Charlie S
03-18-2012, 10:10 AM
It's taken me a bit of time to digest a lot of what I saw and experienced at this great show. So many talented fly tiers in one place. It ran two days in Albany, OR, and if you ever get the chance to get to this event you won't regret the time and effort.
I spent a lot of time watching various well known and unknown tiers ply their art. They ranged from trout fly experts to classical salmon fly artists to realistic fly builders to salt water fly builders....so many ideas floating around, new techniques being developed, new materials being displayed and used. With almost a hundred tiers at each session it was impossible to spend much time with all of them. I was kind of like a grazer at Costco, going from place to place to sample the wares. I picked up some great ideas and techniques, saw some new materials (to me), and met a bunch of really fine people.
Spirit River has come out with Tungsten Thread in super fine and fine diameters. I have used this with great success. I used it to tie some very small nymphs (#22 and #24's). This thread/wire can be half hitched but cannot be whip finished. It adds a significant amount of weight without bulk, a great advantage with small flies. I finished the flies with regular thread but tied most of it with the wire.
At the show there was a lot of new materials on display by various vendors. The use of UV materials looks interesting. I picked some up to try in trout, steelhead and striper patterns. We shall see if it is as effective as advertised. I also found some nice spey fly materials, as could be expected as you move further north from California, and also some tube fly gadgets I haven't seen before (but I'm also pretty new to this method).
As I said above, if you can make this show next year, do so. It is inexpensive to get in ($5) and there is no charge for parking. The area is convenient to find and the people running the show are fly fishers and interesting in doing the very best they can for everyone involved in fly fishing. This is NOT a typical fly fishing show that has a commercial bent and objective.
I spent a lot of time watching various well known and unknown tiers ply their art. They ranged from trout fly experts to classical salmon fly artists to realistic fly builders to salt water fly builders....so many ideas floating around, new techniques being developed, new materials being displayed and used. With almost a hundred tiers at each session it was impossible to spend much time with all of them. I was kind of like a grazer at Costco, going from place to place to sample the wares. I picked up some great ideas and techniques, saw some new materials (to me), and met a bunch of really fine people.
Spirit River has come out with Tungsten Thread in super fine and fine diameters. I have used this with great success. I used it to tie some very small nymphs (#22 and #24's). This thread/wire can be half hitched but cannot be whip finished. It adds a significant amount of weight without bulk, a great advantage with small flies. I finished the flies with regular thread but tied most of it with the wire.
At the show there was a lot of new materials on display by various vendors. The use of UV materials looks interesting. I picked some up to try in trout, steelhead and striper patterns. We shall see if it is as effective as advertised. I also found some nice spey fly materials, as could be expected as you move further north from California, and also some tube fly gadgets I haven't seen before (but I'm also pretty new to this method).
As I said above, if you can make this show next year, do so. It is inexpensive to get in ($5) and there is no charge for parking. The area is convenient to find and the people running the show are fly fishers and interesting in doing the very best they can for everyone involved in fly fishing. This is NOT a typical fly fishing show that has a commercial bent and objective.