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It was time for my annual trip to Mt Home, Arkansas for
the SowBug Round Up. This is a fun meeting and I learn
a few new things every year. After going to it for about
seven years now it is a family reunion. Only in this
family you get to pick the family.
The meeting runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We drove
down on Thursday, arriving in the late afternoon. We
decided not to go to the meeting, but to get some things
we needed for breakfast and head off to our cabin. We stay
east of Mt Home in a cabin that is very nice. They run about
$55 per night with taxes included. The cabins are up on Highway
101.
We got settled in and lounged around for a while. We then
went into Mt Home to get dinner. There is a Chinese restaurant
there that we found and like. After that we went back to the
cabin and just "vegged" out.
On Friday morning I was stoked to get to the church and tie.
Even when I got to the church, there were already folks there
set up to tie and a few tying. It was nice to see some of the
folks who set this up each year and to be recognized. My wife
was even givent a SowBug coffee mug when we went in. She was told it
was for bringing me down to tie.
I got set up and was primed to tie. That is when I found
out that the beadheads that were supposed to be in had not
made it. I did look at the materials one dealer there and
they had beadheads. But they would not be there until 9:00
o’clock and this was a few minutes before 8:00. I was
getting ready to just tye the mohair leech that I was also
going to do as the second fly, when one of the organizers
came by and asked if there was a problem. When I told him
what I was going to do, he told me to take the beads and
he would send the dealers to me as I was tying so I could
pay them.
I started tying the Goldie Jr.
I had been tying for about an hour when I felt a hand on
my shoulder. I looked up and there was a smiling lady
asking me how much I owed them? When I started to
pull the packages the beads on been in together to show
her, she told me to just tell her the amount and that
would be fine. They did not worry about any body cheating
them at the meeting. I thought it said something pretty
good about the folks that gather there.
I had several people come by and watch me tie the Goldie
fly. I did it in silver and in gold. I had tied for
about an hour and a half when I had two guys show up and
tell me they wanted very detailed instructions on how to
tie the Goldie Jr. I told them that it had been the "Fly
of the Week" on FAOL and the directions were on the site.
They were interested in trying it for smallmouth bass on
one of the rivers in the area.
They also asked me if I had any other flies I was tying
and I showed them one of the mohair yearn leeches I was
tying. They were impressed with this fly also.
They left and I tied some more flies as more and more people
came by. Some of these folks I remember and some of the
others told me that they remembered me. They wanted to
know if I had anything new to tie this year. Every year
there I have tied at least one new pattern.
Just before lunch I had a couple come by to watch the flies
being tied. They told me they fished for stripers and that
they wished the fly was bigger. I told them to use something
like flash-a-bou to tie it and that it should work that way.
Twenty minutes later they were back with larger hooks,
beadheads and a package of flash-a-bou. So I tied up a
couple of flies on larger hooks using the larger materials.
I have not heard how they worked.
I tied for the rest of the afternoon. We stayed for the
barbeque that the club puts on for the tyers and their
spouses. It is a good meal as are all those that the
ladies at the church put on. The food at the church is
very reasonably priced.
Here is a picture of some of the folks that were tying that day.
Peggy Brenner is in the pink vest. I have the tan t-shirt on.
Tony Spezio is in the brown shirt just behind me. Kevin Slater
is in the red shirt. The red head is Nick R from Sweden; Alan
Fish is just in front of Kevin.
Denny Conrad was also at the RoundUp, sorry his photo didn't turn out.
I think I deleted the wrong one.
Saturday morning I got to go around and see what some
other folks were tying.
Mark Romero told me was tying, but I did not see a lot
happening. I do know that he did tie up several flies
for the fly-fishing team his wife is on. Mark does tie
some very pretty Atlantic Salmon flies.
Sister Carol Ann, the Flytying nun was there and
showed everyone a neat shrimp pattern.
Elmer M was there and showed me a neat pine squirrel pattern.
I got so busy watching people that I did not get pictures of everyone.
I did see a few new patterns that I will share as soon
as I get some tied up to show.
Also found a new (old material) that I will share with
you as soon as I can find some of it.
I tied again Saturday afternoon. I got to exchange a couple
of flies with Fishy Fullum. He tied there as one of the
tyers. He was fun to be around.
I got to tie next to Hans W for one session. None of his
tying ability rubbed off on me, and he has a lot of talent
in tying flies. But I think I made his tying go downhill.
Hans is a very nice person and has a story to tell about
FAOL when you see him.
It was great fun to be with the group and see a bunch
of friends again. I look forward to the meeting next year.
The club puts on a very nice program and takes care
of the folks who tie. I had five of them come by and
thank me for coming down to tie. They were going to
all the tiers to do this.
Hope you can get out on the water. I have the itch, BAD. ~ Rick
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