Hi Tom - I love the simple, clean look you always seem to achieve. A couple nights ago, I watched your Catskill dry fly video again for probably the forth time. It reminded me this time of a quote I heard a long time back. The great pianist Arthur Rubinstein was talking about the music of Mozart. He...

Hi All - I am just passing this along regarding a new source of rod blanks that appear to be very high quality at reasonable pricing. Look up the website for Northfork composites. An experienced friend recently put me on to them, telling me that they are well made and highly regarded. Last month, th...

Hi Ron - I have some Chinese silk that's packaged like the Italian stuff, however it is smaller diameter. It looks more like Persalls Naples. Long story how I got it, but it is packed in cellophane in various colors. If you want a look at it, PM me your email and I will send a photo. All the writing...

I have an older Sage 12 1/2 foot 6 weight that I like to use in bigger, rougher water. It was designed before all the Scandia, Skagit, and etc lines became available, and It fishes well with a DT 6 using the classic British spey casts. What I like is the extended line control, which allows me to cov...

I moved to central PA 12 years ago Rick, and seldom see any of the guys from Southern NJ. You are right, though, considering the trout desert we lived in, we had a bunch of talented people. A gentleman by the name of Bill Fink helped me get started as a cane rod builder over 35 years ago. I met him ...

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v666/tsmithwick/IMG_0266%20copy_zpsigemica0.jpg First, I apologize for the lousy photos with reflections, bad lighting, etc. At one time, our TU chapter ran a fly of the month raffle as a fund raiser. Each month, we also saved one of the flies and made up shadow b...

This was posted at the classic fly rod forum, but for the benefit of those who might not have seen it, the "Trout Grass" video has been restored and is available to view online for Amazon Prime members. The film goes a long way to explain why many of us have such strong feelings about bamb...

Hi Ray - It came from a place called Sideling Hill Hackle. It was the first time I saw them and I don't know anything about them, but they seemed to have some interesting stuff.
https://www.facebook.com/sidelinghillhackle/

Rob's excellent post got me thinking the same way Rick, only I don't need to raid the henhouse. Just before everything closed down in PA, I went to the Lancaster Fly Fishing show and saw this on one of the tables. It was fairly expensive for a hen skin, but I could not resist. All of the feathers ar...