I will be at the Great Waters Fly Fishing Exposition in Minneapolis on March 26, 27, and 28, giving programs and demonstrations. This is always a great expo, put on by my good friend Tom Helgeson of Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine. There’s lots going on, including great programs, great displays and vendor booths, and great music. Come join us for the weekend, Great Waters Expo, MSP.

Yes there are more sculpins. We’ll end this series with number 4, which illustrates designing with pens. After the basic Bullhead Sculpin is endowed with body and head, scissors and permanent markers are used to enhance the overall look of the imitation. Have a peek at the page for the Bullhead Sculpin #4 to see how easy it is to actually do this.

The Bullhead Sculpin with trimmed head and body paint.

OK, Bullhead Sculpin version 3 is up on its own page. Have a look. There are a couple of new spins to the imitation that you will find very interesting and useful in your own design work.

The Bullhead Sculpin #3

In several instances at the shows this year, I’ve mentioned the use of rope kits to help learn knots faster and easier. And every time, people have asked me where to get them or how to make them, etc. They’re easy to make, either singly or en masse. I’ve put up a page to show how to make them for yourself or for a club fishing school. Later, I’ll show knots using the kits.

A rope kit makes learning new knots very easy.

There’s another great way to add a bit of flash to the Bullhead Sculpin design, and that’s by adding it to the collar. The effect is very nice because the flash is in the collar and not merely on the inside or on the outside of the fly. The flash sparkles within the hair and not separate from it. It’s easily done. Check out the page on the tying steps for the  Bullhead Sculpin #2.

Bullhead Sculpin # 2, built with the flash imbedded in the hair of the collar.

The bullhead tying design can be added to a sculpin very easily. In addition, I add a bit of flash to this design to form the body and tail. It’s a very fast, “Down and Dirty” design that works extremely well. It’s also very easy to upgrade with only a few minor changes. watch for these in upcoming posts. Go to the Bullhead Sculpin #1 page to view the tying steps.

The Finished Bullhead Sculpin

This is a variation on the Down and Dirty leech that I demonstrated at the Fly Fishing Show in Pleasanton, CA, last weekend. It adds a very dense head of dubbing to give the imitation even more water pushing capacity and to allow the tyer to shape the head if needed. More on shaping the head to come–watch for the Bullhead Sculpin. Go to the page for the Bullhead Leech for tying instructions.

The Bullhead Leech

In the posts on the Pleasanton, CA, show, I mentioned Jeff Currier and his art. You can see more of Jeff’s efforts at flyfishingbum.blogspot.com/ He’s got lots of info on his blog, so go have a look.

Jason has been working on the art for our first book in the “Fly Fishing” anthology, “Fishing the Film” Here’s a sample of “vector” art that will appear in the book, along with sketches, illustrations, and other art forms. Watch for the soon to be released date of publication of this book.

A "vector" art fly--watch for it in "Fishing the Film."

Sunday, February 28, opened with a Bible study that I held at the Show. Several of us had a great time together discussing the Word. Then, it was off to the races with the show. The Author’s Booth, a casting demonstration, a Power Point presentation on “Presentation,” and a fly tying session. The Author’s Booth is directly opposite from, what else, Ben Furimsky’s book booths–The Angling Bookstore.com. He carries everything. If you need a book, look him up.

Ben and Brooke and The Angling Bookstore.com

And, of course, there was time to get around and BS with a few old friends like Ken Hanley, whose creative fly designs get the fish wired.

Ken Hanley crankin' out a another winner.

Another long-time pal, Jeff Currier, is working hard to get his art out there. His efforts are clean and represent the fish well, see more at jeffcurrier.com.

Jeff and some of his art.

And it’s always great to see the next generation so intensely involved. Jack ties a mean fly and casts one mean line. He’s 11, the same age I was when I started fly fishing. I wish I had been as good at 11 as Jack is.

Jack crankin' out a fish-catchin' fly.