Caddis pupae patterns

Found this great material for nymph bodies. It's great material and super easy to use. Here are some Caddis imitations I have created. It also takes marker really well so you can customize as you wish. You can get it the materials here:

http://www.myflies.com/Nymph-Skin-P1031.aspx

News and update

It had been a while since I last posted. There have been a lot of things going on lately. One of the most exciting recent news is that I have been accepted to the Deer Creek Pro Staff. I am so excited by this. Their products are outstanding. Make sure you check them out. 

 

 

I have also been busy with a lot of shop orders. Here is some of what I have been tying lately. 

These flies are some custom died hackle with a gray body and wood duck wings for a guy that will be fishing Big Pine Creek in Northern PA.

Warm water prep

Here are some flies that I make sure that are always available in my fly box for warm water fishing.  As you can see I started with some popper production. 

Then I started the job of painting them and then finished them off with a little fox for the tail and then wrapped some hackle.  You should always have some yellow, olive, chartruese and black when you are going for smallies.  I am trying red this year too.  Will have to see how they all work.  

 

Then I moved on to replentishing my clouser patterns.  They are always fun to tie.  I am trying a couple of the clousers with rabbit strips.  I am really anxious to see how they work.  I like to have at least the gray/white, chartruese/white, and fire tiger (green/yellow/orange) in my box.  I added a few extra colors with the white/red/white, and brown/orange.

 

Never leave home without a few crayfish patterns.

 

 

This year, I added a few Hammer Head Croakers.  These subsurface frog flies have produced well for me when chasing large mouths and catfish.  I want to see how the smallies react to them this year.

Cicada Hatch

Since there is a lot of talk these days about the cicada hatch, I thought I would try my hand at a few of these to see what this hatch is like. Well here are my ties. If you have any interest in either of these styles, let me know. I would be willing to sell some. 

Replenishing fly boxes

Things have been crazy lately as spring time rolls around. There have been a lot of people thinking about what is empty in their fly boxes and so have either been ordering through MyFlies.Com or have been visiting their local shops. Fly shops have been contacting me for flies to replentish their supplies and clients have been trying to fill their empty slots in their fly boxes. Here are some of the most recent orders that have gone out the door.

Chain Gang Stonefly




Chain Gang Hares Ear



Loopty Loop




Chain Gang Pheasant Tails




Y2K & Tellico Nymphs




Yellow Stonefly dries





Spirit of Pittsford Mills





Brown Beacon And Loopty Loop

Tie One On

Today was the Tie On One event that was held at Woods Creek Grill. It was an awesome day of tying and listening to tying presentations.

The location was great. It was the first time I was ever at Woods Creek Grill. They have a unique menu. You can get anything from elk chili, to alligator, and even rattle snake. There was one guy that tried the rattle snake. They have a neat way of presenting this entree. I had a cup of the trouder(trout chowder). This was an item on their special menu for the day. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There were a lot of great instructions presented on how to tie a multitude of patterns. Anything from eggs, nymphs or streamers. There were a lot great pointers on how to make each pattern better.

It was nice of everyone to make me feel good about my presentation. I have never struggled through my pattern as much as I did today. I think I snapped my thread at least twice, I fumbled through my talking and I had to borrow a white shirt cause no one could see the fly against my dark shirt. Besides this I had fun doing this presentation for the first time. Hopefully I can become a better speaker if I can get rude of my nerves of public speaking.

I want thank Tyler Frantz and Josh Ott for hosting such a great event. It was a great time and I look forward to doing this again and meeting you guys along the stream sometime soon.

Fly Fishing Show - Lancaster

I was tying this weekend at the Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster PA. This was the first I did this for this show. I had a blast. I met some great people that stopped by my table and also talked with the other great tiers that worked the show. These shows have so much to offer. If you engage the people at the stands they always seem so willing to share some great info. You can learn a lot from them to enhance any aspect of your fishing needs, whether it be for casting, tying, and other things. If you get any chance to attend these shows I highly recommend it. Plus it gets you out of the house and thinking of spring!

I did a lot of tying my chain gang stonefly. There was a lot of questions about this pattern from how to fish them, how to tie the bead chain on, etc. I had a great time discussing these answers to these questions and hopefully those guys can enjoy this pattern as much as I have.

Boutonnière

I received a unique request this week. A lady asked if I would be willing to design a fly for her wedding. They want a fly to wear as the boutonnière for their wedding. She provided me with the colors of the tartan he will be wearing. He does a lot of muskie fishing, so I came up with a design using some green, blue and some gold flash. I thought it looked great. As well as she did.

Kids tying designs

I had some fun this weekend with some time with my kids as they wanted to do some tying. So I took my Ice Magic pattern and gave them their choice at any color they wanted. I thought they came up with some pretty cool color combinations.


My son chose red tail, orange body, grizzly hackle, multi colored wing and red shoulder.

My daughter chose blue tail and shoulder, purple body, orange hackle, and red wing.

Dave Shenk tying event

Last night was the first annual Dave Shenk tying event held by the Donegal Trout Unlimited. Dave just passed away this fall in a tragic accident. Donegal TU dedicated the evening in his memory and are making it an annual event.

It was a very enjoyable evening. We watched a video that he was working on to provide instruction on one of his patterns that he created. Then they broke everyone into groups to watch a couple different tiers demonstrate their patterns. I was one of the presenters and got to meet a lot of good people.

I also broke out my new fly display for the first time. It worked great and I got a lot of nice compliments on it.


I hope to be asked back again next year.

Conestoga 4/29/2012

I went out on the Conestoga River to do some more exploring and try to find some more water I can take my son to fish safely. A friend was showing me some good spots. It was a clear blue sky and outside temps were just great for fishing. We riffle hopped trying to find some cooperative fish. I only found one that was willing to cooperate. The water temps were still really cool. It only reached mid 50's. I think it was just a bit cool for them to be too active yep. And it seems like it is pre spawn yet here even though we have had such warm weather and low water conditions.

I guess I should have had a different fly box with me. This is a warm water stream but we were seeing some large cahills. They looked like size 14 or even size 12. To my surprise the bass were taking them off the top! I guess I should put a few cahills in my warm water box for next time!

I only got one bass, but it did come on one of my new streamers. It was the darter pattern I posted recently. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera available but it was a nice healthy 10+ incher.

Orders

I didn't have much time to do anything but fish lately.  There have been a few orders I have worked on.  A couple of fly shops have needed to restock and here are a few of those that went out in the mail.  Out the door goes a bunch of Zebra midges, some purple soft hackles, and a batch of Y2K's.

Donegal spring show

On Saturday march 10 I attended the Donegal spring outdoor show. This is a great event to attend. There are all kinds of vendors from fly tiers, material vendors, reptile rescue ( which seemed popular as they were holding the alligator and snakes out for people to touch and experience), guides, kayakers, rod makers, bowyers and more. This event supports the Donegal Fish and Conservation Association. They do some great work educating kids on conservation, stocking a stream for a kids fishing day, modifications to Donegal creek, and lots if other great things.

I was able to meet some great people at the show. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table!

Sculpin Swap

I signed up to do a sculpin swap with a bunch of other tiers.  So this weekend I sat down and tied up my group of sculpins.  This was a new pattern for me so I am anxious to fish them and have the others fish them to get their respons on how well they fish for everyone.