New GFP Website Launched for November's Event

UPDATE: Since this post was original written, there have been more sponsors added with more prizes to raffle off and give away! Please check the official site for more details. Sign up on the mailing list to keep updated on what's going on!

Announcing the new www.GuysFliesAndPies.com website!

The new www.GuysFliesAndPies.com website has been created to promote the November 15th 2008 Guys, Flies & Pies fly tying event that is open to the public. Remember, we have 3 fly rods that we will be raffling off and there will be door prizes and pizza and drinks provided!

April 26th Review

This month Guys, Flies & Pies turns 1 year old.

We had a small group tonight, 5 guys. We had 2 of us year long members, and 3 new guys. One new guy was Tom and he picked up things quickly. He just started tying this week and hasn't gotten much more than a few hooks and a vise. So, we showed him tonight how to use a bobbin and some scissors!

We tied up a mix of flies since we had beginners. Wooley bugger was first, then a pheasant tail, a hare's ear, and then a streamer thing.

Didn't get many pictures, but here they are, even the fuzzy streamer box.

A little more rain and we would have been casting into the street! It poured!



So much for "auto focus"!


3 guys, a few flies, no pies? (they are on the other table)


Another shot, missing me (the camera man) and Zach who took off at this point!


Overall it was another great night of tying flies. Although, it was a bit of a challenge for me being the instructor and trying to take care of my 3 youngest kids. I'd say "wrap this like this...crap, TYLER...WHAT ARE YOU GETTING INTO" then, get up and get him out of my other tying materials. I found that kid with scissors TWICE tonight....he's only 15 months old. Neither pair where mine.

We Made The News In St. Joseph Missouri!!!

You may remember me telling you that Guys, Flies & Pies had a spin off group called Flies & Pies that is meeting in Missouri. Well, after simple Google search this morning for Guys, Flies & Pies, I found this news article about Flies & Pies, and it mentions Guys, Flies & Pies.

• “My wife, Megan, and I borrowed the idea of “‘Flies and Pies’” after coming across a group on the Internet called “Guys, Pies, and Flies”, Pflugradt said.

Read the full news article

Edit: after reading this post, I just noticed that they either misquoted Steve, or he messed up the order of our name. Either way, I know this guy and know he's talking about our group! We're still famous, even if it's Pies, Flies & Guys!!!

Next Meeting: April 26th 2008

We will be meeting on April 26th, at 3pm.

Please note the time because it's different than it's been for a few months. We will meet at 3pm.

It was just a year ago, in April, when the first 4 of us got together for the first Guys, Flies, and Pies. So, if anyone wants to bring birthday gifts, I like fly tying materials!

This month we have a few new guys joining us, so anyone that has spare vises that they could bring along, that would be greatly appreciated.

Remember it's $5 per adult for pizza.

March 8th Review

Before GFP could start this month I had to shovel the over 12 inches of snow that fell just since Friday the day before.



We ended up having 8 people show up to tie. There was Ché, Brian, Sean, Cory, Dale, Sister Neilson, Sister Hansen, and myself! I showed the sisters and Cory how to tie up some wooley buggers. Then the sisters did a good job on some damsel fly nymphs while Cory did a tail-less prince nymph. I forgot to tell him to put in a tail. Either way it turned out nice and should hook a.......uh....bluegill! That's right Brian, a BLUEGILL!



Dale drove an hour and 45 minutes from the Syracuse area even though we had all that snow! It was great to have him here because he knows TONS about bugs. Next month we might get him to show us more about the bugs that will be around during April and May.



Here is a nice shot of one of his boxes of bugs!







Crystal did some scrap booking while Andrea looked on!



Can't wait till next month! I might need a bigger table because I know of at least 1 more person who will be put on the list!!!

Next Meeting: March 8th 2008

We will meet next on March 8th at 12pm (Note the time did change since this was originally posted) at Mike's house.

This will be our 12th meeting. In April we will celebrate GFP's birthday!

Anyone interested in learning the basics or anything else, please contact me and we can meet anytime you'd like even if it's not on a GFP night!

February 9th Review

We had 5 guys show up to tie. There was Brian, Sean, Ché, myself and Zach who had never tied before tonight. Zach learned how to tie up a wolly bugger and although he only tied 2 he had some good improvement from the first to second.

Here is Zach's first ever fly! Surprisingly there are no sequins on any of his flies!



And Zach's second ever fly. Notice the huge improvement (and the huge Sean style tail!)









Brian tied a (whole) squirrel tail nymph!



I donated all the flies I tied tonight to the Reel Recovery donation that The Fly Tying Forum is running right now. Others tossed in some of their flies too. We got a good collection that I'll be sending in the mail later this week!



See you all next month!

Next Meeting: February 9th 2008

February 9th 2008, 5pm at Mike's house.

I've decided that for this month I will donate all the flies that I tie that night to Reel Recovery. If you are not familiar with them, they are an organization that puts on free Fly fishing retreats for Men battling or recovering from Cancer. The Fly Tying Forum, Rod Building Forum and Talk Fly Fishing are doing a huge donation where they are trying to donate 14 Custom rods, 14 reels, tubes, socks and if possible, 5000 flies. Although I do not have cancer, and never plan on having it, I figured that I could at least send a few flies in for the cause. So, I invite everyone that joins me in February to also consider donating their flies from the night. I will ship them to the forum administrator who will then ship them off to Reel Recovery. Of course, any flies can be donated, not just ones tied at GFP.

As far as what to tie for Reel Recovery, Stan Golub The Executive director of Reel Recovery says "We use a lot of woolly buggers, bead head nymphs (prince, hare's ear), hi-float dries (wulffs, humpys, adams) and droppers (copper johns of all sizes and colors, midges). Basically the standard patterns in sizes 12-18 will fill a lot of our needs, but we'll take a wide variety as we use them both to fish and to fill gift boxes that we give to every participant. " So if you want to study a new pattern to tie, you have some options, or just tie whatever and donate those.

I'd like to see us tie up a bunch. Smokin' Vises!!!

Remember it's $5 for pizza and materials are provided to anyone that needs them.

January 12th Review

Tonight we had Sean, Jay, Ché and myself. We tied up some black stone fly nymphs, some orange swap fly thingies, and some other various flies. We ordered a 1/2 sheet pizza from Tony's Birdland and 2 dozen wings, with a free 2 liter of pop. When the pizza arrived, the delivery guy said to my wife "oh, are you guys tying in there?" and so I got his email address and will invite him next month! I figured sooner or later we'd have a delivery guy that ties!

Next Meeting: January 12th 2008

We will meet at Mike's house at 5pm on January 12th.

Bring all the cool stuff you got for Christmas that you want to give to Mike!

Hope to see everyone there!

GFP 2007: Year in Review

Well, as 2007 comes to an end, all the media outlets will be telling us what happened in as sappy of a way as possible. So, I figured I'd give it a try too!



Guys, Flies and Pies held it's first meeting of the masters in April of 2007. Who can forget Brian coming in with a bench vise? That was classic! We met with only 4 guys that day but quickly decided we'd do this monthly. Then for May we had a larger group, 7 guys showed up. We had many beginners and started teaching patterns to the group. Throughout the summer we held tying nights, but had 2 months when we went fishing. Again, who can forget Brian taking a swim in the Genny before he even made a cast! Of course, he'd want me to also mention that he was (allegedly) the only one to catch a fish that day. No one saw it, and he couldn't identify the species, so who knows if that fish really existed or not! We had one month were we combined with the Girls, Furls & Pearls group (now, mostly disbanded) and had another great turnout at Shane's house. Thanks for the air conditioning Shane! That day we were all treated to GFP hats that his wife made! Then, in November we had what I have billed as the largest GFP to date. We had 11 guys in attendance. We had guys from California, Michigan, and various parts of NY. That was quite a GFP to have those great tiers with us.

We also lost a few GFP members because they moved out of the state. R.I.P.

It was a great year for GFP, and we'll continue on in 2008!!!

GFP Spawns FP

A guy from the Fly Tying Forum was reading my posts about GFP and decided to start his own. He opted for just Flies & Pies to be more politically correct, and he did invite some women. Well, this past week they met in Missouri for the First Ever Flies & Pies. It appears to have been a success!

Stay tuned for the next GFP, likely to be 2nd or 3rd Saturday in January!