Dateline: 03/05/00

Due to popular demand, I am pleased to announce that I will be hosting a second fly swap at About.com. Our first swap was very successful, and some of the participants have been asking for a second one, as have others who were not able to participate in the first one.

Because of my own time restraints, I will not be able to participate in the swap, but I will host it. Again, as with the first swap, I will accept the flies, photograph them, and post them on the site. You will recieve one of each of the participants flies.

As with the first swap, there will be a bonus for the early birds that register for the swap and participate. Details at the bottom of this article.

I learned quite a bit from the first one, and with some great advice from Byard Miller of the Virtual Fly Box and fly swap veteran Larry Medina, I am changing the rules a tiny bit. One of the things I did not take into account was the expense of posting out 15 packages of flies! This time around, I am asking that you also include with your flies $2.00 to help defray the costs of postage.

Although there are a number of swaps that are aimed at a particular type of fly or theme, such as a 'caddis swap' or bass bugs, again, our second swap will be completely open to whatever your favorite fly is. I would like to ensure that we do not have duplicates, so I will ask you to choose another fly if another tier has previously announced their intention of tying your first choice.

The rules are pretty simple:
1. 10 participants, with two alternates in case there happens to be any tiers who need to drop out.
2. The registration for the swap will be cut off as soon as I have ten participants and two alternates, or by March 25, whichever comes first.
3. Please send the flies to my by April 5, 2000. This will ensure that I can have them photographed and sent out before the last Saturday of April, which is opening day in many regions.
4. Although there will be 10 tiers participating, I would ask that you send 11 flies to me so that I can keep one of each in case I require extra time in photographing them after the others have been sent out to the participants.
5. Please include $2.00 with your flies, as mentioned above, to help cover the cost of shipping.
6. Please send your flies in a container that is labelled with your name and address on it and which I can send back to you with the other flies from the swap.
7. I would request that you send me the pattern for the fly via email in a text or Word file. This will make my job easier when posting the patterns to the site. If you want to include some comments about the fly, such as history, interesting experiences while fishing the fly, or tips on fishing the fly, please do so. It was a real pleasure reading these from many of the participants of the first swap and I know visitors to the site also appreciated this!

Well, that's enough rules. What's the bonus? The first five to register and participate will receive a copy of 'Keeper Of The Stream', an excellent and hard to find book written by Frank Sawyer, who looked after a stretch of the Avon River in England. There is a lot to be learned from this book on fly fishing, ecology, and conservation. Read my review of the book here.

Check out the results of the first About.com Fly Swap!

Mid Winter Blues Part II
15 cm of snow just fell in my backyard. Fishing in Africa looks very tempting right now.

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