On The Road - East Idaho Fly Tying Expo

The entire trip to Idaho Falls was quite enjoyable.
We had a grand banquet to wrap up the Expo.

Well, my donation = assortment of Yellowstone Country flies = was one of raffle items!

We won practical items!!

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Before we checked in Idaho Falls, we were doing some "homework".
Reed's Dairy, a real working dairy farm, is located right in the middle of town and offers perhaps the best ice cream (and many other dairy products made with milk right from there!!) in the world!! I was quite impressed and WILL and HAVE TO go back there time after time!!

We also discovered and enjoyed Jakers Bar & Grill very much!! That was one WORLD CLASS burger!! Grilled for perfection outside yet juicy inside!! plus everything done right. Friendly staffs make our visits very enjoyable and make us want to go back again.

These are highly recommended if you are planning to visit Idaho Falls or passing by.
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On the way back to Montana, we made a little detour to Mesa Falls. It's another magnificent natural feature in Greater Yellowstone Country!!
Lower Falls

 Upper Falls are even much larger and, well, scarier!!

Believe or not, this is a part of Henry's Fork, with with we often think of placid flat waters.

 Closer to West Yellowstone, we spotted a moose.

I'm already thinking of next year. Or perhaps someday I may be fishing in the neighborhood state.

Great Times!! - East Idaho Fly Tying Expo

I just got back from Idaho Falls, ID after another great times with East Idaho Fly Tying Expo. As I've experienced as an audience and as a demonstration tyer, this Expo is fly-tying and fly-tyer centered event. Then at this convenient location, some of country's greatest tyers come annually and Expo attracts great numbers of good crowds!! I had oh-so-intense two days. Hours passed way too quickly.

This is the tyer shirt for this year..............and I like it very much! You might see me wearing this while fishing!

In the morning of Friday April 22, Day 1 of Expo, I was getting ready for my own Workshop!

I thank my great companion Renee for capturing scenes - that follow - through two days.
Just getting ready......

Here it began!

 It was an intense 4 hours with good times and deep conversations with students!

Meanwhile, Renee captured a couple of scenes on the floor.

Then in the afternoon, my floor session begun!
I had good folks who asked me technical questions right off!!

 

At the end of the session.............. Over all, my Atlantic Salmon Fly frames caught many people's eyes!!  Thank you!

Saturday April 23, Day 2 of Expo, weather suddenly turned out to be cooler and darker but it held OK. Renee was on her way to Women's Fly Fishing Clinic!!

In spite of her schedule, she managed to come over and snap pictures while I was at Tying Theater.

The afternoon session of Day 2 was as intense and busy as always of this Expo!!
No pictures here but pretty much the same as Day 1 - only one difference would be me in a white shirt.

What an exciting, busy, meaningful Expo!!
I'm quite honored to be invited and to be a part of this great show! I hope to be back next year and following years!! If you have missed this year, you'd better plan to visit the next one. During my busy schedule, I was able to visit a few world-class tyers and I learned many things from them.

Hope to catch up with many great tyers and crowds next year!

East Idaho Fly Tying Expo

It's about that time of year again. I'm invited to East Idaho Fly Tying Expo for two consecutive years. I'm excited to visit one of the best fly-fishing & -tying events in the West.

I'd like to make announcement too. This year, I will be conducting a Fly Tying Workshop: Dynamite Flies for Livingston's Spring Creeks (& Beyond).
It's quite an honor and an opportunity for me to share my own original spring-creek patterns, also theories and stories behind as well. As the title suggests, the class primary focus is Livingston's spring creek patterns, however patterns I will introduce can be applied to other types of waters.

Of course I'm on the table during the floor sessions. Here are this year's roster patterns!

My most known COYOTE in Atlantic Salmon Fly variation!!

So my schedule during the Expo is:
Friday, April 22nd: 8:15AM - Noon  Workshop  (with students who have signed-up)
                                3:00 - 6:00PM Floor session Table #8
Saturday, April 23rd: 9:30 - 10:30AM Fly Tying Theater (Free program)
                                  Noon - 4:00PM Floor session Table #8        

Yes!! I will be on the stage, again, for Fly Tying Theater!! - again, I'm quite honored!! I'm planning to demonstrate different patterns/techniques from Workshop and floor sessions.
There will be many other great fly-tyers. I hope to visit their tables and programs and learn something from them too. For more details, please click the link.
It will be very exciting, busy, and meaningful two days in Idaho Falls!! I hope to see friends, neighborhood fishermen, blog-readers, YouTube subscribers, and many others!!

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Here are some scenes from the weekend.........

For some reasons, this tiny cute Cutty meant a lot for us!!, especially for this old boy!!

So, this is why we can't attend the annual Yellowstone River Cleanup this year. Then, this is why we went ahead and picked up some trashes for the past several weekends along Yellowstone River (and some other spots). Hopefully River God would understand and offer us safe journeys (on the road and river)!!

Hope to have lots of pictures and stories from Idaho Falls for the next post!

Grand Finale - Annual 50

As of this typing, Winter Rate and Winter Pass are still effective at DePuy's Spring Creek. But I have completed my Pass season with another trout- & insect-filled week. Hence this post is also a semi photo gallery to highlight some of the BEST spring fly-fishing in Norther Hemisphere!!

April 4, as I walked to the intended spot, I realized I forgot my landing net in my truck. It was a bit too far for me to get back, plus afternoon baetis hatch time was coming. I kept on. I practiced hand-netting, which I'm not bad at.

A large spawning specimen came up and take my dry-fly!! This one, I stirred and gently beached to the soft creek bed. I consider beaching large trout requires delicate skills and should be conducted only by experienced anglers if trout are to be released.

A nice brown by hand-netting.

April 5th, it was just about the same condition as the previous day!

Then I had a surprising catch!! This must be the biggest live sculpin I've ever seen in the creek and surrounding waters.

For your tying inspirations........... After photo-sessions it was successfully released!!

April 6th, I hit one of challenging spots for this spring. I'd been hooking and losing. I was finally able to hook and net one respectable trout!

Evening hatch!!

 I pursued visually feeding trout. I was rewarded with a large & healthy Yellowstone Cutthroat, which is very surprising to see at this time of year!

Then even larger and hard-fighting rainbow!!

April 7th, it's also about time for Sandhill Cranes to migrate on and along the creek.

This was also caught by sight-fishing; targeting visually feeding trout at a skinny water spot while they were cruising and feeding at their whim....... Very exciting and rewarding method to fish!!

Just as I expected.

During the evening hatch, I caught up with one of my neighborhood anglers on the creek and shared a stretch. Les snapped several action pictures!
An accidental catch!

Me working on a challenging spot.........

April 10th, my designated last day, also it marked The 50th Rod with Winter Pass!
Day started with some spot-holding-confrontation on the creek.....

Renee joined on this day. She started hauling in so many fish right off the bat!

Including some exotic species.........

I gradually rigged up my rod and started fishing for morning midge hatches!

 Then my new pattern passed through the experiment!!

It will be introduced soon.

Renee started midge fishing too and hooked on!

 She's getting better at this.......

Afternoon - baetis window!

Nice brown!

I was working on midge-sippers on the skinny water.........

Then she got the biggest bite of the day!!

 It was a handsome Cutbow buck, running up from Yellowstone River, caught on a small Pheasant Tail Nymph!! Congratulations!!

Lunch: grilled cheese burger with grilled tomato and zucchini!!

 It didn't appear to be a perfect condition for the evening hatch but trout were active. Here's Renee perfecting a sight-fishing!! Good job!!

 Hmmm.......... time for the green thing...........

Another catch of hers. Meanwhile I was having a tough time with spooky trout......

Toward the end of the day, I spotted several rising trout. It was at a no-easy spot.  I inched myself and my flies to it. A couple of nerve-wrecking careful casts were rewarded with the subtle yet solid take!, which was followed by strong runs!!

This marked the last trout with Winter Pass and I concluded my season with happy & meaningful notes!

Winter Pass on DePuy's Spring Creek has been my staple, shaping up my body and fishing senses from the fall through spring. Then I'm always learning something from the creek, trout, and other anglers who are also enthusiastic to the spring creek fishing.
There's no particular reasons to make 50 rods (or less or more) but it just sounds good and I've been hitting the mark for the past 5 seasons, which have been positive impacts to me as a guide and an angler. Thank DePuy's family to answer my compulsive phone calls and random visits!!

Also, ending Winter Pass doesn't mean I'm done with spring fishing!! There are more waters available by now!!