MAINE - Life in the Slow Lane
Welcome Chris
Great intro of yourself and you now have full access to the forum. I need to check out your personal page sometime today.
Thanks for coming.
Lee
P.S. Chris, when you get a chance go to my links page and add a link to both the Streamerlist and Streamertyer sites. I think you can pick the correct catagory for each. The entrys will get queued up and then I will approve them.
Welcome Chris nice intro. I checked out your sites very nice. Streamers, speys and salmon flies there's nothing like 'em.
Nice intro, I checked out your site. Love them streamers. Reminds me of the fishing trips with my dad and uncle's . Trolling them on lake Moxie. Nothing like the beauty of those tandem streamers. Grey Ghost. the Supervisor, Pink Lady. were my favorite along with the woodsmen special
. Welcome aboard I hope to see some of your flies on Lee's site. Are you thinking about posting some of your work ? Hope so Dave V
Hi all,
Standard operating procedure is an intro, so here's mine!
My name is Chris. I reside in northwestern NJ with my wife and 3 daughters, where I spend much of my fishing time chasing wild trout. We make trips to a family camp in Maine, as well as other spots in the state.
I have been fishing my whole life, but only came to fly fishing in the mid to late 1980's when it was suggested by a friend who's family fly fished. Early on, I swore I would never bother to tie my own flies because you could just buy them. Of course, like many, after losing many, many flies to the stream bottom, branches, fish, etc., I began to think I could 'save some money' by tying my own. My wife gave me an LL Bean tying kit for Christmas in 1994, and I've been 'saving money' ever since...
Back to the late 80's -- I knew little about what I was doing in fly fishing. I knew nothing about flies, other than I knew I needed some. I did know LL Bean and their fishing catalog. I flipped it open to see what flies I wanted. Of course, my eyes gravitated to the prettiest flies in the book - the streamers. Little did I know that most of these were smelt patterns, but the NJ fish didn't seem to mind. As I had early success with these beautiful patterns, I wanted to know more about them. I was in an Orvis store and picked up a sale copy of the Bates streamer book. The strategy, history and lore sucked me in.
Sure, I tie my Hare's Ears and Sulphurs, but most of my time (tying, fishing, reading, researching) is spent on the long fly. My personal streamer heroes are Lew Oatman, Keith Fulsher and Carrie Stevens. In the early days of the internet, I stumbled upon The Carrie Stevens Page, put up by Mainer Bob Skehan. It had a bulletin board that a few guys would frequent. Traffic began to build and we eventually moved to an email list. The group continues today in a more visual and interactive manner at the site www.streamerlist.com and currently has over 600 members. I also have a personal page here.
Glad to have stumbled upon the site! Thanks Lee!
Chris