duaneredford.com   "Fear No Water"

Hidy Ho Good Neighbors,

I know, I know, it’s been a while. I’ve been extremely busy this fall and winter. Finished the Fly Fishers Playbook 2^nd Edition, Stackpole Books. About 15,000 more words, tons of great illustrations by Dave Hall, neat pictures, and even a color fly section in the middle. Pretty proud of it. Looks like Amazon will have it in mid January, you can get a copy from Stackpole Books website right now tho.

Most of you know that I changed fly shops/outfitters last year. Did so to better myself as a guide, and to see “fresh” water. Luckily, it was a sound decision. I met a bunch of great people, got to guide water I’ve never fished, and honed my skills as a guide, fly tier, and fly fisher. Some new tactics made their way into the pages of the new book, as did a few new ties.

I’ve been chasing dog butts for the past 2 months while guiding in Eastern Colorado. My winter job, it’s more of a hobby, is guiding pheasant hunters on private land. My 2 German Shorthairs, Tip and Blue, do all of the work, I just get to clean birds. As mid-February starts rolling in, my fly fishing season will start to fill up, and it’s back to standing in a river, doing what I love.

I’m slowly putting together next seasons speaking schedule, I’ll post the schedule as things firm up and months fill out. I will be giving 3 presentations at the Denver Fly Fishing Show in January (9,10,11), and when not presenting, I’ll be in the Authors’ Booth signing books,  or rubbing elbows with some great fly fishers. The presentation is entitled: The Eagle River, Fly Fishing Unfamiliar Waters.

I spend a lot of time discussing how to gather data (historical, seasonal, conditional), how to apply that data along with your strengths as a fly fisher, and present tactics and techniques to catch fish in unfamiliar water. Still working on it, but I think folks will enjoy it and walk away with information on how to attack water you haven’t fished. I’ll post the FFS schedule and times at the end of this post.

Soon, I’ll be posting a short unedited video to The Fly Fishers’ Playbook Facebook page, that gives an idea of what to look for in the presentation. “Like” the page while you’re there if you would!

I’m not of a production fly tier, but I’ve got to get motivated to start filling up my boxes for next year. A few of my newer patterns produced well for me on the Eagle, and a few of the stand-by’s continued to fish with confidence. I’ll be posting more bugs and tying recipes this year, because I’m getting back into bug experimentation out of necessity. Guiding “new” water has forced me back into the bug game. Not complaining, but I simply don’t like sitting down to tie dozens of bugs at one sitting. Rather would tweak old patterns or develop new patterns instead.

All in all, it’s been a great year. I am grateful for people following my blog, and it’s always good to hear from you. Shoot me some topics you want to discuss this upcoming year, and I’ll take you up on it.

Here’s the FFS schedule for the Author’s Booth and presentations in the Destination Theaters. I will also be hanging around in the Minturn Anglers Booth, and I may be in the Titan Rod Vault Booth as well.

See you there, and Happy New Year! Fear No Water!

Destination Theater:

Jan 9^th– Room C @ 4pm

Jan 10^th– Room B @ 10am

Jan 11th- Room B @ 11am

Authors Booth:

Jan 9^th– 2:30-3pm

Jan 10^th– 12:30-1pm

Jan 11th- 2:20-3pm

Fun little BWO emerger pattern. The Girl Scout

Bugs, bugs, bugs….Gotta get busy.

One of my favorite pictures from last year. Savery Creek in September.