Post-Mayan Fly Tyin': The Premier of "Chi-Tie"

About a month ago, Dave from Urban Assault Fly Fishing, a fellow Chicago city resident, came to me with the idea for a "bar flies" type tying event right here in the city. I had seen the pictures from other cities' similar events on Facebook and had been envious. Why shouldn't all fly tyers have a local community? In Chicago, especially, many anglers do not know each other. We sneak out to the Lakefront or Chicago River for a few hours here and there--but with all the concrete in between, we seem to overlook each other.

So anyway, we found a great basement bar--Galway Bay--a few blocks from a very fishy harbor and did the first trial event last night. We were joined by Isaac from Wig Bags (check him out--he makes awesome custom bags for any purpose). Dave and Isaac can tie some flies. Between all of us, there was a nice variety of bugs on the table. The bar staff were cool, too, hanging out around the table to watch and ask about local fishing. Bill, the bartender, even offered up a free round of shots to celebrate our first event.

We are hoping this event grows to become a regular thing with many more participants from the city and surrounding area. Time will tell. We'll be working on recruitment and promotion in the weeks to come. Dave already has a cool "Chi-Tie" logo in the works. Keep an eye out for the final draft.

Thanks to Isaac of Wig Bags for the following pics

See you at the next Chi-Tie in March!

-T.A.