The Great Fly Tying Materials Give Away Starts on Monday January 12th at 5:30 pm

 This is going to be epic and you do not want to miss this event!

Monday January 12th starting at 5:30 pm at Reliance Oilfield Services Learning Centre!

Evan Ritchie was one of the founders of our fly tying club! Sadly we lost Evan a year and a half ago. His basement was full of fly tying material that he gathered, sold and used for the last 50 years. Hooks, hackle, dubbing, feathers, tools, and so much more.

So far we have two truckloads of tying material. Yep two truck loads.

We are giving it all away but we are asking everyone to make an appropriate donation to Freshwater Conservation Canada (previously Trout Unlimited Canada) when you pick up the tying material. 

Bring shopping bags (several) and you are welcome to take what you want! We want it all gone!

If there is time after, we will pack the material up and have a continuation of our pheasant tail workshop.

Our first priority is to give away the material to our club members first!

Tying with Ring Neck Pheasant to Kick Off 2026!

My youngest grandson just had to have a ring neck pheasant feather! Of course he took it home!

Frank Sawyer back in the 1950s designed the first pheasant tail patterns. Since then 100's of variants have appeared. Ring necked pheasant is an excellent material, especially if you have mayflies in your local area! Tonight we tied several variations of pheasant tail nymphs. Each and everyone of these patterns is in my fly box! In the past year, Yvon Chouinard, Craig Matthews and Mauro Mazzo published an excellent book. The book is all about fly patterns based on using pheasant as the main ingredient! The authors also have suggested that we tend to use way too many fly patterns. Simplify! Presentations is the key with a fly pattern at the right depth.

Next week is a BIG one. We will be giving away Evan Ritchie's fly tying material. We have two full truck loads of tying materials and reference books. Bring several shopping bags or containers. We want to get all of this tying material in the hands of tyers from our club. All we ask is for you to give a donation to Freshwater Conservation. It doesn't have to be a big donation. More details to come!!!!!!

Original Pheasant Tail tied with copper wire and pheasant!

CDC Red Tag with a Pheasant Body

Caddis Pupa

Two variations of a Flashback Pheasant Tail

Evan Ritchie

 

Fly Tying Mondays Resume on January 5th at 6:30 pm

 Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year! Its 2026 and there is lots to look forward to! That includes Fly Tying Mondays! We get the new year started on Monday January 5th at 6:30 pm. We are going to spend some time tying with pheasant tail. Yvon Chouinard, Craig Matthews and Mauro Mazzo just released an excellent book called Pheasant Tail Simplicity. There is a lot to think about within the pages of the book! We are going to look at tying several pheasant tail fly patterns. I hope you can make it.

See you on Monday!

Steve and Betty Travel to Pesca Maya to Fly Fish

Steve and Betty MacKenzie just got back from another excellent fly fishing adventure in southern Mexico!  I'll let Betty and Steve tell you all about it!

 During the second week of December we travelled down to the Yucatan to a lodge called Pesca Maya which is a two hour drive south of Tulum on the east side of the Yucatan. Driving down you pass through the enormous Sian Ka"an Biosphere Reserve. The small operation is run out of a beautiful beach house owned by an absentee American whose wife decided she didn't want to stay there. There is room for 8 anglers in comfort. The first 4 days we were the only anglers until a father and son from Salt Lake arrived.

The experienced guides are fluent in English and drive their pangas to the lodge every morning from their homes in Punta Allen. You can fish the 1,300,000 acres of prime fishing flats of Ascension Bay for bonefish, snook, and barracuda or go ocean side to fish inside the reef for permit.

The wildlife viewing is great with flamingos, rosy spoonbills, ospreys, sea turtles, and rays of all sizes. We fished primarily from the pangas in skinny water of two feet or less. We fished barbless shrimp imitation flies tied by Betty on 8 wt. rods and caught lots of bonefish and three junior permit.

The most remarkable events were watching the guides grab onto the big barracudas with their bare hands and not get their fingers torn to shreds. We sent one home with the guides , released one and brought one back to the lodge to be turned into ceviche and breaded fish tacos. Delicious.

When it rains there it really pours and full rain gear is a must to have in the boat. The trip logistics were seamless from pick up in Cancun to the return to the airport at weeks end. 

We can definitely recommend this place for everyone whether they are seasoned anglers or they are trying salt fishing for the first time.