Recap: Maine Bar Fly - Sebago Brewing Co. (Feb. 20, 2020)

Last night we returned to Sebago Brewing Company in Gorham to sit amongst the towering brewing equipment to tie flies. Our overall theme of the night was Caddis. Not only did we manage two different Caddis patterns, but we also talked about the entomology and techniques behind fishing this incredibly diverse species. 

Our featured tyer for the night was Hunt Grobert. A highly skilled tyer, Hunt draws heavily on his Catskills roots to create dead-on proportioned flies. A self proclaimed bug nerd, Hunt also gave a great Powerpoint presentation on the entomology of the related flies and patterns we would be tying that night - the "X-Caddis" and "Green Caddis Larva."

One of the most principle aspects that we want to reinforce with the Maine Bar Fly is the "why." This means that along with learning new fly tying patterns and techniques, understanding why a certain fly is tied in a particular fashion, or why we fish it a certain way are always important supplemental information. This was detailed out last night while we tied a dry fly and a nymph. While out on the water, this information can be a resource in our success. 

Like always at the Maine Bar Fly, there are a lot of great beers being poured. The most popular last night seemed to be the "Freshie Seshie" IPA (the tall cans in the above pics). Plus, since Sebago also has a fantastic kitchen, there was a lot of great food (especially the pizza!) being brought out to everyone. Not sure we could have asked for anything more!

The most challenging aspect to last night's flies was managing the deer hair for the dry fly (X-Caddis). For any new tyer, this can be tough. But everyone seemed to do really well! 

Thank you to Jon Larrabee from HMH Vises, Hunt Grobert, Nate Wight, Shaun Baggitt, Alexa Baggitt, and everyone at Sebago Brewing!

The next Maine Bar Fly is scheduled for March 24th at Mast Landing Brewery. Keep an eye out for further announcements!