Contest Time Again

Since we reached are goal of 300 likes on our Facebook page, we will be holding about contest.  This time, the prize is a dozen Persuaders and something really cool in honor of the Year of the Bluegill.  The winner will also receive an 18 oz coffee (or beer) stein from Dave Whitlock with a bluegill and flies on it.  I love coffee and I love panfish so why not combine the two.  Check it out on the J&M Flies page.  We haven't finalized what exactly the contest is but at least we already have the prize picked out.  I think for this one, you will have to participate somewhat.  We will keep you informed.  We just wanted to share in case you don't follow us on Facebook.  Thanks.

Popper Porn

Yep, we have been busy.  Enjoy!

I Am Disgusted

I apologize in advance but this is going to be a rant.  Yes I will be getting up on my soap box.  Yes I will be flailing my arms and possibly using bad language.  So sit down and buckle up for a bumpy ride.  I want to spend some time talking about fly rods.  I am not going to talk about any old fly rods but those fly rods that are overpriced in my humble opinion.

As most of you know, I will be heading to Beaver Island in July to chase smallmouth and carp on the fly rod.  In an effort to gear up for this trip I have been looking at buying a new rod or three.  The biggest rod I have now is a 6wt (I need an 8 and/or a 9 wt at least for this trip).  It is a Cabela's Custom Glass Rod I picked up last year for like sixty dollars.  I love it.  Funny how the Waterworks-Lamson Konic reel I use with this rod actually cost more than the rod itself.  Thanks to Cameron over at T.F.M. I have really turned into a glass geek.  However, that is not the point of the story here.  The point here is that the rod was sixty dollars and I love it.  I don't just love it because it is glass either.  It is a great rod that I got at a great price.  Over the course of my twenty year fly fishing adventure I have picked up a few rods here and there.  None of them, I repeat none of them, cost more than one hundred and seventy-nine dollars.  I own three Cortland rods, a St. Croix, two Eagle Claw Featherlights, a Cablea's rod, and two Cabela's CGRs.  I admit it, I don't own a lot of rods.  I might not know much about rods either.  I will further state that I don't own a rod from any of the really big manufacturers such as Orvis, Sage, Scott, or Thomas and Thomas to name but a few.  I can honestly say now that I am OK with that.  Would I love to have an Orvis or a Sage....yep.  Will I ever...nope.  See the reason is and the point of this rant, is the price of those rods.

I got my Orvis catalog in the mail a few weeks back.  As always, I flipped through it immediately.  This time, I paid a little more attention to the rods and prices since I am in the market for a new one.  I have to say while I always "knew" the prices, I never really "knew" the prices.  I guess one doesn't really pay attention to a price tag until one has to fork out money for something.  Then that price tag becomes ever so important.  In the January/February 2013 issue of American Angler, Gear of the Year for 2013 is discussed.  Rods from Echo, G. Loomis, Orvis, Redington, Sage, Scott, Thomas and Thomas and Winston are discussed and reviewed.  There are eleven rods in the article.  Of those, only one of them is under $300, three are $400 or less (including the one under $300), and the rest are over $500.  Six of them I might add are actually over $700.  Are you freaking kidding me??  These companies in this economy want people to pay $700 for a fly rod?  That price doesn't even include the reel, line, backing, flies, waders, fly boxes, tippets, leaders etc that one needs to fly fish.  How in the world are people supposed to start enjoying this wonderful pursuit?  What happens if you aren't a doctor, lawyer, lobbyist or some other profession that allows you to bring in say six figures a year in order to be able to afford these rods?  I am really fed up with the prices of fly rods from these manufacturers.  How come the magazines never check out the more reasonable manufacturers?  They make decent rods at decent, affordable prices.  The manufacturers I am talking about are companies such as Rock River Rods, Mystic Fly Rods, Cabela's CGT Rods, Rise Fishing and Temple Fork Outfitters to name but a few. There are also rod makers and builders such as my good friend Phillip Butterfield who runs Average Joes Fishing Poles, Swift Fly Fishing, Blue Halo, Southern Appalachian Rod Company, South Fork Rod Company, Gray Wolf Rods, Leiderman Rods and Red Truck Fly Fishing again to name but a few.  I am dying to get a Rock River Rod, a Blue Halo blueberry or cranberry blank as well as an Epic blank from Swift Fly Fishing by the way.  Yes I know so of those companies charge around $500 or so for their rods but that is still way better than $795 for a rod and $1200 for an outfit.  Why are they priced like that?  Is it merely because that rod has Orvis, Sage, or Scott written on it?  Again, I am not saying that they aren't good rods, I am merely pointing out that the pricing is absurd and there are other alternatives (maybe even better ones).  I also believe that we now maybe paying outrageous prices for something merely because it has a name attached to it.  Owning an Orvis, Sage or Scott rod does not make you a better fisherman either.  I am not an expert but I would surmise that those rods will not make you cast any better either.  If you have a shitty technique, it will not matter what rod you use, your cast will still be shitty.

Why aren't magazines like American Angler, Eastern Fly Fishing and Fly Fisherman doing articles on these lesser known rod companies?  They need to.  We don't have to pay a ridiculous amount of money on a rod.  Besides, when does it end?  Next it will be reels, lines, thread, fly tying materials, I mean shit look what the hackle craze did to the price of hackle.  I refuse to buy hackle on ebay for $399.99 a saddle.  I mean really??  WTF??  So stand up my fellow fly fishermen (and women) to these mainstream manufacturers and check out some of these lesser known but high quality rod companies.  Who knows, maybe you will find something you like and make a purchase.  Needless to say my Orvis catalog ended up in the recycling bin.

Filling Orders and Changing Patterns

In the past few weeks, we have received a large number of orders.  We are currently making our way through them and nearing completion.  We did make some changes recently to two of our poppers.  We did this for two reasons.  First, the hackle craze.  I've had a hackle craze post in the back of my mind for some time.  Sadly, I never got around to it.  Pretty much everyone in the fly fishing community knows now what happened the past two years regarding hackle.  It became very hard to find due to demand being very high and supply being very low.  This also caused the price to rise to almost astronomical dollar amounts.  I saw some on eBay recently for three and four hundred dollars.  Really?  You want me to pay four hundred dollars for some feathers?  Yea....no.  All this because a hair dresser in Denver, CO decided that they looked great in women's hair.  Simply amazing.  Anyways, we had to change the Chili Frog due to hackle.  We were nearing the end of our green hackle so we made a decision to change the way the Chili Frog looked.  We went with orange barred grizzly hackle instead of the green hackle we were using.  This in turn caused us to change the tail from orange calf tail to kelly green calf tail.  Neither of these changes necessitated us changing the painting of the Chili Frog.  In that regard, it still looks the same....awesome!

Old Style Chili Frog

New Style Chili Frog 

The second reason we changed something was because we have found the round rubber legs to be more buoyant and durable than the sili legs.  I have already done a post showing how the new Fish Foolin' Frog will look with the new legs.  We used to use sili legs on it but switched to the barred round rubber we have been using on everyone else but the Popper Smurf.  We also used sili legs for the Popper Smurf.  In an effort to stream line our process and make a better product, we decided to go with black round rubber legs for the Popper Smurf.  Again, nothing changed with the painting of the Popper Smurf.  Like the Chili Frog, it still looks amazing.  

Old Popper Smurf

New Popper Smurf 

A quick word about the photographs, Melissa has been feeling a bit artsy as of late and was playing around with the filters on the camera.  Trust us, everything is the same but what was noted above.  Thanks.

New Road Kills Roll Off The Production Line

We have some new color combos of Road Kills that are rolling off the production line.  We are very stoked about these color combos and with this being the Year of the Bluegill, we know they will rock.

First up is Yellow and Black

All Black 

Brown 

All Orange 

These are some sexy flies, at least in our opinion, and they rock!

Well It Is Official.....

I am going to Beaver Island in July baby.  Yep that's right I will be joining Cameron and four others at Beaver Island in July chasing carp and smallmouth on the fly rod.  Of course, I am still trying to decide what fly rod I will be using but I have time.  I don't know if I will be throwing glass or not but I hope so.  I am so excited about this opportunity and I can't wait.  What a freaking awesome trip!  Check it out at http://carptrip.com/tfm-hosted-trip/

For You Fly Tiers Out There

I know a number of you out there are fly tiers.  If you are on Facebook, you may want to check out Steelhead Alley Outfitters Tie A Fly Give Away here.  Greg Senyo, Steelhead Alley Outfitters, put together an awesome give away.  All you have to do is  (1) post a photo of your fly on the Tie A Fly Give Away page and (2) spread the word in order to get people to vote for your fly.  When the Steelhead Alley Outfitters page reaches 1,750 likes, the photo of the fly with the most likes will win the prize.  There are some great flies and great causes up already.  I put some of our poppers up.  The prize is a Regal vise, which are awesome FYI, and a ton of fly tying material from Hareline Dubbin', INC.  If you don't tie and simply want to vote for the best poppers around, check out the Luscious Lemon, Popper Smurf, Oriole and Safety Cone Slayer on the page at:
Luscious Lemon, Popper Smurf, Oriole, and Safety Cone Slayer.  Spread the word, vote and let others know that poppers are flies too!

 Here is the prize photo

We Got Interviewed

Recently, Paul over at Frankenfly sent Melissa and I an email asking to interview us. We happily agreed. Paul sent some questions over which we answered. We were very honored that a fellow blogger found us interesting enough to interview. We found answering the questions made us take a look back at J&M Flies. Hard to believe that this April will be two years for us. If you would like to read the interview, it can be found at http://www.frankenfly.com/jm-flies-the-low-down/ While you are there, check out Paul's site. Paul is working hard on the site and it looks great. Paul writes on the About FrankenFly page "I created FrankenFly hoping to provide all kinds of fly tying information. I want to shine a spotlight on unappreciated tyers, while also posting fly tying interviews, product reviews, new products, history, and anything else fly tying related. I want FrankenFly to be a place that others with the same passion and devotion to fly tying call home." This is certainly a site we, at J&M Flies, can get behind and encourage. We are followers for sure.

Seriously.....

What happened??  This is why you don't share your tying space.  Well that and why you don't let your spouse "clean up" your tying area.  Seriously...what happened and where did the beading stuff, figurines, nutcrackers and other assorted crap come from????

TFM Mention

Always good to get some love from Cameron over at T.F.M.  Check it out http://thefiberglassmanifesto.blogspot.com/2013/01/tfm-spotting-popper-makin.html

'Gills rock!

Carp

I am thinking about targeting carp this year.  For those that already do, what size rod do you use?  Do you have a favorite one?  Line?  Reel?  If you use say a 5wt would it make a difference to learn that the carp is in the 30 pound range?  Just curious and looking for some guidance from those that have fished for them before.  I have only ever hooked one, once, for about 10 seconds.  That was it.  Period.  So please tell me what you use.  Thanks.

The Year of the Bluegill

Check out Cameron's post over at T.F.M.  Could this be the year of the 'gill?  Why not make it the year of the panfish?  I am down for it.  I love panfish.  For me the Long Ear may be my favorite.  Nothing against 'gills.  I have caught many of them myself.  For me though the water I fish, the Monocacy River, has a lot of Long Ears in it which it why they are my favorite.  Besides being abundant in numbers, they are a handsome fish as well.  What is not to love?  In reality though either one would work.  Who doesn't love a fish who is willing to suck down a fly?  Panfish in the Monocacy River just absolutely crush top water flies.  They really have no choice...they have to because the water is moving and shortly dinner may slip away.  Not to mention that they are some crazy fighters!  They will put a bend in your rod.  I always think I have a monster on the other end of the line only to be shocked when I reel it in and it's like 5 or so inches in length.  Panfish have the way about them when they are fighting, they turn on their sides in an effort to get away making them fight even harder.  Such an awesome fish on the fly rod.  So, who is with me, or shall I say Cameron.... make 2013 the Year of the Bluegill (Panfish)?

2012: A Year Of Not Fishing!

Well it is New Year's Eve folks.  Actually when you read this, it will be New Year's Day but you get where I am going with this.  I decided to take a short trip back through 2012 to see how I did fishing.  It was a little depressing if I do say so myself.  I only managed to get out on the water 21 days.  This was less than I did last year.  I managed to catch 9 different species of fish with a grand total of 582.  Working the math, that means I averaged 27.71 fish per outing which, surprisingly, is 3 more fish on average than last year.  Mother Nature played a huge part in my lack of fishing this past year.  On the plus side, sales at J&M Flies increased!  That meant more time at the vise and less time on the water as well.  We branched out a little, selling more and got more exposure which we needed and wanted.  For that, we would like to say thank you.

2012 Fish Caught:
Rainbows-2
Browns-2
Smallmouth-90
Fall Fish-15
Crappie-4
Red Eyed Rocks-13
Bluegill-52
Long Eared-398
Warmouth-6

Again, doing the math, it would seem that for every smallmouth caught, I caught 5.42 panfish.  Maybe I need to change my name to the Panfish Persuader or Panfish Whisperer.  I was kind of surprised at my lack of large numbers of trout in 2012.  I didn't even land a brookie.  Well actually I didn't even fish for a brookie.  So sad.  I also didn't land a single largemouth on the fly rod.  Again...so sad.  I am hoping that 2013 will be different.  While I am definitely a warm water fly fisherman, I really would like to catch more of those elusive trout.  I guess though that would mean I actually have to target them more than 3 times like I did in 2012 huh?


Thanks to our fans, followers, and customers who are helping to get us to where we want to be.  We hope you will follow us into the new year.  We have some great ideas in mind for some J&M Flies swag, a new website, and a big fish contest among other things.  We hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year.  We wish you all the best in 2013.

By the way, I may now own more T.F.M. stuff than anybody else.  One hoodie, one sun mask, and four T-shirts.  Can Cameron be an addiction?