Saturday

The show is going strong. The turn out is good, the seminars and isles are packed, there seems to be a lot of "business" transactions taking place. We also set up a tying table close to the theater which I think assisted with increasing traffic to that area of the hall. Now its time for a beer break, I mean lunch.
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last night

The show opened on time yesterday. With two presentors (Sara Sanford and Jeff "Bear" Andrews) under our belt, it looks like we have most of the bugs worked out. I took a lot of pictures with the SLR and will share some of them later.

Dinner was had at a "dry" pizza joint and was pretty ok, but not what were looking for. I feel a do over may be necessary.

Afterwards about a dozen of the usual suspects had set camp up in lounge and we enjoyed great conversations in spite of our obviously board cocktail waitress.
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Friday a.m. Setup

We arrived at Pheasant run hotel west of Chicago at around 1:30am this morning. We had a couple of beers and retired at 3am.

We were up by 8am and went to the local iHop for Swedish crepes. Set up went very quickly this time and we even have audio on our dvd recorder this time. I got to say some quick hello's to some friends I hadn't seen in awhile.

Now we are kicking back with a couple of brews before the gates open.

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Ready...get set...

So I stopped by the fly shop last night for a couple of items.  The boys were a blur as they were packing up stuff for the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in Chicago.  We are all hoping for a fun and successful weekend.  Last year we got hit with a small snow storm over Friday night through Saturday morning.  Looks like the forcast for this weekend is just cold and cloudy, I can deal with that.

The crew members "representing" our club, will be Mother Feiker, Andy, Anderson, and myself.  We'll be taking off tomorrow after work and I'm really hoping for easy traffic.  At this point, it sounds like our main duties to help Tom Helgeson out at Chicago expo will be setting up and running the "Fly tying Theater" and all the Audio/Video stuff that goes along with it,  possible assisting with the local fly Tying group(s) with the "Teach a kid to tie a Fly" program (I'll be leaving that for the others who know how to talk short-people speak), and making sure that the Audio/Video stuff works for each of the featured presenters as they swap in their own equipment.  

I'd like to give a shout out to my pops, who just had knee surgery yesterday and sounds like things went ok.  I wish him a speedy recovery!

A fly filled week.

It's been a busy week for me in Critter-world of it being the middle of winter.

Back on Tuesday night Jen and I participated in the open-tying night at the Fly Angler.  I think around ten or twelve people brought their vises and materials for their fly du jour.  Like many fly tier gatherings, the group was an eclectic bunch with varying backgrounds and specialties.  All were outgoing and very sociable and  shared stories, laughs, and even some impromptu teaching of tying tricks.  We had a great time and met a couple of people we hadn't seen before and was a great way to get out of the house.  For those who attended, there was also the added bonus of a 10% discount on fly tying materials for the night.  I'd like to give a special thanks to Mike Rolek for hosting the event, I look forward to the next open-tying night next month!

Then on Thursday the club had our annual business meeting where we elected new officers for the year, appointed volunteers for various committee chairs, and set a tentative schedule for the fly fishing outings.  The results have been updated to the Officers page of the club website for those who are curious.  My three year term as a board member has ended with the passing of the meeting, but I was elected to serve as club Treasurer for 2010 and will still be actively participating with the clubs business meetings.  Congrats to all the new Officers, and thanks to the past Officers for your contributions to the club in 2009.

On Friday night, after a long and mentally draining week at work, I had decided to do something about my frustration with not being able to remember off the top of my head, the web address to this blog.  Not a big deal for those of you who subscribe and get emails sent to you automatically.  But when trying to give it to someone who is interested, I needed an address that was easy for me to remember so that I can pass it around.  Well, I fixed that.  I bought a domain name for the year which cost me eight-whole-dollars at NameSecure.com, coincidentally the same company I use for the St. Paul Fly Tiers website that I manage.  Which I think was worth the money to squash out my frustration and embarrassment when people asked about my blog and I got the deer in the headlights look when trying to recall the URL.  People can still find me with the current/old address, but now I can be found at: critters-corner.com  and be redirected here.  Much MUCH easier than the http://critter-critterscorner.blogspot.com/ for me to remember and for others to write down.

On Saturday, I was able to finally attend the Screaming Chicken's annual Lie-N-Tie after several years of missing out for various reasons.  I had set this in my schedule back in early December, and am very glad I did.  We had a good sized group attend, many of them were members of the Wis Fly board, so I knew most of them, if not by face, then by their on-line aliases.  So it was good to connect the names with the faces.  The Screaming Chicken was a very nice gentleman who had a great "Man-Cave" for the event which was very cozy and visually stimulating.  We had five tables of fly tiers in the middle of a large wood heated building, surrounded by tons and tons of hand made bows, arrows, Native American style painted jaws and skulls, and leather & bead garments.  It was the Possum lodge meets fly fishing meets the Anchor meets Native American archery.  Stuffed animals such as raccoons, deer, and a full size standing black bear looking over us.  Then there was the tom cat who checked each of us out and returned to playing with one of the fly tiers squirrel tail it was so enamored with.  While tying we had the chickens and very vocal turkeys outside letting us know they were there too.  I have to say, I loved it all.  And of course the most memorable thing to me was the old Herters vise that one of the grand kids of Mr. Screaming chicken was tying on.  I think it was an early model as it looked to weigh a good ten pounds and of old-school metal work.  I got a little crap from the gang for tying so many flies this time and not chatting as much as I normally do.  I didn't think I was too quiet, I was just "multi-tasking" more than usual as I really need to get my fly boxes refilled for this spring.

Program Night at the club house: Scott Thorpe on Steelhead

Last night, we had a great guest who did a steelhead presentation, his name was Scott Thorpe.  He started with a brief but cool video of the Talaheim Lodge, which he guides for in Alaska and features Helicopter fly-out fishing.  When he is not guiding in Alaska, he can be found guiding in Montana, Minnesota or Wisconsin.  Initially an Architect, he left the profession four years ago to "get serious" about his passion for fishing.

Even though the roads were crappy (as my work commute was two hours to get to and from home instead of 45 minutes) we had a good size audience.  GOTTA LOVE STEELHEAD FANATICS DISREGARD FOR BAD WEATHER CONDITIONS!

Scott covered fly fishing tactics, ethics, a little history, and his favorite flies, areas along the Minnesota north shore and the Wisconsin south shore, stories from his past 40 years of chasing steelhead as a fisherman and as a guide, and the nuances of how steelhead are not trout.

It was a fun night and I walked away with a lot to think to about, as I am confident that Scott has forgotten more about fishing steel then I have learned so far.

Two soft-hackle wet fly patterns

Yesterday, while milling about in my fly tying room, I came across a scrap of paper with my chicken scratches and a crappy fly drawing on it.  The chicken scratches turned out to be a materials list for a fly pattern that someone at some point must have given me.  After doing a little research, the fly is a "classic soft-hackle" from way back before my time.  It is similar to a fly known as a "Blue & Black wet fly" even though there is nothing blue in it.  One deviation from the classical pattern is that I used a wire rib instead of tinsel, and I'm okay with that. I think it the would not have been as sleek looking and not every fly needs "flare."  If I were to tie some with tinsel, I would go all out and use either the silver holographic or red holographic that I have laying around.  The other deviation is that the one I tied here, didn't have the Golden Pheasant Tippet tail.

Hook: TMC 200, #12 - #16

Thread: Red Uni-thread 8/0

Rib: copper wire (small)

Body: Black dubbing

Hackle: Black Coq De Leon (I’m sure any black hen feather would suffice)

Note: I took the extra time to spruce up the fly by applying a coat of Sally Hanson’s “Wet & Wild” red nail polish on the thread head. Once it dried, I applied two coats of clear Sally Hanson’s nail polish.

The next fly I tied was based on the previous one and similar to the "Blue & Black wet fly," but I modified it so as to incorporate some of the new Golden Pheasant Tippet that I got for Christmas from Mrs. Critter. The Golden Pheasant Tippet was listed in the Black & Blue pattern.  I also substituted the black hackle for a Brown Speckled hackle.  I am sure if I researched a bit, that both flies have have a name.

Hook: TMC 200, #12 - #16

Thread: Red Uni-thread 8/0

Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippet

Rib: copper wire (small)

Body: Black dubbing

Hackle: Brown Speckled Coq De Leon (or other brown speckled hen feather)

Note: I spruced the head of the fly with the same steps as the previous fly.

I have not fished either of these patterns, but I tied up a dozen of them in two different sizes and I look forward to trying them out this spring.

My Wikipedia submission, gone bad!!!

Some of you have heard of me speaking ill of my enemy, the Snagasaurus*. I continue to speak ill of said pain in the ass and developed "Stage II" in my war against it.  "Stage I" was me bitching about it to anyone who would listen when I talked or wrote about it while sharing a fishing story. 

"Stage II" is launching a Public Awareness Campaign to educate and inform the public so that they know what and who this evil doer is through the use of our greatest on-line reference of the 21st century, Wikipedia.  I would like to give a special thanks to my Editorial Staff and Public Relations Consultant for this campaign, Mrs. Critter, who assisted with all the English mumbo jumbo formatting.

THE PROBLEM:  You will not be able to see it on Wikipedia as our submission was deleted within minutes of posting it.  The reason given was that "the information was unverifiable...and...can not use...for personal inventions."  I call Bullsh@#!!  I know many who have met this evil doer who have had terrible personal encounters.  Now that we know that the evil Snagasaurus has an insider at Wikipedia on it's payroll, I will have to find other means to disseminate information to the masses.  And for the record, Mrs. Critter is very upset with the henchman at Wikipedia after all her effort to figure out diphthongs (whatever those are) that she had included in the submission.



Mark my wordsssss Snagasaurus...bewarrrrre.

* the truncated and much less embellished definition from what Jen and I had before we were deleted: Snagasaurus is the entity below a water surface that causes one who is fishing to get hung-up on or even lose their fly or fishing lure. Usually there is no indication of its presence as it resides outside the victims (i.e. fisherman) field of vision. Frequent snagasaurus encounters can result in frustrating outdoors experiences as well as increasing the expenses incurred during and following the fishing endeavors.

Skinny Nelson

The Skinny Nelson

Hook: TMC 200R #20
Body: Black 8/0 thread
Rib: silver wire (small)
Thorax: two strands of peacock herl
Shell back: Pheasant tail
Tail: Pheasant tail

Griffiths Gnats

Tonight I noticed that I only had bigger Griffiths gnats that survived last trout season, so I tied up a dozen size 22's to fill that void.

Hook: TMC 100 size 22
Thread: 8/0 Black Uni-thread
Body: Ice Dub Peacock black
Hackle: Grizzley
Post: Black 'Float-Vis' (a high float material to help see the little bugger at dusk)

Christmas Unwrapped

This Christmas was a great one as far as a fly fisherman and fly tier goes.  I was fortunate to have received many nice presents that will be used for many years to come.  I also received (from my grandmother who passed away earlier this year) a nice family heirloom. 

Because of the weather, plans were changed and we decided to stay at my parents home for the weekend instead of traveling to see Jen's family like we had planned.  It was good time, we ate homemade Christmas goodies (Jen especially appreciated the rum balls and the truffles), I tied some flies for both dad and myself, football was on in the background, and the frozen lake was pretty to look at while the snow continuously fell. 

Our new goal now is to see Jen's family next weekend, even though there won't be as many there, I am sure it will be as festive and just as meaningful.

"Craft" project

So for lack of a better title, I have been working on a "craft" project the past couple of nights.  With inspiration from a previous post showing a picture I had taken of a fly I tied, it hit me that I could do better.  And since I had all the camera equipment to make that possible, I set out to see what others do.

I surfed and surfed and saw some themes of how people set up to take good pictures of flies and I built my own "portable studio."  The total cost of this project for me was $0.00.  I just happen to have all the crap crafty stuff I needed around the house to make this thing.

I grabbed a mid sized cardboard box and mutilated it with a razor.  The idea was that the object inside the box would be lit up by lights outside the box, hence the holes on the opposite sides and the top.

Then, I added the "deluxe" option to this project which was adding a piece of Velcro to the back of the box and to the back of various colored file folders.

To the bottom of the box I taped in some white ink jet glossy photo paper to reflect light back up to the bottom side of the fly.

I re-enforced the box with packaging tape and then covered the openings with two layers of that gifty tissue paper stuff.  Here now, is the set up.  The camera is a good distance away because the lense I am using is the Nikkor 70-300 with the Macro option.  So, unlike a normal macro lense, I needed a little distance before the vise and fly where in focus.

The other thing you will notice is the vice is in front of the box instead of inside it.  After a couple of hours of messing around with different positions of the flash and trying to get it to work with the slave flash, I had to change tactics.  I wasn't getting good lighting, or when I did a huge shadow would be cast upon the background making for a serious distraction.

Once I brought it out in front of the box, the shadow issue disappeared and I could adequately light the fly enough for a descent picture that could go along with a pattern description.  It's obvious that I'm no Jim Schollmeyer, but I have to start somewhere.

So here are some of the pictures that I did while playing around with this project.

 

 

 

A good weekend

Friday night Jen and I had a dinner date with Ben and Amy at a little Russian Restaurant called Moscow on the Hill.  It was pretty fun, the foods were good, the staff was fast, and several vodka shots tastings were had.  They had more choices of vodkas and specialty drinks then there are pine needles on a tree.  My main entree was a pork dish with apples and almonds inside it, and it was very flavorful.  Jen ordered a salmon fillet with dumplings on the side.  She raved about the dumplings.  I tasted the salmon and thought it was the best I'd ever had in the Midwest.  The appetizer was very good as well, it was a smorgasbord of things, and surprisingly, we all were digging the beat salad the most.  I' would definitely do it again.

Saturday morning Jen and I ran around picking up the house a little, wrapping presents, and last minute shopping.  Ben stopped over after his shopping was done for the day, and we set up to tie flies around the kitchen table for the next four hours.  We did take a brief break with a quick visit to the Fly Angler down the road, as I needed some more hooks and beads for the pattern I was tying.  We just plain enjoyed the day, a couple of cocktails (our friends bourbon, spiced rum, and crown paid us a visit), tied a few flies, had Christmas music on in the background.  Later on in the evening I did some consolidating of my many random post it notes listing flies to tie and made a consolidated list that was more manageable to read then my various chicken scratches on yellow squares.  Overall, I'd call that a good day.

Sunday we didn't leave the house.  I made a hearty breakfast, we paid some bills, spent some time  on both the wisflyboard and then on the Flytyingforum websites, opened our stocking stuffer gifts to each other, and then I was back to the fly tying bench with football on in the background and VH1's top 40 videos of the year.  Inspired by a fly pattern I saw online today and by the theme of the flies I'd been tying the past week or so, I came up with a neat pattern.

Hook:  TMC 3761 #12
Thread: 8/0 Olive Uni-Thread
Tail/shuck: 2 strands of pearl accent flashabou
Body: Ultra-wire green (size brassie) and Ultra-wire copper (size medium)
Thorax: Black UV Ice Dubbing
Hackle: Hen English soft hackle

A Cold Tuesday Night.

I made it up to the Fly Angler tonight for their first Open Tying night of the winter.  Several of us showed up and we pulled up a chair and our sense of humor upstairs in the middle of the rod shop.  We had a variety of flies being manufactured from Gotcha's, to soft hackles, to the Ultimate Meat Whistle Fly.

Some of us ordered delivery from Jimmy Johns, and they delivered speedy-quick!  I did my part to support the night by purchasing some 8/0 red thread as mine kept breaking a little to easily and must have been a bad spool.  Oh, and I bought a fly rod on my dad's behalf for this coming year.  I had two choices for the price range he was looking at, and I of course, I got the more expensive of the two.  But I won't tell him that and only charge him what he thought he wanted to spend.  He is getting a 9' 4-piece 5-weight Ross Essence FS fly rod with a soft case and rod tube.  I thought it was a fair deal, and added that to my spool of thread.

Later this week or next I will double check the extra 5wt fly line I have, and if it is good I will spool it on one of my former Orvis reels.  I just need to remember he is a south paw and to have it spooled backwards for him.  I think he will like the set up.

We tied from 6pm to 8pm and it was a great way to spend a winter night.  Tying with buddies (and The Jen who showed up with her glamorous haircut, fresh coloring, and big curls), terrible karaoke to the radio, and talking about future fishing trips (real and fantasy) to come.

Article

I know I've been slow on the posts lately, but I've been busy with the holiday activities as I am sure many of you have been.  I came across this article that may be of interest and thought I would share it.  The name of the article is "Waters quiet but deep for Montana angling icon- so the Lilly legend goes" and it was found on-line at http://www.greatfallstribune.com/.

Enjoy, and maybe I can take some pictures of the flies I've been tying to post here in the next couple of weeks.