I'll start off with a recap of the Fly Tying Symposium. We decided to do a blogger carpool so Mike from Troutrageous and Matt from Functioning Fishaholics showed up at my house around 7:30am to ride out to NJ with me. We nerded out on the way there talking about blogger jargon and fishing and the 1+ hour drive felt like 20 minutes.
We got there just after the doors opened so it was nice to be able to make the rounds before the crowds showed up to check out the flies, catch up with some old friends, and meet a few people who I previously only met online.
One of the craziest flies I saw all day was from a guy named Mike Williams. He throws giant duckling flies for Musky! After some googling, turns out he's a fellow blogger with a blog called Big Fly Chucker. Head on over there and follow him. He ties some crazy big streamers as well.
I also got to check out bugs from Gaeron from My Life on the Fly. He had some sweet patterns. I also spent a lot of time watching Aaron Jasper, George Maciag (Watch out for a Featured Fly Tier post on here shortly about him..I'm going to make sure the woven stonefly is included. It's sick!), and Bruce Corwin was showing me how to tie stonefly bodies by hand and a really sweet October Caddis made from Organza.(Bruce, thanks for the fly and material).
I'd like to give a shoutout to the Swedish guys. They have skills! Ulf Hagström absolutely amazed me with his big mayflies tied on Partridge Klinkhammer hooks. They were beautiful. I wish I got a better picture of his bugs. They looked great.
One thing I was disappointed in was the amount of vendors there. There wasn't much competition, which meant not many good deals. No 100 hooks for $10, or cheap grizzly saddles. The cheapest was a grade 2 for $70! I did spend way too much at Kevin Compton's booth. I stocked up on UV Quill Body, Jan Siman dubbing, Hend's Shellback, Dohiku and Patridge hooks,and some Performance Flies wire. If you're looking for really small wire for ribbing, Kevin's stuff is actually more narrow than the X-small UTC ultra-wire. I highly suggest checking it out. Great deal. I also picked up a pack of Sculpin helmets, just because they looked funny.
After the show, I offered to take those guys fishing since they've never fished the Little Lehigh. I figured it should be pretty easy to get them on some fish with some midges and eggs. It actually turned out to be pretty tough. There were a few hits, but I was the only one that pulled in a few. This bow was pretty. I love when they have a lot of spots around their head.
Mike and Matt, I'm sorry guys! I suck at guiding. Maybe next time...
So, on to the bugs. I sat down the last two nights and tied about two dozen micro nymphs. All size 18, all tungsten beads, but in various colored bodies and dubbing. I also knocked out a few more Czech nymphs to test out the Hend's shellback and I love it!(I kept the resolution high on these shots so you can click for detail)
Guides are supposed to show you where the fish are. LL was brimming with enough trout and even without polarized glasses I could still pick a few out in "the kiddie pool". I can't speak for T! but the failure to catch was 100% on me. Next time I show up with an indicator and flies that are too small for human eyes to see. (:
ReplyDeleteGood times all around! Nice bugs!
I loooooove Comptons stuff!!!! He sold me his personal stash of Symon dubbing at the January show last year. His individualized container with every color in it. He is great.
ReplyDeleteHey Mike! Thank you for the shout out! I'm happy to hear you liked the duck fly. Sounds like you had a good time at the show. I definately did, my only wish was that there be another day of it, time flew by too fast.
ReplyDelete@Funcfish, Thanks man. You'll get em' next time.
ReplyDelete@Becker, I know. You've bragged to me about that dubbing at least 6 times ;)
@Mike - Thanks for stopping by. I'll add you to my blog roll. Thanks again for taking the time to talk about your flies.
Yeah, your guiding was fine, our catching was poor. Definitely some water I'd like to give another try. Had a great time hanging with you guys...even though I was totally lost when you started talking about music. Dug the chat in the driveway afterwards though. Good stuff all around.
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