DallasFP

I first became aware of April Vokey on fly-fishing magazine covers. Her infectious smile made you feel her excitement while she was in the grip and grin pose holding the fishingporn of the day! Yes she is a very beautiful lady and is very photogenic but she is holding on to one of our more elusive fish. After paging through the magazine you find out she is not a model but a guide in BC on the Dean! She knows fly-fishing. I have been trying to get PK and other buddies more involved in tying by having tying parties at the house. Great idea! Now the guys are running out of excuse not to learn more. I got a text from PK saying that April will be in the area and teaching an intruder class with one spot open! I’m in. If you don’t know anything about spey casting or spey flies check out these videos. The first is a tv show on WFN called Fly Nation that April is on. The second is April on the Dean with a steelhead on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StnT2G6VmV8 The third is an intro video of the intruder style fly that she will be teaching us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeaN-QospwE The class stated at 6:30pm and we tied for 3 hours with instruction on technique and her interpretation on the Ed Ward intruder. April going through introductions and taking attendance with a smile. This is who I thought I was in my mind when April was talking to me! I don’t think I was the only one! LOL. April knows Spey Tying. She rocks out her material goodness of rhea feathers, fox fur and flash. The class had tyer’s who were tying their first fly to some one who had 17 years tying. Vokey took time to explain the smallest details and the concept of each step. Thread base on a Waddington. After laying down the base we added the hook loop. Here is what she uses. The advantage of getting there early is to sit close to the teacher so your able to check out her materials. We had the choice of colors and materials as she went step by step. Spinning the foxtail collar to hold up the rhea feathers. The class started to loosen up after about a half hour and the jokes and drinks started to flow. We had fun with her and she threw down with the best of them. April you rock! One of the great things about this tying event is that we had a bartender handling the delivering the drinks. Aprils favorite tying partner is by her side, Jack has her back! Red Solo cup in the house! Toby would be proud! Back to the tying: April was going over the different techniques to add rhea feathers and other materials. Why rhea feather, MOVEMENT. We had some guys in the group who were new to tying and we tackled the stacking method. Close ups. Aprils stack. The next step is to add some type of body flash by wrapping it around the hook. Ed Wards Intruders have eyes and Sean wanted to ty his fly with eyes. Video Bonus Wrapping the eyes with foxtail. The next step after adding the body of the fly is to spin the foxtail collar again. If you left too much space before the eye of the hook you can add marabou in between the foxtail and rhea feathers Video Bonus Back to stacking the rhea on all four sides of the hook. Greg Senyo (Ohio guide) was at the house in the background and April brought up the fact that he adds some Ice dubbing before the next step. If you don’t add the flash the next step is to add a guinea fowl feather. April handing out the Jungle Cock feathers for the final step. The finished fly: Another fly: The FishingPorn crew gave a little gift to April cause Pimp’n aint easy! Our fishingporn spies got a hold of her favorite tying beverage and had it decked out by Chelseasigns with our new spey decal. April was blown away. IF you want to see more of April you can see here on WFN on Tuesdays on Fly Nation also at her site Flygal.ca! Thanks again April for your time and skills! Hope to see you again either on the river or behind the bench!

Wow great flies in this swap! I went with my go to fly but.... I might have to change that if I get some biggin's with this batch! Can't wait to these flies in the TROPHY WATER section of the Au Sable! Thanks for every one who joined!!! Take care!

I'm in! I will ty up some Articulated Sparrow.