In years past, the International Fly Tying Symposium was held in the ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel in Somerset, New Jersey. This year, because of scheduling conflicts, it had to be moved to the New Jersey Convention Center, just next door. This is the same facility in which the Somerset Fly Fishing Show is held in late January.

There was a resounding agreement among tyers and vendors that the new venue is outstanding and produced a far better show than those held in the Doubletree. As a consequence, show owner and manager, Chuck Furimsky, has decided to hold the 2013 show in the Garden State Convention Center, and expand it to include more spaces for vendors and tyers.

This year, unlike any other year, Chuck was able to install a casting pond at the Int. Fly Tying Symposium, allowing consumers to try out rods, and where casting demonstrations could be held. The pond was a great success, and will be back in 2013.

If you’re a fly tyer, and you’ve never attended this show, get it on your calendar and plan on being there in 2013. It will be well worth your time.

Check out the details of the 2013 Fly Fishing Shows at  www.flyfishingshow.com/

The casting pond is a new addition to the International Fly Tying Symposium.

This year I used a Hardy Zenith rod for the casting demos. It perfomed admirably.

In years past, I’ve traveled to the International Fly Tying Symposium a few days early and stayed a day or two late so that I could fish for striper and blues with my old friend, Chuck Furimsky. This year, the weather was not on our side. We’ve fished in some rough November seas and done well in the past, but this year, the sea was beyond rough. Small craft warnings kept us planted firmly on shore or fishing the bay. It was great weather for surfers, however, so Ben, Chuck’s son, got to go into the ocean and ride the waves. Good on you Ben, I’m staying on shore.

In years past, the weather was OK, and the stripers and blues were most cooperative.

This year, the weather is great for surfers, but not for fly fishers.

Today dawned cold and cloudy in Ocean City, NJ, and it stayed just that way. Chuck Furimsky and I ran out to several bridges and plumbed the cloudy water under them for whatever would eat our flies. The electronics told us there was a little bait around, but we saw nothing of any size on the screen. As we drifted under one of the bridges, Chuck decided to take off his gloves. He jammed the rod between his knees and began to work the gloves off his hands. That’s when the only strike of the day came. Since his hands were otherwise occupied, he just went ahead and set the hook with his knees—aah, the good old knee set. Worked like a charm, and soon Chuck had boated the  small Striper. At least our boat didn’t go fishless today. By noon we were both rather cool, and headed in for a hit sandwich.

The tide was extremely high today, and hid some of the storm damage, but not all of it.

Chuck’s Striper felt the bite of the old “Knee Set.”

Chuck Furimsky and I were fishing for stripers this morning, but Sandy and the following Noreaster evidently blew them all out to sea. We saw no bait and no bait followers. Perhaps tomorrow we will find a few under the bridges. Then it’s off to the International Fly Tying Symposium in Somerset, NJ.

Theo Baakelar with a nice blue from a previous expedition. This year, nothing.

My good friend and fishing companion, John Beth, is also a most skilled custom knife maker. Once every year, at this time, he has a sale on all his knives. This year it will be November 10^th at the Frameworks Gallery & Gifts, 2275 E. Main St.,  Reedsburg, WI 53959  608-524-2333 from 9am to 5pm. You may also contact John at johnbeth@rucls.netfor an email brochure. John’s knives are wonderfully made. Yes, I certainly do own one that John made specifically for me. It’s a “guitar” knife. The handle is made from all the woods used in a high end guitar—rosewood, mahogany, ebony, etc. And it stays sharp, really sharp because that’s the way John wants his personal knives to perform.

A small sampling of the many knives John has available.

Our friend from Holland, Theo Baakelar, sent a picture of a pike that he recently caught. It definitely was turning up its nose at everyone else’s flies, but when Theo showed him the special pike flies that he uses, well, that pike just couldn’t refuse.

The pike with the turned up nose.

Keith Chessell from Australia sent me the following note. It is an excellent story of an angler developing all-around skills of the Angler as Predator that allow him to fish under any and all conditions.

Hi Gary,

I’d like to share a bit of a revelation concerning your book ‘Presentation’ that I got from you some years back. In fact I can name the date as Feb 7, 1998. I met you at the Seattle Show and you signed and dated the book.

I read the book back then, but was busy with business in the US, and most of the fishing I did there was on the North Umpqua in Oregon, where we stayed with friends. I did very well considering I was new to fly fishing, but heaving heavily weighted flies around with an 8 wt. in those dangerously quick waters left a bit to be leant about the finesse of the finer points of fly fishing. Then again, I’ve experienced the thrill of winter steelhead and Coho in some of the toughest waters in the world in which to land them.

My return to Australia, saw me fly fish a little more on local streams, with enthusiasm, but then the worst drought in recorded history took a hold of the country. It was truly heartbreaking—it went on for nearly 10 years and the water simply disappeared. Streams where I once caught lovely fish were dusty tracks, and the despair in my country town knew no equal. It was a tough decade but the drought finally broke a couple of years ago.

I went to the Snowy Mountains a couple of weeks ago but the water was high, rivers swollen, weather rainy, and snow was still very much happening on the peaks. The water was freezing, and the fish were extremely quite. No even the locals bothered, and the only fish caught were at depth in the lakes by people fishing from boats. I managed one small brown and lost something a little bigger. I went home but returned a week later with the first decent weather forecast.

On the second day in a row, with temps in the high 70s and bright sunshine, the first major hatch of the season occurred, and I was standing right in the middle of it. Duns appeared en masse on the water and so many beetles filled the air that it was difficult not to breathe them in.

I got three nice rainbows in succession with emerges just under the film, then a second hatch of different slightly larger mayflies occurred. The fish stopped feeding in the film and seemed to started tailing around me; the water was knee deep and swift.  A shotgun wouldn’t have spooked them; the tails and high backs of the fish were above the surface as they thrashed about with wild abandon. They were all around me at different distances, and some quite large fish appeared. I hastily put on a nymph, as the fish seemed to be feeding just off the bottom I went to jelly, and my casting arm just wouldn’t work properly. I needed to be deadly accurate, and I missed time and time again. It was then I realized just how specialist my casting had become. I could only cast to such a small arc and distance with any confidence. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the fly drag free on most of my casts. I was trying to cast to rapidly moving fish within 360 degrees at different distances.

I stopped in the dying light, frustrated and said out loud, “so that’s what Borger has been trying to tell me!” I remembered your pages on casting and the different variations and exercises you suggest. To be blunt with myself I realized why was I trying to learn something that I already knew all about – I was far too lazy about being a predator to learn the skills to match the potential conditions. Here was the hatch of the season, with huge fish in shallow water, and I did not have anywhere near the skill to adjust my casts accordingly.

So, with that experience under my belt I’m back in casting school. I hand wrote your casting details and traced the diagrams on cards, and I go to thr park in the afternoons to practice.

I owe you debt of gratitude. Your whole book evolves around the concept of the skills required to be an all-around angler under any condition encountered. It took the fish to show me they are truly vulnerable for certain short periods, but it takes the skills you describe to actually catch them.

My best regards
Keith

The Ecumbene River in the Snow Mountains of Australia.

Our friend, Chuck Furimsky was fishing for Albies with Capt’n Jake Jordan last week ,and Jake sent the following report. The Albies will be waiting after Sandy clears out, so plan accordingly.

October 23, 2012:

Chuck Furimsky with a red hot Albie.

Speaking of steelhead, my friend, Keith Scott, wild-eyed, and very good bluesman, was performing at the Trout Hunter’s on Henry’s Fork (see www.trouthunt.com)  and went up to fish the canyon. A big rainbow took his olive bugger and nearly fought Keith to a standstill. He landed it, got its photo, and then as he says, “went and played his gig.” I’ve been to any number of Keith’s gigs, and I can tell you that he plays a really mean blues guitar. I’ll bet he had all sorts of rainbow blues that night!! Visit Kieth’s home page via the link to the right.  Listen to Keith at www.myspace.com/heavyblueskso and note Buffalo Swing and Coming Home for some nice guitar music to sit and tie flies by. If you like hard blues, try Down with Trouble. You can see him on Utube at http://www.youtubedcom/watch?v=nWHVi0lvxek

Just on e look and you can tell Keith is a bluesman.

Jason and Kelley became parents to Brooke Alexis on October 8th. Brooke was so excited about learning to fly fish that she came a bit early. She is doing just fine, and headed home on Wednesday October 24. Here she is in her car seat, dreaming of Spey casting for steelhead and salmon in the rivers of the Northwest.–you can tell from the smile on her face.

Brooke dreams of the day when, armed with her 13 foot Spey rod, she wades deep in a big NW river and throws long for big steelhead, outcasting and out fishing both dad and G-dad.