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!

Busy Time!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! You would think this would be the dead time of year for somebody obsessed with fly fishing, but man, I have been super busy! Leading up to January 1st I had a medium-sized fly order I needed to finish for Lund's Fly Shop in River Falls, Wisconsin. Lund's is one of the best fly shops I have ever been to, and I am not just saying that because they sell a bunch of my Scott Hanson designed flies. And I also am not just saying that because they advertise here on the ol' blog, although neither of those facts hurt...

Some of the flies I tied for Lund's Fly Shop. Go there and buy some!

In the days since I finished that order I have taken on a new task. I am working on the photographs that will be accompanying an article I am sending in to Fly Tyer magazine. I have sent Fly Tyer several articles in the past, and they have even published two of them, so hopefully they like this new one I have written. As always, writing the article turned out to be far easier for me than getting usable photographs. Cameras and all their technical what-have-you's tend to drive me a little crazy. I am almost done, though, and hopefully all of the photos I send in will work for them. Wish me luck!

This photo is just to prove that Fly Tyer has actually published some of my articles...

After I get the article done I will have to start in on another, much larger, order for Lund's, which will be due on March 1st. I also have a fairly substantial order for a private party who has hired me to tie several dozen dry flies in the 22 to 24 size range. I, myself , never fish with flies so small, so hopefully the finished flies turn out OK. I am of the mindset that small flies catch small fish, but I am also of the mindset that the customer is always right, so if he wants small flies, small flies he will get!

Along the way my Beginning Fly Tying classes start in St. Paul in February, (Click Here To Get More Info), and right after that I will be teaching the same classes in Forest Lake, MN (Click Here To Get More Info). After that the local Fly Fishing Expos start, and the Film Tour happens. Or is that vice versa? Oh, and don't let me forget I have a wife and 4 kids to tend to! Or is it 5 kids now...? I can't remember. Oh well, they're all asleep, so I better get back to tying flies.

Fly Focus: Pink Scud

If you are fishing in a quality trout stream, there is a good chance that some scuds live in it. And, as a general rule, trout love scuds. And who can blame them? They are essentially like little freshwater shrimp, and we all know how good shrimps are, am I right? Oh man, I could eat about 50 plates of shrimp scampi right about now... That's probably why I am 30 pounds overweight...

Mmmmm, doesn't this scud look yummy?

There are a lot of scud patterns out there. My favorite is the tried and true plastic bag version, which I learned about 25 years ago or more. I call it the plastic bag version because a thin strip of a plastic zip-lock style bag is used for the shellback. It's cheap. It looks good. And it's an effective fly. What more could you ask for?

Let's learn how to tie a pink version of this scud pattern, shall we?

Pink Scud Pattern Recipe

Hook: Scud hook in size 12-16
Bead: Black or copper, sized to the hook
Weight: Lead wire
Thread: Orange or pink, 8/0 or smaller
Tail: Pheasant tail fibers
Rib: Copper wire, size small or Brassie
Shellback: Strip of plastic zip-lock style bag
Body: 50/50 mix of pink Ice Dub and pink or orange rabbit fur

New Flies!

Hey, I just updated the Store page here on The Riffle, and added a ton of new flies you can buy, plus our stickers are now on the Store page as well. Just click on the My Store tab up on the top of the page, or click this link right here to go to the Store and check it out. Yay flies!

A Tough Day

I learned about Eagle Creek a few years ago. What I had learned was that it’s a trout stream that flows through the town of Savage, MN, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. I had also learned that Eagle Creek was the site of a big brouhaha between conservationists and developers back in the day, with the conservationists coming out on top. Now there is a wide corridor along the entire length of the stream in which nothing can be built. 

Our first look at Eagle Creek.

Bryon's fly choice to start out with.

My buddy, Bryon, and I went down to Savage to check it all out. What we found was a very small trout stream flowing through a tangle of trees, weeds, and brush that didn’t look like it had seen many fishermen recently. The stream looked like it had had some habitat improvement, as it was narrow and deep in some spots and had undercut banks that looked very fishy. The problem was that it was so small. I could step across it in many spots, and where it widened out it was too shallow to hold any fish. Despite the fishy-looking spots, it was almost impossible to get into position to make an accurate cast without snagging some weeds, getting caught on the backcast, or spooking whatever fish there were. At least the water was nice and cold, because the air temperature was hot! Overall it was a pretty miserable experience, and no trouts were caught. Perhaps we will go back to Eagle Creek again in the Spring, so there won’t be as many streamside plants to deal with.

No fish yet, but at least my new floppy hat was keeping me shaded.

Since our efforts at Eagle Creek went unrewarded, we decided to check out the nearby Credit River, which supposedly supports trout in some areas, and for sure is supposed to have a healthy carp population in others. Where we stopped the river was very low and clear, and there was no sign of any piscatorial life whatsoever. Strike 2.

So we worked our way over to the Vermillion River. The Vermillion is known to hold trout; rainbows are stocked near the town of Farmington; browns reproduce naturally throughout the rest of it, although not at real high numbers. We fished right in Farmington, and in a couple of hours the only fish we saw were some big ol’ carp finning slowly in one of the deeper pools. We would have happily fished for the carp, but they were hiding out in a jumble of downed tree limbs and overhanging branches. Strike 3.

The fishing was bad, but the casting was great with my T&T Heirloom glass rod.

A fishing report without any fish is pretty weak, so we did stop at a local lake on the way home to catch some bass and/or bluegills. Bryon caught both, but my terrible luck continued, at least for a while. Finally I caught one little bluegill on an orange wooly worm. After that I figured I might as well quit while I was ahead. It was a tough day!

Bryon with a sweet backcast.

Orange Wooly Worm