While I was on Christmas vacation a good friend of mine surprised me with a gift. He said it’d been sitting on his shelf for a while and he felt I’d get more use out of it. I’d hate to let him down so hopefully you’ll enjoy the fruits of that gift as well. The gift was Frank Wentink’s Saltwater Fly Tying in hardcover.

Chapter 1 covers an introduction text to saltwater fly tying and compares it with its freshwater kin. Chapter 2 leads into tools and materials and how many are shared between the two styles. Finally in Chapter 3 we learn about the Blonde series of flies.

The Blonde series is simple. No jokes please. 😉 It’s tied with two wings of bucktail and some mylar. That’s it. Of course you can change it up but that’s the simple recipe. My white and blue bucktail which were used to create the Argentine Blonde are fairly old and I didn’t like how they splayed out.

I decided to try it again using EP Fibers instead. I’m not sure which I prefer. I lean towards the EP variety but than I think I tried making it look like a baitfish instead. I think I’m going to get some fresh bucktail and see how that turns out.

Tonight I enter Chapter 4 and the Deceiver. This is one of the patterns I started with when I picked up tying. I’m looking forward to learning something new about it.