Hello From South Carolina

[Ibonn 0]

Just joined this forum a couple of days ago, and I am amazed at the wealth of information here! I have been fly fishing and fly tying for 2 years now and I can't seem to get enough of the sport or the hobby of fly tying. I spend most of my spring/summer fishing time on the lake and local ponds fishing for bass and panfish, and my winter fishing takes place in my local tailwater the Saluda River near Columbia. I also love to fish the Davidson River in North Carolina and I have traveled up there for a day trip 2 to 3 times in my short fly fishing career. I have also fished in the mountains of NC in small streams in the Smokies and elsewhere. I am blessed with many local opportunities for year round fly fishing with very little travel. I haven't even scratched the surface on all the saltwater opportunities that South Carolina has to offer, but it is certainly on my list!

 

I caught the fly fishing bug fishing in Alaska and catching cutthroat trout in a mountain lake located in Wilson's Pass in Misty Fjords National Monument. I would recommend this trip to anyone, it was cold but the scenery and the fishing was great!

 

I picked up tying around the same time as I picked up the fly rod and I enjoy tying simple patterns, small Woolly Bugger type streamers for bass and panfish, simple soft hackle wet flies (I have caught many fish on them in the Saluda), tiny size 20 to 24 thread midges for wintertime trout fishing in the Davidson. (I was introduced to the Montana fly companies midge thread and I can't seem to get enough of tying these simple little flies) I tie some basic nymph patterns, princes, pheasant tail, Hares Ear, etc. all of which are good in my area. I recently learned how to spin deer hair and I was also given an airbrush so I got some popper bodies to paint up. I would say that learning these two new techniques will be the focus of my tying over the next few months as well as tying wet flies as I am currently reading a book on wet flies by Dave Hughes.

 

I have noticed that it is quite easy to accumulate large amounts of tying materials, tools and doodads in a very short time.(the toughest part is selling it all to the wife and not grossing her out too much with all the animal parts laying around) I admit that I have lots of materials that I have yet to find a use for and I hope that participating in this forum may help me discover some fun new patterns to tie and fish. I am looking forward to learning more about fly tying in this forum by reading and posting patterns.

 

Thanks,

 

Ian Bonnema

Lexington, SC

[utyer 0]

Welcome to the board "short timer." When you have been tying for some 40 plus years, you will be amazed at the stuff you will have collected. As you said, your just scratching the surface, there is so much water, and so little time. Enjoy the journey.

[FisheyeDon 0]

Welcome home, and its funny since I discovered the forum I am on here so much that my wife says its worse than her and the boys facebook habits combined

happy tying

[Steve P 0]

Welcome home, and its funny since I discovered the forum I am on here so much that my wife says its worse than her and the boys facebook habits combined

happy tying

 

 

It gets that way in a hurry... wait till you've been here for 4-5yrs..... or longer!!! I think Will should be able to claim some us as dependents on his taxes!!

 

Welcome aboard Ian and don't forget to check out the warmwater board as well, we always need a little new blood up there as much as we need it here.

 

Steve

[Ibonn 0]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, I have been spending a lot of time the last couple days reading all these great posts and looking at all the great fly patterns, this site is loaded with information...You are right about the time sucking nature of this site, worse than facebook is right!

 

Thanks,

 

Ian