The last four days was kind of like Christmas for me.

The last four days of the Great Waters Expo was kind of like Christmas for me.
To keep things from getting long winded on this post, I will just note my highlights from the week, so as to not bore ya too much.  So hang on and here we go!

A year ago, at the expo I was not really enjoying it as much as I could have.  With the weight of having been informed that my department was being off-shored and I was to be out of a job soon, having my DVD player stolen at the expo, and wrapping up all the mess that was involved in replacing the engine in my truck, I was having a serious bad streak that was beating me down.

With that in mind, we flash forward a year for the 2010 expo, I am in a different place.  A happier and more appreciative place.
 
Thursday:

• Thursday night at the club, we had a great presentation by Jeff "Bear" Andrews from Michigan on fly fishing for Labrador Brookies.  The photos and the stories had me dreaming of going on such an adventure.  In support of Bear (and my want for a fresh lesson) I purchased one of his fly tying DVD's on tying trout flies.
• Thanks to Andy Fiskness's hard work, we also got our hats and clothing back that night with the new club logo embroidered on them so that we would have them for the expo.

Friday:

• Greg Meyer gave me a nice display piece of driftwood that I can use to display my flies on when I do tying demonstrations.  It's very cool!
• Mark Tibbetts brought his 105mm lens for me to use to see if I like the results in regards to my macro fly photography.  I can't wait to set up Critters Fly Studio and start snapping a few pictures to see what happens!
• The Fly Tiers gang had supper at a nice Italian restaurant, called Biaggi's, that was way too good and way too filling and way nice atmosphere.  I HIGHLY recommend it as a must try for anyone needing a night out.

Saturday:

• I scored three dry fly capes for the price of two.  I only intend on keeping one for myself, and donating the other two as raffle items for our club presentations.
• Then, from the chicken pimp, I scored four nice sections of cock feathers, each different colors, for use as hackle that will be suitable for 18 - 24 flies, along with two hen necks.
• My buddy Jeff Kennedy and artist, came up to me on Saturday morning as I was set up doing some fly tying demonstrations and asked for one of my flies, so I gave him one of my Spruce streamer flies and he headed back to his booth to paint it.  He painted up a very nice water color portrait of it then returned the fly to me along with the water color painting.  I was very shocked and VERY grateful for the gift.  I have purchased some prints of his work in the past along with his recent book, Drawing Flies 365, and to have an original painted by Jeff of a fly tied by me...well that's something I just can't describe in words.  Wow.
• I found a nicely made 4wt Pennington bamboo fly rod that felt very good and is going to work very nicely on about half a dozen streams I know.  Not to mention that both Steve Pennington and his wife were extremely nice and wonderful to talk to and talked a little about his home waters in Northeastern Iowa.  The feel was right, the price was right, and now, I am in need to find the right reel for it since I bought it home.
• Another bonus was that I had several opportunities to socialize a bit more with another tier, Bill Heckel, whose flies and personality I really admire.  A Really nice guy, with some illustrative and funny stories involving his friends Lefty Kreh and Dave Whitlock.  He also was nice enough to tutor me on a technique to improve a problem I was having with the wings of a fly I was struggling with, which worked instantly to improve the quality of the flies I that I was tying at the show. 

Sunday:

• We started the day with breakfast at the french restaurant across the street.  I normally get their awesome eggs Benedict, but this year I chose to deviate from the tradition and ordered their French Crepes made with salmon and dill.  It was very good, but something that would have made a better dinner then a breakfast as it gave me strong salmon breath.  I'd do it again as there was no need for lunch after that.
• I was able to take a breath from the show and go to two hour-long seminars.  One on fishing the Timber Coulee, a river I want to get to know more about since my last encounter where I had an epic battle of man vs. trout, and the trout won.  The other seminar was actually not a seminar but a open forum workshop for those looking for help with writing and publishing.  I found it very interesting and wished that we could have had an additional hour for the discussion to continue.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell.  I hope everyone that attended had a great time, it appeared that everyone from the club that was volunteering was having a good time.  I think this was the first year that I wished that the expo would have gone on for one more day.  Usually I am completly worn out, this time, I was energized by it all.   

So as promised, I won't get into all the other sub-stories to keep this post short. Time to kick off the socks and grab a beer.

Minneapolis Great Waters Fly Expo

So last weekend was the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in Minneapolis. Other than myself being in out of sorts most of the weekend with so much on my mind as of late, the show was a fun one.


The club had great representation at the show. We had members volunteer their time in many areas. There were three banquet tables where people could come and sit down, and with hands on teaching, learn could learn to tie Woolly Buggers. This was the second year the club did this and it was a big success. A huge thanks goes out to those who took on the teacher role for that. We had a Membership table for those interested in learning more about the St. Paul Fly Tiers, and we were able to get our name out their to new people. We had a designated booth set up to allow selected members of the club to tie two at a time and demonstrated how to tie various flies; from trout flies to bass flies and things in between.


Then their was the Fly Tying Theater. This was a place for notable key fly tier's like Kevin Feenstra, Kelly Gallop, Denis Potter, and others to tie flies in front of a large audience, hooked up to a PA system and a video camera to show what they were doing on a big wide screen television. There were several sessions where all the seats were filled and had others standing to watch and learn.


Finally we generally kept tabs on Fly Tier's row where local tier's were able to set up a spot, tie flies, share their knowledge, talent, stories, and even a few laughs. I'd also like to give a quick shout out to my peeps of Laughing Trout!


I had a nice time talking to many familiar friends, and new ones. It was a more relaxed show, people held longer conversations then what I have had in the past, there was genuine interest rather than the quick hi-bye conversations, and the weather for the weekend was very "spring."


A couple of highlights were, 1) sharing drinks and cigars among old and new friends. I'd like to say thanks to the very friendly and funny TFO Representative (I think his name was John) who shared his Baccarat cigars (I kept the label as I really liked it) and smooth Kentucky Woodford Reserve bourbon. 2) The traditional Breakfast at the Hotel Sofitel where we spoil ourselves with things like eggs Benedict or crab cakes Benedict and as always, Ursula was there to add her unique flavor of friendly customer service as usual, and 3) I enjoyed a nice social dinner at Kincaid's in Edina. Any place that has that many choices in high end liqueur, mounted trophy Elk and Deer Racks with trophy fish, and Professional Wait Staff, is 5 stars in my book. Oh yea, the fantastic appetizer spread along with the Salmon entree was excellent as well. They were presented in a way that the Iron Chefs on the Food Network would have approved. I especially appreciated that my friend Peter was able to join us along with Bob White. Many stories were shared and laughs had.


I did tie some flies myself at the show. I decided to tie up some tube flies for some yet to be found hungry bass. I was asked by many what the the advantage of tube flies were. Well, I have found there to be three reasons, 1) you can use shorter shanked hooks to decrease the leverage a hooked fish would have in the fight, 2) the fly itself pops out of the way when a fish is hooked, thus allowing for less wear on the fly to lengthen it's usefulness, and 3) they have origins rooted back to the Scandinavian countries of my family heritage (kind of a connect to your roots thing for me). And there you have it...tube flies.

So now that the expo season has wrapped up, and the Sportsman's Warehouse tying event has been cancelled, it is time to shift to the preparation of fly fishing now that the Wisconsin catch & release season is underway.

Wishing Tight Lines to everyone in 2009!

Kiap-TU-Wish Banquet night

With the plan in place, Jen and I left work a little early so that we could get over to the 3M Tartan Park for the fundraising festivities put on by the Kiap-TU-Wish Trout Unlimited chapter. We stopped in for a beverage at a local tavern as we arrived at Lake Elmo a little early to 'chill out' since we beat the rush hour traffic. I was a little worked up in the car ride about some crap going on at work.

We had a nice time, saw a few people we knew, bid on a few items in the silent auction, indulged in some of the products of the event mixologist. The folks at the 3M facility presented a fabulous dinner and desert. Several Awards were presented to some of the chapter members for all the work they did and their successes they contributed to on the chapters behalf. Awards presented were the Silver Trout Award, a couple of Lifetime Achievement awards, and the first ever Golden Net Award. All were awarded to very deserving people. This chapter knows how to get work done when it comes to environmental restoration! It makes me proud of how much can get done with grass roots organizations who can partner local businesses, government officials, land owners, volunteers, and 'the right people' not loose site of their original mission.



The presenter of the evening was a former Architect that found a new path in life. He talked about his past two seasons as an Alaskan Guide that operates out of Helicopter fly fishing camp. Lots of photos of fish porn, landscapes, icebergs, and lots of bears. Very interesting fellow that I could listen to for hours.


The night was wrapped up with final bids on items, and drawings for various bucket items. I lost the bid for a neat book by Gary LaFontaine that had a lot of fly patterns and Jenny lost out on the one of a kind hand-made .999 silver leaf necklace that Sarah made. This is becoming a trend as we have pretty much lost out on anything that Sarah has made by one bid over the past several couple of years. It's kinda funny, but I am gonna have to wage war on the next item she puts up for bid for charity, I swear!


I was the highest bidder for a nice Orvis Fly box from Fitgers in Duluth, MN that had "60 Pretty Good Flies" tied by Perry Palin. Very trout tasty looking flies, I can't wait to try some of them. I also won a second silent on a different fly box that was made of wood and laser inscribed with the Umpqua Feather Merchants logo. Inside it contained 24 flies hand-tied by Bob Mayrand. Also a nice selection that I will be trying out. And yes, I also won one of the raffle items I bought tickets for. It is a 1st edition book printed in 1939, with the receipt of purchase from London. The book itself published in Soho Square, London and the title is Nymph Fishing for Chalk Stream Trout which was donated by Al Farmes. Thanks guys, for everyone for your donations to the auction, I will greatly enjoy your contributions. This has put me in the Holiday mood and I feel good that the dollars we spent tonight are going for a GOOD cause AND being leveraged by GOOD people.


Now...to start saving for the Twin Cites Trout Unlimited Banquet. :)

For a good cause...

Jen and I drove into work today with plans to cut out about a half an hour early so that we could drive over to Bob Mitchells Fly Shop before it closed today. This was our only shot to meet the donation deadline with our busy schedules being what they are and the shop's store hours being what they are. The purpose of this was to drop off a couple of float tubes for the Kiap-TU-Wish Holiday Conservation Banquet. With a few minor slow spots in the drive over, it was pretty smooth sailing and we made it over before the shop closed. The event takes place next week on Dec 4th (details can be found on the Kiap-TU-Wish website), and I always look forward to this event every year. It's fun hanging out with friends, meeting new people, and raising money for a good cause. Last year we won a bid for one of Bob Whites prints that had contained three of his images he created along with three flies he tied on nicely matted picture frame.