After work on Friday I hit the road again, this time headed to the Fly Fishing Show in Lancaster PA. I have not been to this one before so I was interested to see what it would be like. Lancaster is a neat old town to drive in to with it's narrow one way streets lined with all brick buildings. Row homes and shops interspersed, and an impressive number of people out walking around. Found out after the fact that they had an event going on so there were literally thousands of people around as I drove in at about nine Friday night. After checking in it was down to the hotel bar to meet up with everyone and catch up on the latest. After a bit Rich Strolis (Catching Shadows), Pat Cohen (Super Fly), and I decided that the microbrew Rich brought needed some attention so off we went. It was nearly two in the morning when we realized it was likely a good idea to rack out since the alarms would be only a few hours later.
This show is one that my normal table mate gets a full table to himself so Rich and I set up together and had a hell of a time cranking out big streamers. Rich was working on an order much of the weekend and I took the opportunity to tie up a few things that I have been thinking about and had sketched but not put to iron yet. I had been scheduled to teach a class on Saturday morning so my tag this time did not read just Tier, but rather Celebrity/Tier...very high class! We were set up across from Scott Hunter of Vedavoo. Scott is a good dude and started off as 'the new guy' with the standard crew we roll with at the shows. Scott makes some fantastic low-pro gear that is all hand cut and stiched right here in the US. My show tag was getting pretty beat up after the last few years so I snagged a much more snazzy one from him. If you have not seen his packs and pouches you should drop by his site and check them out.
The show on Saturday saw pretty heavy traffic throughout the day. As you can see some may not have stopped partying all through the night until coming in to the show. Not naming any names here Jim...
For months we have had reservations for an Irish Public House just up from the hotel that is reputed to be very good. After the show we put down some more of the Back East microwbews, which were phenomenal, and then headed over to grab some dinner.
This picture came out a good deal darker than I thought, but you can kind of see the traditional stone and high ceiling interior. It was a pretty busy spot that only got more so while we were there. We had plenty of Guiness as we waited for tables to clear for us and then proceeded to laugh our way through one heck of a meal. Just what we needed after a long day on the show floor.
Sunday I tied up a few more things that were in my head and I had materials for. This little bit of steelhead candy consists mostly of fox tail and EP Foxee Brush. I have to say that the Foxee Brush in both the large and small sizes is extremely nice and will make for some quick ties.
The Holohead from Misfit also made it's way on to some iron with this variation on a flatwing pattern. Sparsely tied in the front and a yak and flatwing tail made for some pretty nice movement in the tank.
After picking up a shirt from Jon Ray, of Mangled Fly Media, I owed him some mucky stuff so I repurposed this turbo popper head I hade put together and made a big muskie slider for him. Very interested to see how he does with this up in Michigan.
Rich had brought his tank along so we alternated flies throughout the weekend. At this point I had the Junk Yard Dog in the bottom tube for the day and realized I could put the Flypala up top. Needless to say plenty stopped to check it out as they were doing their thing in the current!
Here is another shot of the Flypalas that I did there. They were tied up just because I could and think they will be a blast to fish on some sinking line. Looking forward to watching the get pounded this spring up here and may also take them down to Florida to see about blind casting up some redfish and specks...
The aftermath at our table. Rich and I put some serious thread to hook and the clippings show some of the story. One more show to go stateside, next weekend in Warren Michigan, and then this seaeon is over and more time on the water...
-mike schmidt
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