February 27, 2015

2015 Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo

Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo
The featured speakers and seminar schedule have just been announced for the 2015 Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo. The headliners for this year's show include fly fishing legends Lefty Kreh and Dave and Emily Whitlock. There will be plenty of fly porn to see: Brian Bergeson of Musky Bacon fame and Patterson Leeth of MPLS Fly will be tying up some big meat, Whitlock will be tying up his trout classics, and I'll be conjuring up some roughfish magic at the vise. Come check us all out over in the Fly Tying Area, once again hosted by the St. Paul Fly Tiers.

For those folks interested in all things carp and roughfish, Dan Frasier, Fly Fishing Editor of CarpPro magazine, will be there presenting on carp and sitting in on the writer's panel. I will be giving several fly tying demonstrations in the Fly Tying Theater on Saturday, March 21, at noon, and Sunday, March 22, at noon, and will be presenting on carp and roughfish in the Gold Room at 4 pm on Saturday, March 21. By popular demand, I will be featuring a tutorial and demonstration on DIY dubbing for Saturday's noon fly tying seminar. I will also be demonstrating some of Loon Outdoors killer products like their UV resins so don't miss out!. Check out the entire speaking schedule for the expo.

As per the usual, there will be plenty of new gear to check out at the vendor booths this year. You might catch me helping out at the iFFF Upper Midwest Council's booth or bothering my co-workers over at the MN DNR booth. There are always so many things going on during the expo weekend that it shouldn't be missed.

I will have flies available for sale, cash or credit accepted. Once again my sponsors, like Mountain Khakis, have hooked me up with some swag to give away so please come find me in the Fly Tying area!


2015 Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo.
Admission
Adult: $10/day
Youth (ages 12-17): $7/day
Children under 12 are free

Hours
Friday, March 20, 2015: 3:00-8:00pm
Saturday, March 21, 2015: 10:00am-6:00pm
Sunday, March 22, 2015: 10:00am-4:00pm

Location
National Sports Center
1700 105th Ave. NE
Blaine, MN 55449

Directions/Map
From the Twin Cities area, take 35W North to Highway 10 West to Hwy 65
North to 105th Ave. NE.
Turn right onto 105th Ave. NE
Turn right at entrance past the brick marquee.
The Schwan Center is straight ahead.
Parking is located in front of the building.


View Larger Map

February 24, 2015

Latergrams - Week 9

Been on radio silence the past few weeks while I was visiting the homeland with the family. But now I'm back from Hawaii, and back in the saddle as it's prime time for fly production and show season. No rest for the weary.





February 2, 2015

Lipton's Carp Crack: An IGFA World Record catching fly pattern

Meredith McCord recently swept all seven IGFA tippet class world records for smallmouth buffalo, under the guidance of Captain Kirk Kirkland. That's a pretty remarkable feat, and congratulations are definitely in order! Meredith is quite the accomplished angler with several IGFA records under her belt, and Capt Kirk is the foremost authority on guiding for gar. He has ammassed over 100 IGFA world records for all gar species. He's even guided Jeremy Wade of River Monsters fame for alligator gar.


I love fishing for buffalo, and it's always great when buffalo and other native roughfish species get some positive press and publicity. They certainly deserve respect! It was a pleasure to see Meredith's records show up on my social media news feeds and to observe all of the positive feedback she recieved for her catches. It wasn't until I read the photo descriptions and comments that I noticed something that came as a complete surprise, her record catches were caught using a Carp Crack fly! I messaged Capt Kirk to verify that the fly Meredith mentioned using was indeed my pattern and not another pattern of the same name. After seeing a photo I sent him of my pattern, he confirmed that the pattern supplied Meredith with was indeed my Carp Crack pattern. Wow, I was truly surprised!

Meredith McCord and her IGFA record smallmouth buffalo caught on Lipton's Carp Crack
I have another item to add the growing list of life accomplishments, and perhaps one of the more flattering (and unexpected) ones, I designed a world record catching fly pattern. Ha! Time to add that one to the résumé.

Lipton's Carp Crack
A big congratulations to Meredith McCord and Capt. Kirk Kirkland for your accomplishments, thank you for using my fly pattern, and thank you for letting me share your photos and story!

Latergrams - Week 5

Trying to get my swap flies for the Midwest Drift and some salty stuff in before leaving for Hawaii.