Featured Fly or Should I say Flies

With the recent snow fall and tomorrows temp drop, I have already found myself thinking about summer time smallmouth. I had finished two videos just as the season wrapped up, one of my Over Easy Sculpin and the other of Brian Shumaker's Shimmering Minnow. Both are great smallmouth flies, that will carry over into many other freshwater situations as well. I am going to try the Shimmering Minnow in Erie this weekend. However, I will always associate both of these flies with warm water and smallmouth bass. Check these videos out and get them tied up and ready for warmer weather.

Smallmouth Food - Sculpin

One of the most common forms of fish food that swims. These are some of my favorites for smallmouth bass.

The Over Easy Sculpin is my favorite sculpin pattern. It looks like it will just swim out of your hand.

The Roaming Sculpin, is a quick tie that I came up with a while ago. It is a bottom crawling bass fly that drops fast and stays on the bottom.

The Tube Sculpin is a fly that can cross over from steelhead to smallmouth.

A smaller sculpin tied by Eric Snyder. It works great when the water is low and clear.

Mike Schultz's S3 Sculpin has become a staple in the bass wold. A great fly for any time, and any water conditions.

The Mohawk Sculpin, a design by the boys at Fly Fish Food, but this one was tied by Dean Myers. A great fly with a lot of movement and a great profile.

Not to sure the name of this one, but its a great sculpin, and holds its profile well in the water.

The Combo, its the Mohawk and the Over Easy.

Crazy How it Happens

This is a very short story of how friendships are formed in this industry. Most of the time it starts with a phone call with a question. Other times it's an invite to be a guest tier in a shop. But most of the time the  friendship starts when the cheap beer and pizza hit the table. This is commonly followed by hours of stories about fishing, tying, and college glory days.

One of the coolest parts of my job, is the opportunity to host well known folks in this industry. This past weekend was a 4 day adventure with Greg Senyo, that started out with him driving 9 hours from Ohio to Reading. The first thing he requested was Chinese Food, an hour later we are munching down, and hearing stories about life as a fly fisherman turned Cop. The rest is history, enjoy the pictures.