Jeff 'Bear' Andrews in the tying area (In color)
A few names: (in alphabetical order by last name):
Jeff 'Bear' Andrews: Jeff should be well known to many US tyers. He's the guy
that does the 'charity' 24 hour marathon tying at the FFF conclave in
Montana. Jeff 'Bear' tied nymphs at the show. He's a pro and cranks them out
at a very acceptable speed (read: fast). He used some prefabricated eyes
that look real good. Jeff also told me that there will be a 'Blind folded
wooly bugger' arrangement at the Conclave this August. Be there and try it!
I will.
John Bowden: John tied some very delicate quill bodied flies, and used a lot
of time to teach people his technique of preparing the quills: remove the
flue from the barbs of peacock herl with ladies hair remover and store the
quills in 75% water and 25% hair conditioner. That will give you some very
nice and soft quills.
Danes sp.: a lot of them - all (except myself) tying classic salmon flies:
Tommy Ohlinson, Henrik Strandgaard, Kim Rasmussen and more. Kim ties in
silence - full dressed salmon flies as fast as I tie woolly buggers
(almost). A real pro. Henrik is far more talkative, but also meticulous and
ties one - maybe two - flies per 4 hour session on his beautiful home made
hooks.
Nathan Drohm: Nathan did the most impressive stone fly imitations. He
created a hectic buzz the last day of tying by showing a framed stone fly
nymph emerging from its shuck. This really had the audience thinking,
because Nathan's flies are so immensely realistic, and the shuck was amazing.
Nathan later told the truth: 'It's a joke', he said. 'The fly is mine the
shuck is real'. Still it was beautiful as were Nathan's framed mayflies.
Kieran Frye: Kieran tied some very fishy stream flies. And for a good
reason: he was going on to Austria to fish for his first grayling ever. He
did some very fine CDC emergers and some Caddis pupae using an 'instant body'
material, that I never saw before: stainless cotton covered wire. Neat! He
also used the dubbing material Scintilla extensively. It looks very good and
is very easy to apply to the thread. I managed to get samples of both.
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Chuck Furimsky: Chuck tied salt water flies. He had some special materials
of which his 'Bug Skin' was most noteworthy. Bug Skin is very thin leather
in different colors and even coated with silver. Used for prawns, crabs and
streamers (in combination with Jack Gartside's braided tubing) it makes some
very good imitations.
Mike Martinek: Mike has had some well deserved attention lately. He has tied
flies for a very long time, but his focus on Carrie Stevens' patterns and
the Rangerly Style of tying has brought him into the limelight. He had some
beautiful framed streamers and a small booklet on the subject. Ben Benoit of
FF@ fame mentioned him recently.
Marvin Nolte: I have mentioned Marvin before, and will again. Marvin Nolte,
pro tyer, creator of the Grainger collection - 350 framed classical salmon
flies. He didn't tie salmon flies though, but fishing flies, and had a hard
time letting go of the tying tables. He's a good entertainer, a good
instructor and well worth watching.
Glen Peckel: Glen was a new name to me, but a very pleasant new aquaintance. He
had the most beautiful collection of classical American streamers winged
with whole feathers, but tied the Rusty Rat every time I saw him. See him at the bench in my Tyers Gallery.
Hans Weilenmann: Hans probably had a couple of busy days like myself. He
speaks the native language and must have talked a lot. On the second day he
tied #28 Pheasant Tail nymphs and had a few on the onlookers confused by
obviously having no hook in his vise.
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These were the ones I particularly noticed. Other names were: Peter O'Reilly
(Author of 'Trout and Salmon Flies of Ireland'), Hans van Klinken (NL), Chuck
Echer (US, Buzeck award winner and Santa look-alike), Ed Thomas (US), Bas
Verschoor (NL), Tom Jindra (US) and many many more. Too much to see and too
little time.
Jan Bergvoets tying at Fly Fair (In color).
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A Global FlyFisher Publication
