Final Winter fly tying class

 Well, I must say I am a little bummed as I write this because this is the last of the 6 week winter fly tying classes. The past six weeks have been a fun and informative time hopefully for everyone. I know it was for me. We will get a week break and then go right into the Smallmouth class. I am really looking forward to that as I think that class will be a blast. 


 The Tuesday class came full circle with the Catskills style Adams. We dressed it up a bit with the use of McFlylon for the wings. We used red to make the pattern a "high-vis" version of the original. Everyone did a great job as the results were impressive.


 Lets take a look at some homework first.  

A nice selection of Caddis flies from Dale Y.

You can really see the "sighter" on these.

I wanted to share this picture with everybody. This is Andrew's fly box. It was empty when we started the class 6 weeks ago as Andrew just started to tie. I have often said if you come to class, embrace the instruction,  do your homework, and you will have a nice selection of flies to start the season with. Well, I think this picture says it all. Looks like Andrew will be ready once Trout season gets into full swing. 


Great Job!   

Here we see Terry doing the intro to the class. 

Here we see the McFlylon wing being applied to the hook. We used white in the class, then Terry did another fly later with a red wing. We were really digging the red! 

As we progress through the fly the body was dubbed and the hackle was wrapped. Everyone really did a great job with this fly. The Adams is not the easiest of ties and we are proud to say the guys nailed it. 

And here is the final result with the red wing. Tying quality dry flies is an art form in my opinion. Terry did a great job, as always with this fly, it is a pleasure to watch a great tyer tie a clean fly. 

If we had any doubts about how much the Wednesday class liked the "hatch' class we did last week all we had to do was take a look at the homework. Everyone did a great job and brought in some really nice flies. Lets take a look. 

Some of the flies Jim S tied.

Here are some flies tied by Paul R. Love the dubbing ball on top.

We had a few requests to do a "Weave" class again this year. That was awesome for me because I love tying woven flies and was excited to teach again. The first pattern was a Polish woven Caddis Larva. This was a repeat of a fly we did last year, I figured that would be a good way to knock the rust off. The second fly we did was a variation of a fly called the Cary Special. We used the Pheasant rump feathers, but substituted the body with a split knot weave. Lets take a look at some of the guys in action. 

Brian Mac and Dave S getting ready to tie. Note the embroidery floss hanging from Brian's light.

 Terry D and Chris set up and ready to start the weave. Gotta love when 3 bobbins are hanging off of the fly! 

Here is the second fly ready for the Pheasant rump collar.

Here are the completed flies. The Polish woven Caddis on top and the Cary special variation on the bottom. I had a blast teaching this class, Thank you for allowing me to do it. 

Spoon flies were the theme for the Thursday night Saltwater class. We did  two flies with two very different types of construction. The first one was the wire epoxy method. For this fly you tie a piece of wire on both sides of the hook shank at the bend. You then attach the wire at the hook eye making the shape of the spoon. The space is then filled up with epoxy. The second spoon was constructed by pressing an old metal spoon into a blob of Silly putty forming a mold. You then place the hook in the mold, fill up the space with your favorite UV resin, hit it with the UV light and you have a simple, effective fly. Lets take a look at a few pictures from the class. 

The guys getting ready. Look at that plate of Zucchini bread in the middle! The Tuesday and Wednesday classes should take notice of this. 

Here are the mold products Silly Putty (really, the same stuff we played with as kids) and Crazy Aaron's thinking putty. www.puttyworld.com Note the Loon UV clear in the back round. 

UV mold on the left and Wire / epoxy on the right.

  We would like to thank all of the participants in the winter classes. We hope you had as much fun learning as we did teaching. These were some of the strongest classes we have had to date and we owe that to you, our valued customers. 


Thank you all!