NEW LOCATION FOR THE EVENT on 2/16/2013

I'd like to officially announce that next month on February 16th 2013 we will have Guys, Flies & Pies at a NEW LOCATION! So many great people have come over the years that we just outgrew the last place. So please, please, please, let everyone you know, know that we are going to the beach this year!

The new location is the Roger Robach Community Center (Bathhouse) at Ontario Beach Park at 180 Beach Avenue, Rochester, NY 14612. This is only a few miles down the road from where we use to meet, and it's a much bigger building for us to hang out in. A bigger place means you should bring all your fishing friends along for the fun!

Don't expect the blue skies or snow-less walkways, it's February.

Parking is available right across the street behind Abbott's or at the main beach parking lot.

Event Details
Date:Feb 16th 2013
Time: 3pm-8pm
Location: 180 Beach Avenue, Rochester, NY 14612
Cost: $12 at the door  (cost includes entry, pizza, drinks, door bag, and entry into door prizes. Raffles not included.)

The event starts at 3pm and goes until 8pm. As we've always done, this is an event is a fly tying party, so bring your vise and materials to tie. I've never understood why other events have guest tiers and people just watch. Sure, we have demos, but it's great to be able to sit down after watching a demo and DO what you just learned. We'll have pizza around 5:30 or 6pm, and around 7 we'll do door prizes (if we haven't done all of them yet) and give out the big raffle prizes!

I'd like to thank once again the great sponsors we have had over the years and the ones that are with us again this year. Without their support the event wouldn't be nearly as awesome as it's grown to be. Please take a look at the links at the bottom of the page and check out their sites and consider them when making your next fishing purchases.

Thanks! GFP 2012 Was Great!

I'd like to thank everyone who joined us for the Guys, Flies & Pies event yesterday. We had a great turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time. I'd also like to thank our sponsors for all the great products and gear they provided. It's always great to have awesome prizes for everyone.

Every year there seems to be a few guys that stick around to the very end...and help clean up. I appreciate this every year. Yesterday I turned around and it was almost all done. Thanks guys for making the clean up go real easy last night.

For all of you that won something, feel free to post photos of the gear in action on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/guysfliesandpies or email me at mike[at]guysfliesandpies.com and I can add it. And as always, when possible, let our sponsors know you saw their stuff at Guys, Flies & Pies. Anyone with photos from last night, feel free to send those my way too.

Here's a few photos from last night, I'll go through the rest and post more another day.

Doug winning the JP Ross rod setup, with Landmark tube

Craig doing a demo

Look For These Signs

If you are coming out to the event today, look for these signs on the NORTH side of Latta Road.

The access road says it's a private drive, but you are authorized to be there!

See you in a few hours.

The house in the back of the next photo is NOT the building you are looking for...go down the driveway.

 

 

Here's the building!

Click here for directions

Event Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that things are coming together for the event, which is NEXT MONTH. Mark your calendars for February 18th 2012. It's from 3pm until...well, until you leave....we wont kick you out until midnight. Bring your vise and your appetite. Sit down and have a fun evening tying with other fishermen. Get in on the raffles and have a chance to win some great prizes. Around 6pm we'll have sheets and sheets and sheets of pizza pies show up for some dinner, eat all you want. Soda/pop and water are available so drink up! We'll have a few demonstrations to watch, but typically there are plenty of people willing to let you sit down and learn from them. We really have a great group of people who are so nice to share what they know.

Our sponsors are the best out there. Check out the list below and make sure to check out their websites. These companies have helped provide great products for everyone to check out and win. Make sure you tell them you heard about them from GFP.

Photo by Lucas Carroll Photography

Entry into the event is $12, but if you pay in advance you can save $2. Plus, if you wear your Guys, Flies & Pies t-shirt to the event, we'll let you in for $10 even if you pay at the door. If you are interested in buying a shirt for $20 send me an email about what size, mike@guysfliesandpies.com. To pay in advance hit the link at the top left of this page.

We will have some great prizes again this year and as always we'll have a lot of great guys (and girls) tying flies who are always willing to share what they know. Honestly, I host this event just to learn from everyone else about fly tying.

Only 34 more days, I can't wait! See you there!

GFP 2012 Announced! 5 Year Anniversary!

100 days from this post we'll have the 5th annual Guys, Flies & Pies fly tying event!

The next event is on February 18th 2012

I'll wait while you mark your calendars and tell your significant other to plan on your absence for the night!

In the coming weeks and months I'll keep you updated on the progress. I hope to have another great year full of products to check out and to raffle off. While you are waiting for updates, visit the sponsors links* below...without their support we'd just be another bunch of smelly guys hanging out.

* - some sponsor links are missing the image...that should be fixed soon. 

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!

Find Your Way

 

Make sure you take a look at the directions page to see how to get to the party tomorrow!

Remember, the access road to the building is tucked between two houses, but this sign is out front, plus we will have a GFP sign out at the street too...providing the wind storm they are predicting today/tonight doesn't know it over!

One note of caution, if using Google Maps to map the location. In the past, Google didn't accurately mark the location of the building, but today it appears to be corrected. Just make sure your map looks like the one above and you should be all set!

See you tomorrow!

3pm - Doors open
3:30pm - First of 3 demos start
5:30pm - Pizza
7:30/8pm - Raffle winners announced

Door prizes will be givin out throughout the event!

See you then!!!

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!

...But we finally made the news

At lunch today a coworker of mine casually said "I saw you in the paper yesterday." I was caught off guard, because I didn't remember getting arrested for anything.  So, it turns out it wasn't me he saw in the paper, but it was Guys, Flies & Pies that he saw in the paper. The local newspaper ran the following snippet in the sports section yesterday.

GFP in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Pretty cool to see it getting some publicity.

UPDATE: Found the yearly announcement for GFP on page 21 of the Rochester Business Journal in the Time Out section.

GFP in the Rochester Business Journal

A Few Demos At The Event

Guys, Flies & Pies is just a relaxed fly tying party meant to provide a time for you to tie flies, while being well fed on pizza, and having the chance to walk away with some sweet gear. However, we are trying to add a few things here and there without losing focus of the relaxed party. This year we have added a few demos. We will have 3 local tiers doing short 1 hour demos. This will give everyone a chance to see some local patterns being tied by some local tiers.

Here's the line up, with a general time frame.

3:30pm - Ché Nolan will tie crayfish flies.
4:30pm - Brian Bradfield (flies to be announced)
6pm - Lucas Carroll will tie midges and/or dries (Update: Might tie some 6 inch streamers instead)

So if you are looking for a break from tying, stop by the demo table and check out their techniques and patterns.

See you all in a week and a half!