Dork Sandwich...Tri-Lakes Expo Report

The last of my fly tying gigs are up for a while…at least until May. Last week was the annual Tri-Lakes Fly Fishing Expo in Brighton and what a hoot. The chair of the fly tying committee (Lou) always seems to come up with new and interesting seating arrangements for me. A couple years ago she sat me beside Terry Tanner. There I was tying a BUB fly…the world’s simplest fly. Right beside the man (Terry) who was tying an extended sparkle body transparent wing dragon fly tied on a needle then transferred to a hook. When this guy donates a fly for auction they always seem to bring in over $100. WOW! That is in comparison to my BUBfly which normally tops out at about $1 dollar

Cherie "Bugger" tying her Crawdad Pattern...Note the true definition of four eyes.

Cherie's Crawfish Pattern...Does that looks like a smallmouth killer or what?

This year Lou decided to make me a dork sandwich…of course I was the dork sitting between two wonderful runners. NO! Not a couple lost joggers, but members of the River Runner’s women’s fly fishing club!  I had the privilege to sit between two of the nicest ladies, Cherie “Bugger” McDonald and Carol Hellmuth. Both of these ladies are great fly tiers and from the looks of all their photographs they go to really cool places and catch WAY bigger fish than I ever dreamed of.  Then they make these awesome scrapbooks to show off their adventures and all their big fish. These two ladies, along with fellow River Runner’s Lou and Sharon, kept me in stitches all day long. Cherie was tying this really cool crawfish pattern and Carol tied this neat sparkle butt foam beetle. There I was the DORK in the middle tying BUB flies and whimsical foam dragonflies. What a great time!

Carol tying her Sparkle Butt Beetle pattern

If you live anywhere near the Ozarks you should try and make it to next years Expo. The Tri-Lakes Fly Fishers is a Federation of Fly Fishers club and just like the FFF there are some really wonderful people in the club. They are strong supporters of the River Runners and introducing women to the sport.