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: Rusty Spinner

I used to beat my head against the wall trying to match the midge hatch that was obviously occurring around me on trout streams throughout the Upper Midwest. It was usually around dusk, I couldn't see any bugs on the water, yet there were fish rising consistently everywhere I looked. I tried every midge imitation I could find, because what else could it be?!?!

Rusty Spinner, Size 16

I'll tell you what it could be, and probably was all those times that I was getting frustrated. It was probably a mayfly spinner fall, is was it was. I finally figured that out one evening, fifteen years ago or so, and once I switched to a mayfly spinner imitation, I started to consistently catch fish. What a fun breakthrough that was!

Mayfly spinners are fairly easy to tie. I like to use a goose or turkey biot for the abdomen, and dubbing for the thorax. But you can use dubbing for both. Or any other number of materials. For the wings I prefer antron yarn, but other things like poly yarn, hen hackle tips, and organza can work well, among other things.

For a while I liked to tie the antron wings spent, like a normal spinner, but then also add an antron post and a parachute hackle for visibility. That is an added dimension that can be frustrating to tie, so now I have gone back to the spent wings-only approach. Some people add a little piece of yellow foam over the thorax for visibility. That can be a good idea, since spinners can be difficult to see on the water's surface.

Here's how I tie them:

Rusty Spinner Pattern Recipe

Hook: Tiemco 101 or other straight-eye dry fly hook, size 12-24
Thread: Brown or rust, 8/0 or smaller
Tail: Mayfly Tails, dun
Wing: Antron yarn, white or dun
Abdomen: Goose or turkey biot in rust, brown or tan
Thorax: dry fly dubbing in rust, brown or tan

Fly Focus: Female Adams Parachute

I love to tie a lot of Female Adams Parachutes, but I'm not really sure why. If you aren't familiar with a Female Adams, it's pretty much just a regular old Adams, only with a little yellow egg sac on the back end. I don't know if it actually looks like a female mayfly to the trout, or if they even notice the little yellow egg sac. Maybe they do. If I was able to think like a trout I probably wouldn't be typing this right now, because I most likely wouldn't have fingers. Let's just assume they do, and I will continue to tie them. Sounds like a plan to me!

Female Adams Parachute

Hey, I will also teach you how to tie a Female Adams Parachute. What a guy, huh? You can tie them in pretty much any size, but I usually tie mine in 14s and 16s. If you get much bigger than that, there aren't that many mayflies of that size around here. And if you get much smaller than that, the egg sac gets so small that you might as well just tie a regular old Adams.

All of the Female Adams I have ever seen have had a yellow egg sac, so that's what I am going to tie. I have seen a bunch of mayflies with orange egg sacs, though, so you could probably tie them in that color scheme. And trout seem to like pink, so you could probably tie some of those, too... just remember what my boss at Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop always used to say, "There are no rules in fly tying!"

Let's tie one, shall we?

Female Adams Parachute Pattern Recipe

Hook: Tiemco 100 or any other standard dry fly hook, Size 10-22
Thread: Gray 8/0 (or Red 8/0, if you like that look, like I do)
Tail: Brown Mayfly Tails
Post: White Antron yarn
Hackle: Brown and Grizzly rooster, sized for the hook
Egg Sac: Yellow dry fly dubbing
Body: Gray dry fly dubbing