My plan today was to post the recipe for my fly, the Guinea Bugger Deluxe. However, a chaotic day filled with… nothing, ensued. An overabundance of laziness and disorganization filled my time & soon I was staring at 8:30 pm with a lot of... nothing to show for a glorious day away from work.
Time to tie the GBD! However, a partially tied deer hair bug still sat in my vise. Last week, I’d checked out Chris Helm’s dvd on spinning deer hair bass bugs and gave it a go Thursday…but soon realized my own version of a deer hair packer was not sufficient. Today, knowing that if I removed this fly from the vise, it would probably never be completed, I opted to finish it instead of work on my GBD recipe post. I really impressed myself! Aside from sounding like Charlie Brown: Arrrrrrrrgh!!; and yelling, “Crap!” numerous times, I never once cussed.
I’m an optimist and will say the fly turned out ‘alright’ for the first time. It’s not packed tightly enough to put on the eyes, and the unbalanced red, deer hair face may not be anchored too well, but, by golly, it will see some water time prior to its demise!
Why the urge to attempt to spin deer hair? Well, the Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association’s annual fly fishing show is Feb 25-27 in Des Moines, IA. Larry Dahlberg, Bill Sherer, and Chris Helm are the guest speakers and Sherer and Helm will each be teaching classes on tying flies. Let’s just say I caught a little ‘bug’, called ‘deer hair fever’. I may have recovered, but I’m not too certain just yet! On the flip side, I’m happy to report that ‘Musky Fever’ has a viscous hold on me. It is, happily, incurable. Bill Sherer understands. He has the fever, too.
It should be a good show. The ‘bucket raffles’ & auctions with fishing-related items are always popular, and the raffle rod outfit featuring a Sage TXL-F, a Ross reel, Sharkskin line, and hand-tied flies would be a great ‘win’! The rod raffle will benefit educuation & conservation needs. There are fly casting clinics, youth events, and fly fishing equipment vendors. If you’re not out fishing, it’s a great way to spend some free time!
