Launching a New Book!

Introducing!!! Now available for your enjoyment...

 Southern Fly Tyers: Life Stories of Those Who Tie Flies

There's a story about the cover. It was suggested by one of the tyers who appears in the book, David Anders. It shows the tying desk that is on display at the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians in Bryson City, North Carolina. It's on the cover twice, featured front and center, and then again, faded in the background to wrap around to the back cover. The spot a tyer chooses to work magic is almost sacred, as in don't touch my precious stuff. Maybe the chosen spot is the kitchen table, or a bench in the garage, or a desk in a room all its own. Maybe it's on a tossed-aside rickety table in a man cave or a she shed. Wherever the spot, a special place is one key to successful tying, and that's why we chose to feature the spot from the very beginning. 

And yes, that's a rooster! Read the book, and you'll get why it is on display in a fly fishing museum. 

I helped Alen Baker compile our new book. (We've done three together.) He worked for several years to collect these life stories that we present to you. As I was working on them, I was amazed, awed even. Oh, the stories I've read. Oh, the stories you've read! Tying flies is a passion. Tying flies is an art. Tying flies is scientific. The idea is to base the fly on the bug that is hatching at the moment in order to fool the fish.

 

The second blurb on my back cover says it best: 

Anthony Hipps, paying tribute to Jeff Wilkins: Sometimes I feel like the mad scientist in the lab trying to cook up something (the intent here is to sound like the ‘evil’ laugh in a horror movie). And to think that a fish can be duped into thinking some crazy concoction of plastic, metal, glue, fur, hair, feathers and more is something to eat is just pretty incredible when you think about it.  

Today, August 1, we're launching this book into the world with a well-deserved party. Some of these "mad scientists" will be showing flies they've created. We'll be at the HUB here in downtown Hudson, North Carolina. Starts at 5:30. This celebration is sponsored by the Western North Carolina Society of Artisans. You read that right. Artisans, as in artists, as in creative minds. As in fly tyers! How perfect is that!

The walls and halls of the society's Red Awning Gallery are covered with the beauty of members' creations. You might even spot a few fish in the pictures they've painted...a few bugs, too!  Take a book home. (Books make great presents, you know.) Take a work of art home. Or just come and be a part of a pleasant gathering.

Please join us today. 5:30 to 7:30 at the Hudson Uptown Building, 145 Cedar Valley Road, Hudson, NC 28638

We'll have plenty to celebrate. There will be FOOD involved! Do drop in.

Catch of the Day,

Gretchen