This is the third years that I have been Swapmeister of the ?Beginner?s Only Fly Swap?. Over those three years, there have been a total of 13 groups, that have committed to participating in a series of monthly fly swaps during the late autumn and winter months. I created these fly swaps, for those members who were new to fly tying, as well as those members who were new to fly swaps.

Over 100 members have participated in these swaps, the past three years. The members vote on choice a category, for each months fly swap, and no category is visited twice. So these swaps have been a learning experience for all members, to push them outside their comfort zone, of fly patterns.

Each group of ?Beginner?s Only Fly Swap?, having ten members, tied and submitted twelve flies for each swap (extra two flies are spares). Here is the consolidated categories, that the four different groups chose this season...

Dry Fly
Emerger Fly
Midge Fly
Nymph Fly
Salmon - Steelhead Fly
Streamer Fly
Terrestrial Fly
Wet Fly

It is with great pleasure, to post the names of those members, who are now graduating as the ?Class of 2005, and become alumni of ?Beginner?s Only Fly Swap?....

Mark Adams, Group 3

Norman Beggs, Group 3
Michael Belloma, Group 2
Paul Bent, Group 4
Tony Buda, Group 3

Wayne Christensen, Group 2
Randy Collins, Group 2
James Coward, Group 3
Brian Crotts, Group 4

John Eaton, Group 1

Jeff Frye, Group 2
Matt Fuller, Group 4

Kevin Gilroy, Group 3
Sean Gould, Group 2

Bruce Herb, Group 1
Charlie Hennigar, Group 4

C J Klenske, Group 3

Diane Maluso, Group 1
Steve Marshall, Group 1
Cole Martin, Group 1
Dev McCabe, Group 3
Ailsa McIntosh, Group 4
David McLaren, Group 3
Brian Miller, Group 1
Chad Miller, Group 2
George Miller, Group 4
Sonny Morgan, Group 4
Chris Morrison, Group 1

Kevin Payne, Group 2
Joe Pegnetter, Group 2

Paul Ratcliffe, Group 4
Jim Roik, Group 2

Patrick Sande, Group 3
Bruce Schneck, Group 3
Rick Schlarb, Group 4
Matt Shackelford, Group 2
Joshua Sommermeyer, Group 2
Tim Swihart, Group 1

Bob Widmaier, Group 1
Darren Wilson, Group 3

Mike Zysk, Group 1

Swapmeisters of FAOL, the members who names that I posted, tie some of the ?Best Dang Flies? you will ever see! They are now Intermediate Fly Tiers, and will be a bonus to any fly swap that you host on FAOL.


~ Swapmeister Parnelli

In Memory of Sonny Morgan, who passed away March 23rd, 2005...







[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 17 April 2005).]