The FLA Stops- Round #1

Not long after chasing reds, we were headed south to the Jacksonville show. There was a quick detour though; I was getting dropped off in Hilton Head, SC to have the quickest family reunion in history. As it turns out, I was in the area the same time my cousin was having his second baby, on top of that his mom (my aunt) and two of this three brothers and sisters where there too…from Michigan. On top of that my aunt and uncle from NY happened to be taking a nice south east road trip at the same time. Not a bad deal. The icing on the cake was my mom being able to make the trip down to help with the new baby. Being on opposite coasts since college, it’s a rare treat to get to spend time with the rents and I tired to make the most of it. Good thing my dad couldn’t make it, I’m sure we would have fished and there wouldn’t have been much of a reunion for me anyway.

Hilton Head CVS'a are Selling sun tan lotion, Tahoe CVS's are still selling winter sleds.

 It was great to see the fam and catch up some, however it was short lived. In about 30 hrs I was in my rental car to meet back up with the boys in Jacksonville. The Jax show had a good, but unusually quite crowd…I think next yr we’ll just have to promote some pre show vodka-redbull specials. That should do the trick. This was also good friend Rob McAbee’s home show (He also headed north for the Charleston show), you may know Rob from all the Bug Slinger Fly Gear you’ve been seeing the last few years. He was rollin’ deep with his local boys decked head to toe in BS gear. I know I’ll be rocking some of the new threads real soon. It was good to catch up with the crew…but like always, early the next morning we were headed south.

Our boy Rowdy pimpin' a new BS Tee, soon to be realeased.

We took one little detour again on the way to Tampa, we were headed to Daytona for the grand tour of Costa Del Mar. For the second year in a row, they are the presenting sponsor of the film tour and without their support since day one; the film tour would not be what it has become today. After a quick tour (sorry pics not allowed inside), they treated us to lunch, and a drive by of the Daytona 500…pretty sweet if you ask me, next time we’ll have to hit it a few weeks earlier and partake in some of the crazy festivities.

Casa de Costa.

Well I did sneak one pic.

Start your engines.

Holler DB.

The OG #3.

Next up…Tampa poontangle.

Heron

Fly Fishing is Not A Crime, SC Reds edition.

To be honest I can probably some up our visit to Charleston in a few short words…Good good, good fishin’, good people. And that’s about it. But I won’t.  We arrived in town knowing that both our 5pm and 8pm shows were sold out, not surprising since there are literally red fish swimming down the streets down there.

Thank you Charleston Angler for crushing it!

Thad making some serious decisions.

Paul Puckett holdin' it down.

Delicioustown USA.

After doing who knows how many shows over the years and visiting countless cites, I can honestly say that Charleston may be my new personal favorite. One of the main reasons was the people as mentioned earlier. We didn’t stay in a hotel at all while we were there, why …because a friend of a friend gave us the green light to crash his pad for a few days. Little did we know that new best friend Graham Hegamyer and his girlfriend Christina had only moved in a few days earlier. This was literally the definition of southern hospitality.  Not only did they open their doors for us…but there was SEVEN OF US! We had few good friends taggin’ along for a bunch of the southeast.

If you're ever in C'town...Hit him up.

The crew gettin' down on some southern grub.

The morning after the show all plans to chase reds were quickly put to rest because of insanely high winds that would have made life miserable. All was not lost though…Graham quickly put in place plan B, and we were chasing bass in a local private pond in no time. I caught what might have been my first large mouth on the fly in what must have been ten years. Hopefully I’ll have the vid of this soon…along with the four old guys that wanted to put our asses in jail for putting a flats boat in the pond! HAH! After one of the craziest old man pissing and screaming matches ever secretly recorded on video ended…good prevailed and we were given permission to fish the pond…again.

Fly Fishing is Not a Crime.

Day two, the winds died and we were headed to open water in a 32’ Commander center console, with a pair of sexy 250s. Thanks to our Atlanta boy Paul Puckett for this incredible hook up! This was it, off to chase giant cobia and jacks…what could possibly go wrong! Wha wha whaaaa. Just as we left the inlet, engine one stopped pissing, and that was a problem, big problem. We headed back to the dock and had everyone and their brother trying to get it working….nadda.

Big water breakfast.

Jack Crack.

Plan B…again. We made one call and Graham had us loaded on his boat chasing reds in no time. Saved again. We hit the flats just as the tides were changing, and we were on fish in no time. Over all the three of us had about ten eats or so, and about six hook ups. I was lucking enough to get my two to the boat. Enjoy.

Good start.

It's on!

Slabtastic!

The "little guy".

Jacksonville, Tampa, Tarpon coming soon.

Heron

Custom Fly Wallets

One of my good friends, Marc Crapo, or Rowdy as most of you know him, just put together a short promotional vid for his custom leather work. Within the world of fly fishing, he’s mostly known for his amazing one of a kind fly wallets, but as the vid shows, there is way more to his creations than just bug cases. Check out the new vid and see for yourself. They really are some amazing works of art.

http://www.vimeo.com/21448176

Rowdy and I have known each other since early 2009 while on the road with the film tour. He was also there with me when I stuck my best 20/20 fish of all time. Little did I know he was going to take things into his own hands and put that fish on a wallet for me. To this day it’s by far one of my favorite pieces of fishing gear, and the best meat locker this guy could ask for.

If you don’t have one you should get one. If your favorite fishin’ buddy doesn’t have one, get one for them.  Like Rowdy says…they are “super bad ass!”....they also happen to be one of the hottest things going in the biz right now. Just tell him "Chooch" sent ya.

The evolution of my fly wallet…..

 

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Step 4.

Step 5.

Steps 5-9.

Final product.

Heron

20 Great Things in Fly Fishing

This past week the newest issue of Angling Trade was released and they had an article titled “20 Great Things Happening in Fly Fishing Right Now”. It was written by Kirk Deeter, a heavy hitter in the world fly fishing blogs, news and literature. Kirk received hundreds of responses from readers about the best things going in our sport today. As you can imagine many of the top pics geared around conservation issues and groups, new age media such as blogs and websites and….wait for it, wait for it….the Fly Fishing Film Tour! Myself and the rest of the crew were ecstatic to see the F3T make the list…at #2 no less! An unbelievable about of time, money and hard work goes into making the tour the number one event in the fishing industry every year, and it’s great to see the tour receive such a high ranking.

 Honestly we’re not sure if we were ranked #2, or if it was just a random assortment of the top 20, but hell, why not number two!

In a time of what some consider “hard knocks” for the industry (the economy, box stores, quality hackle shortages) it’s nice to see an article about all the things that are right with that’s going on in our small little world of fly fishing. Thanks Deeter, this read was a nice breath of fresh air.  

Check it out here in PDF...Did I mention it was the cover article?
 http://www.anglingtrade.com/wp-content/themes/anglingtrade/pdf/AT-issue15-low-res.pdf

And cheers to all the people, companies, clubs and organizations that have helped make this industry what it is today…

PS- The film tour’s independent shows raised over 40,000 dollars last year alone for conservation groups…not too shabby.

It's free...do it.

Heron

Irish'in I was fishin'.

Top O’ the Morning To Ya….

As one of my favorite days is upon us, I can’t help but wish I was on the water. Unfortunately with all the fresh snow the last few days (36in at the top of Squaw), access to one of my favorite winter rivers is not an option…

So let’s look back at a few fishy moments of St. Patties here and gone.

Clean bow.

A little mid day nappin'.

Have some fun today, it's St. Patties!

  

And watch out for crack head leprechauns!

O'Heron