A report by BobW for mikescatchreport.com
My son-in-law, ScottD and I set out to attend the 10th Annual TieFest 2011 at the Kent Island Yacht Club.
What started as a small group of eight tiers has grown to hundreds. The event is promoted by the Kent Narrows Chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association and what a great job they do! Their mission statement can be summarized as follows: “TieFest is a grass roots effort to further the sport of fly fishing”. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
We decided to leave Friday evening after work and spend the night at a friend’s house in the Washington area to avoid making it a long travel day on Saturday (four hours each way). ScottD has used the long rod for a number of years and wants to get started in fly tying (I told him he could save a lot of money tying his own flies that’s what I tell my wife).
After arriving at our friend’s house we commandeered his kitchen table, popped a couple beers, set up our vises and tied some flies for the upcoming shad run.
Next morning we headed out for the TieFest. This was our first time and we were not disappointed. It was an opportunity for a meet and greet with notable guides and tiers. I was most impressed with Steve Silverio’s flies. Steve incorporates Icelandic Pony Hair and DNA fibers into his flies that result in beautiful large profile flies.
Both Lefty Kreh and Bob Clouser provided casting demonstrations. Can it get any better than this? Did I mention it was all for free? Of course, there were fly shops with all types of tying material, rods and reels for sell.
We left at 2:00pm for the long drive home. We took a detour near Fredericksburg to visit the Stonewall Jackson Shrine. We were fortunate to arrive in time to get an excellent history lecture provided by the Park Ranger. Then another stop at the Bass Pro near Richmond to get some more stuff. We both had a great time and look forward to next year.