A Thank You Note

Gentlemen,
    I'd like to take this time to personally thank EVERYONE who attended the "One Fly" on Saturday.   Sorry it took so long but I had a little 560 mile trip to attend to.  Special thanks go out to:
     Skip and his wife:  For the second year the food was outstanding, the organization of it was superb and everyone got more than enough.
     Everyone who brought food:  The homemade pickles and the potato salad were very fattening (like I need more) and the cake was my fav.,  I didn't get a chance to sample everything but I was told it was all good.
     Tim:  For taking the time to organize the "Night Before"  Took a load off my mind and turned out to be a really nice time. 
     Schlemoc:   For the patches 
     Bughawk for taking the time out of his busy schedule to handle everything he did in the Erie area.
     Everyone who donated Prizes:  Totally awsome; from the platter for the 1st female to the coins and the flies.  Wow!  your generosity overwhelms me.   I need names, addresses and donations (I lost my list)
     Special thanks goes out to:
            Greg Senyo - Steelhead Alley Outfitters  For the trip and flies 
                 Fish USA   For providing This Forum  and prizes
            The Ultimate Angler   Prizes
            Poor Richards   Prizes
             Folley's End   Prizes
             Bughawk    Prizes and food
             Flyfishindave   Flies

  And Thanks To everyone who attended.   I am so appreciative of your sportsmanship and your outstanding attitudes that I am almost unable to form a complete sentence right now.
  The images of Kildoe, Jolean, and Rapala when they got their prizes are what make this thing worth doing for me.

      So now I get to my official question session:  Is there anything I/We can do to make this better for  YOU?  You can pm me or just post your thoughts here so they can be discussed in open forum.   The event is for you to enjoy.   NO, I can't make it rain or force the fish to feed.  ? How much bigger can this get and still be "comfortable and personable"?  I know I had a hard time remembering everyones' names, and I sure didn't get the time to spend with all those I wanted to talk to and thank. But for me that would take three days.   So Here it is to all: 
                
                                THANK YOU!

Seemed like there was less people at the steelhead banquet this year.  Did the one fly cut down on the crowd?  Just wondering.  Should they be both held on the same day.  I guess it was good if you wanted to attend both and cut down on expenses as to only make one trip and not two.  Was a beautiful day for the banquet and one fly though.  Could have used some more water though.

ORIGINAL: Panfisher

Seemed like there was less people at the steelhead banquet this year.  Did the one fly cut down on the crowd?  Just wondering.  Should they be both held on the same day.  I guess it was good if you wanted to attend both and cut down on expenses as to only make one trip and not two.  Was a beautiful day for the banquet and one fly though.  Could have used some more water though.

 
     There was a scheduling problem and we both tried to accommodate each other.  The "One Fly", hopefully, will always be held Columbus day Weekend.  Unless everyone votes to move it to Veterans Day Weekend.

I'm not sure there is much one could do to make this better.  Everyone involved gave 300% of their time and efforts to ensure this was a spectacular success.  If a committee is implemented, things should continue to go smoothly as the size increases.  I'm not sure what a "manageable" size is.  Maybe go to teams of 3 or 4 once it gets larger?  I was just thinking that next years may hit just under 100 at the rate it has been growing.  Name Tags.  That's my suggestion.  I'm horrible with names, and name tags would make everyone's life easier at getting acquainted.  Maybe I'll roll that into the one fly patch developer area. 

Your grandson did a wonderful job.  If he would like to do it, I'm sure no one would mind.  Maybe we can get a bonus box where people can bring a couple extra patterns to fill it up as an additional prize?  Great time, great ideas.  I'm taking notes for next year's.  

fishmonger,
     The only problem I could see with the pre-printed ones would be the cost and the no-shows.  But all input will be carefully considered. 

indsguiz
First off Thanks again so much For all you and the others do .. I'm glad MJB4864  signed me up -I had a blast
Next year I can offer some services if you could use them
I have a family member at a embroidery shop--  Patches ?? or transfers??
I am a year round fly tyer  I could buzz out a couple hundred for donation by next Year
( if it dont step on Mini Me's toes)
I am definately bringing 10 or so rod socks and tubes with "One Fly 2009 " and a wooly bug embrioderd on them for all the rods that seem to be there

Thanks again

Rich

If a whole bunch of fly tyers want to pool their efforts and come up with some aditional prizes that would be fine with me.  We would just need somebody to step up and volunteer to herd the flies and get them to Bug in time for the prize sequencing.  And someone to buy the extra fly boxes.  Because if 10 folks tie 10 flies thats 100 flies = 2 boxes.

Gentlemen,
     Just want to remind eveyone that the idea behind the "One Fly" is to provide a basically no cost rendesvous/get together experience for everybody.  I have recieved some very great ideas for the event for next year but I feel I have to remind folks that some folks may not be able , nor want to pay for, too many "Offical" items.  Just let this be your guide when suggesting things.  We don't want to have it turn into "The official Escalade of the "One FLy""  and keep people away.  So long as we keep it simple and keep the costs down I'm absolutely thrilled by some of the ideas and especially the interest generated by the event. 
    Some of the ideas I really like so far include:  Allowing more than one person donate entrant flies for the event.  For example:  If we had 12 people each donate 100 identical flies and then they were put just on a piece of foam each attendee would leave with 12 flies.  That way there wouldn't be any one "official" fly and everyone who wished could participate.  This still leaves those who wanted to to do up complete boxes for 1st, 2d, Biggest fish ect. free to do their thing.  If we had that many tyers then the flies could be labeled on a card that had a small description of the fly under it Like: @#*!! Goby by Doubletaper!  LOL  (Sorry Jerry I just had to).
     Another thing I liked was the person who pm'd me with an idea for a { I kept my fly!} prize for those who managed to keep the same fly on for the entire event.   Somebody suggested t-shirts that said "I went to Erie and they Only Let Me Use "One Fly" 2009".  But that could get expensive.  (Keeping costs down)  Hats were also suggested,  As were decals that can be placed on mirrows or back glass.  But then if you keep a car for 10 years and you sell the car but want to keep the rear window?  So you see the list goes on and on.  Just keep posting your suggestions and ideas guys (and ladies).  We'll discuss them and see what flies.  We have an entire year.   Well, actually 10 months since I'd like everything to be carved in stone by the 15th of August.

I'm up for tying 100 flies for a momento for everyone at the one fly to throw in a box. Actually, how about making it so everyone has to use one of the flies FROM the box so that everyone is using basically the same flies? That would really make things interesting.

One way to handle it (a missing team member) would be to allow the four of them to share the one extra fly.  In order to keep this fair, placeholder flies may have to be of a similar design to one the team is already using (either an exact copy or the same fly but in a different color).  This would limit the team from using an empty spot to improve their flexibility, but also not penalize them for being a man short.

i like the 2 man concept also. starting at 9:00am it's kinda hard to find spaces close enough for 4 man teams. also it's harder to confince 4 guys to all fish together in the same hole. i couldn't imagine 4 teams all wanting to fish, lets say, the manchester hole. that's 16 more people!

Cold,
    Oh good; now we have to have the Official Pirate Costume of the "One Fly"   What are ya fishin matey?  Wooooly Buggerrrrs?

DT,
  Better yet, 16 more folks at Trout Run.  We could haul them all out on a pirate ship and have them storm ashore>  Waving their fly rods and causing havoc.   Think we could hire the brig Niagra?  One broadside of double grape from about 50 yards off shore and the beach is ours!

One broadside of double grape from about 50 yards off shore and the beach is ours!

Aye!  That be the spirit!  BB shot, tied to th' end of yer line with bad knots!  The flies that be explodin'!  We'll raise our jolly roger o'er the pig pen!  Yarr, those be treacherous waters, matey!

...we'll need Skip's input on the best ways to pirate on the lake.  He was telling me about a book he was reading about the history of the lake...some pretty crazy stuff has gone on up there!

Cold we will have to get together on the Lural Hanna some time its only about a 45 min drive for me.

To torture the FishErie board cliche, "LEt mE kNo dUUd!"

Seriously, I'm up there multiple times every week, so just send along a PM and we'll get something coordinated post haste.  You're are all classy guys that I'd love to fish with again.  This Saturday may take me to Laurel Hill, but I was just down on the Loyalhanna yesterday and probably will be again tomorrow!

AYE Matey
I'm all aboard on the Pirate concept .. I think I have a new use for that yankee Fly ..HAHA... Yankin non one fly contestants out of yer hole ...Who would argue with a guy in a eye patch whippin around a huge treble hook ?