All Points Fly Shop + Outfitter - News

Words + Photos By: Josh Thelin

We are back! This marks the first in-person Maine Bar Fly in two years. It was great to get back to one of our favorite events that we do here at All Points. We saw lots of familiar and new faces and had a great time tying some classic freshwater patterns.

The two flies that we covered for the night were the Black Ghost and Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer. Both very productive here in Maine for trout and landlocked salmon. By tying the marabou version of the Black Ghost, we were able to use similar materials to achieve two very different flies by simply adjusting techniques.

It was pretty clear that the hot beer for the night was Fore River's "Fore Five Six" pale ale. I saw a lot of pints of those at the tables. Speaking to Flynn Wilsea who is an employee at Fore River (and a future Maine Bar Fly instructor!) he said it has been their most popular beer recently. 

The Black Ghost was the first pattern that we tied and I took some time at the beginning to go over a little bit of its history. I brought in some images from books which had great old photos of Herb's flies. Deeply rooted in Maine fly fishing, the Black Ghost came from the western mountains on Mooselookmeguntic Lake here in Maine, and including others of Herb Welch's patterns, changed the way featherwing streamers were tied and fished for trout and salmon. His influence was wide spread including with Carrie Stevens and her well known Gray Ghost.

 We finished out the night tying the Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer. This is another one of my favorite streamers. It has certainly influenced me with my trout and salmon streamer tying. Most of the patterns that I tie for myself or clients are based around this fly. Jack Gartside had many patterns under his belt including ones for saltwater. Although more of a modern influence, you can see many of his ideas in new patterns today.

Cheers and see you at the next one!

Read more

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!

Read more

Last night we made our way out to Gorham for the second Maine Bar Fly of this winter's season. The location was Lone Pine's newest and was a great spot for tying. We circled the barrel-tables around a large projector screen and tied some steelhead flies. Joe Webster was our featured tyer and did a great job of explaining step-by-step the White Death and Blood Dot patterns. These are two flies that are not only deadly for steelhead in the Great Lakes area and Pacific Northwest, but can be translated to trout flies as well for Maine and beyond.

It was great to see the amount of people who came to simply watch and socialize. I counted a lot of Maine Guides there last night! We all enjoyed Lone Pines beers as well. The Pillow Fight, Bee Bot, and Portland Pale were the popular beers of the night. I personally tried the Holy Donut beer as well which is a stout with chocolate and coconut - great for the holidays/winter.

As per usual, all of our vises were supplied by Jon Larrabee of HMH vises. These vises prove to be perfect for our fly tying classes. They are built so that year after year we never have any issues. 

The next Maine Bar Fly will be January 14th at Fore River Brewing. Hope you can join us!

Words + Photos By: Josh Thelin

Read more

Last night we started the 3rd season of the Maine Bar Fly. Returning to our roots at Oxbow Blending & Bottling, we tied two nymph patterns under the guidance of Nate Wight of North Woods Fly Company. We learned the Pat's Rubber Leg Stonefly and an original pattern by Nate called the "Henchman." Both of these patterns are very productive in New England trout waters and also share similar materials. This is a great way of showing tyers how various materials can be used for multiple purposes.

One of the best aspects of last night was the amount of younger fly tyers that attended with their parents! Seeing the younger generation getting into fly tying is great to see. Not only were they competent tyers, but they produced some of the best flies within the group. 

The two most popular beers of the night were the Farmhouse Pale Ale and Liquid Swords. For those of you that have not tried an Oxbow beer yet, they are one of the most unique and talented breweries around. They are "dedicated to the pursuit of crafting unique farmhouse ales of distinctively European influence." 

Thank you very much to HMH Vises, Nate Wight, and Oxbow Beer for making this night happen! These three have been integral in making the Maine Bar Fly a continued event during our tying season (winter). 

The next Maine Bar Fly will be at Lone Pine Brewing in Gorham on Dec. 19th. The featured tyer will be local angler Joe Webster who will be teaching two very effective trout & steelhead flies - the White Death and Blood Dot. Hope you can make it! 

Read more

The 2019 Maine Bar Fly season is in the books! Last night we rounded off the tying nights at Stars & Stripes Brewing in Freeport. This particular brewery I thought would be a great way to end as it brought the work with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing full circle. Stars & Stripes Brewery is a veteran owned establishment and I had heard great things. We tied two different crab patterns with local tyer Travis Shipman. We tucked ourselves into the S&S tap room and learned the techniques behind a fly that is probably the most talked about here for striped bass anglers in Maine. With a combination of its intrigue and effectiveness, crabs are the single most asked about pattern for salt anglers in my shop. I personally tie a variation of a Merkin/EP crab for stripers, but to see Travis' skill in different versions/patterns was quite cool. I was particularly interested in his "Red Claws" crab which utilizes deer hair, schlappen, and rabbit strips! I'll be trying to add that to my arsenal for the upcoming season. (Side note: this was probably the most technically challenging of all the Bar Flys yet, so kuddos to all the tyers that came!)

I appreciate everyone who joined in on this season's Maine Bar Flys. Not only am I continually impressed with the attendee's willingness to try new patterns and explore techniques they are unfamiliar with, but this year's nights had a specific association and effort raise money for Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing. Everyone who came out were willing to help donate to this great organization. Hard to ask for anything more... 

I want to also specifically thank Shaun Baggitt, Nate Wight, Aaron Lockwood, Travis Shipman, and of course Jon Larrabee (HMH Vises) for all their help. Would not be possible without your involvement!

See you next year!

Words + Photos: Josh Thelin

Read more