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I have been locked down in my work for three weeks now. The closest I’ve been to fishing is packing for Madagascar. I’ve tied 50 or so Biminis, whipped loops on lines, organized flies, rods, reels and all the other goodies that go along for a tropical adventure. Beyond my packing though, I’ve been painting fish to stock my galleries and drawing on Cliff Fly Boxes. It seems like I draw on at least a Cliff Box a day. Its nuts. I can’t wait until I get to Madagascar and actually reach in to a Cliff Box to grab a fly!
In addition to all this I’ve been preparing for a weekend of seminars in Boise, Idaho. If you are in the Boise area this weekend, be sure and stop 
in one of the local fly shops to sign up for the event. Pete Erickson, Phil Rowley and I will be teaching classes and giving seminars on every aspect of fly fishing both Saturday and Sunday. You could even catch us at the Boise Cabelas tonight as we will be there signing books and hanging out till closing.
The most excitement I’ve had in Victor lately has been watching the arrival of the migratory birds. As you’ve seen in my past postings, my birdfeeder hangs about 8 feet from my computer and I glance at them all day. Yesterday a pair of red crossbills arrived. This species always shows up in late March and my guess is that by the time I get home from Boise on Monday afternoon I’ll have a flock of 50 rummaging 
around for seed – as long as Granny keeps the feeders full this weekend!
Unfortunately, our weather has turned on us again. Last week I was surprised that my old car in the yard was still buried in snow. Well, it hasn’t gotten any better. Other Wednesday’s sunshine for about 5 hours, it has snowed nearly every day and it just started dumping again. Say goodbye to the old car for another few weeks I guess. And I better tighten that seatbelt for my long drive to Boise!
Speaking at shows, clubs and private seminars has been a lot of great fun to start the year. I’ve met some neat folks and hopefully entertained them well and even taught them a thing or two. This past weekend in Boise, ID went extremely well. Although the host, Jack Dennis arrived several hours late and nearly too exhausted to perform for the two day event, the rest of us were ready to rock. Pete Erickson, Phil Rowley and I grabbed the show by the horns and turned what could have been disaster into a fantastic weekend of presentations.
There was a nice crowd of 40 anglers eager to learn. Phil Rowley, a Stillwater fly fishing genius from Edmonton, Canada, gave several PowerPoint presentations on the subject. Not enough fly fishers take the time to fish lakes, but if you like to avoid crowds and catch big trout; lakes are the way to go. Personally, I like the lakes and learned a lot from tuning in on a couple of Phil’s presentations. One of the highlights for me was getting his perspective on fishing chironamids. Phil flat out knows how to catch large trout on a midge pupa.
Pete Erickson is a long time pal of mine. We have worked together on several occasions doing seminars. Pete’s one of the finest anglers I’ve ever had the joy of fishing with and when Pete talks everyone should listen. He provided programs and tips on lakes, European nymphing and a special knot class. Pete and I tag-teamed the Euro Nymphing tactics talking about how the Polish, Czechs and the Spanish do their own special techniques. Both of us are all too familiar with how well the Euros fly fish as we have both competed on the world circuit several times.
I gave presentations on Warmwater Fly Fishing and Saltwater Fly Fishing. Both are two of my favorite fly fishing subjects. Between presentations I gave a casting class outside and demonstrated the double haul and tricks to make a long cast in the wind. We were supposed to wrap things up at 6 pm on Sunday but folks asked to see one of my exotic programs. I enjoy the heck out of story telling so back out came the projector and I delivered a crazy one, “Fly Fishing Tales from Africa”. Everyone thinks I’m nuts to hitch hike across Africa with my wife, but they absolutely loved it and were amazed at tigerfish.
Today I’m packing to head to the hard water of Northern Wisconsin. First thing tomorrow I fly from Jackson to Central WI and then we drive up to Manitowish Waters. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday we will be chasing the Northern Pike, walleye, bass yellow perch, bluegill, crappie and hopefully a few other species. Last year I landed my first muskellunge through an ice hole – that was fun! Stay tuned. . .
Posts
Speaking to the fly fishers in Boise, Idaho is always a blast. I was there since Friday night as part of weekend fly fishing seminar with friends Phil Rowley and Pete Erickson. We started out Friday night with a visit to the Boise Cabelas store where I painted up a cutthroat while folks watched. Then we spent Saturday and Sunday giving a mix of PowerPoint presentations, casting demos and even some knot tying. I spoke about fly fishing photography, saltwater fly fishing, warmwater fly fishing and even entertained with some adventure programs. 
