Looking to get started in fly tying or hoping to improve in a specific set of patterns? Check out some of the classes we have at TCO State College in February and March. Details and links to register are below.
We’ve had some cold temperatures here in Central PA, which means it’s a great time to be sitting down at the vice and tying up some patterns for spring. (Don’t get me wrong, winter is one of my favorite times to be on the water, but not when it’s in the teens with a colder wind chill…)
There are a number of educational opportunities coming up this fall at TCO State College! A full list can be viewed on the website here. Two that I wanted to highlight are some fly tying classes happening on September 15 and October 20.
Continue readingNext Thursday, August 15, I will be hosting a “Trout Streamers”-themed TCO Fly Shop Brew ‘N’ Bugs event at Axemann Brewery in Bellefonte. The event will be held from 6-8pm, and we’ll be tying up a few of my favorite streamers for this area (though these are “trout streamers,” they’ll work for bass as well).
Back in the fall of 2016, I was working on a sculpin pattern that took a few different ideas from other patterns and blended them together. As Gunnar Brammer says in one of his streamer videos: “I don’t have a lot of original ideas… almost all of my bugs in general… are original compositions… different materials, different ways to build bulk, different silhouettes. It uses unique techniques or features or materials to make it different… it’s all from the people who came before me… I just take things that I like, things that I know to be successful, and then I base a composition that hasn’t been done kind of around that.”
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If you’ve been following the fly-fishing world over the past few years, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard of Blane Chocklett’s Game Changer-style of flies. There’s a reason for this: the patterns are effective imitations of a number of different baitfish, and you can tie them with a number of different materials. It’s a platform that you can use to tie the pattern a number of ways (another popular platform, for example, is the Clouser Minnow).
Continue readingHello there, it’s been awhile! Here’s what’s been coming “From the Vice” over the past few months – it’s not been a whole lot because of life happening (and a great new job beginning!).
January always feels long. It was a good start to the new year, and there were some new experimentations coming off the vice. One of the big things was working with bucktail for the first time, which ended up being a lot of fun and a material that I want to use more and more. It’s also been a good time to start restocking the standard nymph and dry fly boxes as well.
It’s a cold morning here in Central PA – like, wind chill of minus 20 degrees Farhenheit cold. It’s the perfect morning to pour yourself an extra large mug of coffee, grab your blanket, and check out this week’s Friday Five while thinking of slightly warmer temperatures.
(Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily mind the cold. It’s just really cold for this time of the winter here.)
Oak Hall Outfitters 