Volunteer Activities and Fly Tying

I’ve been busy lately with volunteer activities and fly tying. It’s winter and a good time for me to give back and help fly fishers who want to tie flies become better fly tyers. 

I’m sure you’ve read about Central Oregon Flyfisher’s Winter Fly Tying classes. This isn’t a beginning class, but as long as you know the basics, members are welcome to drop in every Tuesday night in January, February, and March. This is my seventh year leading this fly fishing class. I teach one or two classes and find other fly tying instructors for the other 10 or 11 weeks. Perhaps you’ve read Central Oregon Flyfisher’s Winter Fly Tying where I give additional details about these classes.

I spent a couple days last week helping a few Next Cast Flyfishers prepare for the NW Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo on March 9 & 10 in Albany, OR.

Next Cast Flyfisher | www.johnkreft.com

This is a time to refine techniques and ensure these fly tyers have all the materials necessary to demonstrate a couple of fly patterns at the Expo.

Last year, six fly tyers shared three tables and tied their flies. This year I’m proud to say they are included with the other 200 fly tyers who will be tying over two days at 72 tables. I’m really excited for our youth fly tyers. I’ll spend a couple more days this week teaching them a new fly pattern and evaluating their “show” flies. They are scheduled to tie on Saturday afternoon, so if you attend, be sure to stop and watch them tie their flies.

Here are a couple more creating magic.

Next Cast Flyfisher - Forrest | www.johnkreft.com
Next Cast Flyfisher - Branson | www.johnkreft.com

And you might remember my Filling the Caddis Provider Box post from last week? I found time to keep filling the empty bins. Here’s what it looked like last week.

Caddis Provider Box In Progress | www.johnkreft.com

And a week later, it’s full…22 1/2 dozen or 270 flies!

Caddis Provider Box - Finished | www.johnkreft.com

That’s a lot of Iris Caddis and X Caddis in amber, tan, olive, and Caddis green.

Some of these are headed to a customer later this week. I think he’ll be happy!

Back to the fly tying vise…

Enjoy…go fish!

Similar Posts

  • Fall on the Madison

    Here we are back at the Madison River. We had some spectacular fishing in July (Fly Fishing the Madison River in 2020) during a caddis hatch and wanted to return for the legendary Baetis hatch, hoping for another wonderful experience. We’ve grown to love this Valley, not only for the fishing, but the beauty as…

  • Re-Stock the Hook Supply

    I’ve been busy tying flies for customers and trying to refill the provider box. Since the first of the year, I’ve tied over 60 dozen flies. That’s more than 700 hooks, which means I need to re-stock the hook supply. I reviewed my hook inventory recently to determine how many hooks remained for the wide…

  • Fan Wing Royal Coachman

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Fan Wing Royal Coachman. This Fan Wing Royal Coachman was tied by Dan Bailey. It’s one of nine flies I was able to document with my camera. Last week’s TBT fly, the Black Bivisible, is the first fly I posted that was tied by Dan.

  • Flybody Dun – March Brown

    This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Flybody Dun – March Brown. This fly is part of a set of five dry flies by the H.L. Leonard Rod Company that came in a clear 4 inch rectangular tube and is the second TBT fly highlighted. Here’s what I wrote last week about these flies…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *