Well here we go, my first attempt at setting up a blog. With the ever increasing interest in my flies i decided to create this blog to show people my fly patterns and hopefully as the blog progresses videos of fly tying my patterns. My self i am a professional fly dresser with A.P.G.A.I. (Ireland). With over 35 years as a fly dresser i have had the privilege
of demonstrating fly dressing in England Europe and last year in Yellow stone Montana. I will start this blog with an article about my time in Montana.
Friday 21st 2010 August saw our first ever trip to the states, Myself and Gerry Teggart had been invited by Jessica Atherton of the Federation of Fly fishers to come to the 2010 Conclave in Yellowstone Montana, to carry out workshops and demonstrating the wire weave technique
Th flight to the states brought us over Newfoundland and boy the view of the glasiers were out of this world
This technique was hit upon a couple of years ago and was applied to several patterns with amazing results. The basis of dressing a fly with the wire weave was to produce a nymph that was slim in appearance but with weight and would give the segmented effect of the abdomen. Both Gerry and myself were looking forward to fishing the rivers inside West Yellow stone as my Fellow fly dressing colleague Arthur Greenwood had recently returned from three weeks fishing in Yellowstone and Alberta.”Don’t forget Panther creek and Soda Butte” was Arthur’s advice.
We arrived on the Friday evening at Chicago to get our connecting flight to Bozeman, the first thing we needed was food as it had been over eleven hours since we last ate. Immediately upon entering the terminal we were overcome with the delightful aroma of cooked onions, as anyone knows this is irresistible to any living creature. Two hot dogs and a cup of coffee and then onward for our flight to Bozeman.
Three hours later we arrived at Bozeman being 10.30 in the evening and new to the area we decided to rest overnight before getting a rental car and heading the final 95 miles through the Gallatin Valley to West Yellowstone.
We booked into our motel and met up with some of the locals who once they found out we were from Ireland invited us to the bar for a drink. What no Guinness was our cry, no said the bar steward but we do have moose drool and Fat tyre (local brewed beer). Arthur had pre- warned me that this Moose Drool was a local beer with a kick, After sampling a few of the local brews we were offered moose drool with a glass off vanilla vodka dropped in it, it’s called a car bomb explained the waitress, Well the look on the waitresses face when she finally put two and two together ,we just looked at each other and laughed, all this way from Belfast and we are offered a car bomb, the bar erupted in laughter and we knew we were in for a good night.
Next day with a head like a bouncing Betty we made off in our rental waving good bye to our newly made friends, the sun was edging over the Mountain range and in front of us was the Gallatin national forest.
What a magnificent sight, mountains on each side of us, for the next two hours our heads were spinning from left to right trying to get in the sights of this magnificent landscape, the sight of the mighty Gallatin River with its pristine waters tempted us want to pull over to fish it. The river crossed and re crossing the highway all the way up to Yellowstone and every few hundred yards you could see fly fishermen casting over rising fish. Eventually we approached West Yellowstone town to the right of us was Hebden lake famous for its gulpers. As we entered the town there was the shops Bud Lillie’s, blue ribbon, Bob Jaclyn’s. Fly shops that we had been told of and read about over the years
First stop was to Sleepy hollow to see Larry Miller our host and register in. Our accommodation was a log cabin situated in the town. For anyone staying in Yellowstone for fishing sleepy hollow is an ideal location it can sleep up to six people 2 double beds and a double bed settee. Suite cases dumped on the beds we were out like a shot to see the sights of the town,” WHOAAAA!!! Gerry they drive on the wrong side of the road here” was a phrase which was to be repeated several times over the two weeks.
On Saturday we decided to do the tourist bit before the Conclave kicked in Old faithful the paint pots and quake lake, once we had bought our permits we ventured into the Park, our intensions were to field test the wire woven nymphs on as many of the rivers as possible before Tuesday.
One word of warning when travelling in the park Bison are the king of the road,
as we came round corners more than often you would meet this beast casually walking in the middle of the road. The only thing you can do is pull up and watch as it walks by you oblivious to vehicles. Elk, Ospreys, bald eagles you name it, it was unbelievable what you encountered. Not to mention the skunk we stopped to photograph.
Soda Butte was dropped from our list of areas to fish on the advice of the park rangers; this was
due to two fatalities the previous week where a grizzly attacked two campers resulting in their deaths.
This brought home to us the reality of the Wild West and the need for bear spray.
The first river we stopped to fish wa
s the Fire hole just above the falls at the fire basin. tackled up with a size 14 black and silver woven nymph on the dropper and a size 12 woven Mayfly on the point we entered the waters, a note of caution to all the water is so clear it looks shallow, but I soon realised it wasn’t .The shock of instantly ending up to my chest in crystal clear water that looked only 2 foot deep unnerved be for an instant.
Once we got accustomed to the depth of the water we waded out to the middle of the river where there was broken water cascading over the rocks. Suddenly I had a take and missed him a quick flick of the wrist and a cast over the same spot, immediately I had another take, a beautifully marked Brown trout, quickly released I cast again in the same spot and again an immediate take. This was to be the case for the next four hours, on a stretch of no more than 50 metres I had connected into well over thirty fish.
Gerry was a hundred meters below me and each time I looked down stream he was into a fish. By this time Caddis was coming off the water big time and then it started the river erupted with fish taking the dry. Locals who were fishing did not seem to getting anything at all and a few gave us sly glances as we hauled in fish after fish using the nymphs, why change when we don’t need to. Most of the anglers we saw were fishing dry fly but no fish would take their finely presented flies, and here was us swinging the nymphs and connecting with virtually every cast. This got to one guy who came over to enquire what we were using, not being slow to show our delight at the nymphs his very words were “God dam it where did you buy them from” he eventually left with half a dozen variations not to fish but straight in his car and away home to try to copy them. It was about lunchtime so we decided to have a break and go down stream where we had seen three massive rocks in the river. We both agreed that this looked a good holding area. Right enough fish after fish was taken In the course of the afternoon and as much time was spent watching the Elk coming down to the river to quench their thirst. The nymphs had certainly done the job and we could with all confidence do the workshops knowing that the patterns the students were going to dress would out fish other patterns.
On Tuesday morning we registered the workshop at the Holiday Inn, this was to have been a class of only 10 but word had got out about these wire woven flies. We eventually ended up with a class of nearly 20 thank god I had brought over extra starter packs just in case.
The Workshop was an absolute success and by the end of the day all in the class was dressing up wire woven patterns; us as we exchanged jokes and experiences all in the class were in stitches with each other trying to outdo each other with our fishing tales, resulting a crowd amassing outside the door listening to our wild tales, I must admit the yanks were better at telling the tales.
Another of my colleagues who attended the Conclave was Liam Duffy of Kilyshandra, he carried out single and double handed casting workshops on Hebden Lake, later in the evening we did an evening’s talk on fly fishing in Ireland which was well received. As we left the hotel we bumped into or fellow fly dresser the ever youthful Charles Jardine and his son Alex who were giving lessons at the conclave.
That evening we were invited to the bar in the hotel as a thank you from the participants of the work shop and low and behold Guinness, not draft but never the less Guinness. We all talked excitedly about the nymphs and different types of fly fishing when suddenly the bar man announced there was no more Guinness left. We had only drunk seven bottles each but of course America being America word got round that the Irish had drunk the bar dry.
The barman assured us he would replenish the bottles, a crate was brought in the next day and again late in the evening the barman announced we have no more Guinness. Well I can assure you we were sober but try telling that to the rest of the guys. Needless to say we had gained a bit if a reputation.
The Wednesday was our day off from workshops and demos so it was decided that we should head into the park with two of our friends Gene Kaczmarek and Dean, first to be fished was the fire hole, Gerry could not resist the fast flowing waters downstream and fished away merrily oblivious to all around him
As Me Gene Mark and Dean fished leisurely the riffles and glides Ospreys and bald eagles were flying over head as though they were waiting intercept our fish this was an impressive sight. I had decided to keep to my wire woven patterns as they had already proved themselves, sure enough with each cast of the black and silver nymph I had a take that carried on for at least 90 minutes and I had accounted for over 25 fish. Suddenly we saw Gerry making his way upstream at what I would call a rapid pace; as he got closer you could see his face was as red as a beetroot. Gene commented to Gerry what’s wrong guy to which Gerry replied BEAR!
Could we stop laughing he had seen what he thought was a bison lying down was a bear not realising until it raised its head and sniffed the air. Needless to say Gerry’s middle name was christened to BOO BOO from that day on.
This was not the only wildlife we were to come across, as I got out of Madison river I ended up standing on a garter snake resulting in me leaping about screaming as Dean said we thought you were performing river dance , My only reply to him is not allowed in print.
The finale to the conclave was the evening BBQ, I was fortunate to be seated to two fellow fry dressing friends Mark Romero and Bill Heckell. Anyone who has met Bill will know he is one of America’s greatest fly dressers and a genuine Gentleman. Bill and I met several years ago at the British fly fair, he was enthralled with the weaving technique and said that he would certainly be dressing some of the nymphs for future use. We arranged to meet Bill in Chicago but unfortunately due to mobiles not working properly we missed him.
But in a follow up e-mail he confirmed that he will be over in Ireland next year attending the Irish fly fair 2011.
To sum up the trip, it was an experience of a life time; the workshops were filled to capacity and demand for demonstrating the weaving was huge. One of the things that stood out was the fascination of fishing with bamboo and there were plenty of exhibitions showing how to build these little beauties.
It was with great satisfaction that of all the rivers we fished the wire woven nymphs out fished the Americans patterns, and I was overjoyed that I had caught Brownies cut throat brookie,s and rainbows, but as I said to Arthur when I got back” I never got one whitefish, which Arthur could not believe. But then there is next year.
Now back in Ireland it is time to get back to the grind stone re- stock on my flies and get things ready for the end of the season. The tying studio has been fitted with new tying bench that can sit six.
workshops and fly dressing lessons are now starting from the 3rd October onwards each night 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm and workshops begin the following Saturday 10.00 am to 12.00.00 AM
The workshops will cover fly patterns from the beginning of the season until the end and will also include sections on wire woven flies.
These workshops are restricted to a maximum party of four.
Cost per workshop is based on four participants £30.00 per head and all materials and equipment are supplied.
To book workshops contact Lawrence on 07764 533823
Or e-mail Lawrence.finney@btinternet.com
