Hell or High Water Recap.

Morning Session:

Tom Rosenbauer -

"Hatch Strategies" was a tips and knowledge building presentation which also provided some significant new data like, you can't tell what a fish is eating by the rise form.  Turns out that the rise form is more dependent on water velocity and at what height in the water column the fish was located before it decided that it had to have that bug.  Position near the surface in slower water yields sips, position several feet down with faster current results in splashy "caddis" rises, independent of the insect victim being caddis, mayfly or terrestrial.

Loren Williams -

who has tied patterns for the U.S. Fly Fishing Team shared three patterns with the gathered throng: "Polar Fart," "Stud," and "Middle Worm."  Some noted wisdom imparted during the tying; use tungsten beads because it gets the fly where you want it faster, use UV materials - it certainly doesn't hurt, and use Sulky thread to add a little flash and color to your dubbing loops.

Steve Silverio -

kindly shared some of his "Italian Concoction" tying secrets with me on a one-on-one basis between sessions.  I found the use of fresh produce packing foam for emerging wings to be particularly interesting.  He also shared some of his favorite spey and salt water patterns and demoed the new gear from Partridge and Regal Engineering.  Steve's transitional sulphur pattern is the newest addition to the coffee table fly collection.

Afternoon Session:

Nori accompanied me for the afternoon / evening.  She and Jamie had pre-ordered Solarflex hoodies with a custom logo by Andrea Larko.

Nori also picked up a color coordinated hat, which she won by carrying my sad ass through a championship corn hole tournament sponsored by Simms.  Nice camper by the way:

We also had a lovely chat with Justin Sterner, the regional Simms Rep., about how to engage Simms support for TU fund raising and events.  Nori models her championship hat below, with Justin.

The remainder of the afternoon and evening were a cavalcade of multimedia sensory stimulation:

The Jam Tent - contained 3 micro-brew stations, (Roscoe, Troegs and Galaxy), who provided patrons with "2" samples.  The Troegs Perpetual, Roscoe Brown and Galaxy Spaceman were all quite tasty.  It was a little chilly outside, but these lovely heaters made it a little more comfortable.

The little table in the middle was a nice feature allowing us to multi-task, e.g. simultaneous beer and pretzel consumption.  Pretzels and other fine baked goods were offered by Hancock's new "The Bakery" who , when interviewed for this article, revealed that sweet delicious bagel samiches will be available, of both the breakfast and lunch variety, beginning this weekend.

All of this goodness was accompanied by the sweet and harmonious sounds of Milkweed - 

and by Rosie & Richie - 

A local resident was heard to say, "Man that Richie can sure pick a banjo!"

Evening festivities centered around dinner at the River Run Restaurant and FFFT movies in the Trout Room.  This years movies were, unfortunately, much less entertaining than in years past.  It would be helpful, to attendees, to know what they had signed up for, e.g. preachy - make you feel guilty - environmental screeds vs. adventure and fish porn.

All in, a lovely weekend with some new knowledge and a little swag.  Not bad!