Ve Vill Tie You Now

This is just to share some pictures of my first TU event ever, the  Miller Van Winkle chapter Tie One On event in Petoskey Michigan.  I enjoyed it alot; being my first TU event, I was a little nervous, what with all the secret initiation rituals and all, but my hair is starting to grow back and the red marks are fading.

Brian Kozminski, standing left chairman and organizer of the Tie One On event.  Notice the Medieval setting.

As I said, I was a little nervous, so I just set up my vise and started tying after meeting the other guys.  I am in no way in the same league as these other tyers.  My philosophy is to tie only for what I actually fish, and buy only for what I tie, otherwise I would already have $2000.00 worth of Whiting capes and saddles.  Despite my weakness for feathers, I don't fish a lot of dries- I work outdoors in summer, and am busiest during the major hatch periods.  Most of my fly fishing consists of spring steelhead, streamer fishing, and summer time terrestrials.  So I tie egg and other steelhead patterns, a variety of streamers (my zoo cougar is pretty good, at least the trout think so), skunks and other assorted junk including some very effective soft hackles.

Did I tell you I'm not in the same league as these guys?  Here's a shot of John Sheets (sp?)- notice the intense concentration

John Sheets ties one on

John was tying an extended body callibaetis, or so he says, I had to use the eXtreme Stop Motion on my camera just to get these fleeting images.  Ah, the wild fly tyer in his natural element.  There was some talk about a post, some hackle whirled in circles and then he handed me a fly which he said was a reject.  So I stole it.

Also there was Kevin Foerster of Lovells Fly Tyer fame.  He was tying up some Au Sable Skunks, which I should have been paying attention to as I fish this pattern a lot, and his was different from mine.  It was well tied.

Kevin Foerster, far left, the Lovells Fly Tyer, holds court.

All in all it was good low key fun, I learned nothing as I refused to set down my bobbin and watch, and Greta, the keeper of the Armory says I can come back when I learn not to cry out in pain.

FR