Whiting Farms - a video profile

I've written various postings about hackle and the history of genetic hackles. Here is a great video on the history of Whiting Farms and its current operations. No chickens running around the barn yard here. It's basically a laboratory.

Tying at fly fishing events

It has been a while I've tied at fly fishing events. I used to tie more regularly at events when I was in college some 20+ years ago.

This year I'll be tying at two shows no less: the Experience the World of Fly Fishing (Erlebniswelt Fliegenfischen / EWF) in Fürstenfeld, Southern Germany early april. I'll add a few days of fishing with friends in Austria after the event. The second event is the good old Dutch Fly Fair at the end of may.

Maybe I'll get to meet some of you at one of these events?… Please drop by!


Update 1 okt 2016:
I'll also be tying at the Niederrheinische Fliegenfischertag (NFFT), an event organized by Finest Fly Fishing, a fly shop just over the German border.

Elk River near Fernie, BC

After watching this video about the Elk River near Fernie in British Columbia, I had a flash back.

The Elk river is one of the prettier rivers I've fished. I fished the Elk river in 1998. A few years earlier I was supposed to make a nice float trip down the Elk river on a pontoon boat with my friend Doug, but that fell threw due to his busy schedules.

Last time I saw the Elk river was in 2005 when I drove highway number 3 which runs next to the river for miles, on my way to Doug in Coeur D'Alene in Idaho. Why didn't I just stop and toss a fly?...

Just over the borders of Alberta, about an hour drive from the Crowsnest River, the Elk river meanders through valley along the continental divide of the Canadian Rockies. Home of lots of wild cutthroats and bull trouts. There are some tributaries of the Elk river that's famous for large cutthroats. I still wished I had fished the Wigwam river...

The picture I took of the house with the bright red roof is located near the road ending at the Elk river. I always wondered how nice it would be to live in that house right next to the banks of the Elk…

By the way, do you recognize the other picture? :)

Feathers as artwork

We try to make nice flies out of feathers.
Here is someone who really makes art out of feathers. Wow...