We will be meeting on Saturday May 16th at the King County Library Annex building at 9am, those wanting breakfast will meet at the Egg & I in Gillman Village, Issaquah at 8am.

This month we will have Steve Gobin lead the meeting tying The Popham, from Kelson. Steve has been a member for as long as I can remember, his work speaks for itself, his sleek, low racy look is the hallmark of his tying. I noticed right away when I joined that the flies tied by Steve and others were different. They flowed, low and lean, and had such a distinctive look to them, one I worked hard to emulate. They looked that good! I know many of you have not seen Steve’s work, so you are in for a treat. Steve is very low keyed, not showy, or overly talkative, but has a lot to say, so ask questions and listen to what he has to say. When I asked Steve if he would like to demonstrate for the Guild, he didn’t hesitate on bit! Thank’s Steve.

The Popham I believe, follows the idea we have followed all year with the premise of tutorials built into the fly picked. Here you have a multi sectional body, using body tapering, and you get to use the body section tool produced by Don Maddox to create a nice uniform look. Don’t forget that each section has Crow above and below as well as Black Ostrich Herl as a butt, so figure that in when sections are marked out prior to tying. Remember, it’s the little things! In speaking with Steve, he also recommended as I do to tie in the underwings before the throat! Hale’s book highlights this. We will also use Jay, if you hesitate using Jay, get over it and jump in, nothing looks as good. Sometimes you can use 2 feathers to get a nice full throat, with a nice tapered flow! For me, when tying a fly without a body hackle, you can extend the throat length a little to compensate for not having a body hackle, think about that as you build your fly. You will have to leave a little more room though, Plan it out! A low tail will set you up for success too. If you are having trouble splitting Jay, Mark is very good at it and has shown me tricks he uses to accomplish a nice clean strip. This will be a great fly to finish off our yearly meetings, many things we have learned this year is packed into this fly, so it’s time to step up and put your skills to use. It will be fun!

When I look back at our year I think we have accomplished a lot as far as techniques and how to think your way through a Classic Salmon Fly. Many of our seasoned members stepped up and agreed to showcase their skills to the Group, I can’t thank them enough, something we will continue to do. I feel it brings a fresh, new look into watching others technical application of materials and their interpretation of a pattern or recipe. Remember your in control of your tying the end results are in your hands. So try a new idea, or application of materials you have watched someone do while demonstrating. It might just become something you use on a regular basis.

That being said I will just highlight the things we did and the flies we tied this year. We attempted the Gordon in October, muti underwing pattern using peacock herl and a nice main wing over it. In November we tried a meeting dedicated to explaining the many ways to tie a “Mixed Wing”, at least how I interpret it anyway. We tackled the Standard Married Mixed Wing, The Kelson Mixed Wing (a royal pain in the ass) but just stunning when done! The Hale Mixed Wing utilizing bundles to create the wing skin, and finally the Irish Mixed Wing, where we sandwiched materials and brushed them out prior to tying it in. To be honest, I didn’t expect this meeting to have much traction, but had so much positive responses to it. Then in December we tied the Yellow Doctor, using a nice tapered underbody and a clean silk body with a body hackle. In January, Dareld tied the Butcher from Pryce-Tannett, a complicated fly with many parts and all the bells and whistles, Thanks Dareld. In February, Hunter opened the world of Blacker to us all with his historical explanation and background information helping us understand how to tie his patterns true to that time. Quite a meeting, thanks Hunter! March had us attempt a multi sectional seal fur body fly called the Rainbow, again using Don’s body sectional tool to create a beautiful body. And we had Kevin Nadeau come in for our April meeting tying up several patterns over a weekend. From what I have heard, it was a huge success, my thanks to everyone who took up the reigns to make Kevin’s trip a hit. Ringo, I can’t thank you enough my friend to not only made a friend in Kevin, but your kindness and willingness to put Kevin up made his trip, as well as helping out the Guild. I owe you brother! Mark, my right hand man, took over not only the meeting but all the video productions and securing the locations for Kevins visit. Steve Brocco for getting the Firehouse location for us on Sunday. Hunter and Linda for always thinking of the group with food and goodies we all look forward to, thank you! And we will close the year with the real OG, Steve Gobin tying the Popham for our May meeting. So, as you can see we have covered a lot of ground this year, we will continue to try to improve our meetings and the content we bring to you all this coming year. That level of commitment can only be achieved with the help of our membership each and every month. As you see it’s not something any single person can do alone, I am grateful to have so many positive and talented people around to make this stuff happen each month. When you take a moment to really think about it, we are without a doubt, the most active, and the largest Salmon Tying group in the world today. That’s something!! We have increased our membership to almost 80 members thank’s in part to Mark for making our meeting content available to our members online, and his dual camera setup. It sure makes our meetings come to life, we ain’t perfect, but we are on a really good path forward.

Sorry about being long-winded but I have so much to be thankful for, this Guild means the world to me, and making it better will be our mission as we head into next year. So think about what you still might need to see or hear as it pertains to your tying, let me know how we might cater to bringing you the most informative and clear information possible, as we see it. Again, no one in our group is a professional, nobody claims to know it all, we all just tie flies, but the key is to share anything we know with each other. That is the key to our success I believe. I can say that because as I sit either in the peanut gallery or in front of you, I see on a regular basis, members helping each other, lending sound advice to those who seek answers, or sharing materials to help someone move forward. How cool is that?

Hope to see you all on the 16th in Issaquah for our final meeting of the 25-26′ year, should be a blast!

Hey everyone,

The NWASFG will meet on Saturday April 19th at the Fall City Firehouse at 9am, those wanting breakfast will meet at the Raging River Bar and Grill at 8am.

Guild shirts have been ordered and are at the embroidery shop as we speak.

Name Tags have been given to Nick, and he said he would be working on those as well.

The FFI Casting and tying event is on April 27th in Issaquah, the guild has seven tiers and is also hosting a class from Hunter, thank you all for supporting this event, should be a fun time.

We have discussed as a group (us old timers) a lifetime membership to Steve Morton, he’s our resident Oregon Chef and co-host of the Yorke food extravaganza we all get to participate in yearly in Albany. Welcome Steve, and thank you!

Mark Spaur has been working behind the scenes for a year trying to get our old meeting location back to the Issaquah Library Annex building. Mark has attended meetings on behalf of the group and has some news to share with us on Saturday. A ton of work was put into this, Mark will talk to us about what he has found out.

Ben has, through an email to the Guild been working on a book deal from Barry Grewcock and his Encyclopedia of Salmon flies and Sea Trout Patterns. Ben shared with me some of what is in there and I have not seen this much pattern variations in any book I currently have in my library! So many patterns to choose and look over. Ben will cover more ground on this and answer any questions you might have, he has enlisted the help of Jim McKinnon for the printing duties, as anyone who attends our meetings can attest to his monthly pattern sheet is something to see.

Byron, who has recovered from that evil dentist, will give us a little talk on fly choice and proper hook selection. We are lucky to have a World Class Hook Maker in our group, and he can share some good information with us about what he knows, and the feedback he gets from tiers worldwide.

This month we will have Brett Breuel demonstrate the fly of the month, we has talked about having one of our members share with us their take on how they approach a given fly, their ideas and techniques. Brett is an accomplished tier and we can learn much from him, I look forward to it.

The Fly Pattern for April is The Black Dog, from Kelson, Hardy, and Hale. There are many variations of this fly, this one seems to be the one seen more often. I feel that a longer shanked hook gives this fly a more “racy” appearance, perhaps a Sunday or Playfair hook? Given the ribbing scheme, of two oval tinsels and a band of silk floss the longer shank spreads it out giving it more flow. A long Heron Hackle or suitable substitute feather really gives the Black Dog a recognizable look. Again, there are many other variations available to tie, so keep that in mind, Blue, Claret, and Red dyed heron was regularly used. As you can see in the recipe, the underwing utilizes 2 red/orange hackles enveloped by 2 extended Jungle Cock feathers. Remember, that the underwing is part of the wing, so when building the main wing don’t go too crazy! A medium sized wing (fiber count) should be used, otherwise it get too big, so just keep that in mind when building your wing. Simpler is better I think, use your discretion. The last thing to consider is the application of the unbarred Woodduck sides (lemon) you can use strips, from a really big lemon Woodduck feather. Or strip down the feather to use the whole tip, your choice. I have found that by dying Pearl Mallard tan/cinnamon it looks acceptable as it has larger fibers.

I will still use the White Board for my thoughts on the fly, even though Brett will be demonstrating for us, if its useful, and you want to see it?

Coffee will be on, beverages in the cooler, and lunch will be provided.
Look forward to seeing you all on the 19th!

Respectfully,
Glenn

Black Dog

We will be meeting on Saturday February 15th, at the Fall City Firehouse at 9am. Those wanting breakfast will meet at the Raging River Bar and Grill at 8am.

I hope those going down to Albany are getting ready, I think it’s the best fly tying event on the west coast, so plan on being there either to watch and learn or to tie. The Guild has always had a great showing of tiers, so be sure to wear your Guild shirt to support what we have to offer. If your a first time tier tie what you want to, Spey flies, Classics or whatever suits you. See you there!

I have selected a Classic Salmon fly from Kelson that has Steelhead colors but stays true to a full dress pattern The Manchester Swell. While it is pretty straight forward, as always, remember the things we have been pounding on like short antique style tip and tag, and a LOW tail. The body itself is 1/3 buttercup yellow silk then Magenta silk, with a Magenta hackle running from the second turn of tinsel. I use a flat silver and silver twist (see Ben) or you can use a large oval if you choose. This calls for Blue Jay throat, and I like the look a full Jay throat up front, so leave enough room for 2 feathers. Again, thats your choice. Tippets in strands and Gallina are called for so remember to raise your tying platform to keep those strands lying flat over the body. I also tie in Gallina strands to brush in with my fingers before tying down the tippets, so the both get tied on together, keep them low! Pretty straight forward wing so nothing too crazy, just make up whatever kind of arraigned strips you like. Mallard roof and short sides of Jungle Cock finishes it off. I hope we get a good turnout and lots of activity at the vice.

As usual we will have the coffee on, cold beverages in the cooler and lunch provided for you.

See you all on the 15th.
Respectfully,
Glenn

Manchester Swell (Kelson)