Hello, my name is Phil Bonnel and I am currently deployed to the Middle East. I am going to be giving a fly tying class to about 6 other soldiers but I anticipate more becoming interested once we get started. If you have an old vise or tools that still function or any odds and ends materials that you would like to donate please contact me at philbonnel@gmail.com. I have my vise and one of my old ones and I have some materials that I am allowing them to use. I am not charging anything for the class or my materials. If you email me, I will provide you an APO address. There is no international charges to mail anything because the military gets the package before it leaves the states. It generally costs around $12 to mail a box.
How about posting your military designated address, including the APO. I’m sure several or more, myself included, would be willing to send you some stuff.
You’ll have to pardon my skepticism. It’s especially questionable when a request comes from someone who just became a site member. Over the years there’s been a few scams here about fly tying or equipment needs and I fell for one of them. So, if you want any support, you’ll have to provide a lot more information that gives us a better feeling that this is not just another attempt at getting something for nothing. Oh, and by the way, there are some of us here who have served or who have friends and family serving over there. My son is there now. Finally, this does sound like an excellent idea and when you provide more info that makes me feel comfortable, I’ll get a package out to you. Others here may too. Thank you for helping your fellow soldiers and thank you for your service.
Phil,
I think more than one of us … OK, a whole bunch of us … have been snookered at one time or another with our enthusiasm for our sports (fishing and tying).Please give us more information. Know you’re from Missouri … where? You ever fish the State Parks? (may know some of the same people) Where are you stationed? (again, may know some of the same people … lots of family and friends stationed overseas right now). How much longer will you be there? What materials do you want/need? What will you be fishing for? We always stand ready to help out fellow fishermen/women, but hate when phishermen/women try to take advantage of our sincerity.
Betty/KC area
Some can and some can’t. It depends. When we sent mail to my son in Iraq, and he was at a FOB, the address included the name of the FOB. Right now he’s in an unknown place and we only have an APO address.
But we don’t want any information that, in any way, is objectionable.
Thank you Betty. I had the same feelings as we may have been scamed before! Collected a lot of stuff for a “Solider in Iraq” and never heard from him again!! Not even so much as a “Thank You”!!
First of all, thank you all very much for your interest in helping me get this started.
A little about me… I’m from Missouri. I went to college in Branson and wish I had known about fly fishing at the time (Lake Taneycomo… Awesome). I have lived in the Jefferson City area and now live in northern MO. I love to fish, hunt, camp, and pretty much anything outdoors. I’ve been fly fishing for about 4 years and really started seriously tying about 3 years ago while I was in Afghanistan. I have a great girlfriend that I taught to fly fish last summer which was a terrible idea. I was stuck bass fishing all summer because she ALWAYS had my fly rod.
The only time you can fish for trout in northern MO, is in the winter when the conservation department stocks some small lakes. I love getting down to Lake Taneycomo, Roaring River, and Bennet Springs. When I can’t do that, most days I prefer to fly fish for bluegill or small bass over bass fishing. I deer, rabbit, and squirrel hunt and save the hair and furs for tying. Here’s a tip, a great place to get a lot of random stuff is to talk to hunters, you never know what they might be throwing away that you can use. A lot of it isn’t very good quality, but it beats buying it from the store. For me it’s one more step… I caught a fish on the fly i made from the deer I harvested last fall. Sorry, I got off track. I have wanted to catch a smallmouth bass on a flyrod but haven’t had the chance. When I get home I plan on a nice long fishing trip and getting to do somethings I haven’t taken the time to do yet.
As I stated before, I am a in the MO National Guard. I am a military police soldier deployed to the middle east. I would rather not post my APO on the internet because I have no way of controlling who sees it. At least if someone emails me and asks for it there is a record of who has it. Please understand.
Again, thank you all very much for your interest in helping me get this started.
Phil Bonnel
P.S. If you send something, please write a small note and include your name and address so a “thank you” can be sent. If there is anything else you would like to know, please ask. I will answer it if I can. Also, if anyone is interested in doing some fishing when I get home, I’m always eager to learn what I can from people who have been doing it longer than I have.
Phil & interested members,
Because I was and am also concerned and no way could I know for sure if Phil is for real or not. I sent him a personal e-mail asking him to convince me his request is for real. He answered me and his answer is posted, here and again on the “Wanted” thread. He also sent me his APO address which I will not include here. If you would like to help out what I believe to be a legitimate request, send him a request for his APO address. I am sure he will respond. It appears to me that he is on his second deployment at this time. I for one will be sending him some stuff to use in his classes.
A couple people have asked specifically what I need… Honestly I don’t know. My biggest fear is not having enough vices, tools, and hooks. On the other hand, I don’t need everyone sending that and then not having enough supplies for the guys. So, back to square one, I don’t specifically know what to ask for. My goal is to get them started and feeling comfortable to do it on their own. They just need some stuff to get comfortable with the principles of tying. Once they know what they are doing it’s up to them where they take it from there and to get their own stuff. I’m just planting the seed and watering it a little.
Again, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that has shown intrest in helping me get this started. The more I talk about tying, the more guys want to learn. This is getting bigger and better than I imagined it would be. I’m pretty excited about.
Here are a couple thoughts, how about creating a rough list of what you want to start with, and what flies you will likely teach that will give a better idea of materials and then post the list. One other thing to think about is how about trying to contact a big box store like cabelas or basspro and see if they are willing to donate anything?
Everyone, as always, THANK YOU very much for being a huge part of me being able to give this calss. I recently found out that some friends from Capital City Fly Fishers in Jefferson City, MO have donated 6 kits. I want to send a BIG THANK YOU to those nice folks. As far as any particle supplies I need, I want to tie several types of flies and get them comfortable working with many different kinds materials. I think we are going to start out with a Wolly Bugger, some kind of foam popper, Some streamers, Clouser Minnow, a dry fly or two, midge, and probably a pheasant tail nymph. I might try a deer hair popper but spinning deer hair is not one of my strong points. Also might depend on what most of them plan on fishing for. Once they have a good idea of what they are doing, I’m going to let them pick what they want to do and if they have a question I’ll be there to help them out. Lately there have been more and more people coming up and telling me they are wanting to take a class. I’m going to see what we get and go from there. If I have to turn people away, I will have another class and by then if the first group knows that they are going to continue to tie I’ll have them get their own stuff… which I know several are already planning on doing. I think this is going to be great for our sport and I thank all of you for being a HUGE part of it. There’s no way I could have made it this far without everyones help.
I’ve got a box ready and I’ll try to mail it out today or Monday. Hope you can use what I’m sending.
Thanks for your service and helping others over there.
Thank you very much Allan. There is no doubt that we will be able to use whatever it is you send. I keep looking forward to the day that I get back on here and thank everyone. Mail is taking a long time. They say that the troops that are pulling out of Iraq and shipping stuff home has caused a delay in the mail. I have guys ask on a daily basis if I’m ready to start giving the class. The number of guys wanting to take the class has doubled. I now have over a dozen guys wanting to take it. I am going to split them up and give two seperate classes. I’m just glad for the oppertunity to be the one to get these guys started tying. Thanks again and God bless.
If anyone donated anything to my tying class and did not get an email letting you know that I got it, it’s because I never got your package. Plese let me know so I can try to track it down. My email is philbonnel@gmail.com.
I also wanted to let everyone know what’s going on with the class. As ALWAYS (when it comes to the military) there were some changes made to our schedual. Some of the guys in my squad went to differen’t shifts and different days off… So, it didn’t work out as I planned to have a “class”, however I’ve been able to work with them one on one which is OK… means more tying for me There is only one or two guys that originally wanted to that I haven’t been able to get together with… but it will happen sooner or later. If you would like to see flies that I’ve been working on, you can go to: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.149871148203.110249.144375323203&type=1#!/pages/Phils-Flies/144375323203 I’ve tried to get the guys to let me take pictures of their flies but they always tell me they will next time, when they get better.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a great new year… God bless.
Phil Bonnel
