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!

UNI Products - Axxel

UNI has sponsored GFP for 3 years now, and some of you have won some of their great products. While going through the advertisements they sent along with this years prizes, I noticed a product I didn't realize they had. It's worth mentioning because I think it's a one of a kind type of product.

UNI AXXEL

It's called Axxel and here is the press release description of the product:

UNI-Products, a world leader in the supply of spooled fly-tying materials, announces the addition of five fresh colors—brown, yellow, rainbow black, pink, and light blue—to their very popular Axxel Ty-Rap product. Axxel 8" Ty-Rap is one narrow strand of flash material supported by two nylon micro-filaments for strength. It is packaged in bundles of 8" lengths.

A combo package with packages of all seventeen colors is available.

Fly-tiers are continuously finding new uses for Axxel flash material. For example, to add sparkle, Axxel can be wound with other body materials or added to a standard wing. It makes excellent ribbing material; tough and adds a more subtle flash than regular tinsels. For example, when used as a rib with ordinary chenille it creates an effect similar to crystal chenille. Also, it makes interesting tinsel bodies featuring the variegated or broken-up pattern so often found in the natural world.

It sounds like a reinforced flash material. This could make it great for flies where the flash is used as a rib or some other part of the fly that might typically get broken and ruin the look of the fly.

Click the images below for a larger version of Axxel and some other products they have.

Once again this year, we have quite a few spools of various UNI materials that we will be part of the prizes for the night. See you next month!

Check out UNI online here!