Opening Day of Fly Tying Season

[IveofIone]

November 1-the day after the general season closure and the official opening of the fly tying season-and it was a dandy! Yesterday I got the snow tires on my rigs and everthing outdoors buttoned down, tarped up or stowed away. Today with a winter storm warning on the horizon I got the snow blade on my tractor, cut up some logs for firewood, burned 2 big slash piles and did the final grading on the driveway before the snow comes. Wilth 10 cords of split firewood on site and hundreds more in the forest, keeping warm and snug won't be an issue no matter how cold it gets. This year I couldn't even give away firewood but maybe next year I can con someone into coming up and helping me thin some trees and haul off some firewood in exchange for some guided fishing.

After lunch, a shower and a nap, I awoke to find that winter had arrived while I was nodding off. The ground was white and it was snowing steadily. At last! No matter how sick of winter I get by March I am always excited to see it appear again in November. The dogs got pretty excited about it too, running and skidding in the white stuff and jumping up to catch snowflakes with their mouths.

Back in the cabin I have started using a heavy roll around table with a butcher block top to set my fly tying station on. I have a large industrial grade halogen lamp attached to it and can roll it right up against my La-Z-Boy and tie while I watch ball games or fishing shows. This is working extremely well as I can tie a fly or two and then kick back for a few minutes. It takes a lot of the tedium out of both tying and watching tv. I have already completed over 5 dozen flies and haven't even been to town for tying supplies yet. It looks like it will be a productive winter. I hope to do a lot of river fishing next year and in particular try my hand at the Polish nymph fishing method. I am tying some unusually heavy flies for this using tungsten beads and lead together to get the flies down in a real hurry. In addition I have been taping the PBS program -The Anglers Art- every saturday and getting some good ideas from that. Along with some DVDs of fly tying I have more new ideas than ever and am pretty fired up to start next season with my best compliment of flies ever. That is going to be bad news for some of those Okonogan trout next May!

Delightful dubbing to all of you tiers, it's only 29 weeks until opening day! Ive

[Roper]

I was just thinking I should reorganize my den (tying area included) and get my stuff ready to do some serious work. I have several blanks to build and Red Ivans to tie... ;)

[SpokaneFisherman]

This year I couldn't even give away firewood but maybe next year I can con someone into coming up and helping me thin some trees and haul off some firewood in exchange for some guided fishing.


I just might take you up on that. Of course it is a year away, so you'll have to remind me next Oct. :beer1:

[jessejames]

Ivan:
Maybe sometime this winter when the cabin fever is starting to get to us we should have a flytying day for the Eastsiders. We could meet at my house I have enough room for 6-8 tyers and flytying vices. I could get my wife to make some of her famous beef stew and a pile of biscuits. We could swap patterns, "tie one on" and tell fish stories. Maybe with this approach I could "bribe" you enough to get that bloody carey pattern. :D
jesse james

[IveofIone]

Jesse, For steaming hot homade buttermilk biscuits with butter and clover honey I will sing like a bird! Sounds like a good deal to me. Ive

[Flyn'dutchman]

You guys must be getting soft. Rocky Ford fishes great all year long. Winter is great, the weeds go away.

[Dan Soltau]

The "Fishing Streamers for Trophy Trout" is a great video. I doesnt go over tieing, but it goes over some cool patterns. I ave been tying ons of ptreamers of late and I have some sweet patterns that I might post pictures of on the site. Where are you on the east side?

[IveofIone]

Dan, I'm in Ione-almost in Idaho and almost in Canada. Ive

[jessejames]

There are 4 or 5 of us eastsiders laboring in obscurity over here on the dryside. Most of us live south of Iveofione about 90 miles in a little known village of Spokane. Over here the weather is cold the fishing crappy and there are no steelhead either. Don't Believe pwoens and his pictures of the metal heads he says he catches in the Grande Ronde those are actually old pictures when he used to fish in the Sky. :rofl: :rofl:
jesse clark

[Old Man]

It can't be pictures of the Sky as I sent him directions on how to get to the river and he(PW) still got lost. Must be a good photo shop cut. :rofl: :rofl:

Jim

[Bob Triggs]

I keep everything in a big pile of rubbermaid containers. I spent the past month house sitting a friend's place,pets, and nursing a bad cold/pneumonia for the whole month. So I tied flies and listened to jazz and tried to not get upset over the lost time, elections etc. Every time I do a housesitting gig I unpack the flytying stuff, set up the table, arrange the speakers on the radio, turn on the light and start spinning bugs. That's a great way to use the time. Kind of like a meditation that carries you through everything. Back east in New England 1/2 of fly fishing is tying, since we get frozen in mnay winters, and there is a closed season on many waters there all winter. Your story reminded me of the long winters back home, and the cozy warmth of a woodstove, and all of the flies I tied back then.

[Old Man]

I was gonna sit down and tie up a few but I got to looking at what I have and said you don't need anymore. I'll probably die before I use what I have now. I have all different colors of W/B's plus the ones I conned a few people out of. And the same on dries and others. The ones I like to use I can't tie as I'm to fumble fingered so I just buy them. And that Red Carey that Ive showed me at Ropers. I tried to do one but it looks like hell. I could practice on it for ever and it would still look like hell.

Jim.....Who would rather buy them than tie them :(

[IveofIone]

Jim, I know how much you hate to fish lakes so I am not sure why you would need any Blood Shot Careys. But if you do I would be happy to send you a handful of carefully tied certified BSCs. Right now I am low on natural pheasant tail as my bird hunting buds have not come through this year. You probably remember that the BSC is pretty pheasant tail intensive and with the number I give away in a year and what I lose I always seem to be short of pheasant.

During my fall trip to Okonogan I caught 19 fish over 16" in about 5 1/2 hours of fishing. 15 of them came on the Carey.Once the morning light reaches a certain point in the sky fish just come out of the woodwork to hammer that thing. They must pick it up from a long way off as many of the strikes are really violent. I fished it primarily on 3X tippits this year and didn't have near the breakoffs that I was getting with 4X. Biggest fish with it this year was a hell for stout 24"er that went over 6#. Send pheasant, Ive

[WT]

Great Post! For a moment there I felt like I was back home in Eastern WA. I myself am still in denial about the end of trout season. I'll give the Yak a few more chances, maybe hit Lenice once more, and I may even try for some summer runs yet. But the days are coming soon when I spend more time behind the vise than on the water.
I wish I had a fireplace though.
WT

[Old Man]

Ive,being that it is tied on a streamer hook,I don't know why it wouldn't work on skinny water. The one and a half I tied up I will try it out next weekend and I will let you know how it did. One doesn't look too bad but one does. :(

Jim

[pwoens]

Over here the weather is cold the fishing crappy and there are no steelhead either. Don't Believe pwoens and his pictures of the metal heads he says he catches in the Grande Ronde those are actually old pictures when he used to fish in the Sky. :rofl: :rofl:
jesse clark

exactly.....no one believe me....there are no steelhead over on this side of the state....its way better over on the east side....not worth the drive over here...and the fishing is crappy....so, I suggest you stay over there. :p

Old Man.... :p

Ive...lets get a gathering going...

[IveofIone]

Patrick, I'm all over the gathering idea. Come up with a when and where and I'll show up if the snow isn't too deep. I'll show my favorite lake patterns and for starters you can do those Killer Cronies that we knock the crap out of the cutthroats with. I tied some tonight and they are starting to look pretty decent.

Also, try emailing here at home again. I don't think any of your emails have ever gotten through yet no one else has ever had a problem. Could be they are being intercepted by the Border Patrol-the place is crawling with them up here! Ive

[SpokaneFisherman]

Also, try emailing here at home again. I don't think any of your emails have ever gotten through yet no one else has ever had a problem. Could be they are being intercepted by the Border Patrol-the place is crawling with them up here! Ive
Ive,

Don't take it personal cause the same thing seems to happen to me. Every time I talk to Patrick he has some excuse about losing my number or my email. What Gives Pat? When I do get a hold of him he's always got something smart to say about me or my fishing abilites. :rolleyes:

[Zen Piscator]

trust me there are steelhead, trust me. I acaully caught 7 last week. Crazy fluke, i didnt think our local rivers had 7 steelhead to there name. I am in exeptence that i will not see a steelhead for the entire rest of the season, it very well could turn out this way. Anyways, i have yet to give. Im gonna bundle and and hit a local area tomorrow for 8 solid hours! If i can still feel my fingers after im done, i will be satisfied. The river is up from 80cfs to alot more, so we shall see if fresh metal comes in tomorrow. Knowing my luck, most likey not. I am totally game for a tying session for eastern WA. maybe we could work a half day of fishing into it or not, whatever works.

Peace,
Andy

[mike doughty]

No such thing as opening day, it fly tying season year round for me.

[pwoens]

I am trying to acquire the shop for a roundtable session. What days during the week work best for everyone? And what timeframes?

Kevin ... the attachment is for you :p

[jessejames]

Patrick:
When I came up with the idea of a flytying get together for the east siders I thought we would do it later in the year or even in January when the cabin fever "boogins" started to get to us!! My thought was at my house because I have a place that could accomadate 8 or so tyers. We could get together on a Saturday or Sunday hang out and tie some flies have a mini-swap and eat some of my wife's great cooking. A middle of the week gig wont work for me at all. Some of us have to work M-F. :thumb: If any of this sounds like something you-all would like to do we could do it earliier in the year. sooner rather than later. Iveofione, Spokanefisherman, Pwoens, others?? check in with your comments...
jesse clark

[pwoens]

Patrick:
When I came up with the idea of a flytying get together for the east siders I thought we would do it later in the year or even in January when the cabin fever "boogins" started to get to us!! I was kind of thinking once a month would be cool but whatever works for everyone else?? I have been kicking around the shop idea with a few people for a little while now and I think either way we will be having a gathering there to tie on occassion.

My thought was at my house because I have a place that could accomadate 8 or so tyers. We could get together on a Saturday or Sunday hang out and tie some flies have a mini-swap and eat some of my wife's great cooking. I have no complaints about this at all. iagree the cool thing about the shop is we have every material possible in case we need something. Plus we have the big screen and all the tying videos you could ever want at our disposal?? PLUS all the patterns in the shop for ideas.

A middle of the week gig wont work for me at all. Some of us have to work M-F. :thumb: If any of this sounds like something you-all would like to do we could do it earliier in the year. Im game for whatever everybody else wants. I think JeffW and LotechJoe would be interested also.

[SpokaneFisherman]

I am trying to acquire the shop for a roundtable session. What days during the week work best for everyone? And what timeframes?

Kevin ... the attachment is for you :p

Thanks Pat I was trying to find that exact same emoticon for you! I'm starting to like you better already. :thumb:

Patrick:
When I came up with the idea of a flytying get together for the east siders I thought we would do it later in the year or even in January when the cabin fever "boogins" started to get to us!!

Jesse I don't know if that qualifies as the "Boogins", but here we are 5th of Nov and Pat is already mooning me! :rofl:

BTW, having enjoyed your wife's wonderful cooking, I'm game for either your place or at the shop. Heck, I might even be able to secure us the lodge here at the BTL where they film the exceptional outdoors program 'Columbia Country' :rofl: :rolleyes:

[jessejames]

Patrick: I think this sounds like the best of both worlds. A monthly evening session at the fly shop, maybe Wednesdays Thursdays?? and then later a Sat or Sun longer event with food etc at the Clark house. Lets get started on the monthly thing soon I am ready. I know a couple of guys that may be interested...
jesse
P.S. It does look like you need some counseling! Mooning Kevin and its only a couple days in the tying season!!!