We are well into 2020 and it has been a busy few months for this guy. Firstly, I’ve continued to go the freelance design route and see if I can pull it off for another year. With that said, I have had some interest shown from a few companies — but not enough to pull the trigger. That could change depending on incentives, but for now I’m (sorta) enjoying the sitting-at-home-with-the-trail-dog-and-working gig.) I’ll keep you posted there.

In January I started a Saturday fly tying session from 11 am – 2 pm at a local tavern — Howard’s — which I highly recommend. They have been nothing but accommodating to an interesting mix of trout and (insert species here) bums. I call it Mugs & Bugs. It’s a super-relaxed tying session with cold beer, a great menu and everyone ties whatever they want. Zero structure. Folks share patterns and techniques and everyone seems to have a good time. Just show up, pull up a chair, set up your vise and get tying. Simple.

So after a few weekends of this, I thought it might be nice to do an event to benefit something. Project Healing Waters was the obvious choice in my mind. So I started creating graphics and thinking through how we could pull this off. And with the help of some amazing people (Howard’s Tavern, PHWFF and friends), I started reaching out to potential donors. The response was fantastic! And with about two weeks to go we are still receiving items for the raffle. So stoked on this!

We are calling it the Mugs & Bugs Tie One On event and our sponsor (The American Legion) is helping us pull off a raffle to raise funds for the cause. I think it is going to be insane — in a good way. We’re having featured tyers to showcase the craft of fly tying. And the raffle items are sweet. I really hope folks come out in full force and we raise a good sum of money for the veterans through PHWFF. I’ll do another post as followup after the event! ~ Drifter07