Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

Are you an aspiring trout bum? If so, load up the van, crank up the tunes, and head for western Montana, where snowcapped moun­tains punctuate lush valleys through which flow some of the world’s most famous trout rivers. West Yel­low­stone would be a good destination, as it is per­haps the most trout friendly town in America. West Yellow­stone is gateway to Yellowstone National Park, but it is also ground zero for some of the finest trout fishing on the planet. Fabled rivers such as the Madison, Gallatin, Firehole, Gibbon, Yellowstone, Henry’s Fork, and Snake are within an hour’s drive. West Yellowstone began its climb to Trout Town, USA on June 11 1908, when a Union Pacific train pulled into town for the first time on newly constructed tracks. “West”, as locals call it, con­sisted of one hotel and two gen­eral stores at the time, but the rail­road brought thou­sands of tourists to the doorstep of Yel­low­stone. The town grew quickly, and it was soon a bus­tling tourist and recreational destination.

Trout fishing opportunities near West Yel­lowstone are extraordinary. The town today sports six world-class fly shops, and four more are but a short drive away. These dedi­cated fly shops all follow in the footsteps of Don Mar­tinez, who opened in 1932 the first shop in West Yel­low­stone devoted exclu­sively to fishing. Martinez was one of the Rocky Mountains’ earliest fly-fishing lumi­naries that had widespread national influ­ence. George Grant, prob­ably Montana’s most fa­mous historic fly tyer, described Martinez as “an exceptional fly tier, a skillful fly fisherman, and an individ­ual who loved our great rivers and wanted to preserve them for others.” Mar­tinez was a colorful character about whom we know far too little. The early days of fly an­gling in the American West were simply not chroni­cled as thor­oughly as were those in the East.

Martinez spent winter months in Los Angeles, where he ran a successful mail-order fly-tying business. He spent summers in West Yellowstone, where he fished and ran his fly shop. He was a dedicated entomolo­gist who stud­ied insects of the Yellowstone area, de­signed and tied flies to match, and sold them in the West Yel­lowstone shop. That winning combination made Mar­tinez a leading figure in the development of western fly fish­ing, especially that of the Yellowstone area. Mar­tinez sold his shop in 1943 but it has persisted through the decades under sev­eral new ownerships as Bud Lilly’s Trout Shop (1952-2016) and Big Sky Anglers (2016-present).

Martinez was a fly fishing impressionist, not an imita­tion­ist, and his philosophy of fly design was “keep it simple”. His flies combined first-hand knowledge of western insects with suggestive general fly de­signs. Martinez designed many innovative flies, but only a few persist today. His most notable flies are the mod­ern Woolly Worm, Martinez Black Nymph, Red Squir­rel Tail, and Bloody Butcher.

The Woolly Worm was Martinez’ favorite fly, although he did not design the original. Mar­tinez knew of the Woolly Worm as a bass fly from Ar­kan­sas, but he adapted it as a general attrac­tor wet fly for trout. Martinez popu­larized the fly so widely that his name is indelibly associ­ated with the fly. Martinez once described the Woolly Worm as “a horri­ble look­ing grub”, but one whose fish-catching abili­ties are so good that its appearance must be overlooked. Remarkably, a Woolly Worm’s basic design dates to the earliest days of rec­orded fly angling. It is very sim­ilar to Tho­mas Barker’s ‘Palmer Flie’, which he de­scribed in The Art of Angling (1651). The Palmer Flie is especially his­toric, because it was the very first arti­ficial fly in the angling literature for which both the ap­pearance of the finished fly and explicit tying instruc­tions were pro­vided to a reader. Woolly Worms, Woolly Bug­gers, Bivi­sibles, and English Bum­bles all descend from Barker’s Palmer Flie.

Fish a Woolly Worm slowly and deeply with occasion­al twitches. Breathing movements of the hackle as the fly swirls in currents are key to its success. Authors have de­bated for centuries what Palmer-style flies imi­tate, but the only consistent conclusion is that they are top­notch fish catchers.

Copyright 2026, Rusty Dunn

Wooly Worm

Martinez wrapped the Woolly Worm hackle with the dull (concave) side of the feather facing forward toward the hook eye, but many anglers today prefer to wrap with the shiny (convex) side facing forward.