Edging closer to the halfway point with May in the books.  Last week’s rain blew all our rivers for the weekend, so I buckled down and knocked out a few flies for my box.  Pictured here is the Skagit Fly Wheel I picked up from Cameron over at The Fiberglass Manifesto.  Pretty sweet!

May 26 - Galloup’s Zoo Cougar

May 27 - Kraimer’s DH Baitfish (Laser Dub variation)

May 28 - Johnson’s Bougill

May 29 - Misc Sculpin Pattern

May 30 - Tommy Lynch’s Triple D (Single Hook variation)

May 31 - Casey Smartt’s Glass Minnow

June 1 - Mega Woolly Bugger

I did something a little different this week and linked recipes for the flies I could find them for.  Hope that helps you guys out!

I’m not really happy with this pic.  I forced myself to use my DSLR tonight but couldn’t quite get it to do what I wanted after messing with it for an hour and a half.  Sometimes you just have to throw in the towel to fight another day.

Bottom to top:

January 20 - Ostriceiver

January 21 - Finpusher.com’s Provo Hooker

January 22 - Tommy Lynch’s Drunk and Disorderly Remix:  Shad Rap

January 23 - Lefty’s Deceiver

January 24 - Brad Bohen’s Hangtime Optic Minnow

January 25 - McKnight’s Home Invader

January 26 - Feather-tail Murdich Minnow

I did things a little different again this week.  Having trouble kicking the streamer habit.  Some of the materials I have on the way aren’t going to help, either.

From left to right:

January 13 - Nick Granato’s Death Dog

January 14 - Thomas Harvey’s Legs for Days

January 15 - Brian Wise’s Articulated rendition of Legs for Days

January 16 - Death Dog, redux

January 17 - Garcia’s Rojo Midge (bottom)

January 18 - variation of Galloup’s Sex Dungeon

January 19 - Thomas Harvey’s Trophy Wife

Here’s the week one recap of my previously mentioned Fly-a-day 2014 project.  If you’ve been following along on social media, you’ve seen all this via iPhone photo (which sucks most of the time for flies.)  I wanted to do them justice with at least a point and shoot photo, as I’m hoping to get better with my photography this year.  Two birds, one stone!

January 1 — Rusty Rat

January 2 - Simply Cree Mayfly

January 3 - Lunch Money Sculpin

January 4 - Mike Schmidt’s Junkyard Dog

January 5 - Whitlock’s Deep Minnow

The idea was to have recipes to go with these, but that’s pretty time-intensive.  I’d be happy to share them on request, however.  Just let me know here, Facebook, or wherever.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, folks!  I hope you all had a great holiday season.  It was definitely a busy one for me, but I was able to spend it with family and friends, which is a big plus.

I have some cool stuff in the works for 2014.  If you’ve been following my social media at all for the few days we’ve had this year, I’ve been posting a fly each day.  The plan is to keep doing this daily through the year.  In case you miss any of them, or don’t have any social media accounts, then I’ll have a recap here with recipes every Monday.  Just a little something regular to start your week off on the right foot.

I’m trying to diversify my tying this year and get out of my comfort zone a bit.  Since I mostly fish warmwater with a smattering of trout, that’s typically what I tie.  I’ve already got some cool steelhead materials on order and plan on playing around with some flatwing streamers and classic wets as well.

If there’s any particular pattern you guys want to see tied, just ask!  Thanks for reading and hope to have some pictures up soon.

Mr. Wise goes behind the camera this time.  I really dig this fly.

Money Bugs: The Panty Dropper

Installment number one in our new fly-tying mini series produced by vise master Brian Wise.

Mr. Wise drops another video for us peasant rabble.  The name makes me snicker.

This fly is awesome, but that front jig hook really looks nice.

Costa Rica Bound

I’ve been prepping for this trip for a couple of months.  I’m not known to be a light pack, so here’s the menagerie of fishing stuff that’s coming with.  2 8 wts and a 10 wt should get the job done.  Lots of tippet and leader, several lines in the floating and sinking variety, a Boga, stripping basket, and some good pliers.

And LOTS of flies.

The Bugger Beast is full of various baitfish patterns that I’ve whipped up, and I have separate boxes for shrimp, crabs, and topwaters.  I’m bringing it all.

I’m really going in not knowing what to expect.  The beach I’ll be on looks good.  I’ll have access to a kayak.  The weather looks to be superb.  Here’s hoping I come back with some fish pictures to share.  I’ll see you guys in a week!

We knocked out another fly tying vidya at the shop today.  Behold the Spanflex Midge.  Easy and effective.

One Night, One Film, One Colorado | The Greenbacks

I’m sure you heard about the recent floods in eastern Colorado.  It’s something that’s going to take years to recover from.  These good folks are showing a new, kickass movie and donating 100% of the proceeds to the Restore the Range fund.  If you’re in the area, I’d highly recommend checking this out.  It’s for a great cause. 

One of the greatest fly fishing movies I’ve seen yet.  I hope you’ll check it out.

Sorry it’s been a touch quiet around here.  I’m not a speed tyer by any stretch, so I’ve been working on my first big batch order that’s heading to another fly shop.  It took me more time than I expected to knock these guys out.  Not sure how the pros do it day in and day out, but I’m pretty proud to have a fly shop like Gruene with our patterns available.

Gruene Outfitters in New Braunfels/Gruene will be carrying a nice selection of warmwater and (soon) trout flies that I’ve hand a hand in cooking up — including my Llano Critter that’s really been stomping fish most of the year for me.  They picked out a nice array of colors — a few on the natural side and also some brighter colors (the Easter Bunny scheme that is the second from the right is a personal favorite) that tend to fish well in the late fall.

If you’re in the Central Texas area, stop by Gruene Outfitters next time you’re in the area.  The Guadalupe is already fishing great for bass, and should start to transition into its wintertime trout fishing by Thanksgiving.  Other rivers in the area are fishing well also, especially with the recent rains.

I’ll be headed out to Oktoberfisch tomorrow morning early.  If you’re around, come by our shop’s booth and say hi.  I’m planning on kicking back and doing a ton of fly tying in preparation for my Costa Rica trip.  T-minus two weeks…

GRHE (Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear) variation – Lucian Vasies | | Hatches Fly Tying Magazine

Lucian gives his take on a GRHE, with the usual stunning attention to

Cleanest GRHE ever.  What a great looking fly!

Check out Brian Wise's take on a very sweet sculpin pattern — Nick Granato's Articulated Chubby Muffin.

Here’s a video we just spun up at the shop.  Simple deer and foam popper pattern that it very effective on our local fish species down here.  Tie some up and enjoy!

We had a great time in Colorado.

Fly-munition Tying Contest

The basic 5 w’s… WHO: All fly tying enthusiast. WHAT: A fly tying contest- the AirborneAngler.com “Fly-munition”. See additional info below. WHEN: Submissions must be post marked NLT (no later th…

Head over and check out the fly tying contest over on Airborne Angler.  Runner up will be getting an assortment of flies from yours truly!

Just a couple more days until I get back up to some cooler air in Colorado.  Sounds like the water situation is a bit different this go around.  We shall see how the fish respond!

Hackers Suck

As you can plainly see, things are looking a bit differently around here lately.

Late last week my Wordpress site was compromised.  I do have a backup of it, but whoever decided to get their jollies by messing with my site did a damn good job, and there’s not much left that is usable.

So, I’ve been rolling around a redesign in my head for a while, so now is as good of time as any to get it cranked out.  I’ve had the site up for almost six months now.  When I started this, I wasn’t really sure where I wanted it to go.  I have somewhat of a better idea now.  I decided to move over to Tumblr as it’s a bit easier to work with.  I got in my own way messing around with Wordpress — I’m not a techie guy, and Tumblr is simple and les me do what I want to do.

I’m working with a buddy to get a sweet logo mocked up and probably will make a few other changes to the layout, but I’m fairly happy with the color scheme and basic layout at this point.

I’ll be attempting to get some of my favorite posts back up, and I’ll probably let some just drift off into the ether.  Some of it was junk anyway.  Look for more ramblings and crappy photos soon!

Thanks for reading.  Back to our regularly-scheduled program!