Pages

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

GFP Shirts, Stickers and Furled Leaders

I'm pleased to announce that we are now offering official Guys, Flies & Pies t-shirts, stickers, and furled leaders.

Check out the "Get Your Shirt" link at the top of the main website for the full details and ordering info.

GFP t-shirt - $20

GFP stickers - $3.50

GFP furled leaders - $5




Monday, March 28, 2011

Foam Bass Popper

I've always thought that foam should be able to make a good popper. Sure, I've thought about how to form it into a popper, but to date, I have never done it.

However I did find a nice video on how to do it. Thankfully he sped up the playback so it's only 6 minutes instead of probably 30.

Friday, March 25, 2011

A Day in the Buff

Get your mind out of the gutter!

Last week on my way home from the CNY Fly Tying Symposium my wife and I stopped at the Bass Pro in Auburn NY. It was my first time in the shop, and I did pretty well getting out without paying too much.

We checked out most of the store and even the fish tank....full of fat fish with all kinds of physical deformities.

The fly shop part of the store was nice and I almost got out without buying anything. The only thing we bought at the shop was a Buff. It's one of those fancy fabric things you see often on people fishing the saltwater flats just before they rob a bank.

Wooly BUFFer

Having worn mine only a few times, I have to say I like it. I often wear a hoodie under my jacket since my jacket doesn't have a hood. The hoodie helps keep my neck and ears warm on the walk in to work from the car. The last few days I've left the hoodie at home and worn the buff. Even worn just around my neck it helped to keep my neck warm enough not to cry about leaving my hoodie at home. I've even pulled it up around my lower face and ears and looked ready to rob the gas station after pumping my gas.

The real (reel) test will be to see how freaking hot it gets when I wear it in the summer time for sun protection.

It cost about $23 at Bass Pro.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ice Flow Video

A cool video showing an ice flow as it moves towards the camera.


Monday, March 21, 2011

Review of the CNY Fly Tying Symposium

This past weekend my wife and I took a 2 hour drive to Utica NY for the central New York Fly Tying Symposium. We left on Friday night and spent the night at the Hotel Utica. The next day was the fly tying symposium and it was a blast. We met a lot of great people and saw some great flies. Below are a few of the images I took that day...in random order.

A sweet display, featuring a fly from each tier


Prepped some poppers at home for the show.

The casting competition trophy

My mess

I packed my stuff into a Mary Kay bag...nice organization in these bags

I was glad to eat some pies while there!

The poster, with my sons picture

Crystal at the Crystal Ballroom

Snuck in the night before for a sneak peek of the room.

JP Ross table of goods

Sneak peek of raffle table and seminar room

The seminar room

From the entrance


The cutest girl at the party painting my popper heads

Indoor casting competition

Fishing stillwater seminar

The Guys, Flies & Pies table

Luke & Jonathan tying

Luke tying, and displaying The Drake with his cover photo

Jonathan at his table

1 of 3 times she caught the lamp. I missed it every cast




A cool fly tying box

Indoor casting competition


Fish graffiti benches

Another fish graffiti  bench

The symposium was a great time and a great excuse to get away with out the kids for a night! Looking forward to next year already!

A report from a fly from GFP

The Guys, Flies & Pies Facebook page recieved this message last week, thought I'd share it with everyone.

Yesterday I got an AWESOME steelhead using a fly pattern I learned at GFP! A guy (can' t remember his name. Sorry!) showed me a Gartside Sparrow wet fly he learned from the man himself. I thought it was a neat pattern and made a few myself. When a big fish that showed itself a couple of times refused my egg pattern, I tried that (prompted by the impressive stonefly hatch that was taking place at the time.) Before long a massive, angry fish head was thrashing at the surface!

This made my day when I read it. I love that people learned new flies and are now having fun on the water with them!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Don't Mess With A Mans Pie

Here's a great video that I've never seen before. It's by a bunch of guys, some of which I've heard of that do some great work in fly rod building. You've got Matt Schliske and Mark Shamburg and a bunch other guys that would make anyone wearing tweed cringe! Pay special attention to the guy in the cast and his story on how he broke his arm. Let's just say, I listened and have stored that information away since I'm often in charge of the very thing that lead to his breakdown.

Nice work guys!

Enjoy the video!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Copic ABS

This past weekend I found a local source for a Copic Airbrush. Rochester Art Supply had them in stock and ready for me to check out. Although it was a few dollars more than online, the lack of having to pay shipping, and waiting, was worth it.

Maybe you've heard of them, or maybe this is something new to you. Basically, it's an airbrush that uses markers as an ink source, instead of....well, whatever other airbrushes use. You can see I don't have much experience with airbrushes. However, having researched this product I was impressed that by using the markers you can switch between colors in seconds without any issue.

One of the 3 setups you can get

They have a few different types of sets you can buy to get ready to use the system. I bought the Airbrush Starting Set ABS-2. This comes with the grip and a D60 can. Other setups come a grip and a can that allows you to connect your own hose to your own air compressor, and the third setup comes with a can of air, a hose, and the connector can for use with your air compressor.



I decided to go cheap and see what I thought before buying a more expensive option. If you are interested in getting one of these, keep in mind that the setup I got I believe ONLY allows you to use the D60 can of air, not the larger cans of air. I'm ok with that for now, since I haven't even put it to use yet.

I have an order of popper heads coming from J. Stockard that I hope to paint up before the Fly Tying Symposium this Saturday. If you are at the show, stop by and check out the Copic airbrush, and any heads I've painted with it.

Check out this video on how this airbrush is used.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Mommy! Where Do Flies Come From?

Idylwilde posted (some time ago) a cool video to show how they bring flies from the idea stage to the fly bin.


The Process from Idylwilde Flies on Vimeo.

Check Idylewilde out online

Monday, March 7, 2011

A Saturday With My Son

This past Saturday I took my 8 year old son to the Rochester Sportsman's Show. It's good to get him away from the rest of the kids and have some alone time (shared with hundreds of strangers) together.

We were scheduled to tie at the Seth Green Trout Unlimited booth from 9am until 1pm. We showed up and found the booth and began setting up the vises so we could get to tying, and hopefully draw people over to the table to learn about TU.

Seth...and yes he's named after the guy on the sign.


Within about 20 minutes of setting up Seth asks me if he can sell his flies. I didn't want to step on any TU toes so I had him ask the TU president who was there. He was given permission to sell his flies and the door were open for business. 

Matt...and yes he's named after someone!
His first sale went to the Fishingpoet and his sons. I think that made my son realize he was on to something.

In the four hours we were at the table (4 hours that just flew by), he sold out of the flies he had for sale (some his, some mine.) Just before they were sold out, the Rochester Bassmasters made a deal with him. They offered to buy the remaining 3 or 4 flies if he worked their booth and sold raffle tickets. The deal was made and his flies were SOLD OUT! He went to their booth and used his boyish charm to get people to buy tickets for the raffle. It was fun watching him try to sell, then take advise from the guys, and then improve on his technique. He did pretty well, and probably sold a dozen or more tickets in the 1/2 hour he worked.
Sorry guys, sold out of flies!

Seth's first "reel" job!

We had time to wander around and check out the rest of the show. This was the first one I had ever been to, and it seemed pretty well attended and had lots of vendors. What they didn't seem to have was much fishing stuff...of any variety. There was a kayak group, a fly guide, Casting for Recovery, TU, and a guy with a fly rod behind his antique display, but nothing much more than that. 
A live frog harness. Heard about them for the first time on Moldy Chum last week.
An old fly reel
Some old fly reels
  
Gotta test them out
Some limestone sinkers. Gonna test them soon.
The casting pool
LOOK....A DEER!
Seth knockin' 'em down
At least twice before the day was over he was telling me how he wants to do this again next year. I think I'll try to get him more vise time before then so he can have more inventory!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A Few New "Magazines" To Kill Some Time

Looking for something to distract you from real life responsibilities? Here's a few new issues of some online magazines. Enjoy!

Blood Knot

Catch Magazine - The Steelhead Dreams Part 2 video is definitely worth an extra 16 minutes of your time. Also, a huge congratulations to Lucas for getting a few pages! Great photos from a local guy! I gotta get my magazines signed by him soon before he starts charging for his signature!