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Fly Tying Tutorial : Boogey Man Streamer

2/6/2023

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BOOGEY MAN ARTICULATED STREAMER Fly Tying Recipe:
Rear Hook:  Daichi 2461 Size 1/0
Thread:  Black FlyMaster Plus
Tail:  Black marabou
Rib:  Brassie Black Wire
Body:  Black Cactus Chenille
Hackle:  Black Schlappen, palmered over the body
Wing:  Wood Duck Flank feather, tied flat on top
Front Hook:  Daiichi 2461 Size 1/0
Eye: Medium Red Lead Eye, tied on bottom of hook shank
Connector:  Looped Beadalon Wire, with One Red Bead Threaded
Tail:  Black Marabou, extending over the connector
Rib:  Brassie Black Wire
Body:  Black Cactus Chenille
Hackle:  Black Schlappen, palmered over body
Wing: Wood Duck Flank Feather, tied flat extending to mid-point of rear hook
Head/Collar:  Black Sculpin Wool, tied in and cut to shape
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On this quick tie blog,  we are going to be tying up Kelly Galloups Boogeyman. An awesome streamer pattern that is sure to allure some big fish into eating it.  This quick tie is brought to you by www.rockymountainflyshop.net , and we are going to be tying out of our Season 5 kits ( purchase yours here www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls5 ) we're tying from season five episode three. If you don’t have the kits with all your pre packaged materials, you can still find our recipe list for these flies on our website, or it should be listed above on this page.  

​Let's head on over the vice and get started.  First things first let's go ahead and grab one of our hooks, a daiichi 2461 and this isn't a one ought size it's a long streamer hook. It’s the  first hook for the back end of The Fly, as always on these articulated streamers.  I am tying with some UTC 140 in Black. first thing we're going to do is we're just going to come in here and let's lay down a good base of thread wraps. Start it somewhere up by the eye.  I'm going to put this a little deeper into my nor vise. I can just whip this up.  I'm going to add some thread all the way back down into the bend and bring it back up. I'm just going to lay a nice thread base down there so those materials that were put on next have something to bind onto.  then I'm going to bring my thread right back to about the Barb.  go ahead and grab out of your kit or if you're tying from home grab from your materials.  We're going to grab a chunk of Marabou, and the color scheme for this fly today is going to be in Black.  So we're going to grab a good chunk of Marabou and measure it being roughly the length of that hook shank, set that back to where I left my thread switch hands, do a nice Gathering wrap secure that Marabou , and start taking thread wraps forward.  Now I'm just going to use the underside of this remaining part of the marabou to kind of create a little bit of bulk as I go down the hook shank. you can see here I'm just gonna basically attach it down to one side or the other I'm gonna get near the eye, then I'm just going to come in here trim it out and then make sure that base of the feather is secured down.  I'm going to come back up the fly , then just right back down the fly to where I tied the marabou in, and we are going to tie in our next material.  Next material is a schlappen.  start up at the tip pull some of that fiber back down, turn it over so that the underside of the feather is pointed rearward down the fly and come in here and secure this right in front of that Marabou.  make sure that's good and secure. I'm even just going to lay that little piece of the tip down.  make sure that's all good and secure, don't worry about all that bulk we have underneath.  that just creates a little profile and it's not going to be seen.  we're going to head on over to our large size Cactus chenille. we're gonna strip off a few of those fibers so you can see it exposes just that little bit of chenille cord. we're going to lay the cord we have exposed on top of the hook Shank and gather them,  secure them down nice and tight. work our thread forward this time right to the eye and  I'm gonna go ahead and put a little half hitch in to secure my work up to this point. I'm going to set my thread off to the side on my bobbin cradle and now I'm going to start wrapping my Cactus Chenille forward.  I'm going to do a full wrap all the way around first before starting to head forward
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As I go forward I'm just going to pull the fibers back so they stack nicely all the way forward,  just kind of pulling them back each time I wrap forward. I'm going to take this all the way up to just behind the eye of the hook.  leave yourself a little bit of space up there and bring that thread back in, thread wrap behind,  thread wrap in front as always to secure that material,  do that twice and you can go ahead and trim out that Cactus chenille. make sure it's out of the way, gonna take a couple more thread wraps to make sure that's all locked in.  I'm going to do the exact same thing again. I'm going to do a little half hitch and set my bobbin off to the side of my cradle. Now I'm going to come to our schlappen . I'm going to do exactly the same thing.  I'm going to start palmering it forward and as I do I'm just kind of making sure that all the pieces of the feather are standing up nicely.  it's not an exact science and it doesn't need to be.  just wrap that forward and  we're going to leave it basically right where we left that Cactus chenille.  we're more or less trying to make sure we're just now wrapping back over top of any of the pieces.  I'm going to bring my thread back in and do the same thing, thread wrap on one side in front, thread wrap behind and repeat that process a couple times to make sure we have that good and secure because we don't want this to come undone.  we can come in here and trim it out and I'm just going to fold everything back,  take a few thread wraps to make sure that's good and secure, not going anywhere. I can come in here with a little brush and just make sure I when I brush it's just going to pull all those pieces of that feather apart kind of get them headed rearward down the fly. Now one of the best parts of this fly that I love so much and the appearance that it gives is our Mallard flank.  we're gonna put a mallard flank feather right on top,  this gives the appearance of the top of the back of a fish and you can kind of vary your coloring scheme.  I like these tan ones,  they're barred and look like maybe a little brown trout's back.  we're gonna set it right on top. We want it to extend just into the tail slightly, not too far just a little bit. make sure it's right on top of the hook shank and that it's not going down to one side or the other.  this one's important that it stays up on top.  go ahead get some thread wraps on top of it take your hand off make sure you got it good and level.  If it's not perfect, adjust it and take a few more thread wraps back to make sure it's secure, lift up the tag end make sure you get some wraps underneath that that's going to lock it in to keep it from twisting. We can go ahead and trim it out now and  all I'm going to do is take a few more thread wraps , trim the base of that feather up a little , and don't have to be super clean. let's do a quick little whip finish.  I'm going to grab a little bit of my favorite UV resin which as you know is that solarez bone dry, it’s very thin and  I really like this.  it'll soak into this material quite nicely.  put a drop of it on there and  let that soak in for half a second. grab my UV light and cure that.  we're gonna pop that out the Vise we'll set it aside for the time being.  we're going to get to work on the front half of the fly.
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I'm going to go back in and grab another hook (daiichi 2461) . we're using that same hook we used in the back end we're going to use for the front end.  make sure we get it good and secure in the norvise. now I'm going to go ahead and grab my thread again and start it up by the eye, work some more of a thread base down just like we did before. take that all the way back into the bend and back forward and this time we're going to come up about a couple of eye lengths behind the eye itself and we're going to go ahead and tie in our dumbbell eyes. We got some of these lead eyes here and we're going to lay it kind of across as it naturally wants to.  it wants to kind of sit on that Crux.  we're going to take our first few thread wraps just to hold it in place then we can switch directions so right now it looks like that we can switch directions and pull it over from the other side too we just start taking some cross wraps either direction then we'll throw in some figure eights which is exactly like it sounds.  This looks like a figure eight so around one side around the other takes some just around the eyes itself.  then we want to take those eyes and we want to spin them so they're on the bottom where the lead eyes sit is the way it's going to swim. we want the hook down on this fly.  take a few more thread wraps making sure everything's good and secure when you're happy with it we'll take some thread wraps farther back and  now leave it about mid Shank. You can hit those eyes with bone dry solarez if you wish.   Now in your kit or if you have some at home,  we're just using a piece of mono but you could use Intruder wire or anything like that to attach the back to the front hook. we're going to secure the back piece to the front so I'm going to lay this mono on top of the hook shank.  take some thread wraps and we're really going to put quite a few nice tight wraps down , securing this all the way back,  trying to keep it right on top of the hook shank. we're going to take it just into the edge of the bend and I'm going to come back forward.  just really securing that in place. now what we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and grab a couple of the beads that you have in your kit as well as any type of beads. craft beads or whatever you like can work.  you can use a couple  or use one , either way we're just basically tying with some beads to hold that back hook out of the way so hopefully it doesn't come back in and foul the front hook when you’re fishing it. I'm gonna stick this mono through the eye of the back hook. I'm going to bring it back forward and I'm going to slide that back through that bead and it all kind of depends on how stiff the line or the Intruder wire you are using,  but most of them are stiff enough that it's going to hold that back in place.  I'm going to leave that Loop a little ways back,  pinch down and start taking some thread wraps of that mono or the wire and this time I'm going to flip it over and  double it over.  then I can snip it out. get that good and secure down.
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I'm going to bring my thread back to this back portion of the fly.  now some people would like to put some Marabou back in here but we're going to tie as close to the original pattern as possible,  so we're going to leave this as is and we're just going to start working on that front portion again,  which this time we're going to go straight to tying in our schlappen or your saddle Hackle ( whichever you prefer).  we'll tie that in first,  same thing Underside back down the fly.  we'll kind of secure that tag like we did the last time by bringing my thread back down. go ahead and grab that Cactus Chenille,  again peel off a few of those pieces so you can expose that core and get that core secured down.  This time we're going to wrap forward just behind the eyes.  I'm gonna throw in a little half hitch,  hit that save button and now I'm going to start wrapping forward with my chenille.  same thing kind of trying to pull all the little pieces back as we go forward.  This is a nice bulky looking Cactus chenille,  it has lots of Flash in it and it’s gonna look great in the water.  we're gonna bring that forward . leaving one of those lead eye spaces behind the current lead eyes.  Secure it by  wrapping in  front,  wrapping behind and make sure that's good and secure and then we can trim it out.  really wrap down and make sure it's good and secure.  now we're going to take our schlappen and we're going to do exactly the same thing we did last time , making sure we try to pull those pieces of the feather apart to make sure we're not trapping any of them as we move forward but we will brush it out kind of again so we should be able to prevent most of that just going to Palmer that forward through that chenille and we're going to leave it right by those eyes and secure it off again wraps behind wraps in front go ahead in and trim it out again take a few thread wraps really make sure that's locked in place. I'm going to take my brush like I did before brushing it a little bit,  then we're going to go over and repeat what we did in the back.  we're going to grab another one of our mallard flanks. we want it to extend just slightly into that back portion so that it overlaps  on the mallard flank we have in the back.  we just want that to overlap slightly,  right up on top of the hook.  tie that in place to secure it down. A few more wraps and we can trim it out super close. Now we're going to work on the head of the fly, which might be some of the more complicated portions.  I just have a little clip on there to hold everything back out of the way.  We are working with sculpin wool. Now you want to grab a chunk of it,  it's about an inch - inch and a half long. I am using black  and what I like to do is kind of fluff it up. I'm just going to keep pulling it apart and stacking it and it almost builds air into it. It makes it nice and fluffy and that's kind of how we're going to gain some shape and fluffiness to this. I'm going to find that halfway mark in it and  we're going to start by putting this on the top and putting a thread wrap over top of it. a couple thread wraps forward and then I'm going to pull it back., you want to tie this first one in pretty much right behind the eyes so pull it back and add a couple thread wraps.  it's going to look pretty poofy as we tie it in and then we'll do some trimming after to give it shape.  Now we're going to flip it upside down and we're going to repeat that process on the underside. Same thing to fluff it up, and lay that just behind those dumbbell eyes.  secure it in place with a  couple wraps.  pull it out of the way and we're gonna flip this fly back up again.  I'm going to advance just in front of my eyes.  okay so that's our first portion, and  I'm gonna grab another clump. this time I'm going to lay it again kind of doing that same halfway part and I'm going to lay it on the underside of the fly.  I'm reaching my thread behind the dumbbell eye and on this side.  I'm going to reach the thread on the  underside of the dumbbell eye and make sure that stays on top.   it just filled up that space on top of the dumbbell eyes.  That's kind of the harder spot to fill.  Now I'm going to flip it upside down and  repeat that exact same thing on the underside.  fill that space upside down and we got a couple more to do but we are almost there.  that's going to fill the underside of that Gap. you want to end up pretty close to the front of the fly with the wool and then what I'm actually going to do is I'm going to take a few wraps  if I can back on the wool,  kind of helps hold it back out of the way and create a bit of a thread Dam.  I'm going to do a quick whip finish and then we're just going to do a little trimming and add your favorite resin up here at the head. I'm gonna do just a small dab of it so I know that's very secure but it never hurts to add just a little touch of some resin, let that soak in a half sec,  hit it with the light.  Let's do a little bit of trimming.  note that when you're trimming wool it is actually pretty hard on your scissors so if you got a little crummier pair.  or a pair of Dana's Scissors.  maybe use them instead. I like to stand it all up so it looks like a big mohawk. now I'm going to trim the shape. I want to be a little bit pointed the nose leaving some of that wool to go back over that mallard flank but the shape is up to you,  just remember you can't put it back on once you've trimmed it off.  I'm going to make my first cut at a bit of an angle towards the back do a little bit of the same again on the side.  this is my first kind of big General cuts.  I'm going to flip it upside down I'm going to do the exact same thing a pretty steep angle on this one.  I like how that's sitting trim a little bit more and now from this point all the trimming you're doing is just to satisfy the appearance that you want. I like to moisten the fingers just a little bit and pull back on it.  it's going to give me a little better appearance of what it's going to look like.

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 There you have it , Galloup's boogeyman.  I suggest you keep a few of these in your box.  they are definitely productive.   I am Tim Hepworth with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters,  and Thursday Night Live fly tying.  This has been the boogeyman,  another quick tie blog.  Don’t forget that www.rockymountainflyshop.net has free shipping over $99 ! See you next week 

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Author

Tim Hepworth - @timothyhepworth

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Fly Tying Tutorial : Rance's Gypsy King

1/30/2023

Comments

 
Rance's Gypsy King Fly Tying Recipe:
Hook: #10 Daiichi 1280
Thread: Black Veevus 6/0
Rib: Small Copper Wire
Body: Peacock Herl
Body2: Brown 2MM Thin Foam+
Flash: Pearl Krystal Flash
Wing: Deer or Elk Hair
Hackle: Grizzly Rooster Saddle or Cape
Legs: Brown Medium Round Rubber Legs
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Tim Hepworth here with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters and Thursday Night Live fly tying. I'm here to bring you another quick tie blog and this quick tie blog is sponsored by Rock Mountain Fly Shop.  remember every order over $99 from them gets you free shipping. www.rockymountainflyshop.net .  I'm going to be tying tonight out of our season five kits and episode two.  we are tying rancey's Gypsy King.  open up your kit if you're tying out of our pre packaged material kist,  but if you're not it's okay just head over to our website you're going to get a full material list (www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls5) and you can go to Rock Mountain fly shop or your local Fly Shop grab the materials that you need,  or maybe already have them. let's go ahead, let's get our hook in our norVise. What we're tying on tonight is a size 10 number 1280 daiichi hook.  so go ahead get that secured in your Vice.  make sure it's not going anywhere. for a thread tonight I'm going to be tying with black, you could either use 6/0  or here I'm using some UTC 140,  something a little thicker because we're going to be working with some foam and we don't want to cut through the foam too easily.  let's go ahead and let's start our thread somewhere just behind the eye we'll go ahead and we'll trim out the tag end of that thread and now we're going to work this back down into the hook Bend.  laying a nice little thread base in okay we'll come back just slightly.  The first thing we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and tie in some brass colored small wire.  I'll just tie that in and we're going to bring that thread back right to the edge of the hook bend and you can leave that wire just off the back. The next thing we're going to do is we're going to get right up building this body. Now in your kit you've got an abundance of peacock hurl.  That's what we're using and there's a reason there's abundance there.  You need a really good size Clump probably 10 - 12 pieces.  we're building a nice thick body on this fly and we're roping up this peacock herl. it's important that they're all matched up at the tips. I'm going to level them all off. Those tips are quite brittle anyways. I'm going to lay this right on top and take a securing wrap. It's gonna spin my thread so it hops backwards.  I'm gonna pull that back and I'm going to secure those butts down. create a little bit of a bump at the back of the fly here but it's not going to be noticeable once we put all this body material down.

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 okay so I've got that secured in right to the bend.  I'm going to work my thread back forward. I'm going to leave it right behind the eye.  This is where we're going to bring all this material forward.  I did a little half hitch there just so I could set my thread out of the way now.  I'm going to get both hands here working with this peacock herl.  What I want you to do is place the butts in your finger and spin them.  we're going to rope up this peacock herl.  it gives it a nice appearance when you get it on onto your fly,  and then we're just going to start palmering this forward. use the rotary function of your Vise.  if you get to a point where it hasn't totally spun together,  I'm just going to spin the herl pieces up again and make sure it's spun tight. it  gives it a nice velvety appearance, very buggy. I'm gonna bring it right up to the eye and I'm gonna come in and bring my thread back to a working position.  hold that peacock herl straight up get a securing thread wrapping behind it and in front of it. repeat that process one more time behind it and in front of it and then we can go ahead and trim out that peacock herl.  this stuff is notorious for slipping and going back so it's really important that you secure that quite well.  I'm just going to go ahead with my wire and I'm going to go in that same direction as ther herl.  I'm gonna do some nice segmenting wraps trying to keep them nice and evenly spaced. I'm also going to take this all the way up to just behind the eye and secure it down . I'll go ahead and trim out that wire and make sure you grab your buddies' scissors,  these might be Danas. if you're looking for some good buddy scissors I think if you head on over to Rocky Mountain Fly Shop you might just have to look for something called Dana scissors and they might have some just like this for you. now what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my thread and I'm going to hop it back while I'm on top of the fly. I could wrap through this a bunch of times and  you're not really going to see it but I'm just going to try to keep my wraps up on top of the peacock curl.  I'm segmenting that overall hook into quarters so I figure I'm about a quarter of the way back from the eye that's going to take a couple thread wraps. I'm going to leave my thread there. the first thing we're going to do is we're going to get some foam involved here. We got some foam for this fly.  This is just 2mm Brown foam.  you want to measure it so that it's about a hook Gap and width.  I want to have this hanging basically just off the back a little ways and then out to the front here a little ways. I just gauge it roughly. I'm not doing anything specific right now but at the back end of The Fly I'm going to cut just a little Point into it.  so I'm going to flip it over and cut it again.  That's what I want the back of the foam to look like.  Now I'm going to lay this on top of the hook and I want that pointy end there you see to extend just beyond the bend.

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 I'm going to take one wrap here.  this one's a loose one . put a little tension on it.  The next one is a little tighter.  The third one is completely tight. if we do it in that sequence we shouldn't cut the foam with our thread.  lift that foam up and take a couple wraps in front of it,  that's going to help it from spinning around the hook shank itself.  get that nice and secure.  we're just going to kind of leave it as is. The next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go in and grab some Crystal Flash.  you're also going to notice you have quite a bit of that so if I grab let's say four or five strands,  they're long strands.  I'm just going to take them. I'm going to fold them over and I'm going to cut right where they're folded so this is going to give me probably double. if I had four strands now I got eight and that's gonna be plenty for this.  It's gonna still be quite long.  I like them long on the fly because I'm going to be able to keep them out of the way.  if you cut them short right away they actually just really want to get in the way so I'm going to tie them in like that,  fold that over,  put a few thread wraps down to secure them,  and I'm just going to pull them back out of the way like so.  if you have a material clip or something it's great to just hold that stuff back.  I'm going to grab my rubber legs.  so a little different than normal we're going to tie two in on each side at the same time. I've got these still attached to each other, I'm just going to leave them like that.  they're too long for this specifically right now but we'll trim them in a second.  I'm just going to take a couple thread wraps kind of loosely,  let the weight of the bobbin hang down and I can still go in there. I can adjust these.  I can move them around to where I want them.  if you can accomplish it , you'd like that front leg to be pointed down slightly like so.  Now I'm gonna stick in the rubber legs on the near side of the fly to myself, same exact thing as I did on the far side.  take a couple wraps just to get them kind of laying in there and then I can go ahead and I can adjust them a bit.  okay just kind of put them right in the middle so you have a good adjustment on both sides.  make sure those are just up against the edge of that foam. Next we got some deer hair.  you also could use elk hair.  we're going to take a decent sized Clump maybe half a pencil width,  nothing too crazy.  this isn't a very big fly so we're going to grab a little clump of it. I'm going to trim it off right off the patch. right away I can see there's going to be a lot of fluff in the back of it so you can see all that fluff or under fur in there and I'm gonna try to get some of that out and kind of flick it out. You can use a small comb if you like. Now I'm going to go ahead and place this right in a hair Stacker.  go ahead and stack that hair.  get it in your hair Stacker.  we're going tips down as always.  give that a couple whacks on the table now when I pull this off I want the butt end of the stacker to be facing back down the fly.  That's where I want the tips to be so as you can see here I pull it out, and  I got the tips right there.  go ahead and grab those tips keeping them together.  I can do another little clean out of that under fur while I'm at this point.  My tips should be nice and lined up.  Now what I'm measuring here, I want my tips to extend just beyond the back of that foam as well,  so I don't want them way out here. I don't want them too short. I want to be right about there.  Once I've measured that I'm going to switch hands keeping my position on the hair and I'm actually going to cut this right here.  make a mess of my table for you so when I tie this in I don't want to have to trim again.  I want to tie this in just like so,  so I'm going to tip those hair down.  ​
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I'm going to take a gathering wrap on that hair,  second wrap a little tighter and you're going to see it flares that hair slightly.  I'm going to put some wraps through the butts of the hair.  Now if that moved your legs around at all you can always just re-adjust them.  they should still move for you.  Now you can see at this point my Crystal Flash is going to be held down by that hair so I can come in here and trim that Crystal Flash.  I'm going to trim it again just beyond that foam.  make sure that foam sits up nice and tall right on top of the fly.  take a couple more securing wraps. I got that hair and that Wing to flare real nice.  I got my legs in place no problem there pretty much done this fly one more material to add in here so now I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to grab my Grizzly Hackle.  you need a Hackle,  you can either use from a cape or you can use a full length saddle Hackle,  is probably preferred.  it's a little bit easier to work with because they're longer a longer stem on them just going to go ahead and grab it onto my kit here and we're going to tie this so that the underside of the saddle Hackle here as you can see in Grizzly color is pointed back down the fly.  Underside is going to be back down the fly.  I'm going to pull just a few of these at the back out trying to attain the size that I want because I want it to be just beyond the actual size of the hook Gap.  Once I've got that there to kind of prepare the stem,  I'll trim it down slightly.   I'll just take a trim a few of those fibers up that just gives me something to tie in with and hopefully that won't slip around on me.  I'm going to come in here and tie down that stem.  This is going to be something you want to make sure is good and secure so take some good thread wraps to lock it in place. I'm going to want to do probably at least four wraps of this Hackle depending on the water you're fishing it in,  whether it's a little bit rougher water or calmer water you could maybe change the number of wraps.  I want to go with at least four,  so try to keep one wrap in front of the other.  just trying to get this buggy appearance to kind of happen right here.  make sure you keep that foam up on top. I want to secure this so I'm going to bring my thread in and run it along that Hackle.  go to the other side.  now go back in front of it just like we kind of did with the wire or anything else.  you want to take some thread wraps in front, some thread wraps behind.  I can go ahead and I can trim out that piece of Hackle.  now I'm gonna quickly jump my thread right forward to the eye.  hold that material back a bit and  now I'm going to lay that foam down.  we're going to create the head here.   I laid the foam down.  I'm going to take my thread and go right over top of that foam.  try not to trap any of that Hackle that we just put in,  and take a nice tight wrap down on top of that foam.  take a couple more so when you look at it from the front it gives you a little bit of a bulge for the head.  Now I'm going to go ahead and just trim out this foam to get the rest of it out of the way.  I'm just going to extend my scissors just slightly forward a couple mils and there you go.  That's the head of the fly.   a pretty simple way to finish off that head.  This can be a bit of a beast to whip finish because you have to hold everything back out of the way.  I'm going to grab my half hitch tool.  as I've showed before it's going to do a couple wraps and I stick the half inch over the eye of the hook and pull the thread down.  that's going to give me a nice secure knot.  same thing,  pull it down one more time I can go ahead and trim out my thread and set that aside.  we just have a little bit of trimming to go on these legs and we're pretty much set. make sure that that foam is right up on top of the hook itself looking super buggy.  while these legs are still together.  I'm going to pull them out.  this is a this is a feel thing here guys.  I want the front legs to be a little shorter than the back legs.  I'm going to trim those there.  I'm going to hold these back legs to just be on the back of the foam and trim them there now. 

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originally this fly was actually a crane fly is what it was meant to be and now we've kind of adapted a little bit more into fishing it for stone flies.  really effective in both regards but important it kind of just gauge those legs where you want them and then I'm just going to go with the last piece here.  I'm just going to split all those legs so if they haven't already come apart on you just split them right to the body of The Fly.  we can go in there with just a little bit of solarez resin. we want to secure those last few thread wraps that we took on the underside.  dab those there I'm using some bone dry by solarez.  I'm going to cure that with my UV light.  that is Rance's Gypsy King.  a really good pattern.  definitely suggest keeping this one in your box and fishing it some more.   it is Tim here with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters,  and Thursday Night Live fly tying.  this has been a quick tie blog,  brought to you by Rocky Mountain Fly Shop.

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Learn to tie | The Frenchie Nymph

1/24/2023

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Frenchie Nymph Fly Tying Recipe:
HOOK:Standard nymph hook (here a Dai-Riki #60), size 14.
BEAD:Gold tungsten bead, 7/64-inch.
WEIGHT:.015 Lead-Free Round Wire.
THREAD:Fluorescent pink, 70 denier or 8/0.
TAIL:Coq de Leon fibers.
RIB:Gold Ultra Wire, brassie size.
ABDOMEN:Pheasant tail fibers.
THORAX:UV Pink Ice Dub.

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Hey everybody, it's Tim Hepworth here with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters and Thursday Night Live fly tying.  I'm here to bring you another quick tie sponsored by Rock Mountain Fly Shop. I’m going to be tying tonight out of a season five kit. If you're wondering where you can get one of these Fly Tying Kits, you can head over to www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls5 and pick yours up. Remember, your fly tying kit includes 34 patterns full tied, and enough material to tie each pattern up to five more times. That’s essentially 204 flies! We are going to be tying the Frenchie Nymph.  If you've never seen it before, you're about to learn a fantastic fly. Keep this one in your box as a great nymphing fly, or even a hopper dropper.  The fly truly came to popularity in the Euro Nymphing world. 


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 I am tying out our Season 5 material kits, but don't worry, if you head on over to her website (www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls5) you also are going to find a complete material list. If you don't have the materials with you, don't worry, you're going to be able to find what you need and probably the best place to do that is at www.rockymountainflyshop.net.  Let's head over to the Norvise and let's get started.

So what we got here guys, we have a size 14 Dai-Riki # 60 hook. Before you put your hook on the norvise, make sure you have a 7/64 Gold tungsten bead on your hook. I'm going to be tying with some fluorescent pink. This is UTC 70. You could also use an 8/0, that would work well here as well.  Before I put some thread on though, we're going to start with some lead wire. This is 0.15 lead wire.  I'm going to put in three full wraps, okay no more than that otherwise we're going to use up too much space on this hook. I'm going to use Dana scissors to come in here and trim out that lead wire, but you'll see when you do that it leaves these little pieces that stick up, so it's really important to go in there and do your best whether you're using scissors or whatever it is to flatten that lead wire down against the hook. You want it to be nice and flat. You don't want there to be a massive bump there when you put your thread in and all your other materials.  Slide that lead up against the bead, and that's going to help build some taper for us. It's going to be part of the thorax as we start building this fly. So let's take that UTC 70 fluorescent pink thread and start some thread wraps just behind those lead wrap.  Then trim out that tag and then while I'm here I'm going to come up, and I'm going to put some light wraps first up over that wire, and then I'm going to start to put a few more tighter ones, and then I'll come back down the hook. 

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The first thing we're going to do, after getting our thread base down, is we're going to put in some tailing fibers for a tai.l This is traditionally done with some Coq De Leon.  I'm going to take somewhere between probably eight and ten pieces.  You're just looking for a little bit of a clump. These tails are going to be pretty light in color as well as they're not going to be a huge clump of material. After taking some off, I'm going to come in and grab the tails to get all the little fluff that might be on there out, and I'm going to come and measure out about a full hook length worth of material that is going to hang off the back of this fly. I'm going to transfer that down as my tail. I'm going to switch hands now. I'm going to Mark where that is against those lead wires, and then I'm going to cut the leftover tails. Now I'm going to lay that down on the hook, so just take that material lay it right down and do a nice securing wrap trying to keep that tail fiber right up on top of the hook. We're going to wrap the thread down just the edge of the bend of the hook. We don't want to go any farther otherwise that's going to cause the tail to aim straight down, and we want them to stick straight out of the hook.  I bring my thread back to just behind the lead wire.  Now we've got some size small gold wire (Brassie wire), this is going to be our ribbing on this fly. Now I'm going to come in here and I’m going to place this wire butting up against those lead wraps. I'm going to secure it on the side of the hook, and I'm going to take that down right to where I left my tail fiber, and I'm going to leave it out the back. So we've got our ribbon, we've got our tail in, now we're going to go over to the main body. The material going to be some pheasant tail. So grab yourself a healthy Clump, and you're going to again want somewhere, probably in that eight pieces Mark. You want a decent sized body. I've come in here with a fairly generous clump. I'm going to try to line up those tips the best I can and once I have, I'm just going to trim them out. Trim them flat, so they're all the same length, and then I'm going to tie these in right at that tail, so I can lay them forward a bit first.  Take a wrap around the pheasant tail, and then I can pull back on those fibers to get them back to where I want them at the back of the fly.  I'm just going to lock those in place and work my thread all the way forward to right behind the bead.  Now I'm going to go ahead grab all that pheasant tail, and I'm slowly going to Palmer that forward, making sure I try to keep them together but also covering up all my work as I go. Watch out for that hook point; it can grab some pheasant tails. We're going to work those fibers all the way up to just behind the bead. Take your time, these aren't super long fibers, so they can slip out of your hands pretty easy. Hackle pliers aren't a terrible idea. Once I get up here to the head, I'm going to grab that material and lock it in place with my thread.  If you were able to leave a little space behind the bead that's kind of Ideal because we have some dubbing we're going to put in there, if not, it's okay too we can wrap back over them. We're going to come in here and trim these out as close as we can, nice and smooth. I'm going to take a couple thread wraps just to make sure that's definitely locked in place and not going to come unraveled on me, that would be a bit of a frustrating thing to happen here now.  I'm going to take my brassie wire rib, and come forward to protect those pheasant tails and give some segmentation to the body. There's two schools of thought here
1. I could either counter-wrap it or 
2. I could wrap it the same direction 

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The issue with counter wrapping is when I go to secure my wire with my thread I'm going to be securing it in the wrong direction, and it has the probability of loosening the wire down the chain. So I'm going to go ahead, and I'm going to go the same direction that I put on that pheasant tail, just a nice equally spaced rib all the way up to where I left my thread.  I'm going to secure that with a couple wraps behind, a couple wraps in front, and now you can either go ahead and helicopter that off, or go into some not so great scissors (Dana’s Scissors) and cut out that wire. 


Only one more material left. We got this beautiful pink fluorescent UV dubbing, and we're going to take just a whisk, and I mean a whisk.  We don't need much at all. Most people use way too much, so make sure you just grab a little bit. We're going to make a little bit of a dubbing noodle with that pink UV Dubbing.  I'm going to come in here like we did last time on the Near Nuff Sculpin. Take that small pinch and spin it onto my thread. It shouldn't need any wax or anything on the thread.  This stuff actually binds to the thread really well. Now I'm going to start making some wraps just behind that bead I want to make a nice thorax out of that pink dubbing, and then I'm going to bring my thread in front, and now we want to make a bit of a hot spot with just the Pink Fluorescent Thread.  Seems kind of silly, but the pattern calls for a hot spot with hot pink even though there's pink dubbing. A way we can accomplish that is let's just overdo it on our whip finish, to be careful not to create too much bulk around the bead.  I'm going to come in here with a whip finish just behind the bead. Normally we do three, let's go four five six wraps. That's going to create a little bit of a hot spot just behind that bead, and then I can come in here and snip that. If you like, you can go ahead and put just a little bit of resin on there.  I'll use just a little bit of Bone Dry from Solarez.  Just the tiniest touch on those thread wraps, and I'll come in here, and I'll cure it with my UV light. Give it a half a second so it cures.

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 This is a real simple fly, guys. You want to keep some of these in your box and have a dozen of them in a few different sizes. Change up that pheasant tail to different colors as well, and you'll make a true variation on this pattern. Once again this is Tim here with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters and Thursday Night Live fly tying, this has been another quick tie blog brought to you by Rocky Mountain Fly Shop. Don’t forget, everything over $99 is free shipping from them, so make sure to check them out! We will see you on the next pattern.

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Author

Tim Hepworth

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Fly Tying Tutorial : Kinder Gentler Mop Fly

1/16/2023

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Kinder Gentler Mop Fly
HOOK:Scud/pupa hook (here a Dai-Riki #135), size 12
THREAD:Dark gray, 6/0 or 140-denier
BODY:Mottled gray segment from a mop or auto wash mitt
HEAD:Gray rabbit-fur dubbing

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​I want to welcome you back to another Quick Tie blog brought to you by our friends at Rocky Mountain Fly Shop (rockymountainflyshop.net). We are currently in season five episode one. Thursday Night Live Season 5 KitsThursday Night Live season five kits are still available on our Website, head on over to www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls5  and grab your kit today. I’ll be taking you through the “Kinder Gentler Mop Fly”, so go ahead and open your TNL season 5 kit and grab out your episode 1 package. If you don't have a kit, grab the materials listed above in the recipe. You will notice in your season 1 package you will have two fly bags inside, grab the one correctly labeled “Kinder Gentler Mop Fly”. Now let's head on over to my Norvise and get started on this fly.




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There are very few materials in this fly pattern which makes it quick and easy. We will get this Dai-Riki #135 scud hook secured in the jaws of the norvise, and get our Black UTC 140 started on the hook shank.  It is important to use a bit thicker thread as I will be teaching you how to spin dubbing by splitting the thread.

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 After starting the thread wraps behind the eye of the hook,we will work them forward to the hook barb and then take a couple wraps back towards the hook eye; let your thread hang at the hook point. We're going to then grab the tail piece, which is a piece off a car detailing mitt, and look at the cut end. You will find this material to be similar to chenille in that if it has a few core threads that we need to expose then tie in. Place the tail right on top of the hook where we left our thread and place a securing wrap to hold it right on top of the hook. Go ahead and take a few thread wraps forward to secure the middle strands of the tail and then come back to your tie in point. ​
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We're now going to see the importance behind choosing a thicker thread. We're going to counter spin our thread to flatten it out. You will notice if you over spin your thread it will cord it back up, so you have to find the happy medium point where the thread is flat and able to be split. Now with the thread on my finger I'll use my Shore bodkin or something pointed like my Shore whip finish tool and split the thread into equal parts. Slip your finger in between the two pieces of thread to hold your spot. ​
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While keeping your finger securely holding the thread grab the only other material in this pattern, your Hareline rabbit fur dubbing in the color gray. We should not need to use any dubbing wax to accomplish this split thread dubbing loop. Grab three equal small pinches of the dubbing and slide them in between the pieces of split thread. Once you feel you have the correct amount of dubbing placed, take your finger out of the thread and spread the dubbing out before you spin your bobbin.Now I'm going to go ahead and spin my Norvice Auto Bobbin until the materials spin up nicely. Now moisten your finger tip and pull the dubbing rearward as you start to palmar the dubbing loop up the hook shank towards the eye of the hook, and hopefully you run out of dubbing right as you arrive at the eye. 

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Once we are at the eye of the hook take a couple extra wraps slightly rearward to secure the dubbing material. Now I will go ahead and grab my Shore Whip Finish tool and whip finish the fly. Two to three turns repeated twice will be plenty. Go ahead and snip your thread off. If you have it on your tying desk I recommend grabbing some Solarez Bone Dry resin and just put a small dab right over your whip finished thread. Go ahead and cure it with your Uv light. ​
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It doesn’t hurt to grab your favorite dubbing brush and just stroke the rabbit fur rearward back down the fly. ​
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That right there my friends is the Kindler gentler mop fly, it's a very good imitation of a crane fly larva, and very effective. I suggest if you haven't already, add it to your repertoire and give it a try. We again want to thank Rocky Mountain Fly shop for bringing us this week's Quick tie. See you all soon for so many more great patterns from Season 5 of Thursday Night Live.

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Author

Fly Tied by : Tim Hepworth

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Fly Tying : Near Nuff Sculpin

1/9/2023

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NEAR NUFF SCULPIN
Near Nuff Sculpin Fly Tying Recipe:
Hook: #4 Tiemco 5263
Eyes: Medium Lead Eyes
Thread: Olive / Black  UTC 140
Tail: Grizzly Olive Soft Hackle
Flash: Pearl Krystal Flash
Body: Sculpin Olive SLF Dubbing
Rib: Brassie Copper Wire
Collar: Grizzly Olive Soft Hackle

PictureTied by Tim Hepworth
Hey everybody welcome back to another quick tie Blog, brought to you by our friends at Rocky Mountain Fly Shop. We're super excited to have them sponsoring this year, remember if you head over to their Website www.rockymountainflyshop.net  ,you can order any material or anything you see on the show pretty much you're gonna be able to find there and everything over $99 Canadian is free shipping so take advantage of that make sure you get in there. We're going to take you through another fly today this one is the “Near Nuff Sculpin “
I'm tying out of a Thursday Night Live Season Five Kit, looks just like this. 

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You can still grab your kits today if you head over to our website www.flyfishbowriver.com/tnlS5 . Now what do you get in a kit? Why is that of value to you? Well what you get is both patterns that we tie on that episode, so two patterns per episode x 17 episodes. For Episode one, you have two different patterns, the Kinder Gentler Mop fly and the Near Nuff sculpin. You will have enough material to do this five more times and you get a fly already tied for you. So essentially 6 flies times two patterns is a dozen flies per episode. If you have a kit, grab the Episode 1 kit and find the Near Nuff Sculpin Package and let's get into this fly.Let's head on over to the Norvise and we'll get started. Alright,  what we're tying on is a Tiemco 5263 Hook, Size 4 3xl ,a really nice long streamer hook. Go ahead and get that secured in your norvise nice and level. What I'm tying with For Thread is  UTC 140 in Black. If you got something in UTC 140  Olive even better.  We're not going to see a whole lot of the thread tonight so it's not super critical on
what color you use.  Let's go get ahead and get this thread started just behind the eye. Snip off that Tag. I'm going to work my thread all the way down the hook right into the bend to lay a nice thread layer all the way down , so now we're gonna come back to the eye.  I want you to grab the dumbbell eyes that you have in your kit. This is going to be the next thing we put on our hook.  I want you to imagine having a full dumbbell eye length back from the eye of the hook. This is where we are  going to set our dumbbell eyes. Pretty easy to put on.  Set them down on the hook, and take a cross wrap ( figure 8 pattern)  a couple times to kind of get it
secured . Leave a little bit of space in front of those eyes because we want to make this
look nice and bulky at the head. It's important sculpins have nice big bulky Head, as that is most realistic. Let's take a bunch of  Wraps now, and  let's get this nice and secured. You're going to notice I'm not spinning these dumbbell eyes around the hook shank on this pattern.  We're going to leave these right on top and if you've tied with us before we've explained why you put the dumbbell eyes on the top or bottom, but if you haven ‘t , you'll understand that where the weight sits is where the fly sits so this fly is going to ride hook up. The advantage of that is that we're going to be able to keep this fly hopefully not snagged on the bottom.  Lots of weight with these oversized dumbbell eyes because we want this fly to be right on the bottom where the sculpins are.  I'm going to flip it over so I can see those wraps there and I'm just going to put a little touch of UV resin on there.



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You can also put some super glue, whatever you like. What I am using is bone dry by solarez. I like this stuff, it soaks in really nice, and you’ll have to  hit that with your UV light so you know those eyes aren't going to go anywhere. When  you see The Smoke Stop you know the Solarez bone dry is cured.
I'm gonna flip the hook back up so I can see what I'm working with. I'm gonna take my thread ( UTC 140) and I'm gonna start working back.  I'm gonna get all the way back so it's sitting right about at the Barb. We don't want to be down beyond the hook Bend, you want to be before that hook starts to tip off.  We're going to start off with the soft hackle Grizzly and Olive. We're gonna take two of these feathers.  Now there's two trains of thought on this. You could think of putting them facing each other or facing out. I want to face them out. I like the way that this moves in the water. I want them to splay when I tie them in, but I want them to be matched in length so I'm holding them opposite each other.  I want them to be roughly a hook shank out the back of the fly. I'm gonna switch hands. I'm gonna take a gathering wrap, make sure that it's cinched in there nice, and then pull tight. I'm going to look from the top to make sure they splay and make sure they're even now. Those back here are going to move really nicely in the water.  This is a good opportunity to arrange them on the hook shank where you want them before you move on. I'm going to use some of the butts ends of the grizzly hackle to build bulk in the body.  I'm gonna wrap thread back on these butts, because I want to create some bulk in the middle end of this fly. We will do it with dubbing as well, but lets take advantage of the material that's already on the hook.

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 I’m going bring my thread back  about the halfway mark. Leave my thread there. I'm going to come in and grab a piece of Crystal Flash. I'm gonna grab just one piece. I'm gonna cut it in half so I've got two pieces in my hand. I'm gonna find that Midway Point on it and I'm gonna fold it around my thread. This is kind of a neat little Trick.  I fold around my thread. I now pull upwards on it and I can use my thread to direct where I want it to go.  I pull it right down on top of the hook shank and I start taking a few thread wraps back so it's secure. I want to take and grab two pieces and pull it to the near side of the fly and take two pieces and pull it to The Far Side of the fly.  I use my fingers to spread them out and then I'm going to run my thread back down the fly and secure the crystal flash on either side of those Grizzly Hackle feathers. So now work them all the way back. The goal is just to have two pieces on both sides and then I'm going to pull them back with the feathers. I want to cut them off just a little beyond the feather. Next material you got some brass colored wire in your kit.  Grab a chunk of it ( 6 inches minimum) . We're going to tie it in the back along the crystal flash.  This fly is tied similar to a style of an original woolly bugger so we're going to leave wire at
the back end we're going to tie in our Hackle feather at the front and then we're going to secure it with our wire going back forward. The wires pointing out the back now and at this points should have three materials locked in. The Grizzly Hackle, The wire, and the Crystal Flash.

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Grab some Olive Dubbing, or Caddis Green Dubbing (Wapsi Prism Dubbing) and we're gonna start making dubbing noodle. I am going to use a little bit of wax nothing too crazy just some of Wapsi premium dubbing wax, it helps with this style of dubbing I just put a light
little skiff on top of my thread. Don't get overthinking the situation on this dubbing, we are going to create just a real generous sized dubbing Noodle and probably have to add more. I come in and I spin my fingers on it, remember, only spin one direction, or your dubbing wont noodle proper. We want quite a big thick rope because we're gonna try to build up a nice bulky body and head with this material. We want to make sure that we get that fairly secured onto that thread by winding it on. I'm gonna start wrapping forward towards the dumbbell eyes.  Think about tapering a fly so we get it thinner in the back bulkier at the head. Start building bulk as you go forward. It doesn't have to be perfect but we're trying to kind of create a generalized shape. That should get us all the way up to the head. Finish that off right behind those dumbbell eyes. Now we're going to go in and we're gonna put Hackle in and wrap it back. You're gonna see on a hackle fiber a  little bit of Marabou here at the back and then you get into the actual Hackle as we move up the feather.  We want to use a little bit of both in this fly so I'm gonna come back to about here. I want to use my first whole wrap to be that nice fluffy Marabou so it creates a little bit of extra bulk up at the head of the fly. I'm going to leave some of that on. I'm gonna peel off the rest.  I've got that stem, it looks something like that, you can already see how it creates a tapered shape.  We tie in the thicker part of the feather at the front of the fly and as we go back it gets thinner and that's going to create that taper. I have the underside of the feather,  it's the dull side.  I want that dull side to be pointed back down the fly, towards the back,  when I tie it in and secure it with a few wraps. I like to wrap that stem under the dumbbell eyes. Once it’s secure, then I'll come in and trim it out. Make sure it's good and secure.Now what I want to do is secure my work with a little  half hitch, which is just a simple overhand knot. Now what I'm going to do is start working this Hackle back down the fly.  I'm going to do one full wrap before I start moving down. I'm just gonna have some nice evenly spaced out wraps. Moving back down the fly trying to kind of time it perfectly so I run out of Hackle, right near the back end of The Fly. You could use some Hackle pliers as well, if that makes it easier for you.

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Grab that wire and pull that wire back and kind of out of the way and then capture that feather with the wire. Start wrapping the wire back up the opposite way that I came down with the feather. I'm wiggling it back and forth so that the wire doesn't trap a whole bunch of those feather fibers. Work it all the way back forward to the dumbbell eyes. Take a wrap behind the wire, a wrap in front of the wire,  and a wrap behind. That's how I know how to get the wire nice and secured. You can either helicopter that off or grab your buddy's scissors and cut that wire. Don't use your good Shor Scissors because that definitely will dull your scissors. Now we're going to finish off with the head of the sculpin. ​
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We're going to use the same dubbing but we're going to make a little bit of a different style to apply it to the head.  This time I'm gonna make a dubbing Loop.  I'm Gonna put two fingers and fold over top to make this loop.  I'm gonna give myself about four inches of thread in this dubbing loop. I’m gonna take a couple of wraps in front and behind the dubbing loop at the hook. Bring the thread in front of the eye.  I just have my finger stuck in that Loop, or you can stick the dubbing spinner in the loop to keep it open.I'm using this Loon Tools Dubbing Spinner.  I'm gonna grab a little bit of that Wapsi dubbing wax. I'm only gonna put some on the bottom side. What I'm going to do is grab that same dubbing I was using before. I'm gonna grab little pinches. Spread them out a little bit. This isn't long fiber dubbing so we can't try to spread it out too much. All I'm going to do is start setting these little pinches into that dubbing Loop. We're going to put quite a few because we're going to rope this up and create some bulk in the head of the fly. I'm gonna let go of that top thread so it pinches down and closes the dubbing loop, this will hold the material in place before we start spinning this loop tight. Give the dubbing spinner a good spinner and make that noodle nice and tight.  We're not going to brush it out. I'm gonna do a full wrap right behind the dumbbell eyes then I'm going to cross over forward,  so it's almost like a figure eight, like how we put the Dumbbell Eyes on at the beginning of this fly.  I'm going to cross over in front and I'm gonna come back over behind and back to the front again. I'm going to finish off with a couple of wraps right in front of the eyes and I should pretty much run out of material at the right time. Bring bobbin and thread back to the fly again. I'm going to do that same wrapping sequence to secure the dubbing loop to the hook.  I'm going to go behind the thread in front of the thread behind the thread in front of the thread and that's going to lock it in so it's not going anywhere. I'm going to trim out that dubbing noodle now. I like to flip the fly around so I can see the underside and make sure I've trapped all those materials at the head. Take a few thread wraps, build a little bit of a thread damn so none of that material is going to move on you.  I'm going to grab my whip finish tool.  I'm gonna whip finish it right here with three wraps. I can go ahead and snip out that thread. I'm going to add a little bit of that Solarez Bone Dry UV resin again to make sure this isn't going anywhere. Grab a little brush or you can grab  a piece of velcro whatever you prefer. I'm just going to grab and pull all those fibers rearward.  I'm not going to try to brush them up too much. I just want to pull them rearward so I can see the shape that I'm working with. There you go guys, that is your near nuff sculpin.  super buggy looking looks great under the water it's going to sit right on the bottom where you want it to be.

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Thursday Night Live Fly Tying S4. Ep1 / SBR Sulphur Nymph / Silent Bob Streamer

12/13/2021

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Episode 1 begins with high hopes… The show would begin with a light show, smoke filled room and a crazy dance party! And, well it definitely did, but was unfortunately just missing one important ingredient, the sound.  After a few minutes dancing like fools, and talking with viewers, the eventually realized that 101 comments and 19 missed calls were people trying to let them know, they were on mute.  Truly, what a magical way to start a new season of fly tying! 

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As the sound came back on, Dana mentioned he did it on purpose, and the reason was, he didn’t want that to overshadow their special guest singer for the night, Daryl Anderson with Darryl Anderson Music.  Darryl graciously came on the show and sang a few songs for the audience, starting with a Chris Stapelton Cover, and then sang an original “ shots at the bar “. He finished with a Luke Combs cover “ when it rains it pours”( all can be heard on the replay)

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The baking cam made an early appearance, showing only ingredients, and Dana mentioned, with all things TNL, the ingredients are supplied, and hopefully when they go together, they will make something everyone wants to eat. 

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To start the fly tying portion of the show, Tim announced the two flies for the evening. This time it's a sulphur nymph with a Silent Bob Streamer:

Bead Head SBR Sulfur Nymph
Hook: 2X-long nymph hook (here a Dai-Riki #730), sizes 14
BEAD: Gold Cyclops Bead, 7/64″
WEIGHT: Lead-free round wire, 020
THREAD: Wood duck, brown, black, or yellow 8/0 or 70 denier
TAILS:  Wood duck flank-feather fibers
BODY/WINGCASE: Golden yellow pheasant-tail fibers
THORAX: Golden stone Australian possum dubbing
LEGS: Wood duck flank-feather fibers
ADHESIVE: UV-cure resin
TOOLS: Plunger-style hackle pliers, bodkin 

Silent Bob 
Hook: Fulling Mill 36040 Streamer Stripper - 1
Thread: Veevus GSP - White - 150 Denier
Wire: Senyo Intruder Trailer Hook Wire - Black - Regular
Belly: Ice Dub - UV Pearl
Beads: Plummeting Tungsten Beads - Gold - 3/16" (4.6mm)
Tail: Brown Barred Magnum Rabbit Strips - Olive
Gill Pack: Ice Dub - Red
Gill Pack: Senyo's Barred Predator Wrap - Barred UV
Head: Wapsi Premo Deer Hair Strips - Olive
Eyes: Fluorescent Fly Eyes - Fl. Orange - 1/4" (6.3mm)
Resin: Loon UV Clear Fly Finish - Flow
Resin: Loon UV Clear Fly Finish - Thick (1/2 oz)

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Before the Half time show, the baking cam was presented complete, with Sex in a Pan, and that proved to make some mouths water! 

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During the half time show , a game of Water Master Raft Flyingo was played, and the prize was donated  from Rocky Mountain Fly Shop / Shor Fishing / Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters:

1- Thursday night live photobook containing all the flies with all the 40 recipes ($45)
2- Flathead Sling  waterproof by Fishpond($200)
(https://rockymountainflyshop.net/products/fishpond-flathead-sling?_pos=1&_sid=e8d778f42&_ss=r)
3-Shor fly tying material kit ($100)

There is a tie this week in Flyingo, which brought us to the dreaded tie breaker, and letting the automated computer do it’s thing, The winner came to Scott Hook! 
Congrats Scott! 

 A bonus giveaway was also given away this week, in lieu of the upcoming Christmas party held at Tracks Pub in Olds, Alberta for Episode 2. 
The winner had  to answer the question:
Which two species of fish are in the commercials this week? 
The answer was Rainbow Trout ( rocky mountain fly shop commercial) and brook trout ( Water master rafts commercial) 

The winner was Chas Waitt!

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Eventually towards the closing of the show Tim and Dana shared information regarding their flying kits and tools.
 They further added that the kits are on sale and whoever likes it can purchase them. 

https://bit.ly/3rydYh4


At last the best part of the episode had come along. 

WHAT IS YOUR WIN?
 A good bunch of people shared their pleasing alluring awe inspiring incidents that they experienced throughout the week. Some people shared their hard and difficult times and how they managed to overcome those hurdles
. To conclude Dana and Tim narrated that no WIN is too big or too small , they all matter! 

The next episode goes on air on Thursday Dec 16th, which is episode 2, and the Christmas party held at tracks pub in Olds, Alberta.  It is Pizza night there, and the show will be shown on the monster big screen, with the sound on played throughout the whole pub! Rocky Mountain Fly Shop

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Thursday Night Live Season 4 Episode Zero

12/7/2021

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Season 4 Episode Zero “ The Dress Rehearsal”
The show started with Dana wearing a wig ( like the beard isn’t enough)  and pretending Tim didn't exist then eventually Tim made his presence seen, so it was more than just a terrorizing thought in Dana’s head. Eventually things settled down , and they described their fly tying kits that are available for purchase. These kits are available for purchase on their website at https://bit.ly/3cIcB6M .The kit contains as a bonus this year.  a 4x6 card with pictures of all 40 patterns ,six rolls of thread ,  20% discount to Rocky Mountain Fly Shop, a $100 voucher to FFBR for a guided day on the water. The kit also has all 20 episodes ( each episodes includes each pattern fully tied, and the material to tie each pattern up to two more times).

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Staying true to giveaways, They were giving away three prizes on this episode. 
1.First giveaway was a Season 4 kit - question for this giveaway was “ What was the name of the couple who won the 80’s theme night last season” - the answer which no one got was, Morgan and Jade.

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2. a box containing over 120 different dry flies ( valued over $700) - The question for this giveaway draw was “ what is the name of the pub where the christmas party will take place” - the answer was “Tracks Pub” which was won by Keith Branter. 

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3. A life size poster of all the 40 patterns ( same as the 4x6 in the box but 3’x4’) - The question for this giveaway was “ what is the name of the new sponsor, which is also the name of the new flyingo “ - The answer was “ Water Master Rafts” , and this was won by Shawn Allison 

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Tim went over some of the gear you'll need to get started tying flies, First of which is a bobbin. He then explained how to thread a bobbin. by simply inserting a clean, straight, and unfrayed thread tag into the bobbin holder tube's bottom and work it through carefully and gently in small increments. If you’re using a bobbin thread, Simply insert the wire from the top to the thread spool via the bobbin barrel, extending the loop near the spool. Then, thread the threader through the wire loop and pull it out of the bobbin's barrel's tip end, bringing the thread with it. To have a better experience with tying you'll need a decent vise, as well as a variety of scissors (Tim prefers at least three at a time to cut any type of hair, thread, or wires). You can also keep a pair of large scissors on hand to cut larger items like bucktails or clumps of hair in one go. Aside from that, when working with threads, a Norvis auto bobbin system comes in handy. With this system, you can reel the thread on the norvise bobbin and pull it to the stopper that acts as a cradle (hence the name bobbin cradle) and play around , putting on material, then bring the bobbin back from the cradle. 

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Tim later explained a few quick ways to making tying knots, finishing up your Some of you may have difficulty tying knots; however, the half hitch makes it much easier. Simply wrap the thread twice around any half hitch tool, place the small hole at the end on the hook, and pull off the thread sliding on to the hook and pull it tight. Now, if you’re trying to tackle the Whip finish tool, play close attention, Pull the thread out a bit and the first point of contact is the little poker at the end, stab it in and wrap it on the other bend on the end of the tool, and now the natural progression if pulling the thread hand is just going to flip over, let it flip and the thread will look like a four now where the running line crosses the main thread, lay that right on the hook shank, Wrap the thread around the hook as many times as you desire, then reverse the process to get the thread off the hook. 

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By the end of the show Tim and Dana had shared lots of advice on getting tying flies, and some essential tools that are needed to get going! If you’d like to get the kits, they are for sale, if you’d like to just keep watching, that is more than welcome too! . Alast, the best part of the night had arrived, WHAT IS YOUR WIN? Lots of people shared some pretty awesome things that happened throughout their week! Some people got some much needed time on the water with friends, some people cleared some big hurdles in their life, but the message that was resounding, was that everyone seemed to be super excited to be back together on Thursdays, and hanging out with the TNL FAM again! Heres to 20 more episodes, love , laughter, and some valiant efforts into tying some flies! The next episode airs December 9th, where Tim and Dana will tie The Silent Bob Streamer, as well as the SBR Sulfur Nymph.  If you need the material lists, head over to www.flyfishingbowriver.com/tnls4 

This season is setting up to be one to remember, Until til next time.. 

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Not Every Perfect Day has Fish

11/4/2021

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After a long winter of what always seems like forever, April 1st arrived, and that was a perfect day to hit the ES2 watershed in Central Alberta.  We had an abnormally warm February and March in 2021, so this meant the rivers were probably going to be fishable on opener this season.  

No better way to get the season started than with a couple of my favorite people Tim Hepworth  his daughter Wren, and our furry friend Harper Collins, a german short haired pointer who is always up for a good stroll down the river.  We had big ambitions, as I am sure every does when they make a plan to go for a drive and hit the river.  Lots of possibilities awaited us, in our adventure driven fantasies.  Perhaps, this is the trip where we get some of the biggest bull trout we have ever seen, and why not get one of the brown trout that only few have ever seen out there.  I guess you could say fly fisherman are eternal optimists, and I am ok with that! 

The drive out was a few hours from where we lived, and this time we were going to explore a new stretch of the river we hadn’t seen before, because we you do this, you get rewarded, right? Let  us be dreamers, for the time being! 

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We decided to take our 7wt Orvis Helios 3d , as we had little hope for any activity other than throwing some streamers, or maybe bouncing an indicator.  We were destined for aggressive fish, so streamers it was! 


The weather was typical spring, and with a bit of sun poking through the clouds, we got a little heat, but not enough not to bundle up.  After spending several hours, hope evaporating quickly and our arms getting sore, we decided to call it a day and head back to the truck! This time we packed a hot shore lunch, which required a little to get going! Sometimes having a quick shore lunch bestows perfection on the day, but today, we need something a little more hearty and warm to make this happen! 

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This is always the time of the year, where I’m not totally sure if we should be wearing our orvis ultralight waders, or its still the season to be in the Orvis Pro waders.  Difference is pretty much how much dry land hiking we will be doing, versus standing in the chilly waters! Before we got into roasting hot dogs, and cooking marshmallows over fire, I suggest whatever you decided to wear, you get out of them, cause hot items and waders don’t marriage well! 

Although we saw no fish, we were reminded that fish don’t make a perfect day, but the people you spend the day with do! Get outside more, and don’t worry about the results of catching fish, you’ll enjoy more days on the water. 

- Dana Lattery


Love People Catch Fish 

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Dana Lattery

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Commit Now, Plan Later ; A Guide School Perspective

1/11/2020

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For the ones who don’t know, my name is Brandon Esposito, 27 years of age from Airdrie, AB - the summer of 2019 was my official first year guiding.
Before this, my passion for fly fishing was growing rapidly, to the point, where I wanted to take my love for sport to the next level - possibly making a career out of it. As I started doing my research, I quickly found Guiding to be my path. Although Guide School was only noticed in the states, a group of men locally here in Calgary took the plunge and decided to set up shop here in Calgary. This quickly grabbed my attention, considering travel and accommodations down to Montana (where the bulk of Guide Schools are) was noticeably more expensive than the one here in Calgary. With the itinerary looking quite similar, it was a no brainer that this is what I wanted and taking this class will get me one step closer to my dream.

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My initial feeling of intimidation when enrolling with Western Canada Fly Fishing Guide School was holy moly, these guides know there stuff and all though I was very familiar with the methodology of fly fishing the Bow River, adding a drift boat into the equation, with ZERO experience, also added the feeling of confusion. I didn’t know what to expect, taking a complete leap of faith into a path I was very unaware of. Adding on thousands of dollars in hopes I was making the right move. It didn’t matter. I knew in my heart this was the right move. Commit Now, Plan Later.

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It’s here, finally. Booked months ago, eagerly waiting to start this next chapter in my life. A series of guides - Quinn Styles, Dana Lattery, Timothy Hepworth, and Troy Langelaar with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters. People I’m very familiar with in the Instagram world. As the Itinerary was released, I became quickly aware that the most important factor I need to focus on was “time on the water.” Along side, a series of 6 days in two split weekends. Both weekends consisting of morning classroom work followed by time on the water. I promised myself to leave my ego at the door, become completely transparent and to open my mind up to the possibility of failure. Being completely overwhelmed with the amount of material and knowledge these guides were throwing at us, I had no choice but to remain silent and take in as much as possible.
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As I took my first seat in a Hyde Drift Boat, my hands grabbing the oars, I instantly fell in love. Problem is, the boat was still on the trailer. Being completely different then what I was use to, I was very eager to get on the water and test my capability. Push, off the trailer into the water. With a brief explanation of what we’re doing, it was my turn to row. Dana standing in the front seat giving the order, I had to row from river left to river right. After doing multiple donuts and having both Dana and another student laughing hysterically, I realized two things: the stern is my steering wheel and I might be in over my head.
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As the days went on, I studied the guides sitting in the driver seat. I watched every single movement and told myself to remain patient. Hour after
hour, I became significantly more comfortable behind the sticks. Confidence was getting bigger and bigger and I started to believe that this was by far the best decision I’ve ever made.
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Guide School changed me. It opened me up to more knowledge and “golden nuggets” then I ever would have been able to find on my own. The guides took the time to highlight what’s important over decades of guiding. The information was extremely valuable, if you pay attention to the fine details and execute, guide school WILL take you to the next level. Whether you want to be a guide, outfitter, or simply the best angler you can be - Western Canada Fly Fishing Guide School is for you.

Check Out Western Canada Fly Fishing Guide School Here

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Where I was once lost and confused prior to guide School, graduating gave me the confidence to purchase my own drift boat. Solidifying a job with Fly Fishing Bow River Outfitters and finishing the 2019 season with 28 trips under my belt. I still look back with shock in my heart. But I will never forget the opportunity Western Canada Guide School presented me. If you’re on the fence about moving forward just remember, fear isn’t real. Put the emotions aside and invest in yourself. It just might be the best decision you’ve ever made.
 ⁃    Brandon Esposito
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DEBUNKING THE FEARS OF FLY FISHING WITH YOUR KIDS

11/24/2018

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Fly Fishing Bow River
  Many parents choose to spend the early years of their children’s lives stuck at home thinking there is no way they can keep up the outdoor pursuits that they love until their children are older. I can tell you this is simply not true. My name is Tim Hepworth; I am a husband, father, medic, and fly-fishing guide in Southern Alberta.
           I was born and raised in central Alberta. My parents started taking me on hunting and fishing trips at a very young age. However, when my wife and I first started talking about having children I was very resistant to the idea. I feared that if we had a child, all the things I loved doing would no longer be possible. I could not have been more wrong.

   My daughter Wren and I took our first fly fishing trip when she was 6 months old. I carried her on my chest and to my surprise she did amazing. Eventually she graduated to a backpack carrier which made things even easier. That first Spring and Summer I got her out multiple times a week. Wren is now almost three and we have had an amazing few seasons together. I will admit that not every trip goes smoothly. There were many times when we would arrive at the river and be packing up to go home shortly after. Adaptability is the name of the game. You need to ask yourself what is the goal? Do you want to catch a ton of big fish every time out? Or do you want to show your child the beauty of the outdoors?  
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In today’s world it is so easy to set your kid in front of a screen and let it do all the teaching. However,I believe most people want something different. We want our children to appreciate the outdoors the way we do, and to be the stewards of taking care of it for the generations to come. I have chosen this path for my daughter, and it excites me to see so many others doing the same. I have fielded countless questions about fishing with Wren, so I figured it was time to put some words together and try to pass along some of what I have learned.  I have come up with 5 tips I feel are essential to a positive day with your child on the water.
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1. Don’t Have A Timeline
Fishing with an infant is actually quite easy. More than likely they will fall asleep in a pack and sleep for hours, giving you all the time in the world to fish. However, with toddlers and small children they decide when your day starts and ends. You have to manage your own expectations for the day and be realistic with yourself. You may get to the water, make two casts when your child has a meltdown or diaper blowout. This may end your day and you need to be ok with that. The worst thing you can do is force your child, who is obviously restless and no longer engaged, to stay out fishing. If you do then they will start to hate it and that completely defeats the purpose of encouraging your kids to be in the outdoors with you. Listen to your kid. When they’re done, be done.
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2. Buy the right outdoor gear
One of my biggest frustrations is trying to find good quality gear for Wren. It took me months to find her a pair of toddler waders. These have kept Wren warm and safe and helped her be comfortable on our adventures. However it is still difficult to find warm gear at an affordable price. But don’t give up. Be prepared to put the money out for your kids. It’s an investment in the experience you are hoping they will love as much as you. If anyone actually needs the best warm, and durable gear it’s actually our kids. So don’t give up the search for good gear, it can be found if you're willing to look for it.
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3. Snacks, Snacks, Snacks! 
It’s such a simple thing, but having adequate amounts of food for your day on the water will save your butt a thousand times. You can lengthen your day by having just that one more granola bar or bottle of milk. Overpack what you think you will need for them and you won’t be disappointed. Always bring lots of water. My daughters “comfort food” has always been her milk. If I have forgotten it at the truck I may as well turn around immediately and go back and get it. Find what that comfort food item is for your child and don’t forget to stick it in your pack!
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4. It’s a bug’s life
Once your child is big enough to be spending some time out of the pack. Get them on the shoreline digging in the rocks. Yes it may mean a lot of ruined holes as inevitably those rocks get thrown into them, but what it will do is get them looking at some bugs. Kids are fascinated by the creepy crawling things, which just so happens to be a perfect opportunity to teach them about the flies we are using. For every hour you are on the water go spend 20 min helping them find some bugs. Trust me they will appreciate it and it will probably spruce up your knowledge too!
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5.Let them practice!
More than likely your child has spent hours watching you whip your rod around and will want to try it too. Now I’m not saying you hand them your $1000 T&T rod but have a rod there they can try to cast with. I started by buying my daughter a couch rod for inside. She spent weeks playing with it. I then started bringing along a rod I had bought for her (it’s the Echo Gecko kids rod), to practice with. Yes you will untie a thousand knots and tangles, but just be patient and let them “play” because for them that is what it is, and playing is supposed to be fun. I haven’t actually taught my daughter that much when it comes to casting, but I tell you what, it is uncanny how much they learn from watching you! At two and half years old my daughter casted, hooked, and landed her first solo fish. I wish I could say I had more to do with it than I did! But she learned by watching and practicing, give your kids that chance to learn. In the end they just want to be like you, so give them the chance to do so.
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To conclude, remember what all of this is for. Yes you want to share your love of fly fishing with your kids, but furthermore this is about spending quality time with your kids in the outdoors. Cherish it and don’t take it for granted. One thing hours of time together can give you, is the chance to create a forever lasting bond with your child that cannot be replaced. Talk your kids, be their first teacher and guide them down the path you want for them. I can’t tell you how many hours I practiced the “abc song”, or sang the “itsy bitsy spider”. Much of the time you are just a walking day care centre, but it’s these moments that I know will be some of my best memories for the rest of my life. Don’t fear the difficulty or inconvenience of taking your kids fishing, I promise it will never be something you regret.
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