What a better way to spend a rainy day then down in Joe Armenti's fly tying room. Delaware Joe and I got over about 11 and soon it was just shooting the shit over a cup of coffee. Armenti let me browse around and through the drawers of his tying stations. Not only does he have a lot of materials, I mean a lot of materials, which are mostly mostly for trout flies,
he also takes and fills orders year round. Next to his vice was an order for 11 dozen flies that to me just looked like they would be eaten no matter what hatch was going at the time. It was also a throw back
to some materials from the past, like Big Fly Fiber and Gartside's Secret Stuff. Joe is very talented and that goes back to his days when he opened and owned a fly shop in Trenton, imagine that there these days.
As I looked through the bins I couldn't get over how much dubbing material he has. I mean he has tons of it, and not for no reason. Each color means something, and something specific to somewhere. There's colors for the Upper Delaware, or Catskills, for Central Pa., and for other bodies of water, where the color of the same fly might just be a shade or two off. He even gave me a demo on how he mixes
dubbing creating that shade that is exactly, one, from the recipe book, or two, what his customers order. If you need trout flies, or materials, or dubbing blends, by the gallon, give Joe a call at 609 448 0062.
As I sat and listened I reached back into the library and picked out Saltwater Fly Patterns, a 1995 book written by Lefty Kreh. That book is nearly 30 years old. Pop Fleye's came out in 2001.
What struck me was the below note that Lefty wrote about Bob. Interestingly he wrote at the end, "I am sure by the time this is published several more ideas will have sprung from his fertile mind". The Collin's
Dictionary defines fertile mind as, A fertile mind is able to produce a lot of good, original ideas. Well there you go. Maybe Lefty was onto something back in the mid-1990's. Bob was 47 years old at the time of Kreh's book.
It's really a hoot spending time with these guys who have been friends since they were about 12 years old. They have fished and hunted hundreds if not a thousand times together. They were at it this fall driving the beach in IBSP but I was never able to make the trip with them. Soon we'll be hitting The Shady Rest for some Trenton pie, a cold beer or two, and more good times.
