S8, Ep 13: Essential Patterns: Drew Price Talks Favorite Flies for Vermont

Hey, folks, it's Marvin Cash, the host of The Articulate Fly. On this episode, Drew Price of Master Class Angling returns to the podcast.He updates us on the most recent fishing season on Lake Champlain, and we discuss the release of his first book, Favorite Flies for Vermont: 50 Essential Patterns from Local Experts.I think you're really going to enjoy this one, but before we get to the interview, just a couple of housekeeping items. If you like the podcast, please tell a friend, then subscribe and leave us a rating and review in the podcast app of your choice.It really helps us out. And finally, a shout out to our sponsor. TroutRoutes.We all know streams and rivers are getting crowded, and chances are you're not the only one at your local access point. Get away from the crowds and busy gravel lots by using Trout Routes Pro.With over 350,000 access points mapped across 50,000 trout streams and, and much more, Trout Routes has all the data you need to help you find angling opportunities that others will overlook. Up your game and download the app today. Use code ArtFly20.ArtFly20 all one word for 20% off of your TroutRoutes Pro membership at maps.troutroutes.com now on to our interview. Well, Drew, welcome back to The Articulate Fly.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to our conversation tonight. And before we kind of dive into your new book, how was last year's fishing season on Lake Champlain?

It was spectacular. It was, it was great. It was, it was really interesting.We didn't get a super high water spring and we didn't get a lot of, a lot of water, which is different than the prior two summers. And we ended up with an almost record low lake level on the, on the lake and, which is, which is really cool.You know, I, I think in the last podcast I, I really emphasized what a dynamic system Lake Champlain is, and this is another example of it.You know, I'm used to, used to having, you know, fluctuation of, of, you know, five to six feet throughout the season, but I have never seen a lake this low which, which showed a lot of structure and helped me understand like, wow, I, now I know why the fish are hanging in that spot. So it definitely gave a very different perspective and, and a lot of gu drones. So there's a lot of really cool drone footage.So even the spots that I wasn't able to, to check out, there's videos that I can use to, to, to help help me figure out what's going on in different places. So yeah, it was a really interesting season. But the, the fishing was, was spectacular. Bowfin were everywhere.It was, it was actually one of the best bowfin years I've, I've seen in a long, long time. Which was really heartening. That was, it was a fantastic season. The Lakers were, Lakers were on fire in November. Had a great guide season.I was really surprised, happily surprised at how many people hit me up for Laker trips towards the end of the year, which is great. It was a, it was a, it was a fantastic year.

Yeah, I understand that. They're good smoked, right?

You know, I wouldn't know. I am deathly allergic to fish.

Funny, funny fact, right?

It's a funny fact. It is a funny fact. You know, my, my whole life ends up revolving around fish in some way or another.You know, not only am I definitely allergic to fish, but I'm also Pisces. So you know, it's, it's one of those things. It's kind of, kind of. Even if I try to escape it, I can't.

Very neat. And you know, we had the chance I guess to meet in person a few weeks ago in Edison and I think that was the first time you'd gone to that show.How was the show for you?

Oh, that was great.It was the first time I, you know I attended it the year prior last year, but that was the first time as a, as a tire and presenter and I was signing my book. It was great. I had a lot of fun. It was a little bit above a bummer. Had to cut it short.We, we got, we got hit a, a big blizzard and most people took off on Saturday so didn't really get to hang around for Sunday.I, I, I chose to be cautious and I drove home in the middle of the night and I'm glad I did because the roads were, would have been a, an absolute nightmare to get, get home and I'd much rather have a, a tiring five hour drive than a 12 hour nightmare in bad. But it was great. Got to see a lot of people. Had a great presentation that I did.Seasons of Lake Champlain, fly fishing, New England's west coast, which was, which is cool. It was well attended. So. Yeah. And got to see a lot of folks I don't get to see. Including yourself.

Yeah. Very, very neat.

Yeah.

I think I told you before we started recording. I feel like I've kind of pushed my luck on the travel front because I successfully made it to and from Edison and to and from Bob in the Hood.In Michigan with two weather events both weekends.

Yeah, yeah, dodged a bullet.

Yeah. So I'm sure it'll come back to haunt me at some point.But you know, kind of funny, you know, your book Favorite Flies for Vermont dropped, I don't know, right before Edison. And it's kind of curious, you know, where did the idea for the book come from?

Well, that I have a, a huge thank you to send out to Tom Rosenbauer. Tom and I were fishing few years ago and he was in the front of my boat. We were push. Pulling along this looking for gar and carp.And he just kind of put his head over his shoulders like you ever, you ever thought about writing a book? And I was like, yeah, I have.And he's like, you know, I got this opportunity, but would you, would you be interested in writing a book on flies for Vermont? And I was like, yeah, absolutely, man. The rest is history.He put me in touch with Jay Nichols and got it together and you know, took a couple years to. Took a little bit longer than I originally, originally expected, but I'm really pleased with the results.

Yeah, that's really neat. I think that's part of, I guess they've got the. All those like series books like Flies of Pennsylvania.It sounds like that book is part of that series, right?

Yes, it is. It's the latest book in that series. The first book was by Mike Valla and he did Favorite Flies for the Catskills and, and that was Mike's first book.Mike just put out his 10th book, which is a fly fishing guide for Vermont that just came. That came out the week before Edison. And, and I'm in that book quite a bit.Mike and I have become pretty good friends and he helped me with my book as well. So that was, you know, just kind of one of those nice happy happenstances, you know, that was. But yeah, it's a great book series that.That stack pole has out and you know, there's. I don't know how many are in the, in the series, but it's definitely a great book series.

Very neat. And so, you know, who did you write the book for?

Well, I mean it's, it's, it's a book for really for fly tires and also fly anglers. Really, you know, it's targeted for, for people in Vermont or traveling to Vermont.But I, you know, I think a lot of the flies in there are pretty universal. I've certainly caugh flies fish with the flies that I put in there all over the place. You know, I've Got most of, most of the book is trout flies.That's I think 40 something out of the 50 plus flies that are in the book are, are trout flies. But there's a lot of, a lot of those patterns are kind of crossover patterns. They will certainly work for, for bass or, or panfish.And then you know, there's a number of warm water flies, including one of my bowfin flies and I've got a gar fly in there as well. But you know, the target audience is, is really anybody who, who likes to tie flies or, or is interested in what works in Vermont.

Yeah, I think there's also too maybe a nice historical angle too because Vermont and New England is so important to our fly fishing heritage that you know, there's a lot of pattern history in the book too.

There, there really is. And that was, that was something that was super, super important to me.You know, we like the, some of the first commercial fly tying that ever took place took place at the Orvis Company.Mary Marbury Orvis or Orvis Marbarium that I can't remember at the moment, but she started like actually having the patterns written down and they started having people tying them in Manchester, Vermont. So you know, like the industry kind of owes a huge debt of gratitude to, to Mary for her contribution to what we do.But from there there's some, some fun patterns that are in there.Like the Spirit of Pittsford Mills, which is a neat dry fly pattern, gave me an opportunity to talk a little bit about some presidential history in Vermont because Furnace Brook and Pitchford was President Eisenhower's favorite trout stream in the United States. And there's a kind of a funny story about, about him on, in that fly pattern.And it also gave me an opportunity to talk about kind of an important, certainly a local figure, Ray Plumlee, who was a longtime fly fishing personality around here. He was the, he was a longtime manager of the Classic Outfitters which was a fly shop in, in South Burlington.And Ray got the Governor Aiken bucktail in the legislature as the official fishing fly of the state of Vermont, which is you know, kind of a really cool thing. And it's, it, you know, got a great historic photo in there of, of Vermont Governor Aiken up at Quimby country in Northeast Kingdom.It's a great pattern still really effective pattern for, for landlocks and, and it's a great trolling pattern that a lot of people will use. It's very smelt like. And, and I also got to put in one of Ray's patterns.Ray Passed away about this time last year from, you know, long time illness and it was a great way to, to memorialize Ray. So.

Yeah, very neat. And can you kind of give folks kind of an.I've been lucky enough to look at it in advanced copy, but can you kind of give folks in kind of an overview of the book?

Yeah, I mean it's, you know, I, I give kind of a brief introduction of, you know, what's, what's up with Vermont fly fishing? And you know, we do. Vermont's kind of known for. But we're probably not the greatest trout state in the, in the country.I'm not, I'm not really giving away any secrets there. You. We have a lot of good trout fishing, but it's not like the really consistent fishing that you'll find in places like Pennsylvania or Colorado.We don't have super consistent hatches.So one thing that you see a lot in there, there's a lot of great patterns for brook trout because a lot of fly anglers in the summertime will hit the blue lines and there's some great, you know, blue line opportunities in Vermont. No, we have a ton of brook trout. They're not, not many of them are super big, but there's a lot of them to be caught.And there's a lot of streamer patterns because a lot of people like catching those bigger fish, especially big browns. But you know, it also gave me an opportunity to talk about the warm, warm water operator, the options that we have here.You know, a lot, a lot of incredible bass fishing in this state.And, and then, you know, the resource that I love so much, Lake Champlain and, and really kind of sharing like we've got something really special here that fly anglers really haven't tapped into a whole lot. And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm hoping to bring it to a little bit more prominence.I, you know, I'd love to see more people coming in and checking Champlain because we have world class bass fishing on Lake Champlain. It's a, it's one of the top five bass lakes in the country according to Bassmasters. And it has been for the past 30 years.You know, it's certainly worldclass bowin fishing, which is it?You know, it seems kind of funny, but, you know, I've, I've got a client who's got almost every IGFA ticket tippet class record and almost all of those were caught on Lake Champlain. And you know, it's. The book really gave an opportunity to showcase the wide variety of options that we have here and the flies that will get it done.

Yeah, very neat. And I guess in terms of layout, layout, it's basically a chapter per pattern and it's a fly tying book, but it's not a step by step book. So it's.No, yeah, it's pictures of the fly and the recipe and then you have a several page write up kind of on history and background.

Right, right, right. And, and one thing that that was, was a lot of fun is, is talking to the fly tires and kind of getting their story.Not only their story about their, their fly, but you know, their story, you know, how they got into fly fishing and, and you know, like what it is that that drives them and, and drove them to create the pattern that, that they sent to me. And you know, some, some of these few people are people I know. Some of the people are total strangers. And, and it's really great.You know, we have, we have a wide variety of people who are interested in, in catching fish with flies here.And I think the, the, the thing that was kind of the most interesting is the number of people who sent me patterns and were just like, I'm, I am so sorry for how ugly that is. And they were just, they were, they were kind of talking their flies down a little bit.Like, you know, I, I wish I'd have spent more time making it neater. And I just said, you know, like Vermont fly tires are really pragmatic.They want to just tie as many as they can as quickly as they can so they can go out and catch fish.And as most of us who have been fly fishing for any length of time knows that, you know, a perfectly tied fly isn't always the one that the fish want. The, the fly that's been beat up and you know, missing some legs or, or whatever, that's the one that the fish really like.So I, I really, I enjoyed getting all of those patterns, man.I even got a couple of, a couple of flies that still had some tippet on them, you know, because they were raided in the, you know, the fly tires had rated their own box because they, they didn't have time to get to get a new untied for me. And, and you know, I really appreciate that. I think that's kind of fun. And, and it's a fun part of the story too.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, so tell me a little bit about kind of your, your writing and editing experience. What was it like? Did you like it?Was it like pulling teeth?

Well, you Know, it was sometimes for me it could be really hard to focus and that I think it was one of the hardest things and one thing that really made it challenging. I had a partner that was dealing with a severe illness while I was wrapping this book up.And so I was kind of a caregiver and working a full time job and guiding while finishing the book. So I had a lot going on towards the end and I'm really proud of myself for pulling it through, you know, pulling it off.And I, I gotta really give a lot of, a lot of credit to Jay to, you know, kind of putting a fire under my, my feet a little bit to, to you know, get it done. And you know, it was, I would sit down in the morning and just, just hammer away at it.And, and then whenever I was able to get on the phone with people because it was, you know, it was tough to try to get a hold of people to do interviews. You know, like doing a face to face interview can be really challenging, especially, you know, all over the state.So I did a lot of my interviews over the phone and people would mail me their flies and in some cases, you know, people who weren't able to mail me their flies were, you know, described what the fly looked like and, and I would actually tie up a few and, and send them pictures and say, hey, does this look what they, does this look right? And they'd say either yes or no. And, and you know, I'd go back to the drawing board if I needed to. And that was kind of a fun part of the process.And that kind of let me know or, you know, help helped me understand what was going on in their, their, their tying the patterns, if that makes sense. It was, it was kind of fun and it was, it was just, it was really, you know, I never had any short calls with any applied tires.You know, as, as most of us know, once you get a couple of fly tires or fly, fly anglers on the phone, you start telling fish stories and you start talking about the flies and you know, the, the half an hour phone call you were going to have that was going to be just a quick interview is, you know, three hours later, like, I gotta go, I gotta get, I gotta get this written down, which is great. But you know, I've got, I've got a whole notebook filled with, with handwritten notes. Cause that's how I did a lot of it. And you know, I.Keeping track of, you know, what flies I had, you know, I was basically making my own charts to make sure That I had the fly done. I had the photo of the fly because I did all the fly photography, which was. Which is a really cool part of this.So, you know, learning how to do macro photography was. Was super fun and a skill I'd like to. To fly again. I definitely can see myself doing. Writing more books and articles about fly tying. You know, these.These are. These are. These are great skills to have. And I. I've got a really great setup to photograph flies now, so that's definitely a lot of fun to.To play around with, but it definitely got me thinking about writing and writing more. And I have. I've got an article in a major magazine that will be coming out later this spring on Bowfin and Lake Champlain.So definitely something to keep an eye open for and pretty excited about that. I've wanted to do that for a while, and hopefully it leads to more and more writing opportunities.

Very neat. What was the editing process like with the folks at Stackpole?

Oh, it was great. You know, they would send me. They would send me, you know, edits and, you know, what. What. What they thought should be. Should be done.And I'd say, well, yeah, or, you know, like, let's. Let's look at it. You know, I. I think it needs to be more like this or that. And, you know, they'd agree. We'd go back and forth and. And it was. It was.It was cool because they'd send me a copy in Microsoft Word and they'd have the notes and I'd make the corrections or I'd correct their corrections in some cases. Sometimes it was like a minor spelling correction. And as we know, some fly names are intentionally misspelled. Right. And.And that happened a couple of times. Yeah, it was. It was kind of a neat process. Neat process. And it was. It was. It was a lot of fun to. To dig into the. The history and. And keeping a.The citation list. There's a lot of great books that I. That I used, and that's all in the book as well. Definitely something to check out.The Atherton Flies are great historical flies for Vermont.I know that's not necessarily part of the editorial process, but that was also part of the process of writing a book is using references and going back and looking at the historic flies and. And the history. And that was. That was super, super cool. Super cool.

Yeah. It's interesting, too, because I noticed in, you know, reviewing the book that you really did go out of your way to give credit about patterns. Right?

Yeah.

And, you know, that's not common.And certainly, you know, you went to, you know, pretty great strikes, you know, to have citations and things, which I thought, you know, I know a lot of people that complain about having their patterns copied will appreciate that. Right?

Yeah, Right. Right. I mean, you know, there's. There's definitely some patterns in there. There's a couple of patterns.There's several patterns from, you know, there's two patterns from our friend Blaine. Blaine Chocolate. And, you know, I. I have so much respect for Blaine, and they're.They're variations of Blaine's patterns that I came up with myself for fishing around here. But, like, those are Blaine's patterns, you know, and. And. And I tweaked them to use around here, but I got to give credit to Blaine.And then there's a variation of the Clouser Minnow that I use for lake trout that. That glows in the dark, super fun fly. And it's. It's really fun to be out, you know, in the dark in November on Lake Champlain, and.And using a glow in the dark fly and watching it disappear as it's coming back to the boat.

That's. That's.

There's nothing quite like that. Definitely a lot of appeal there. But, you know, that's. That's a Bob Clouser pattern that I made a variation of. And, you know, I mean, we.We know if you look through a fly catalog these days, you know, how many different variations of the Woolly bug are out there. And, you know, like, yes, it's a variation. It might have a little deer hair on there, but it's a Woolly Bugger.And I like to make sure that people have fly patterns attributed to them when they have done something unique. And in both Bob Clouser and Blade Chocolate, you know, deserve that credit.And along the same lines, like, all the variations or all the patterns in the book, you know, like the. The. The pattern of Ray Plumley's that I. That I mentioned earlier is a. A combination. A variation of the. The Hornberg that he created for.For fishing in Vermont. But I. I properly attribute that to, you know, the. The original originator of the Hornberg. It is a variation, and I think it's important for us to.To. To acknowledge that as fly tires and anglers, you know, yeah, absolutely.

There's not a lot of original stuff anymore, for sure. And it's important to give people credit.You know, I'm super curious, too, because, you know, there are 53 patterns in the book, and some people have more than one. But do you have like a memorable tire wrangling story from getting a pattern in the book.

There was a few, you know, there, there, there's a few patterns that, that didn't make the book because I would, there was a couple of guys I went back and forth with and I was like, you know, hey, like, I, I want to put, I want to get you in the book.You know, I want to, I want to support your guide service or, you know, whatever you're trying to do and you know, like, send me your stuff so that I can, I can put you in here. You know, we've had a great conversation and I had one guy who. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll get, I'll get that in the mail. I'll get that in the mail.All right, well, you know, get in the mail. I need to, you know, I, I need this because it's, you know, my editor's breathing down my neck. I need to have this as soon as possible.Oh, it's in the mail this morning. I never got the flies. That guy never got. He's not, he's not in the book, you know, and, and I have, you know, like, hey, it's a bummer.And, and, and I tried, I did my part. Like, I don't know where your pattern is, so, you know, I didn't put you in there.But most people who said that they would contribute a fly contributed flies and which is great. One of the guys that was, was one of the most challenging to, to, to buckle down and, and get to talk to me was, it was, it was Tom Rosenbauer.But he's, he's a super busy guy as, as you might imagine. And he and I went down and fished with our mutual friend Rowan Lytle down in Connecticut for carp.So we had a four hour car ride and I just pulled out a notebook and I was like, all right, Tom, here's our chance. Let's do this. So I just kind of grilled him as, as we were driving, which I think is probably the best way to, to do it.And that was, that was really fun, you know, just like asking him, you know, like, how did you come up with the, the, you know, that, that emerger that everybody loves. And it's, and it's a great pattern that's one of the best emerger patterns around is his CDC rabbit's fit, rabbit's foot emerger.And great story about it in the, in the book.And he's just, he's such a great guy and he's, you know, he's he's really just one of those guys that, that, you know, he, he, he walks the walk that he talks about, you know what I mean? He, he just, he fishes and he just loves to fish.So the, the, the Tom Rosenbauer that, that you see that you hear on his podcast is the Tom Rosenbauer that is out on the water, you know, which is which that's great.

Yeah, absolutely.And you know, it's kind of funny because you mentioned earlier that you know, most of the patterns in the book are trout patterns and you know, you've kind of, you're making your living now kind of on the exotic stuff, the non trout species. You know, what was it like returning to your roots and writing about so many trout flies?

Oh, it was great.I mean, you know, I've got, I've got a couple of trout flies in there myself, you know, and I, I fish trout and I will even occasionally guide for trout, but I definitely try to, to, you know, like there's so many people here, here in Vermont that, that guide for trout that I kind of wanted to separate myself from that. But you know, it's, it's really fun to see the variations of, of trout patterns.And you know, sometimes it was just like a good friend of mine put in this, this Tenkara CDC dry fly and it's a, it's a just a simple, fun little fly. And, and you know, that's such a difference from a couple of the other like super realistic patterns that are in the book.Thomas Ames put in a pattern for like, you know, he's, he just put out the New Eastern Hatch Guide, which is another fantastic book from Stackpole.But you know, he's, he's such a, you know, an entomology freak and you know, looking at the details and like, you know, why, you know, he looked at, why is he having such trouble getting these trout to eat emergers and, and realizing that, you know, this is a fly that's trapped in the surface film and a soft tackle pattern is going to be the thing that does it.And then, you know, he, he also didn't put in an emerging caddis pattern which is just a hyper realistic snapshot of a, an emerging catus in a very particular point in their, their emergence.And you know, what a contrast those flies, you know, the cdc, this really messy, buggy looking, you know, CDC thing that only uses like two materials compared to Tom's like realistic snapshot in the emergence of an insect. And I think that's a lot of fun.

Yeah, very, very Neat.And so, you know, as you kind of reflect back, you know, on the book writing process, you know, Drew, what was the kind of the greatest challenge or surprise for you?

You know, the, the biggest challenges was like, maintaining my focus, especially when the weather got nice and, and the fish were biting. You know, like, it's, it's hard.It was hard to pull myself away from the water and, and just making the time to, you know, like to focus in on what I need to get done. And, and, and, and I did a lot of writing over the winter. But, you know, as it, as it got nicer and nicer, it was.It was harder and harder for me to maintain focus on writing when I knew the fish were biting. I think that was, that was the, that was the biggest challenge for me.

Yeah. Got it. And, you know, what did you learn about yourself going through this entire process?

You know, this is something I think I relearned about myself. I do really enjoy writing and, and, and I'm a very good writer and it's something that I, I need to explore in myself more.And that's something that I'm trying to do more and, and, and you know, dig into that. That part of me because, you know, I've got a lot of great stories to tell. I've got a lot of great information to share.And you know, the written word is something that, you know, like, I hold dear and, and, and it's something that. It's an art form that I worry about, especially with all the, the AI these days and how easy it is to. To.To pump something out and just, you know, put something into chat GPT and you know, have it just crank stuff out for you. And, you know, I would much rather sit down and work through how to write something myself.And, and that's something I, you know, I would encourage others to do as well.

Yeah. Very neat. Yeah, it's funny. We can.Some next time we're together, we can have a couple of beers and talk about the AI stuff because it's something that kind of finding that line as a creator. But, you know, it's interesting too to hear you say that because, you know, I, When I interview authors, they're. They come in two flavors.Either they're so deeply traumatized by the writing experience that they'll.That they'll never write another book, or they're like you, and you're like, hey, man, like, I kind of like this and I'm going to try magazine articles and write more books.

Right, right. And, you know, I've written magazine articles and newspaper articles in the past.And, you know, I, I just need to, like, once I have some success with something, it really keeps me, it, you know, gets me fired up to, to do more of that, you know. And, you know, I, but I can also see how it can be very traumatizing.I worked in education for, for over 10 years and, and, and helping kids learn how to write. And you know, I, I, I recognize the trauma that writing can break out people. And it's real. It's definitely real.There's nothing worse than a kid in seventh grade who doesn't want to write. That's pulling teeth. Yeah.

Although I would say so. My boys are 23 and 17. I think we've done a lot to make English in particular not a very fun subject.

Right, right.

You know, like, they certainly don't do as much as is like I did when I was in school. They don't read as many books and they don't write as much.But you know, the stuff where, like, it's more important to like, annotate the bejesus out of a book than to read it and enjoy it.

Yeah.

You know, like, you know, give a kid Tale of Two Cities and grade him on, like, how many different highlighter colors you put in the book. And I'm not so sure we're accomplishing what we set out to.

No, I fully agree with that. And you know, at the same time, you know, you know, we, we mentioned AI and, and I got out of education before ChatGPT really became, you know, it.I know people in education now and I, and I will, I say this very intentionally where it's kind of become a problem in, in, in education where, you know, like, you don't have to right now if you don't want to. But, you know, plagiarism is a, is a big thing.And, and, and I had one thing that kept me from, from really writing for, for a while is I submitted, I, I was contacted by a writer from a New England magazine. I'm not going to name the writer.I'm not going to name the magazine, but he asked me a bunch of questions about fly fishing on Lake Champlain, and I wrote a bunch of stuff. And he literally took what I wrote him, and he just changed the pronouns from I to he and basically plagiarized most of the article on my writing.So while I, you know, I, I think it is tough to, for, for, you know, for kids to get really excited about writing because they have to, do they have to annotize you know, put in a lot of notes and put in a lot of references and put in those proper citations at the same time. When you've been plagiarized. I get it. You know, and we don't want kids plagiarizing stuff. So I think there's, it's a double edged sword, right?

Yeah, 100%.And so you know, if folks are excited and they want to get a copy of your book, you know, where can they go in general but also too, you know, like, you know, you're not, you know, you were at Edison. I don't think you're doing any of the fly fishing shows. If folks wanted a personalized copy, where should they go?

Well, I mean I, I, I book a trip with me and I'd be happy to, to sign a book for you there. You know, like I'm not traveling around too much. Like I, I, I don't have a website set up to, to, to sell personalized copies.What I would encourage most most anglers to do is to, to go to your them order order for them or if they don't already have it in stock.I know a lot of places around here Fly Rod Chop and Stow is is been flying through it and I've been signing copies for, for, for them quite a bit, you know.And if you happen to be in Ferrisburg, Vermont, the place that I work at Gill Feathers Fine Provisions, we were opening a new shop and this, this month we just moved and Old Methodist Church beautiful space and I'll, there's signed copies there and I'd be happy if you come into my work spot and get yourself a one of the best lobster rolls in New England.I'd be happy to, to personalize a book for you there but you know it's also available on, on Amazon and any other place that you, you can find books online and it's been selling very well from what I understand.

Well that's good. Yeah. And so like any like new you know, TU meetings in New England or anything like that where folks can find you.

Yeah, I mean I, I've done, I did a Mad Dog Trail limited in December. I did a talk at Central Vermont Trout Unlimited last month.I will be tying some of the patterns some of the nymph patterns from the book for, for the the Fly Tires Club in Rutland in March.

Got it. I'll, I'll hop out on the Internet and try to drop that in the show notes for you.

Fantastic. Yeah I'll, I'll send you, I'll send You a link to it, you know, had a lot going on in recent days and, and you know, sometimes this becomes a blur.

No, I completely understand. Traveling two weeks to shows is fun but the re entry sometimes can be a little difficult.

Right, right. And like I said, we've been, we just moved the shop that I work at and that's been, that's been a big process.So it's just been go, go, go and, and I'm in the midst of writing something, something entirely different that's not fly fishing related that I'll keep as a bit of a surprise in my back pocket for when it comes out.

Yeah, very neat. And so, you know, before I let you hop this evening, Drew, anything else you want to share with our listeners?

You know, if, if you're interested in fly fishing on Lake Champlain or in, you know, the surrounding areas, hit me up as soon as possible. I am booking fast. I have limited dates and you know the season is going to be coming up really quickly.Things will, as soon as the ice starts melting off the lake, we'll have lake trout going and it won't be long before bowfin and pike and bass and all the critters that are around are, are hopping. And it's, it's such an amazing place. It's such a beautiful place.And you know, the, the multi species aspect of Lake Champlain is something really special that I think every fly angler should try out at some point in their, their, their travels. So you know, hit me up at masterclassangling.com or look at, you know, look for me on, on Instagram @masterclassangling.

Very neat.And I will drop links to all that stuff in the show notes and I'll also drop a link to our first interview so if folks want to learn more because we took a deeper dive into the fishery and I think we spent most of our time, you know, on your obsession with bowfin. But you know, you've got, you've got drum, smallmouth, lake trout. I mean you've got pretty much anything with, with fins, right.That and you target them all. And like you said, you're not averse to guiding for trout but you kind of wanted to create a unique lane.So there's some great opportunities if folks can get up to you.

Yeah, I mean we, you know, we've got 88 different species in the, in the lake and I would say, you know, close to 30 of them are available to fly anglers which is, I mean that's really cool. I've caught as many as 15 different species in a day on a fly on the lake. So it's. I. I think that's just, you know, really a lot of fun. It's a.It's a. It's a really unique body of water with a lot of opportun.

Very, very neat. And, Drew, I appreciate you spending some time with me this evening, and hopefully, our paths will cross again before Edison next year.

Absolutely. We got to get you up here and put you in the boat one of these days.

Yeah, Sounds like a plan. Take care.

Thanks, Marvin.

Well, folks, we hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Don't forget to check out the links to all this episode's sponsors in the show. Notes. Tight lines, everybody.