Memories of Summer

Even though this beautiful Catty wasn't on the fly, I felt it was an awesome reminder of not only a fun night Amy and I had camping this past Summer, but also an awesome reminder of being young, camping, tying one on, and chucking big ol chubs for catfish. Don't get me wrong, I love fly fishing in a way words can't describe but there will always be a special place in my heart for watching a fire burn, throwing back some beers, and waiting for that rod tip to twitch in the lantern light. AHHH SUMMER.......

Bie's Blog Jam // Drake Fly Fishing Magazine

Bie's Blog Jam // Drake Fly Fishing Magazine

Funky swimmer (submerged walk the dog)

While fishing with a hardware chucking friend of mine this Summer, I couldn't help but stare at this new lure he was throwing. It actually walked the dog under the water! It was a new design by Larry Dahlberg. If you're not familiar with Larry, Google him and check out his body of work, he fishes lures, flies, bait he is the epitome of what a fishing junky is. Anyway with that being said, this new lure called "The Wide Glide" has this intoxicating back and forth swoon to it. My friend had the Muskies licking their lips that day, they couldn't lay off of it. From the first cast I witnessed to the drive home I couldn't stop thinking about how I was gonna tie a fly to mimic that deadly action. Well weeks of tying, testing, cursing, and constant incoherent mumbling, as well as 2 freezer bags of WTF's and I finally got it right! This in my humble opinion is one of the top 2 flies I have ever come up with. Once the mighty Susquehanna River comes down and has a little more clarity than the raging motor oil it looks like right now, I'm betting dollars to doughnuts the side to side swooning action is gonna be just what those river demons are wanting. I'll keep ya posted!

Symposium

I don't know how to begin to describe how much fun I had this past weekend at the New Jersey fly tying symposium! I met some awesome new friends and got to see some old friends as well. Some world class tying going on. I know I'm not going to remember everyone but if you're not familiar with some of these names google them or go to their web sites and check out some great patterns.. Mike Schmidt was tying some awesome sculpins, Steve Silverri always has some fantastic salt water streamers some you can learn to tie by finding him on you tube, Pat Cohen was spinning up mind blowing deer hair patterns, Rich Murphy was showing everyone the million and one uses for one of my favorite materials, E-Z Body! I was able to learn some sweet tube techniques from some of my new friends from Sweden. Last but not least I was able to sit in on a buck tail seminar with Bob Popovics, to say I learned alot there is an understatement! Keep an eye out for some future posts of some buck tail creations I will be posting!

Tubes

Hardware guys have been chuckin tubes for years, and for the last several years musky companies have been producing huge tubes for hunting the river wolf. This is my take on these fantastically versatile lures.

Lefty Crays

This is my take on the jig and pig, or another bait I used to devastate the smallmouth with when I used to spin fish as a kid called a salty spider.

Frog Blog

This is a recent frog pattern I came up with some of the many patterns I've been hammering out in preparation for the Symposium in New Jersey.

big ol jiggin bug

After watching Doug Stange on an episode of In-Fisherman use a type of swim bait similar to this design to catch various species of fish from freshwater to the salt, and a buddy of mine who chucks lures telling me about a 47 inch Musky he had recently landed with the same type of bait, I was instantly grinding my gears as to how I was going to mimic this design for fly fishing. This is what I came up with. This type of fly is very versatile, from Jigging off the bottom, ripping it back to keep the twister tails going, or simply swinging it through likely holding lies.

What the duck?? (duckling)

We've all heard the stories of Pike and Musky even a big ol Largemouth eating muskrats and ducklings etc.. And I love fishing top water so what I tried to do was match the spring duckling hatch. This is not just for looks it pushes water in a spray like manner looking just like a duckling trying to scoot across the water. It's a blast just watching it come back to ya.

Big Bad Poppers

With the New Jersey tying symposium coming up in November, I've been using any and all free time to get as many patterns spun up as possible. These Big ol poppers move a ton of water and create a fantastic "PLOOM" sound that the muskies hear like a dinner bell. Lightweight, easy to cast, and who doesn't love the top water bite!? Especially when it's a big Musky taking it down.

Doubles

Well the river here is starting to get back to it's normal levels after some vicious flooding, and with the fall eat coming on I thought I'd better tie up something to wet big mans appetite, and I think these double articulated baitfish should get some attention.

Sunny days

With all of the rain blowing out the rivers around here focus will have to be aimed at the lakes and ponds so I thought this articulated sunfish with a petijean cup would draw some attention from the bucketmouths.

Mikes wounded minnow

This is such a versatile bug. With this one I added a cone head for a jigging action but other options are adding a foam popper head or a pencil popper for a floater or a funky swimmer on a sinking line. This particular one is a wounded version that swims on its side to mimic the the off kilter action of a stunned or dying bait fish, but this pattern can also be tied to swim in a straight forward manner to mimic a bait fish trying to escape an attack. With this way of tying, a petijean cup can be tied on as well for a killer side to side action like the ever popular Rapala. Another tying option with this bug is that the E-Z Body that it is tied with comes in a small, medium, large, 3 1/4inch, and 1inch version so with these size options and various markers you can imitate anything from a small minnow to a large bait fish, Stay tuned for some pictures of these other ties as I get them hammered out.

Musky Country!!

Received my copy of  Musky Country Zero to Hero! Great job done by the Musky Tribe, not only the fishing scenes, including Brad Bohen catching the fly caught record, but also great tying sequences. They also touch on double articulated flies, definately my kind of fly chuckers!

The Receiver (rubber deceiver)

This is my version of the famous deceiver, instead of feathers and hair I've opted for all rubber legs. This will be commercially tied by Rainy's flies (minus the fish skull for now). I love these new fish skulls, what a great addition to tying. Check out the fish skull web site they are also producing a sculpin helmet as well as a new option for tying articulated flies.

Salamanders

Happy to announce, not only has Rainy's Flies (the current producer of several flies of mine) picked up several more of my patterns for production this year, including the salamander shown, but I'm told Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, The Flyshop, and Feathercraft are also going to carry the salamander. I apologize for not having kept up with the blog lately, I have been not only fishing as much as possible, but also working diligently on creating a web site as well as several t-shirt designs for what I'm hoping will be a prosperous online business. I will do my best to continue posting updates as I get everything put together. Hope all of you out there in blog land have had a great summer! Won't be long till the Fall feed bag gets strapped on!

NEW BOAT

                                                                                                                                                                        
It's been a long wait but I'm so happy to say it finally happened! My girlfriend and I recently bought this musky hunting machine. Not only am I looking forward to chucking some new bugs this year, but it's gonna be so much sweeter chucking them from this casting deck.

SEARCHING

Sometime ago I was scanning various blogs and came across one in particular, that for the life of me I can't remember who's it was. They had drawn a KILLER pencil sketch of a musky and posted it, I've been wanting to show it to some friends, but after relentless searching I just can't find it can anybody out there help a brother out?

blog improvements

Got some new stuff on the page today, hope everyone likes it. Working on buying a new camera so I can get the quality pics I'm looking for. Heading out to hit a still high, still cold river to see if I can't talk a musky into at least a handshake, then BOAT SHOPPING!! My circa 1950's motor shit the bed last summer and I've decided to find something new to me hopefully with a jet motor (river gets a little low in late summer). Wish me luck my fellow water floggers, bug chuckers, and lip rippers!

Musky Bible

My girlfriend (Sweetheart/ musky fishing supporter) just got me a copy of Robert Tomes "Musky on the fly"!! If anyone that was deterred by the $60.00 drop kick to the wallet let me assure you it is worth it. The guy did a fantastic job, it would have been easy to put a hodge podge collection of how to's together and make it work just because nobody has really written any real book I'm aware of on the subject of flyfishing for these hallowed creatures but instead he really went the extra mile putting this book together. Taking into account that money is as tight as a frogs ass right now, this is worth the hit, if she wouldn't have bought it I definately would have.

first post

Just got back last night from the Philly tying show. Had a great time, bought a ton of materials looking forward to coming up with some new Musky bugs. I will definately be getting more pics of some hog huntin patterns on here.