"Beginner's Only" Class of 2005

All about flies Fly Swaps
1

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).]

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Weren’t my flies good enough for gradution? I can do some extra credit if that would help.

And thanks to everyone in Group 3 for tying some great flies. I learned a ton by tying flies that I don’t normally tie, and had alot of fun doing the swaps.

Big thank you to Parnelli. You are a great swapmeister and teacher.

David McLaren Group 3

[This message has been edited by TXBuzz (edited 17 April 2005).]

3

I’m very interested in the “beginner’s only fly swaps”. What do I need to do to become a participant.

Carp

4

Parnelli,

Thanks for the great swaps you host! Participating in them got me to try all sorts of things I wouldn’t have otherwise!

Any new tyers sitting on the fence about this need to sign up!

Thwack

[This message has been edited by Thwack (edited 18 April 2005).]

5

My apoligy’s David, I edited and edited, and thought I had everyone listed. If anything I must say I as a Swapmeister have also on many occasions also learned from the students.

FlyingCarp, the 2006 "Beginner’s Only will be offered again this autumn, and I will post the forming of “Beginner’s Only Fly Swap”, on the Fly Tying and Fly Swap Boards of FAOL. If you wish, you can email me of your interest in the 2006 Beginner’s Only Fly Swap at the following address…
[email:612af]parnelli@comcast.net[/email:612af]

I will inform you (or anyone else that is interested) when I start the the new season in the autumn.

~Parnelli

[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 18 April 2005).]

6

No problem. Thanks again for hosting such great swaps.

For anyone thinking about joining the new Beginner’s group fly swaps, it is a invaluable tool for learning new aspects of flytying that you wouldn’t normally do. Lots of fun too.

7

It was a pleasure and an honor for me to be in the beginners only swaps. I learned an awful lot. I thank all of you for your help. A special thanks to Steve for hosting the swaps and for teaching me so much. I urge anyone just starting to get into tieing flies or wanting to get into it, to participate in Steve’s Beginners only swaps. You will find it fun and a very powerful learning experience. Steve will give you a very good critique on your flies that will help you over and over in your future tieing projects. Thanks to Steve I am a much better tier and have been able to host a couple of swaps myself. I know I have much more to learn. I learn a lot on FAOL from all of you. One of the most important things I learned from Steve, was to give to and help others and not to just take and think of only myself. John

I wish you everlasting flies and tight lines.

[This message has been edited by bassman (edited 18 April 2005).]

8

Parnelli, it was a great experience participating in your # 3 group. I learned much and enjoyed myself plus I have a lot of very nice flies to use or to serve as patterns. THANKS, THANKS THANKS and can I say THANKS

9

Steve, it was a wonderful experience. Thanks for hosting and thanks for all the help and advice. You run an awesome swap and I know it was a lot of work for you. Thanks a million. And to all the tiers in Group 3, you guys have some real talent. Thanks for sharing it and for giving me new tying ideas.

Sincerely,
Mark Adams

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It is a happy sadness, when people you have helped, move on to do what you taught them to do. I always had a small tear in my eye when I saw my students in the U.S. Army, receive their diploma’s, at the end of training. Very similar to seeing your children growup, and start families of their own. Baby Duck has grown to start a family of its own, yet you wish they could always stay Baby Ducks.

It has been a pleasure helping the members of Beginner’s Only, achive something that, otherwise would have been more time consuming and difficult.

I am glad, I was able to help each of you, with your advancement in fly tying.

Swapmeister Parnelli

11

Steven, Just want to say thanks for a great experience. Sometimes being pushed is the only way one gets better at things. My son and I were looking at flies in Gander Mountain the other night and he said “lets just go home and you can tie us a few for tomorrow, yours look better.” For a compliment like that coming from him I can only say thanks to you Steven. to any of you new people out there who might be hesitating about joining this beginner swap, all I can say is, don’t wait too long! Happy fishing folks. kev

12

Yes thanks Steven - but now I am lost again, I enjoyed participating and seeing the others efforts, but I started late and therefore was not aware that it would all end way to soon. I have been kicking around an idea in my noggin’ - How about a Class of 2005 alumni swap, running concurrently with your beginers only. Same basic rules, 10 tiers, vote for type, carry over count, tie 12, send them in, etc. but the main difference would be we do 10 months so everyone has to host one time. One of the things I liked about the beginners only was that even when I got too busy I had to find time to tie, which actually helped relax me - like hobbies are supposed to do. This format would keep our skills growing and we would all get to experience hosting. If anyone is interested let me know.

Steven - I would be very open to any comments or suggestions you would have on this idea or how to get it set up. You or another highly experienced tier and host would also be welcome to participate and to continue to provide feedback.

Dev

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Dev:

Great Idea! Also a nice compliment to those who participated in the swaps. You mentioned one of my theme for the swaps, “Getting you to tie flies”! Another item on my swap agenda, was to get the members outside of their comfort zone, as well as making it a learning experience, but most importantly to have “FUN” doing the swaps.

I like the idea of the “Rotating Duties of Swapmeister”, and creating new categories of flies.

I had 9 categories, and sometimes it was hard to choose, which category a given pattern fit into. Sometimes a pattern did not seem to fit any category, while at other times the pattern seem to fit many categories.

Wish you luck in your future fly tying endeavors, as I have watched past members of “Beginner’s Only Fly Swap”, become “Swapmeisters”, hosts of “Regional FAOL Fish-In’s” (which was my idea), and have others have written articles for FAOL, including “Fly of the Week” articles.

The best gift a student can give to their mentor (s), is the success of the student from the mentoring lessons given. That is what “Paying Forward” is all about…

~Parnelli

[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 18 May 2005).]