Uh, just hold on a second there professor....we fixed the glitch

It seems the glitch in the platform has been resolved and I can finally post pictures again from my desktop!  It was getting a little thin around here since typing about fish and flies without pictures does not exactly make for a must see. 

Last night I finished up the four week Advanced Tying class held at Mad River Outfitters here in Columbus.   In the first class I let them all know that week four would be whisky week...if I like them.  If it says anything about this group I brought in two different bottles last night!   I tailor the tying classes to people that take them so in this class we did two nights of large streamers, one steelhead night, and one saltwater night...and had a blast!  The guys were bumming that there was only one class so I will have to talk to Brian about getting another class together in the coming months rather than waiting for next winter.  It was a joy spending Wednesday evenings with these guys and looking forward both to further classes and hitting the water with them.

Just to get back in the groove of some fish porn I offer this White River fish.  Brad Bohen, the man behind Musky Country Outfitters and Primo Tail, took a break from his presentation trail to stop off and throw some flies on the White River in Arkansas.  He teamed up with ACF friend and customer Brock Dixon and hit the water.  They put in some hard time and were rewarded with this solid brown that made a meal of a tan and yellow Voodoo Squatch.  Awesome stuff guys!

With mee getting back to normal and caught up, and pictures being able to be posted again, things should be getting back to normal around here.  I should have a large batch of flies knocked out by the end of the weekend, so the picture should be pretty sweet!  Until then...

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Evidently still glitchy...

I would love to wow you with pictures of flies and fish but evidently the platform is still a bit glitchy and I am unable to upload pictures right now.  Over the weekend I tied up an army of meat to hit the mail tomorrow and have quite a busy week coming up between the class at Mad River Outfitters and heading to Jersy on Thursday for the Fly Fishing Show at Somerset.  Hopefully by the time I get back the glitch will have fixed itself, but in the meantime check out the shots at the Anglers Choice Flies Facebook page.  Catch you soon.

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Back in the saddle for 2013

Well, it has been a rough few weeks but I am back at the vise.  The flu had a heavy grip on me but finally feeling better.  I posted a picture to Facebook earlier tonight of some recent work and will be hammering away at flies every waking moment for the forseeable future.  I appreciate yor patience if you have flies on order and will get them out as soon as they are done, and if you emailed and have not heard back from me yet then I should be in touch within the next day or so. Tuesday will be the second week of the Advanced Tying class at Mad River Outfitters, this week will be saltwater patterns.  I hope to have pictures from the class and the vise coming soon!

-mike schmidt
www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Thank you for 2012!

Thanks to all of the ACF customers support 2012 has been an amazing year.  Shows and workshops took me all over the eastern side of the country, as did the search for fish.  There were a few flies fine tuned and released to go along with the old ones, and more in the works.  2012 saw the continued explosion in the popularity of streamers and the educated fish kept us tinkering at our vises like junkies to get our next fix.  I could not name them all but guys like Strolis, Lynch, Granato, Grajewski, Senyo, Schultz, Bohen, Kelly, and Cohen all played a part to push the envelope for bigger, badder, and more realistic imitations to get the predators moving...it has been an exciting time to be at the vise!  I am putting this post up a few days early as I will be out of town for a few days through New Years to recharge for a few days with my wonderful wife.  When I get back to town I will be back at the vise hard and transition in to the heart of show season.

Next year looks to be another exciting year for ACF.  There are a few streamers that are in the works and should be ready to go in the next few months.  This coming year I have added a few shows so will be out to TCO in State College for a streamer workshop, as well as Lancaster PA for a weekend show and over to Sweden in April for their show as well...and maybe swing up an Atlantic...

Thank you all for a truly amazing year and looking forward to catching up over the next year.

Back to the vise and the blog January 3!

-mike schmidt

www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Junk Yard Dog

Here is the new addition to the Anglers Choice streamer lineup, the JYD...Junk Yard Dog.  It is just shy of six inches of meaty streamer goodness.  Despite the size the fly is nearly weightless thanks to the mono dumbell eyes from Clear Cure Eyes.  The tail consists of marabou, polar chenille and fox tail while the front hook is just marabou, fox tail and Clear Cure Eyes.  The hooks are of course Gamakatsu as they are the stickiest hooks out there.  This is a streamer designed to be fished on full sinking line to get it to depth.  Once at depth the bulk of the head allows you to vary the retrieve, anywhere from a fast jerst strip all the way down to a gentle dead drift twitch, while still maintining profile.  This thing casts like a whisper and hooks like a jackhammer.

The fly will be offered in the six color combinations shown here.  Front to back they are as follows:  Tan, Cotton Candy, Yellow, Black, Burnt Orange and Olive. 

-mike schmidt

www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Inherent danger associated...?!?

Jake Ruthven, from Fins on the Fly, asked for some help recently after being given some troubling news.  He is a high school student that has to this point been active in his Fort Collins schools Fly Fishing Club, but that seems to be going away.  About two weeks ago the Fort Collins school district informed them that it was cancelling the Fly Fishing Club and prohibiting any further meetings from commencing due to the “Inherent danger associated with the sport”.   Let that sink in for a minute.

Let’s leave aside for a minute what I would say are extreme examples of high school clubs out there; things like flying, ski racing, trap/skeet shooting, rock climbing, boxing, mountaineering, archery, sky diving.  If you are just looking at standard sports and clubs that schools sponsor and participate in nationwide is there a disparity in danger that made this fly fishing team a target?  Are you telling me that fly fishing is ‘inherently more dangerous’ than football, baseball, hockey, lacrosse, or even cheerleading?   I am certainly not going to say that there are not risks involved in the sport of fly fishing, but I would suggest that when care is taken those risks are at a minimum….virtually non-existent in most cases.   If this is truly a liability issue that the school system is looking at then one would think that there must be a way to mitigate that through some sort of waiver…right? 

Clubs like this give the students a chance to make friendships that will last a lifetime.  It gives them an opportunity to learn a set of skills to apply and further themselves in a sport they enjoy, and one they need never outgrow.  It gives them a reason to be outside and active rather than sitting on a couch and eating crap food while ‘plugged in’ to the latest game console for the bulk of the day.  It teaches them responsibility both for themselves and for the environment that they are stewards of through our great sport.

 Would the school district be willing to reinstate the club with beefed up waivers to indemnify them against legal action?  Do they require that a faculty member be present or sponsor the club, so perhaps this was a casualty of an out of balance budget? Could they implement restrictions to make the risk acceptable...for example wade only or fishing in pairs?  Could the students proceed with the club on their own, either informally or as a non-profit, and use the school bulletin boards simply to recruit members?   Obviously these are not questions that I can answer, but it gets you thinking…what are their options now?

Reply back here or on Fins on the Fly if you have any ideas or suggestions, or email jake at  jake_ruthven@hotmail.com.  It would be great if we could find someone that had a similar cancellation of a sport and what it was that they pursued to get that sport back.


****UPDATE***  Good news I just heard that there is a workaround in place so the club is able to continue to meet with some restrictions.  Jake was able to work with them to get to this point and hopefully they will be able to get a full resolution in place!

-mike schmidt

www.anglerschoiceflies.com

Family and flies

It has been a crazy busy year and December has been no different. Worked extra time last week so that I could make it up to Detroit for my family Chrsitmas with the wife, brothers families, and Momma ACF.  This year we got up there and hung out with the nephews until bedtime on Friday then relaxed with a cocktail as we planned out Saturday.  Saturday started off with a fantastic breakfast and then we were off to the Detroit Zoo.  It has been quite a while since I have been there and one of the new exhibits is the polar bear and seal  enclosure with it's underwater area...really amazing.  As we walked up one polar bear was playing around in the water but by the time we got down underneath he had left the water.  We did get to hang out for a bit dow there though with the seals swimming laps around us.  I think that this time of year is perfect for the Detroit Zoo as there was absolutley no crowd anywhere vs the standard shoulder to shoulder we would have had to deal with a few months ago. 

One unexpected guest we had was the two-toed sloth in the rainforest exhibit.  This particular exhibit is a large enclosure with a plank path, but nothing separating you from the forest critters.  As we made our way through looking at freshwater rays, tortises, and birds there was suddenly a wide eyed look from my sister in-law as two dagger like claws slowly appeared no much more than a foot behind my wifes head.  She noticed the look and immeadiately sidestepped away before turning around to see the sloth hanging out where she had been standing and getting ready to munch down some leaves.  It was pretty cool to be that close to it and we were told that it is extremely rare that he comes out during the day as he is very shy. 

We did of course have to get the standard prarie dog shot!  It was a fun day and even more fun night as we spoiled the nephews with some pretty cool toys then spent the night playing with them.  It was great to spend the time with the family and just enjoy being together as it does not happen very often.  Sunday morning it was up and back on the road headed south to get back to work.

One shot I recieved from last week was this Cotton Candy eating brown from Steve Dally out on the White River in Arkansas.  They have been after the fish out there and reaping the rewards.  That river has an amazing number of large streamer eating browns and we are just now getting to the time of year where the streamer fishing will be sick for the next four months or so.  Definitely worth the trip out if you can get there!

A few of Tommy Lynch's Drunk and Disorderlies for the box.  Can't wait to get back out with these funky streamers and make them do the shuck and jive for some monster browns!

A fun order last week was for a local angler that loves to fish the Mallard Minnow.  His daughter in-law contacted me as she was unable to find them anywhere and heard that I may be able to help, and a few days later they were ready to go.  Flies tend to go in cycles and this is one soft hackle streamer that fell out of favor to the point that fly companies stopped producing them seven years ago or so.  It is a solid pattern that will produce fish and easy to tie.  Start with a 4XL streamer hook, wrap down a dozen or so wraps of lead, then secure a mallard flank to either side of the shank and finish with a smooth head.  I hit the heads on these with Clear Cure Goo Hydro to make sure they were glossy finished heads and no chance that a fish tooth takes them apart.  I do believe he will be surprised for Christmas and happy to have enough mallard minnows to keep him in fish for quite a while.

A few Voodoos headed to the south to see about a fish.

This is about a normal load each morning for this time of year.  Off to the Post Office they went with postage already taken care of as there is no way you will get me to deal with those lines!  More flies being knocked out this week to get out and looking forward to relaxing with my fabulous wife for Christmas.  Catch you all soon!

-mike schmidt

www.anglerschoiceflies.com