Accolades...

I am proud to share that our business was given the Award of Excellence amongst over 100 of our peers in the Weed Man Lawn Care franchise family. It is humbling and we are very proud of this. We grew our business by more than $550,000 this past season. Thanks to our entire Weed Man team! madison.weedmanusa.com

December...fly tying season begins. I am now far enough removed from the WI trout season to re group and start cranking out flies for 2012. Now, I just have to re start my 2011 habits of getting up really early every morning to tie. I find (if I can get out of bed) that there is no better time to tie flies than the early morning before the rest of the world comes to life (including my 1.5 year old son Dawson and my wife). Here are a few flies I will be cranking out early and often this winter as they are my most heavily used flies. UV Stone-this is a personal creation that is by far my best producing fly. It dominated browns and brookies here at home and cutties in MT falled in love with it also.

Dying Scud-This is my variation of a scud pattern. Many scuds are dying in the water as they get flushed out. Many of them are grey, green, etc and then start to turn orange as they die. Hence the combination of colors here.

Tan caddis pupa-my variation of tan caddis pupa. the uv dubbing seems to give it more life.

Thunder thighs Hopper-I found this pattern online last summer and immediately tied a bunch for my trip to MT. It served as a great hopper pattern and took many fish. I have modified it a bit sense this picture. I have added a deer hair wing to make the fly a bit more visible on long casts.

Finishing the WI Trout fishing Season in Style

I decided I needed to get out twice more after my trip to Montana, to finish the WI trout fishing season here in Sept. Caught a ton of beautiful brookies on the final day that even exceeded the color of the hills. On the second to last outing I landed the largest trout of the year. Ron, a close friend, stated "what a curtain call." Another season has come and another has gone.

Back from Montana

Well, I am back from a great trip to Montana! Weather was great (too sunny actually) and the fishing was sold as well. It went by fast and leaves me looking forward to next year!

For the first time in 10 years heading to the mountain west fly fishing, I ran into a bear...almost literally too.

Bull Elk playing in Spray River