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| "The Pearl" (Kelson), tied for Mike Radencich's new book |
There has been a lot going on lately, though very little of it fishing related, unfortunately. My wife and I sold our home and moved into a new one. With all the hassle of moving, I've only tied a couple of flies in the past month or two. Our new house has a pretty sweet tying room though, so I hope to be back in action as soon as the last of the major projects have been completed.
In between moves, I had high hopes of making a quick salmon fishing trip to Quebec, but low water, high temperatures and a general lack of time made it impossible for me. It turns out I didn't miss much during the time I had hoped to go, so I don't feel so badly. If conditions look good, I really want to make a quick trip to either the Cains River or the Margaree or River Phillip over Columbus Day weekend. My wife is not sold on the idea, to say the least! After a big move, and with our first child expected in January, another salmon trip is a tough sell. If any of you "old pros" have any tips (short of expensive pieces of jewelry), please let me know!
I recently updated the news and events page of my website. I am pleased to be back at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum's "Arts of the Angler" show this fall. The show is November 10 and 11 and is at the Ethan Allen Inn in Danbury, CT. Also, I have a couple of presentations scheduled on fishing for broodstock Atlantic salmon in Connecticut. Despite the crazy weather and high water last fall, I had a great season on the Naugatuck River. I was able to experiment with some different flies and techniques and it really paid off. I'm planning on passing on some of this info at the presentations in October and November.
Last year, I tied up some fly assortments for the Connecticut broodstock salmon season. It was a few of my favorite and most productive flies. I think most intermediate tyers could replicate the flies in the assortment at least well enough to catch fish. With that in mind, I'm considering offering a tube fly assortment this year instead. I know many local anglers aren't set up for tubes and, at least for me, there was a lot of costly trial and error that went into learning which materials to use, where to get them at a good price, non-North American tying techniques, etc. I can't imagine many local anglers want to spend their time and money learning how to tie tube flies like Temple Dogs and Shumakov-style tubes so, if there's enough interest, I might make up an assortment of a half dozen of my favorite tube flies. Please let me know if a tube fly assortment is something you might be interested in and I will get to work.
If there is interest in learning how to get started tying various tube flies, please let me know and maybe we can schedule lessons or classes this fall/winter.
Looking forward to cooler temps and fall fishing!