Trout Power 2013 - This Weekend

If you live in or near NY you should look into spending this weekend at Trout Power!

Trout Power 2013

Trout Power is a creel study tournament at it's roots, but has grown to add a ton of community events all through the weekend. There is a gala and silent auction, a rubber ducky race, a few concerts, a 5K race, and more. 

Last I heard the sign up for the tournament may have ended, but if you're interested it would be worth looking into. Also yesterday I heard of 3 sponsorships available from The Fly Master, so if you have a kid you want to team up with, check with him or JP Ross Fly Rods to see if those are available still. It would make a great weekend with your child.

The West Canada Creek from what I hear is one of the areas finest streams and I hope to someday have a chance to fish it!

13 Day Notice, and Angler's Workshop Report

Consider this your 13 day notice about the big Guys, Flies & Pies fly tying party coming up in less than two weeks, on Saturday February 18th 2012. It will be yet another great year!

Yesterday I attended Angler's Workshop as a sponsor. Craig from Fly Fishing Chronicles puts together this event ever other year, and even though it was only the second year, he did a great job once again. It's event devoted to all aspects of fly fishing. There is a full schedule of seminars which included such topics as fly tying, knots, destination fishing, and women in the sport. There were plenty of raffles to get in on, which had some really great prizes donated by many of the sponsors that were on hand, and some that weren't able to attend. At the end of the day I got a chance to run a casting competition...that was a first for me. Even though the doors only officially opened at 8:45am for the public to come in, I was having a great time by 8:56am.

As a sponsor I got some table space and was able to show off some poppers I'm working on, sell a few, and tell a lot of people about the Guys, Flies & Pies party coming up in 2 weeks. I really enjoy this kind of stuff...tying flies, talking fishing, and meeting great people.

Tying a popper

Craig was very kind and hand some pretty sweet "thank you cards" made up for the sponsors. This bad boy is going up in my fly tying room so I can enjoy it and have it as a reminder to the wonderful time I had yesterday at Angler's Workshop.

Some weird guy with a sweet plaque

It was also great to run into lots of old friends and a few of the GFP sponsors. JP from JP Ross Fly Rods was there and had a great new fly rod holder for his table (I should have gotten a picture). Carl from Mad River Dubbing Company was also there with 12 feet of fly tying materials. Both JP and Carl gave me their donations to the event coming up. JP donated a very sweet 5 weight fly rod and reel that someone is just going to love to fish with this spring. Carl again generously donated lots of fly tying materials which many of you will get to go home with.

Keep in mind, it's because of our sponsors that our event is able to be so awesome, so when you're looking to buy, have a look at them and let them know that GFP sent you.

I'm looking forward to Angler's Workshop 2014...2 years will go by fast, but maybe not fast enough.

See you all in 13 days for Guys, Flies & Pies!

Trout Power Tournament

JP Ross of JP Ross Fly Rods has done what many people fear will happen to their favorite streams....he's talking about it all the time...EVEN on the internet! It comes down to a simple idea, if no one knows about it, and it's potential, then no one will care to protect it. So, to help save this beautiful water, he's started a Trout Power blog and will be hosting a Trout Power Tournament this summer.

Trout Power is a way for the community around the water to realize the potential the water has to bring business to the community. The tournament will be on Saturday and Sunday June 9 and 10th 2012. So, being that it's a 2 day tournament, consider staying at one of the local hotels and eating out at a local place...help the community, so they help protect the water.

There is a limit of 30 teams, 2 people per team. Sign up is $60 (that includes 2 shirts) with a $1,000 grand prize and other great prizes. If you don't feel like fishing in the tournament, volunteers are needed. 

For more information on the tournament and the Trout Power mission, visit the website at http://www.troutpower.blogspot.com

JP Ross Fly Rods

Guys, Flies & Pies sponsor JP Ross Fly Rods has posted a new video. In this video JP talks about the components he uses and various ways your rod can be customized. I really enjoy the rod tubes they have, and how they can laser engrave the cap. Also, you can get the reel seat engraved and the butt cap. All these options, along with choice of wood for the insert and style of reel seat allow you to really have a nicely customized rod.

And, if you have a business and are looking for a nice gift for your employees, give JP a call and talk about getting matching rods for the gang. And, if you are doing this please consider putting me on the books before the rods get handed out! I can always use another rod!



LINK: JP Ross Fly Rods

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!

GFP 2011- Review

Guys, Flies & Pies 2011 was a huge success! We had a great turn out and many new people attended. It's great to have new people join us and to see the event grow in size each year. As you all probably noticed, we were very close to running out of room. I'll be working on finding a new place for next year, so keep that in mind, and let me know if  you have any suggestions.

Scott's nymph with Frogs Fanny

We had some demonstrations this year which seemed to be well enjoyed. This allowed some of the new tiers, and those who never have tied an opportunity to watch a few flies being tied by some great local tiers! Thanks for that help guys!  We had a number of people tie their first flies at the event. A big thanks to Tim for helping Dan and his son tie their first! They seemed to enjoy it and have a great time.

Lucas demonstrating a Chubby Muffin

Chubby Muffin, bottom left

First Fly

It's always great to see how willing everyone is to show off their work and help others out. The word on the street is that our youngest tier had a great time tying with Ray and talked about his time with Ray the whole ride home!

Teaching the kids

Our sponsors (see their links below) helped out big time and we enjoyed a table full of door prizes and great raffle prizes. Some highlights of those items were the JP Ross rod with the pizza painted on the butt cap, and the rods from Midwest Custom Fly Rods and Wild Water.  UNI stepped up their support this year and provided some nice samples for the door bags, along with JStockards catalog (don't forget the discount on the back) and Lake Ontario Outdoors sending us the magazines. Rumor is one of our GFP guests will be an author in that magazine in the future. It was great to see the full set up go to Lou who lost all his spinning gear to a car break in a few months ago. Theft sucks, so it's nice to see him now have only FLY gear to get back out on the water with! Mike who won the Jesse James reel (2 new models are up on their website now) spooled it up the next day with line and is eagerly anticipating the day (hopefully soon) when he gets it out on the water! Thanks to all our sponsors, your support is much appreciated!

I hope everyone had a chance to check out the rods on display from JP Ross. He does great work and it's very unique for sure. His rods are the quality you'd hope to have, and well worth passing down for generations. Thanks JP for bringing out your display! If anyone didn't get a fishing Yoda shirt, they are available on  his website.

Custom rods by JP Ross

We had John bring some custom made reels and Lucas Carroll brought some photos, both were a huge hit!

Checking out Lucas' sweet photos (Photo: Lucas Carroll)

Custom made reels. Made with wood, metal, and delrin

We ended up placed 2 orders for pizza, and we did very well putting it all down. At the end of the night, we had about 1/2 a sheet left. Well done guys and girls!

Pies (Photo: Lucas Carroll)

A huge thanks goes out to my wife Crystal and her friend Rachel for working the door and raffle tables. Without their help I could not pull off such a quality event. My wife does more behind the scenes than you see at the event, and that help is greatly appreciated.

Say Cheese

Jesse James Reel Company (Photo: Lucas Carroll)

Full setup winner!

The wind, or someone, moved the sign! It was very windy on Saturday

Keith tied up this beauty

 

Great box of streamers. www.day5flies.com

Thanks again to everyone who came and helped out! See you all next year!

The JP Ross Beaver Meadow

Maybe you've seen the rumors on Facebook, or maybe you've just been dreaming at night that you could have a JP Ross Beaver Meadow fly rod. Well, the rumors are true, and there will be a Beaver Meadow fly rod on the raffle tables this coming Saturday!

 

 Check them out online now, and check one out in person this Saturday!

JP Ross Fly Rods

By now I'm sure you've heard of JP Ross Fly Rods & Co. but just in case you are hiding under a rock without internet service (wait, then how are you reading this?) let me fill you in.

JP Ross fly rods was started by JP Ross himself after years of owning his own fly shop (which he opened at a young age of 20.) Driven to fish from a young age (often bicycling to the water with worms in tow) he aims to not only build quailty rods, but provide a way for kids to get into fishing at a young age just as he did. Checking out his staff list just a few minutes ago, showed that he's got kids on the list. This can only be good for us old geezers since kids minds are so imaginitive and they can provide some great insight, wether it's on fishing, conservation, or rod design. Not just on the staff, but at the fly tying symposium they dedicate a few tables just for kids to learn how to tie. In addition to the kids on the list, he's got some well known and busy fisherman too. No doubt these guys are helping develop better and better fly rods! Also, check out the blogs on his site for some great fishing stuff.

About the rods. JP Ross offers a nice selection of rods to choose from, too many to note here, but details are on the site. Here's what I will share. These rods are well designed and look amazing. I got to check them out and cast a few and I was impressed. I love the detail that's put into them and the little things like laser engraving or grips with inlays that make these rods really stand out from other companies.

JP Ross Fly Rods will even work with you to bring your rod from average to something that's uniquely yours. Recently they put a beer cap on a grip for a customer, and the results turned out great.

If you own a business and are looking for a gift to give your your employees, JP Ross Fly Rods will work together with you to build rods for the whole group, and even add your company logo to them. (As a side note, if you do get corporate rods from JP Ross, let me know.....I want to work for you!)

....and how about this....JP Ross Fly Rods has an incentive discount. Basically, once you are a customer, repeat business by you gets you a discount, even more of a discount if a friend buys a rod from JP Ross and says that you sent them. Not a bad deal considering none of us can resist owning more and more fly rods.

So, where from here? JP Ross is planning on being at Guys, Flies & Pies in a few weeks so you'll have a chance to ask him directly about his rods, and maybe even check a few out if he brings them. If you're not at GFP, he's no doubt going to be running around the symposium in March and have his rods and maybe even have some of his Blue Line Boats on display! Yes, that's right...he even makes boats!