[Dana]

thanks to Dennis and everyone at Kaufmann's for hosting another first class event! I had a great time and learned a lot, and it was wonderful to meet so many of you and renew old acquaintances.

some of my highlights:

• Steve's Golden Retriever
• the chili
• CND 12ft2in Spey Tracker and RIO MidSpey 6/7
• Lamiglas 14ft 10/11 with Airflo Long Delta 10/11
• Loop Grey 9130 and the SA Short Head Spey 8/9
• Nobuo's Suntori single malt
• Simon's presentations (first time I've ever seen him cast live)
• Dennis's "backhanded" reverse cast
• Brian Simonseth's beautifully smooth casting
• Brian Lencho's perfectly pointy lazer loops
• watching mattzoid hook a steelhead
• kush's stint as the "Best Western Bouncer"
• finally meeting Fred Evans

Looking forward to next year!

 

[NrthFrk16]

On behalf of Dennis, myself and the rest of the Kaufmanns' Clan, we can do nothing but thank the presenters, the manufacturers and most of all, the Spey casting public for showing up and making this an absolutely wonderful event.

We had an aboslute ball hosting all of 'ya...and can not wait to do it again next year.

Hmmm...highlights?? How about Fred Evans' marvelous hospitality in the motorhome which include good alchool and a great dinner...and a tipsy Jimmy Jones!!

..and oh yeah, the CND Mini-Spey...I can not forget that...Juro, you will be getting a phone call (and many until I get the answer I want to hear).

...and there was another little highlight as well...but Ill leave that be! :devil:

These past couple of days just showed what a wonderful, freindly little (it is hard to call us little anymore) community we have become.

Thanks!

 

[Leland Miyawaki]

Dennis and the boys,

Nice job organizing the event. I wish I could have been there saturday also but someone had to deal with the non-speycasters!

Fred, it was great to meet you saturday night. It seems that if we can drive 6 hrs to the Thompson, 6 hrs to the Clearwater, we should be able to do 6 hrs to the Rogue.

See you soon,
Leland.

 

[Brian Simonseth]

THANK KAUFMANN'S

Fun time for time all!



Dana,
You have a sharp eye!:eyecrazy:

 

[mattzoid]

It was a great time for all. Would have been better pulling that Steelhead in, but guess you can't have everything. There is a guy that said he got that hook up on video. I've emailed him to see if I can get some footage. What a great deal. I thought I had a million questions last year, but this year I knew the right questions to ask and the people to ask. Looking forward to the Marlow Bumpas Spey Clave now. Thanks Kauffmans.

Matt Burke

 

[Steelheader69]

Was great!!

Learned alot. Wish I could've tested out a rod or two. But the presentations really helped me out. Was cool to see them actually physically show what you are doing wrong and how your cast would be effected. Then, showing corrections. Helped more then any video.

Was nice to meet some of the board members. Think we should've all had name tags on. LOL. Looks like I walked by a ton of you and had no idea. Hoping to make next years. Hopefully won't be on valentines weekend. Only reason I missed the dinner on Saturday (had to spend time with my girlfriend since I gave up all day at the spey clinic).

Highlight for me was meeting my dear friend Fred. Been corresponding with him for years, finally got a chance to sit down and talk to him. Then finished out my day when JD Jone, Bob Munoz, Fred, and myself sat down over a bottle of Macmallen and BS'd for a couple hours until we all had to seperate (they went to dinner with group, I headed home). Can't wait until next years, when I'll be able to actually cast them (I damned well better be able to lol).

 

[Bob Munoz]

Many thanks to Dennis, Ryan, Gary and the good folks at Kauffmann’s for putting on an awesome get-together. You guys obviously did a ton of work on the event and we appreciate it.

Thanks to the Spey casting professors who, once again, hypnotized us with cast after magnificent cast and left us all inspired and a bit wiser about the Zen art 2-hander.

Thanks are also in order for the sponsors who fed, watered, and tempted us with all the really cool new stuff. I had no idea that there was such a thing a reel with removable counterweights that allow one to balance rod and reel perfectly.

I left determined to experiment with shooting heads and smitten by more than one rod. One interesting personal insight was that the transition from long lines to heads seemed to be easier with the slightly longer ones. I really had a blast with the SA 55 foot head on the Loop 1309 Grey Line Rod. I’m thinking this was just due to the slightly longer casting stroke required for the longer line. Then again it could have been entirely due to Dana’s on the spot help which was greatly appreciated.

As usual, the best part of the whole event was getting together with the rest of the spey clan. This is one interesting, knowledgeable, and funny group of individuals!

 

[flytyer]

Getting to meet Fred was a highlight. Meeting Pete (aka FrenchCreek) was also a good thing. Seeing Mike Kinney again (I never run into him often enough on the river, and seeing my old fishing buddy Dave from Port Angles was a welcome surprise. Talking to Marlow (which is always a pleasure) about ancestor first name and having him give some instruction to my 12 year old is something my wife spoke about for hours.

Simon, I still like that funky hat of yours, it has character.

Aaron, Brian, the other Brian, Mike, Dana, Tyler, Ryan, George it is always a pleasure to see you guys.

Leland, sorry I missed you but I could only go on Saturday.

 

[NrthFrk16]

I've got about 40 pictures I am going to post...

I won't be able to do it until tomorrow night however. I downloaded a wicked new image editing program and drop the size down to post them BUT I can not figure out how the Hell to drop the resolution down to get them below 62k bytes...so I will go through them again tomorrow night on my other editing software.

 

[wrke]

Ryan
If possible, it would be great if you could identify people in the pics so we could put faces on a lot of names we've become familiar with.
Bill

 

[Brian Simonseth]

Single Malt

Dana,

How much did you have of Nobuo's Suntori Single Malt?:tsk_tsk:

 

[Brian Simonseth]

I have some great pic's but have trouble fetting them in.:eyecrazy:

 

[speyrd]

Spey Days

Thanks to Kaufmans for another Good time at the High Bridge.
Leroy....................

 

[Big K1]

Thank you everyone involved in the event. I am a new poster here(long time lurker) and would like to say "hi" to everyone. I cant wait for the next event and to actually meet people.

Kevin

 

[fredaevans]

Been corresponding with him for years, finally got a chance to sit down and talk to h

Jerry's comment sums up my situation very well. He, Dana, and many others have been 'brothers of the key board' for a very long time. The hospitality of Bob M on Friday night (how the he.. did I just scoot that 32 footer into his driveway at 11pm in the pitch black??? The 5:30 am 'alarm clock' "fred evans? fred evans ...? are you awake??' on Monday morning.

Dana being kind enough to take me off to the side for a half hours 'private lesson' on the 'under-hand' cast. Man, he's right, a lot of 'mussle (sp?) memory' will go into learning what is otherwise a very easy/effective cast ... just '"fly's" in the face' of almost everything else (top hand wrist snap).

Dennis was a total crack up trying hard to surpress a laugh when I tell 'Sparky' that's it 'ok!! to slow down,' I promise we ARE listening (that young fellow does know his stuff). And, Sparky ... now you know why 'we all' drink good single malts ... not the $7.95 a bottle stuff. (Hint: Ryan also appreciates good red wine(s). The 4 of us tossed away the cork on a new bottle of single malt and capped off 1.5 bottles of red wine with dinner. I hope they got home!!!)

Whole thing was a total HOOT! (Well, skip the drive back, the weather was off the chart from Monroe all the way to Ashland 11 hours, most of it in a 'driving rain storm.')

Topper was getting together on Sunday afternoon with my Son/Daughter in Law and new Grand Daughter. Not to mention my Daughter Julie who 'needed' my Oregon Drivers Lic., to make a chunk purchase (waived sales tax). As 'luck would have it!!!' the music store was having an in-store sale so they knocked off another 30%. Between the two she paid about $400 less than 'expected.' That gal was one happy camper!!

Took a ton of photo's; camera's back in Joan's hands to down-load and set up an album in 'Web-Shots.' Will post the url in a day or two. (Interest? thing is this is Joan's 5'th? electronic camera; I'm still a 35mm kind of guy. No clue even where to plug her camera into the computer ...:eyecrazy:

Gentlemen, you ARE an outstanding group of men. But, more later ... still taking the 'banks nickle.'
:chuckle:

 

[FrenchCreek]

Great Learnings....

Thank's to all who made this possible, without their effort, it could not have happened!
To Sparkey for spending extra days with Jim & me and showing me all the spots where the Steelies were the week before and where they will be the week after I leave!:razz:
To Dana, Kush and Nobuo for the libations "event" the night before the clave. I still beleive someone got into my room with a shovel full of sand and somehow got me to drink it!:hehe:
To all the beautifull loop makers, Simon, Way, Fred etc. the true "D&V" AKA Demontration Virtuoso's
To Aaron for spending an entire afternoon with Jim & me at his shop before the clave,:eyecrazy:
To Flytyer for allowing me into his secrets of spey fly tying
Most memorable statement: From Noderosan "Most Important.. Fly must be in water to catch fish...It's easy... See!:chuckle: