On the road again

Kevin’s report from his recent travels:

By late fall everyone wants to know what I’m going to do with my entire winter off. Blizzards or even the prospect of cold weather brings the guiding business to a halt and with the difficulties of unplowed access roads and icy landings, just hitting the river for fun is a lot more work.

I must admit that I still, after years of living this same annual cycle, fall into the trap of over scheduling my winter with a list of monumental projects. I may not guide a lot in the winter, but it’s hardly time off. The fact is that there really isn’t that much time between the end of fall steelheading in December and the start of spring steelheading in March when warmer weather starts to creep in and we’re busy on the river again.

The winter guide life for me is heading to the cities to talk about fishing.

Last week I went to Ann Arbor for the Schultz Outfitters Bar Flies Event and tied the Carp Breakfast, Craw Bunny, Beast Bait, and Tailer Teaser. It was my first time at one of Mike’s Bar Fly Events and I thought it was well organized, very casual, and fun. With a video camera relaying the fly I was tying to a large screen TV, people followed along at their vises. I liked this because it was very interactive with people asking questions throughout.

Then last weekend Steve and I headed to Indy for FlyMaster’s Cabin Fever Festival. The Cabin Fever Festival was well attended with many people in town for the Indiana on the Fly Show. Steve and I both tied new patterns over the weekend. Steve tied the Ninja Craw that he developed on Beaver Island last summer and I worked the bugs out of a new goby pattern I’m calling the Rock Hopper.

You can see a video of our friend Ian Anderson painting a popper and some other pictures of the event at Dave Hosler’s blog Pile Cast (that’s Dave’s picture of Steve and tying below). Also thanks to Barb and Scott for letting us stay at their very nice new house and feeding and treating us way better than we deserve.

Also, remember that Steve will be the presenter for the January 25th Bar Fly Event and I’ll be at Cabela’s in Dundee on January 21st.

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