IDAHO FALLS — The 25th annual East Idaho Fly Tying/Fly Fishing Expo got off to a busy start Friday at the Shilo Inn.
The event, which each year draws top tiers from around the state, the nation and the world, this year attracted nearly 130 tiers, along with numerous vendors, outfitters, guides and fishermen. An estimated 200 members of the public attended the event.
The expo continues from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. For information, visit srcexpo.com.
The event is organized by the Snake River Cutthroats, the local chapter of Trout Unlimited. On Friday, a host of tiers held classes and gave one-on-one demonstrations for attendees looking to learn new patterns.
Kelly Glissmeyer, a tier from Rigby, held demonstrations showing how to tie an innovative stonefly imitation which has been featured prominently in the national fly fishing press.
Articulated flies are ones that involve tying a movable back end onto a fly tied on a hook. Some streamers, subsurface flies meant to imitate small fish, have long been tied using an articulated technique.
But Glissmeyer's "K.G.'s Booty Shaker" fly - so named because the stonefly's abdomen is allowed to wiggle around as the fly dances across the surface of the water, imitating the natural movements of the insect - is the first major articulated dry fly pattern, he said.
"It simulates a little more life than some of the patterns we use," Glissmeyer said. "It hits right; it floats right; and it fishes right."
Glissmeyer said the fly has seen a great deal of success on both the South Fork and Henry's Fork of the Snake River. He was inspired to create the Booty Shaker when a friend showed him an idea for another articulated dry fly. But perfecting the fly took time. Even with 40 years of tying experience, Glissmeyer said it took him two years of work to get everything right.
Glissmeyer said he spends a great deal of time at similar expos around the country, but the East Idaho expo holds a special place in his heart.
"This is the best show I've been to, and I've been to numerous shows around the United States," he said.
Another tier at the show was Paul Shurtleff, who traveled from Springville, Utah, for the expo. While he spends most of his time fishing high-mountain streams in the Beehive State, Shurtleff said his roots in fly tying and fishing reach back to Idaho Falls.
Shurtleff said his brother, a local teacher several years his senior, helped him tie his first fly around age 10. Thirty years later, he's won state awards in Utah for his dry flies and is sponsored by a number of tying material companies.
"It's kind of a trip down memory lane to see the Snake River again," he said.
Shurtleff said he spends as much or more time tying as he does fishing now. He focuses on tying flies to match local hatches, flies that will be good for catching fish, but he said for him tying is an art and a meditative exercise.
"I tie flies to catch fish, but they're as worthy for a shadow box as they are for a fish's mouth," he said.
Shurtleff works a full-time job, and said he won't consider tying for a living.
"I have no desire to turn my passion into a job," he said.
This year's expo also brought in the national leader of Trout Unlimited.
"Idaho Falls has to be in contention for the best place to live in the country in terms of fly-fishing," said Chris Wood, the organization's national president and CEO.
Wood said fly fishermen are the largest force for cold water river restoration and conservation in the nation, and that's what makes events like the expo so important for improving rivers.
"Fishing is the gateway drug to conservation work," he said.
Wood said that's been especially true of the Snake River Cutthroats. Not only have they been effective in raising funds for large restoration projects - they've donated about $344,000 to such projects in recent years - but local Trout Unlimited staff said they know they can always count on getting large numbers of volunteers for conservation measures such as willow planting and riparian fencing.
A prime example, he said, has been the group's effort, in partnership with Simplot, Monsanto and Agrium, to improve and restore the headwaters of the Blackfoot River in the eastern Idaho highlands above Blackfoot Reservoir.
Matt Woodard is Trout Unlimited's manager on the project, and he's also done extensive work on conservation projects on the South Fork of the Snake River.
"When I need volunteers, I always know I'll get them," he said.
