With winter weather comes more time spent indoors; so, now is the perfect time to develop your new fly tying skills or to hone your existing tying prowess and get ready for the approach of spring fly fishing for our local trout. As part of its continuing effort to provide fly-tying classes and workshops to the general public, as well as its own members, the Brodhead Chapter of Trout Unlimited will once again run its popular Winter Fly Tying Class beginning Wednesday, January 6th, 2016. This is a completely redesigned eight-session, comprehensive fly-tying instructional program to kick off its chapter educational programs and activities.
The class will run on two Wednesday evenings from 7-9 pm, five Saturday mornings from 9 am-12 Noon, and will also include an optional full-day, Saturday field trip (at a shared additional cost to charter a bus) to the annual mega fly-fishing show in Summerset, NJ!
One comprehensive fee of just $35.00 per person includes the following: all required course supplies and fly-tying materials, comprehensive printed pattern instructions, and free use of tools for those who don’t have them.
The class schedule for this amazing fly-tying educational opportunity is as follows:
- Session1: Wednesday, January 6, 2016 from 7-9 pm at the Stroudsburg Junior High School. Chipperfield Drive Stroudsburg. room 125. This requisite initial session will focus intimately on the introduction and mastery of all the basic fly-tying techniques, the various knots and tools, nomenclature of tools and materials, and how to half-hitch and/or whip-finish a completed fly.
- Session 2: Saturday, January 9, 2016 from 9 am to 12-Noon at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education Center located at 8050 Running Valley Road, Bartonsville. In this second session, participants will learn how to begin building a basic set of flies using sequential fly-tying techniques with each fly adding a new skill set to the prior fly.
- Session 3: Saturday, January16, 2016 from 9 am to 12-Noon at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education. In session three, participants will add to their impressive skills set with additional sequential fly-tying techniques that will increase their rudimentary skills mastery.
- Session 4: Saturday, January 23, 2016 from 9 am to 12-Noon at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education Center. In session four, participants will add to their impressive skills set with additional sequential fly-tying techniques that will finalize their rudimentary skills mastery.
- Session 5: Saturday, January 30, 2016 an optional full-day, chartered bus field trip to the annual mega fly-fishing show in Summerset, NJ! The cost of the charter bus will be shared equally by all travelers to the show. Students will have a golden opportunity to observe a plethora of world-famous professional fly-tyers demonstrating their tying skills while exploring diverse innovative tying techniques and incorporating the latest fly-tying materials into their signature patterns! Meeting time and staging location for this optional field trip TBA.
- Session 6: Saturday, February 6, 2016 from 9 am to 12-Noon at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education Center. With the sixth session, we’ll introduce some higher intermediate level skills that will begin to develop more involved patterns and tying techniques.
- Session 7: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 from 7-9 pm at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education Center. In the seventh session, we’ll introduce some more advanced fly-tying techniques, including spinning deer hair and stripping peacock quills for quill-body patterns.
- Session 8: Saturday, February 13, 2016 from 9 am to 12-Noon at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education Center. As the class comes to its conclusion, we’ll introduce some new flies that will allow participants to effectively utilize all the cumulative skills they’ve learned. At this point, they will be able to tie a full menu of flies that will satisfy the selective appetite of even finicky trout!
- SNOW DAY MAKE-UP SESSION: In the event that any session must be cancelled due to inclement weather, we have reserved Saturday, February 20, 2016 from 9 am to 12-Noon at the Kettle Creek Environmental Education Center, as a make-up date for course completion.
There is absolutely no charge for the provided instruction, and all the TU instructors serve as unpaid community volunteers. The modest $35 course fee covers the cost of all required course tying materials, all printed instructional hand-outs, and the use of tools for those who don’t have them.
This class will be headed by two of the most talented and accomplished fly-tiers in the nation: multi-award-winning professional fly tier and 2006 PA State Fly-Tying Champion Scott Cesari, and renowned Catskill Fly-Tying Guild professional fly-tyer, Shorty Bartholomew. In the year that Scott Cesari became the Pennsylvania state fly tying championship, he also won a medal in the Federation of Fly Fishers’ fly tying contest! Both Scott and Shorty participate in some of the industry’s biggest shows, such as the International Fly Tying Symposium and the Fly Fishing Show, the huge annual Lancaster fly-tying show, events sponsored by the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum, as well as the Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Museum.
Scott and Shorty will be assisted by several of the Brodhead TU Chapter’s expert fly-tyers who will bring their century-plus years of fly tying talent and know-how to this ever popular class. Every class participant will learn how to tie several of the most popular and useful local fly patterns to insure success in the coming year on our regional trout waters.
Bring your vise and tools if you already have them and learn how to tie flies that really catch trout from some of the best fly-tiers in the northeast, including Eric Baird, Don Baylor, Todd Burns, Jim Connor, Will Daskal, John Smith and others.
While the registration deadline for this class is January 2, 2016, DON’T DELAY IN REGISTERING; be sure to sign up before the allotted twenty (20) seats have filled up! This comprehensive, interactive, hands-on, fly-tying class fills up quickly each year; so, if you’d like to improve your skills as a consummate fly-tyer and far more successful fly fisherman, ACT TODAY! Register for this class today by contacting Scott Cesari @ 610-730-7928 OR SMCESARI@EPIX.NET,