Lefty's Tie Fest 2013

Back in March we attended the CCA's Lefty Kreh's Tie Fest, formerly known as the Kent Island Tie Fest, an awesome event known for its ridiculously low prices on tying materials and great show of fly tying celebs. This year we not only had the privilege of meeting up with a good bit of you all, our followers, but some great tiers and fisherman including Lefty Kreh, Brad Bohen, Brad Buzzi, and Blane Chocklett.

William of Eastern Trophies

The drive was short and sweet to this event for the TLTFF Crew, only taking us about 15 minutes to get over the Bay Bridge and to Prospect Bay Country Club. With Luis and I being members of the CCA, admission was free which was awesome, if you haven't joined CCA and are looking to support an awesome cause, check them out.

Right when we rolled up to PBCC, we spotted William's Eastern Trophies mobile and the Annapolis Boat Sales Fishing Team boat, we knew we were in for a good time. We walked in and were greeted by the amazing art of Charles, a local artist from Annapolis that portrays the Bay how it is, within the environments of the Bay life itself. We moved on to the main area to find ourselves ogling over the super low prices of materials and emptying our wallets for the next year's worth of tying materials.

With a tap on the shoulder, we found Rob Snowhite aka The Fly Fishing Consultant, of the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders and Project Healing Waters. Rob is a great guy, we've had the privilege of meeting up with him a few times recently and sharing texts back and forth. Rob is an awesome guy and even better guide, putting clients on a fair share of smallmouth, shad, catfish, snakehead, striped bass, and more. Rob sat us down outside of the main room for the Tie Fest and interviewed us for an awesome Podcast Interview. Check it out on his podcast page and be sure to subscribe!

We were able to chat with one of our top followers, Mike Dunlap, and watch Lefty teach a young lady how to cast in less than 15 minutes. Its funny, because before we saw Lefty teaching her how to cast, we saw her walking around with her significant other inside talking about how she just doesn't understand fly fishing and why everyone is so excited about it. After the casting lesson from a legend, she was sitting with the gents from Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders and tying up some shad flies. I caught a glimpse of her walking out, carrying a rod tube, reel case, 2 fly boxes, a bag full of tying materials, and I believe a Regal vise...what a great sight, how a small event can bring more people into this wonderful sport.

Blane Chocklett and Brad Bohen spinning musky flies

We sat and talked to Brad Bohen for a bit, catching up on whats ahead for his summer of guiding and tying and learning a thing or two about tying monster musky flies. I thought taking on saltwater flies after tying fresh for so long was crazy but boy oh boy musky flies may look like a giant wad of feathers and fur but they are much more than that. Brad has this awesome machine that bends his articulated shanks for him and its crazy to see a bunch of materials turn into these beautiful pieces of musky meat. Brad is an awesome guy, we're looking forward to an interview soon with the good sir.

We wrapped up our shopping, chatted it up with a few other followers like Devin Angleberger, one of our followers as well as one of the featured tiers at Tie Fest. Devin is in high school and cranks out some of the best flies we saw at Tie Fest, including the pink and blue baitfish above. Thank you Devin for the time and the fly, you can check him out at his site, Devin's Fishing Reports.

We also caught up with a few other celebs and headed home exhausted. I wanted to hit the vise when I got home but was simply ready to decompress with a beer and a few steaks on the grill. End to an awesome weekend!

Boom...Morgan