide) during the show and find out what the hatch was going to be during my trip in May on the AuSable river - and then use his expertise and come up with a pattern that he felt would be effective in landing a monster brown trout.

I just received my dry flies in the mail from Al and they look marvelous!  I love them and I hope the brown trout share the same enthusiasm when I cast them out to entise them during my planned guide trip with Brent.

Here are photos of some dark hendricksons tied up by Al for my trip in May - which should be prime time for northern Michigan's hatch:

Al currently operates his own business, Al Ritt Flies. His focus is on fly fishing education through fly tying classes/lessons and guided fly fishing services.

More information about Al's guide services and classes are available on his web site, http://www.alrittflies.com/ . Al's fly designs are available from Montana Fly Company dealers, his own web site http://www.alrittflies.com/ and through http://www.myflies.com/ .  Friend him on Facebook.


Al does custom orders, just let him know qty, size and pattern!  Request your custom order at http://www.alrittflies.com/