I had a terrific time at the 2019 Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo last weekend in Boise, ID. It was my 7th year tying flies at the Expo and I always enjoy seeing the friends I’ve made in previous years.

On Friday afternoon, I decided to demonstrate a variant of the Braided Butt Damsel.

And Saturday found me tying Beetle Bailey and a Green Drake CDC Loop Wing Emerger.


I was able to catch up with my friend Chris Williams. He’s a terrific tyer, an innovator of many creative flies, and is on the Whiting Farms pro staff.

For some reason, Chris felt the need to torment me a little as he brought out a few Whiting Farms capes and saddles for us to drool over.

As always, thanks to Gretchen and Al Beatty for hosting me. Both are terrific fly tyers, willing to share many fly tying techniques developed over the years. They are the authors of many fly fishing and fly tying books. They’ve recently entered the realm of Kindle books. You might have seen some of the links to their books in a Throw Back Thursday Fly post recently. Be sure to stop and see them tie flies at the 2019 Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo in Albany, Oregon on March 8 & 9, 2019.

Gretchen knows I enjoy pie, so she baked a fresh lemon meringue pie. It only seemed appropriate to decorate it!

It was a fun way to celebrate our fly tying.

Thanks to my RiverKeeper Flies readers who stopped by my tying table and said “hi”. I enjoyed meeting them and finding out what they enjoy about my website.
So until next year…

Enjoy…go fish!
Hi John,
I always enjoy seeing and talking with you! And this was a fun read! Look forward to visiting more in Albany and maybe even sharing a barley pop!?
Cheers until we meet again!
Chris
Hi John,
We sure enjoyed your visit this last weekend. We’ll see you soon in Albany, OR. Take care & …
Tight Lines – (Gretchen &) Al Beatty