Sowbug Roundup Thursday, Friday Saturday March 21-23, 2024
A couple of daring FATC members, Steve Baker and the author (Dan Staggenborg) made the 4 hour trip to Mountain Home, Arkansas recently to find out just what the much “ballyhooed” Sowbug Roundup was all about.
The event is sponsored by the North Arkansas Fly Fishers and is quite an event.
As many FlyFishers are aware southern Missouri and northern Arkansas are home to numerous world class trout fishing rivers: the White River, the Norfork River, the Buffalo River and the Spring River are only a few.
The roundup included numerous boat and material vendors and guide services, as you’d expect. There were on going raffles as well as a number of giveaways and deals on equipment, hooks or beads.
Tour: At the end of the first day we took a tour of the Wapsi factory that was offered to a limited number Sowbug attendees. Very informative. Wapsi makes UTC thread on a machine that pumps out a spool of a particular color every 5 seconds or so.
We were shown the area where all the materials (dubbing, deer hair, hen necks & capes, maribou, etc) were dyed, which is quite an art. Not all material/feathers take a dye with the same result. Any that were off-color & not acceptable, ended up as black.
The facility had huge stacks of deer skins and other types of hair stockpiled against shortages in supply.
Most people are unaware that Wapsi owns American Angler, also. Their facility was surprisingly small for the volume of business they do.
Seminars: Sowbug sponsored a number of very informative seminars throughout each day. Steve and I attended 2: Tim Flagler held one on what trout actually eat. He showed how flies look underwater, as the fish would see them. Almost unbelievably, his videos showed that your flies DO NOT flutter in the current, as you might hope/expect ! Even in pretty fast water the dainty flies appear stationary. The reason is that the water pressure, even under a couple feet tends to constrict feathers and leg movement. In addition, the current reaches a kind of equilibrium that holds the flies in place.
the second was a Tim Flagler and Davey Wotton wet fly tie -off event that (of course) ended in a draw.
Steve and DanStag were able to get our pictures taken with Tim Flagler (and later) with Davey Wotton. both were very approachable and friendly. Both events were highly entertaining.
Fly tying: the major focus of the event was a huge gathering of tiers from around the country. Texas, Florida, Michigan, Kentucky and Missouri in addition to the local Arkansas tiers, were in attendance.
Each 3 hour tying session (2 per day for 3 days) had 60 tyers at a time. They tied a wide variety of flies: Hopper patterns, flymphs, largemouth and smallmouth flies, redfish flies, deer hair flies, dry flies, soft hackles, dry flies and nymphs, to name only a few.
One impressive fellow specialized in tying nearly microscopic emerger patterns on tiny hooks, even down to SIZE 30. These flies were so tiny the man created some of his own miniature tying tools (see picture). The hook eyes were so small he had to use 9X TIPPET to fish those flies.
Each tyer was eager to explain any technique you would ask about.
Steve Baker commented “I didn’t realize that watching and listening in person to how others tie flies could be so educational. It’s really different from watching Youtube and other videos on line. I felt like I was being taught one on one directly from the tiers and their ability to explain all the little details for how and why they do what they do. I am convinced that tying flies from watching a video is great for personal gain but being able to instruct others of the how and why can make me a better tier and also a better angler. If you ever have a chance to take in one of the tying expos don’t hesitate. They are a lot of fun and very educational.” [Well said, Steve ! ]
One last thought, we were quite tempted to go fishing on the White or the Norfork. If you do go to the Sow Bug, be sure to bring gear and allow time to fish.
A very enjoyable trip, and we both learned quite a bit. The fun experiences and interesting people we met, are too numerous to be listed here. It’s definitely a treat for any fly tier and fisherman and we both highly recommend the event.
