Category: Lifestyle Posts

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2025 White River Fly Fishers Expo

The White River Fly Fishers Expo is a fly tying event held in Branson, MO. This year the Expo will be held on October 10-11. The event will be held again at the Branson-Hollister Lions Club. It’s a really nice venue with updated lighting and WiFi.

2025 White River Fly Fishers Expo
2025 White River Fly Fishers Expo

I will be a fly tying demonstrator at the expo during both sessions on both days so please stop and see me if you are in the area. I plan on tying several of my favorite and more successful Caddisfly and Mayfly dry fly patterns. Here are the patterns I plan on demonstrating:

Day 1 – Friday October 10, 2025

Caddisfly Dry Flies (Order: Trichoptera)
  1. Corn-Fed Caddis [#14 Dry]
  2. Front-End Loader Caddis [#14 LtCzech]
  3. Elk Hair Caddis [#14-16 Dry]
  4. CDC Bubble Caddis [#12-16 Dry]
    • American Grannom “Brachycentrus americana”
    • Alderfly (Order: Megaloptera) “Sialis hamata”
  5. Wonder Wing Caddis [#6-12 Dry]
    • Apple Caddis “Brachycentrus appalachia”
    • Golden Stone (Order: Plecoptera) “Acroneuria lycorias”

Day 2 – Saturday October 11, 2025

Mayfly Dry Flies (Order: Ephemeroptera)
  1. March Brown [#12 Dry]
  2. Red Quill [#14 Dry]
  3. Adams [#16 Dry]
  4. Blue Wing Olive [#18 Dry]
  5. Split Wing Spanish Dun [#14-18 Dry]
    • Silk Body
    • Peacock Quill Body
    • Moose Mane Body

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2024 Branson Expo

The Branson Fly Tying Expo is an annual event but now the sponsoring organization has a new name – the White River Fly Fishers. They have basically spun off a previous chapter into their own organization. The WRFF currently uses Facebook (which I don’t) for their communications so this PDF is the only information I have on the event.

This year’s event will be held again at the Branson-Hollister Lions Club. It’s a really nice venue with updated lighting and WiFi.

The Expo will be held on Friday October 11th and Saturday October 12th. Yes, it’s approaching quickly so there’s not much time to prepare!

I will be a fly tying demonstrator at the expo during both sessions on both days so please stop and see me if you are in the area. I plan on tying several of my favorite and more successful dry fly patterns. These are the flies I love to use on the streams!

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Catching Up – Custom Fly Tying

2021 Award Winning Fly Collection

I’ve been away too long (again!) but now I’ll try to catch up.

Deep down in my website is a page called Custom Fly Tying but it is still under construction. I’m now in the process of constructing it. Some time ago, I met with some friends and showed them several of my Framed Fly Collections. They really liked several of the 5×7 frames and also the 8×10 but they just couldn’t decide which one to go with. After some pondering, we came up with the idea of a combination. I would take 3 flies from each of 6 collections and merge them into one large frame. And here is what I came up with:

2021 Award Winning Fly Collection
2021 Branson Award Winning Fly Collection

There are rows of nymphs, wet flies, lake flies, trout flies, bass flies, and even a row of realistic dry flies. The blue ribbon icons mark my three award winning flies from the 2021 Branson Fly Fishing Expo. Another custom feature is background image – a birthday cake. The sky is the limit!

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Been Away So Long …

Darrell

Been away so long I hardly knew the place
Gee it’s good to be back home
Leave it ’til tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone

… from verse two of “Back In The U.S.S.R.” by The Beatles

Yes, I’ve been away so long but it’s definitely good to be back home.

During my time away I made some improvements and changes to my website and my business. The website improvements are subtle but they are definitely worth it. I have a great new logo at the top of each page and a really cool new emblem that will show up on your browser tab and in your bookmarks if you link to one of my pages. Check them out …

The big change is that I’ve moved back to a northern state and changed day-jobs. And yes, it’s good to be back home and living where I did when I was young. Check out my Contact page for the exciting new location for Classic Fly Tying.