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.

Name that sculpin

 I am drawing a blank when it comes to naming this fly pattern. This sculpin design has been performing very well for everyone that has fished it. So the next step is to give it a name. Please pass along your name ideas.

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.

Kermit

Here are some Kermits that went in the mail recently. Enjoyed tying this trusty old pattern.