Over the past 6 months, much to the surprise of my wife and myself, my flies and t-shirts have been finding their way all across the county and even across the oceans. In honor of some of those who have been rocking the mini-hoppers and Arizona Wanderings t-shirts, this post is for you.
First, Greg Madrigal from over at Sierra Nets has been rocking his Arizona Wanderings shirt and tearing it up on the streams and ponds of California. Greg is a great guy who has a true gift and fashions some of the most spectacular nets I have ever seen. Make sure to check out his site and check out the monster catfish he caught on one of the illustrious Simi-Seal Buggers.
My good buddy Mike from over at “of Dry Flies and Fat Tires,” spent some time on the Rio Grande giving the mini-hoppers some playing time. The minis rose to the occasion and pricked a few fish. Full story here…
Another longtime blog friend, Mike, from “Troutrageous” picked up one of the new Arizona Wanderings t-shirts and found that it had a bit of fishing mojo. More on Mike’s day fishing here…
Another great fishing partner and friend is Eric Davis of Hooked Up Films. On my recent trip up to Oregon, Eric made the magic happen in an Arizona Wanderings T-shirt and showed me how to fish the mighty Deschutes. I owe Eric a great deal, not only because he put me up in Oregon and allowed me to fish with him, but because he has been one of the supportive voices in the evolution of my site. Thanks Eric.
Another success story involves my buddy JohnMark, who I took fly fishing for the first time last fall. He was moving to Colorado, so I convinced him he needed to buy a fly rod, gave him how-to book, and tied him an Altoids tin full of flies and sent him on his way. He finally got a little time and landed his first “all by himself” fish. Beautiful brown JM. Strong work.
Lastly, a big thanks to Tom Chandler over at the Trout Underground where he gave a great review of the mini-hopper as a possible candidate for “the ultimate small stream fly.” Ever since I stumbled into fly fishing, I have been reading Chandler’s thoughts and ramblings. To have him say such kind things about the mini on his site was a little bit surreal, not to mention the subsequent mini-hopper sales. I will be busy tying for some time. Thanks for the kind words Tom.
A big thank you to everyone who has supported Arizona Wanderings by either buying flies, shirts, or both. I never imagined that I would get the kind of response that I did and the kind words and support have been extremely appreciated. If you have bought flies or shirts and have a camera handy, take some photos of them in action and email them on over so I can put them up on the site.
If you have not picked up a t-shirt…what are you waiting for.
I am back in AZ for the rest of the summer and am tying lots of mini-hoppers, so if you have been waiting to place an order, now is the time.
Thanks again for the support.
Ben
I owe you a t-shirt pic too!
Next trip out. It will be done.
Looking forward to it. Thanks for the support Matt. Have fun out there.
Ben
I actually had it on yesterday. But doing chores in my AZW shirt doen’t seem befitting a photo-op.
By the way, I was at a local bike shop yesterday, in the shirt, getting my trail tires put back on when the girl behind the counter exclaimed “Arizona! Are you from there?! I’m from there!!” So I told her the story of blogs and shirt-swapping and all that jazz. She thought that very cool and said shed check out our blogs. Keep an eye out for another Upstate NY-er visiting your URL.
That’s awesome. I’ll keep an eye out. Let me know when you get some fishing in with that shirt. Thanks Matt.
Ben
Now we need a bumper sticker for the skybox- better get on it my friend! 😉 mike
Will do. You’ll be the first to get them.
Ben
Great post I think I’m going to order a T today, and as for the hoppers I have tied a couple and done well with them on these hot summer days.
Cool. Thanks for the support Bruce. Glad those mini-hoppers are doing the trick for you. Take care.
Ben
Ben, Your mini-hoppers are the bomb. I fish here in Arizona and have had great sucsess using mini-hoppers this year. My 16 year old son has shown little interest in fishing so far, but a week ago I had him on East Clear Creek where he landed several fish on the mini-hoppers. He is now extremely excited to go fishing once again. Thanks for sharing the fly and all your adventures.
Marc.
Thanks for the extremely kind words and I’m glad the mini-hopper is doing the trick for you. It is a fun fly to tie and having fish chase down a dry is always good fun. I really like your site and look forward to reading more. Mike over at Dry Flies and Fat Tires has been hounding me to get on a bike. Between you two it may just happen. Thanks again and stay in touch.
Ben