02 September 06
Hello again to all, I have heard from Bill, and he is well. However, he is too busy to have done much fishing nor work with students. As you know from the news, things are in turmoil in Baghdad and Bill is kept busy with that. However I have some news from him, here it is. " I got the rods and they are wonderful! I like the Temple Fork rods as well as my St. Croix . These heavier ones still cast quite well. I have not fished in weeks. It has been too hot and things have been too crazy. Bills last comment above is in response to a letter sent from West Virginia, where the local paper has been following the school. A reader of the Parkersburg News/Sentinel sent 1 gross of flies he tied. His name is Willard McCrosky. He's 90 and can't fly fish anymore (although he caught a state record brown trout 12 years ago), but he wanted to help you guys out, so he tied you 144 flies. They're very good. Rick Browning also sent some flies, which all brings the total number of flies sent from the folks in Parkersburg, WV to 556. What a wonderful group of people! Another visitor to the site helped me out with some of the fish identities. He is an expert in freshwater fishes of Mesopotamia, who lived in Iraq, until 1997. He currently lives in New Zealand. Lastly in news about the school, Field and Stream Magazine published an online article about the school. You can read it at the link below. That is it for this update, check in again and see how we are doing. Fish on! Joel Copyright © 2006 by Joel Stewart. All rights reserved.
The school has another corporate sponsor! 3M Scientific Anglers sent the school 4 fly rod/reel combinations, a couple dozen fly lines, fly line cleaner, tons of leaders, tippet material, tools and flies. It was an amazing package full of gear that will be well used in Baghdad. I cannot thank them enough for their generosity. My hat is off to the folks at 3M SA in St. Paul, MN!
What they have sent us, along with the generous contributions of other great American's, the Baghdad School of Fly Fishing is well equipped for some time. I will continue to keep the list updated. In the mean time, for those who want to contribute your kind words of support go a very long way!
We’ll start another class in a couple weeks. I’m just too swamped and it’s too hot to try right now. I’ll send another update when we do.
For the folks in Parkersburg, PA,
I can’t tell you how much fun it is to open the envelopes from you …and how much I appreciate the guys that tie these flies! What a great way to link people half a world away. I’ll let you know when they come in. Please let your readers/tiers know how much we appreciate them!
//Bill
His current project deals with freshwater fishes of Iraq and he is interesting in how many of each species we are catching. Hopefully the school can help out science as well as Soldiers!
http://www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/fishing/photogallery/article/0,13355,1424259,00.html
I apologize in advance for all the pictures of me, I did not intend that outcome.
Revised: 11/11/06 15:56:33 -0500.
