Great Waters Expo 2019

One of, if not the, biggest fly fishing events around these parts is the annual Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in St. Paul. This year's event is happening on the weekend of March 15th-17th at Hamline University near the State Fairgrounds.

Photo courtesy of Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo

For several years I have spent the weekend tying in the Fly Tying section of the event. Essentially I tie flies all day, let the event attendees watch me do that, hand out my Blog-related SWAG, and chit-chat with people about fly fishing and fly tying. When I am done with a fly I usually give it to someone who has watched me tie, so even though I put in a lot of hours of tying, I usually finish the weekend with the same amount of flies I started with. Not that I am complaining; I am happy to do it if it helps get people interested in the sport!

This year not only am I going to be tying all weekend in the Fly Tying section, but I also was asked if I wanted to put on an actual presentation in one of the theater/showrooms. My hands and tying tools are going to be projected up onto a big ol' screen so everyone can see... Better get myself a manicure beforehand! Check out the full list of Presenters, including me, HERE!

My presentation is titled Highly Adequate Parachute Flies and Other Stuff. It's at 3:45PM in Presentation Room B, wherever that is... Hopefully I will find it before my show starts.

A typical parachute fly, adequately tied by yours truly.

I will be demonstrating my patented techniques for tying parachute hackle for dry flies, along with some other crazy techniques I have learned over the years. It should be fun. If you have a chance, stop on by!

For more info on the great Waters Expo, go HERE!

Rod Love LIII: Wonderod

If you hadn't already noticed, I named this Rod Love post in honor of the 53rd Super Bowl that recently took place. Whenever the Super Bowl comes around I have to choose which of the two teams I am going to root for, because my team, the Vikings, are never in it. OK, they have been it, four times actually, but not since I was 3 years old. And I wasn't a football fan when I was 3, so I can with all certainty say that I have never seen the Vikings in a Super Bowl. Since they again were not in it this year, I decided to root for the Rams. I am not a big fan of the Rams, but they are far easier to root for than the hated Patriots, so I chose them. Now that the game and the season is over, I will turn my attention towards next season. Go Vikes!

Enough football talk! This is a fly fishing blog! Let's get on with the rod love, shall we?

Well, I did it again. I went out and acquired yet another Shakespeare Wonderod. I have owned several over the years, but for some reason I always seem to sell them. It's not that I haven't liked them. I just always seem to find something else that I think I will like better. This time I found a mint model #1245, a 6'6" 5wt "Panfish Special", and it is sweet! It was a good deal, so I couldn't pass it up. The cork looks like it's never been touched. The blank is still nice and white, unlike some Wonderods that turn a sort of yellow with age. The wraps are all good. And the ferrule is snug and pops nicely when taking it apart.

I haven't actually taken it out to give it a test cast yet, you know, because it's the middle of winter and I pretty much live in Siberia. But I can already tell that I will love this rod. It will be a perfect panfish and brook trout rod. I can't wait until spring!

Look at how clean that cork is!

The "EAL" on the blank is the date code. This one was made in November of 1960!

This part of the label is the only thing that isn't perfect. But what do you expect with a 59 year old rod?!?!