CJ's Fly Box

01/30/2025

Guess who's Birthday was last Monday.

01/29/2025

The annual Stock Your Box Sale is coming up - Feb. 1 through Feb. 8 with everything in the shop on sale for up to 20% off. Check it out.

Shop Quality Hand-tied Flies by CJsFlyBox located in Dubuque, Iowa. Smooth shipping! Has a history of shipping on time with tracking. Speedy replies! Has a history of replying to messages quickly. Rave reviews! Average review rating is 4.8 or higher

01/06/2025

Four new flies have been added to the selection on CJ's Fly Box. First up is the Euro Black Stonefly Nymph, tied on a jig hook in sizes 12-16. Next is the Kamikaze Sculpin streamer in sizes 4 and 6. Third in line is the Kreelex Euro Jig in sizes 8 and 10. Finally, the Marabou Jig Streamer, size 4. All are available to order in the shop right now. New flies for your new year!

01/01/2025

2024 is in the books for the Fly Box, and the top five flies for the year were the Red Neck Pheasant Tail, Pink Squirrel, Rainbow Perdigon, The Only and the Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle. The top 20 was filled out with a combination of old reliables and some new patterns. The Red Neck PT was the hottest fly in my box when I had time to go fishing. In addition, it brought home the Red Ribbon from the Iowa State Fair fly tying competition.
Watch this space for some new patterns that I have been working with.

01/01/2025

2024 has drawn to a close. I didn't get in as much fishing as I would have liked. On those days I had time to go, there were too many days of too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry. But many of the days I did manage to get on the water turned out to be some really good days.
2024 was another great year in the shop. A lot of loyal customers kept me busy, along with many first-time buyers. Many thanks for your support.
May 2025 provide many days of enjoyable fishing for all of us. See you on the water. Tight lines.

11/29/2024

This has been the hottest fly in my fly box this year - CJ's Red Neck Pheasant Tail. J. Stockard Fly Fishing

11/10/2024

Graduation Day!! Scarlett has completed Puppy Class!

10/04/2024

Welcome to your new forever home, Scarlett! Adopted from the Dubuque Humane Society on 10/4/24.

09/29/2024

Went to Bankston this morning, and came home with a great story. Didn't get any action until the fifth hole of the day. Second cast there was hit by what felt like a great fish. After a short fight, it made a big thrash and snapped off, taking both flies, the tippet and the indicator. While I was re-rigging my rod, I could see the indicator swimming up and down through the pool, and could imagine the fish laughing at me. Finished rigging and cast to the top of the pool. After a short drift, something hit the fly and the new indicator went under - something big again! When I set the hook, TWO indicators came up out of the water. The same fish hit my line again! This time I managed to get him to the net, along with the original flies and indicator. It was a 16 inch hog of a brown trout! I still don't believe that it happened.

09/08/2024

Members of the Dubuque Fly Fishers volunteered at the Heritage Classic youth event on Saturday. The kids were introduced to fly fishing and fly tying, and all of them walked away with 2 flies of their own to try out.

09/06/2024

Spent a couple of hours at Bankston this morning, getting in a last chance before we head off on vacation. Landed 5 of them on the Blowtorch 2. Nice, quiet morning outdoors.

08/20/2024

Spent a few hours on the water Sunday morning testing out some of my newer flies. The Sweet Meat Caddis, the Boo Boo Baetis and a new unnamed crayfish pattern all did well.

08/13/2024

Two of my flies earned red ribbons at this year's state fair fly tying competition: The Kamikaze Sculpin in the open class and the Red Neck Pheasant Tail in the nymph class. The Red Neck is a regular on my Etsy site, and the Kamikaze will probably be added soon.

08/10/2024

Spent the morning fishing at Bankston Park with Doug. It was a successful outing for both of us, landing some nice fish and missing almost as many. Finished the day with lunch at Breitbach's in Balltown. Couldn't ask for a better day.

05/17/2024

Got to spend a couple of hours at Bankston Park this morning. Things started out slow, but finally picked up on the last two holes I fished. Landed a baker's dozen nice trout, Rainbows and a couple of Browns. Unfortunately, #13 turned out to be a jinx. He left me with my flies badly tangled, which took almost 10 minutes to undo. Then first cast after that got caught in the brush on the other side of the creek. Ended up breaking off the whole rig. Rather than taking another 20 minutes to re-rig everything, decided to call it a day. Hot fly today was the Red Neck Pheasant Tail.

05/01/2024

Spent some time at Swiss Valley on Tuesday, trying out a couple of new flies. The Boo Boo Baetis turned out to be a hot little fly again. Landed 6 trout for me.

04/27/2024

Took the float tube out to Heritage Pond for a couple of hours on Wednesday. The guys that were fishing as I put it on the water were really interested in it, and had a lot of questions about it. (They weren't too excited about fishing because nothing had been biting.) Paddled all around the pond, but didn't find anything until I reached the far side. Cast a popper to some rising fish in the shade, and landed a couple of nice little fish. Nothing else besided them, though.

04/22/2024

Got caught up on tying orders, the sun was shining, and the wind wasn't too bad this morning. What's a guy to do? Go fishing, what else. Spent a few hours at Bankston. Started slow, but picked up as the morning went on. Found some nice fish that were willing to take my flies. The Blowtorch was hot on one hole, and a new prototype fly I call the Boo Boo Baetis picked up a few as well. Don't have pictures of the Boo Boo yet, but will take some soon. Only saw one other fisherman on the water while I was there. Got a nice photo of him too.