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!

Let's Talk Knives

Back at the beginning of the century, my wife got me a new pocket knife for a project I had at work. Since that day I've carried a pocket knife with me daily. As much as this might sound all outdoorsy and manly, the truth is I use it mostly for cutting straws down to kid size at McDonalds, but I'm OK with that. Sure, I've used it for other manly tasks like freeing a newly gifted Barbie from the box, or for freeing a Transformer from the grips of cardboard and zip ties. A pocket knife is just a great tool to have close at hand.

Recently The Fiberglass Manifesto posted about carrying a whistle while wading. In response to this, Fishy Kid ordered up a bunch of whistles for those willing to support Fishy Kid and safety! This of course got me thinking about safety a little and what I do, which brings us back to knives.

I like to carry a knife while wading.

A few weekends ago I went to a gun and knife show in town and was looking for some cheap knives...the kind you can carry if you are out on the town and know you might get frisked going into a concert and not care if you have to give up the knife. My daily knife cost me close to $60 and I don't feel like handing that over for admittance into a concert, know I'd probably never get it back. So, searching around the show I spotted a knife shaped to look like a grenade. Immediately I thought I had to have one. I checked the price and it was $18. For the knife I thought $18 was pretty good, but I wasn't quite sure I was going to get it.

My friends and I continued checking out everything that was available when one of them spotted the same kind of knife for $10. When I picked this one up, the guy selling it told me how to open it. It was a spring assisted knife and the moment I moved the blade it snapped open! It was the best assisted opening knife I've ever had the joy of opening. I knew right then, that for $10 I was going to buy one of these. I then checked out both the Army and the Marine version of them, and decided I'd get both. As I was reaching for my $20 bill the guy says "how about both for $15?" I immediately took him up on that offer!

So, why this knife? What's so noteworthy about a $7.50 knife made in China? A couple of things. First, when I go wading I always put my knife on my waders so it's right there, just in case I need to cut my waders off in a hurry. I've never taken a fall in the creek, and therefore never been swept away in the current and logged under a tree....but, should it happen, I have a knife ready to help free me of my waders.

THIS knife has a few things to keep in mind if you are looking for a knife. First, it's spring assisted. This means that once you start moving the blade to open it, a spring takes over and the blade flies open. Second, this knife can be opened with EITHER hand. I can open and close my daily knife with only my right hand (even if my left hand is unavailable), but this one I can open with either hand, without help from the other. The ability to open and close the knife with just one hand is a huge thing.

If you are interested in this type of grenade knife, I did a search online and found them for about $10. To me, it's a great knife to show off because of what it looks like, but even better because it's single hand spring action. Make sure if you find one online it is spring assisted, that to me makes the knife a great buy!

Do Clothes Have Mojo?

Earlier today Cameron at The Fiberglass Manifesto posted on Facebook saying that JP Ross Fly Rods is now advertising on the TFM website! This is great news of course, because JP Ross Fly Rods are awesome, and now more people can discover them and start enjoying the fine craftsmanship that he puts into each of his rods!

In the post on Facebook, I replied that  "I have one of those hats! It helps catch fish and makes you look ten years younger!" To which Cameron replied "it's got mojo? I need to go fly fishing soon and find out."

Well, many of us up North might be too snowed in to go out and test out the mojobility of the hats today (Cameron might be out in the balmy southern weather testing it out now, who knows), so to all those not wearing one on the water today I offer this proof. 

Here's a picture of my daughter minutes before she hooked into a fish. Notice the JP Ross kids hat she's wearing.

JP Ross Kids Hat

Now, check out this picture after she pulled in our families biggest bass ever....a nice fat 20 inch largemouth.  Sure, the hat is not on her head, but who (at age 6) can fight a fish like that (mostly by herself) and not lose their hat?

20 Inch Largemouth Bass

So, do clothes have mojo? If my daughter can pull in a fat bass while wearing a JP Ross hat, I'd say who am I to question the hat? Now, think how mojorific you'd be if next month at the event you win BOTH a JP Ross hat and a shirt from The Fiberglass Manifesto!

TFM Shirt Spotting Contest Announced

Recently I decided that I'm going to try and only buy fishing related shirts...because let's face it, they are just way cooler than any other shirt out there. A few months ago I purchased a shirt from The Fiberglass Manifesto to add to my wardrobe. The cool thing about getting a shirt from TFM is that you then have an opportunity to photograph yourself in the shirt and submit it to the shirt spotting contest. I submitted for November (and not enough of you voted for me, but I'll let that slide for now). Even though I submitted once, I still have the shirt, new photo ideas, and I'm going to submit some more for 2011.


Check out yesterdays post were TFM announced the prize for 2011's contest. Scott Fly Rod Company has offered up a F2 fiberglass rod for the winner. 

There's a few options for you here. The Fiberglass Manifesto is a sponsor of Guys, Flies & Pies and will be sending some coupons for shirts for our raffle. So, you can either order up a shirt today and get in on the contest a few months early, or win a shirt at GFP. Or better yet, do both since TFM offers different styles, colors, and designs. Either way, where else do you get a great shirt that allows you to get into a contest to win a free fly rod. Rumor over at the post on TFM shows that there are only about 500 shirts out there, so your only up against 500 people....which is a small number of people considering there are only a few submissions each month. Get a shirt and get in on the contest!

LINK

TFM Holiday Gift Guide Part 1

The Fiberglass Manifesto has posted part 1 of his Holiday Gift Guide. So, if you are looking for something for yourself (or for someone else) and are looking for at least a review of someone who has USED the product, check it out.

LINK