[DBStoots]

Attended Flip & Chico's Most Excellent Fly Fishing School at Hell's Bay Boatworks in Titusville this weekend and learned so much from two of the legends of the sport. What a great weekend!

 

[Backcountry 16]

Wow 2 of the great ones that are left watching Flip cast is a thing of beauty and he's one of the most down to earth guys let's I've ever meet. Was lucky enough to meet him in 07

 

[eightwt]

Bet it was a blast. Could you name a couple of the more notable things you learned?

 

[olsaltydog]

Sounds like a good time, certainly our generations have some big boots to fill.

 

[Matts]

I hope they do this again soon as I want to get my 14 yr old there. Flip is a natural teacher and one of the nicest guys around.

 

[DBStoots]

Both Chico and Flip were wonderful. This was a small group--limited to 15, so it was very conducive to Q&A and story telling. eightwt, that's hard to say. I am really a novice fly fisherman, so just about everything was meaningful to me, especially the casting instructions. For those of you who are more experienced, it was interesting to hear Chico talk about fly lines and see Flip construct the leader. He's really negative about the pre-made, loop-to-loop leaders, feeling that they interrupt the seamless transfer of energy. Instead, he wants

it to "bleed the energy" from the front taper of the fly line. He uses a snell knot to tie 50 # Cortland Mono leader as a butt section, then the tippet (25 # or 30 #) and then the bite tippet (depends on the target species, a short section of lighter mono or fluro). Flip says the more supple material enables one to use heavier leader for the butt section (hence 50# for an 8 wt fly line) and this allows for a longer leader--12' to 15'. Depending on the fly selected, he either uses a 5-7 turn clinch knot or a loop knot to tie the fly to the bite tippet. BTW, he's also big on the Cortland High Vis Fly line (he designed it).

 

[eightwt]

Thanks

 

[Matts]

After using the Snell to tie 50# leader to fly line, if I have that right, what did he use next? Blood, albright, etc?

 

[DBStoots]

Matts, as I recall either an Albright or a uni.

 

[Greg Lyles]

That is the great thing about this sport; there's not too many others where you get a chance to learn face-to-face from the guys who essentially invented a sport like Flip and Chico did with saltwater fly fishing. There's other guys too, but these two are great to learn from. I try to learn all I can from guys like this before they're gone.

 

[Matts]

That is the great thing about this sport; there's not too many others where you get a chance to learn face-to-face from the guys who essentially invented a sport like Flip and Chico did with saltwater fly fishing. There's other guys too, but these two are great to learn from. I try to learn all I can from guys like this before they're gone.[/QUOTE
Yep. Awesome people. My kids and I were watching Flip and Lefty’s interview style dvd titled “All The Best” and its great. So nice to learn from these legends.

 

[jay.bush1434]

Wow, what a cool opportunity to go to a class like that!