The Artistic flies of Mark Romero

[willowhead]

again.....a pretty lousy pic.....but a good example of what can be done without having to spend a fortune on an expensive bead.....got this bead at Walmart.....mighta cost 25 cents.

[willowhead]

This fly i did bout two years or more ago, and it was donated to our local TU Chapter's Annual Banquet auction, along with two others. i really need to get some new pics taken.....i have dozens of flies finished that have never been photographed. Just can't find the time to take the pics and get them on the hardrive and post them.......so damn time consumming, and there isn't enough time (hard to find), to even tye them usually............uugg, Anyway.....bitch bitch bitch.....every body bitch bout the weather.....but don't nobody do anything bout it. It's like everybody wanna go to heaven, but don't nobody wanna die. Thas a stone bead.....mostly PB in the wing (some synthetic), dyed CDC for the underwing, and antique violin string gut for the eye.

[willowhead]

Another of the three i donated for the local TU Chapter Banquet Auction in '09. i happened to have some Pink CDC (tail) and Pink Ostrich herl (butt).....so i figured that'd go well together, with a trailer hook that was the same color as the center body section. Bit of an odd bead.....found it in a leather shop (purses, boots, etc., etc.), in Springfield, Missery.....ah, Missouri.

[willowhead]

This fly (tyed on a Mustad 3899), got a bit mangled, as i used it in a One Fly Tournament over on the Beaver Lake (and dam) part of the White River tailwater. The White starts in northwest Arkansas above Beaver Lake and then runs outta that north and into Missouri and then, turning east, into Table Rock Lake and outta that into Lake Tanny Commo, and then turning south, outta that into Bull Shoals and then back over the boarder into Arkansas again, and finally out of Bull Shoals and on down to the Mississippi. So there's four sections to the river.....four independantly different tailwaters.....but it's all the White River. The most famous part being that stretch below Bull Shoals (two miles from our house, with the lake right across the street), yet it's all good Trout water. Bout 10K Trout per mile.....Bows, Browns, Cutts, Brookies, and Cuttbows. It's a serious put and take fishery, (stocked 52 weeks a yr.), but there is also about a 20% natural reproduction rate. The fishing is STUPID good. 100 fish days are not uncommon at all. Very often you need a boat.....but there's always the lakes to fish as well and a couple VERY good Smallie streams which are also LOADED with every kinna panfish you can think of. And the lakes are simply REDICKALUS! They got everything (cept what would eat everything, Pike), in 'em.....including huge Stripers. Walleye, Smallies, Largemouth, Black and White Crappie, dinner plate sized Bluegil, Cats, Sauger, White Bass, Wipers (hybreds), GIANT Carp, Bullheads, and allllllll kinna panfish, plus Trout. Fishin' here is litterally STUPID!

[willowhead]

One of my Sly Nemes books.....came with a fly he tyed inside. i got it from him at the FFF International Conclave the first year i went out to do it in 2002. What a sweet old gentelman he was.....couple years later i got to tye right next to him. He was so funny, telling jokes all day.

[willowhead]

This is also on a Jens Pilgaard Artistic hook..... Why he cut the barb on the outside of the shank.....your guess is as good as mine.....you just never know what Jens will do next.

[willowhead]

These next three pics are of the 25 flies i was commissioned to do for the first annual Hall of Fame Dinner Centerpieces on the tables at the induction dinner to induuct Dave Whitlock as the first inductee into the new Hall of Fame at the new Trout Resource Center on the Arkansas State University campus here in Mt. Home, Arkansas. Arkansas has various campuses in different locations around the state. One is here in Mt. Home. The new Trout Resource Center is very beautiful, and it has a 1,300 seat auditorium/performance center, library, education center, and the hall of fame. So anyway, i did 25 flies for the center-pieces on the tables at the '09 local TU Chapter Banquet, so she (the lady who runs the Trout Resource Center), saw those and asked me to do it for the Hall of Fame Dinner. What was kinna amazing to me, was that she actually asked me to put a bead in each fly dressing..... .....she actually liked that touch. .....go figure..... These are all on blind eye hooks. The fish sculpture in the background is the work of Ronn Lucas Sr.

[letumgo]

Mark - What kind of feather did you use to hackle the fly which is speckled black and white? Is the Guinea Foul? Whatever it is, I love that fly! The hackle, wing and dubbing are very harmonious! Beautiful "music"...

[willowhead]

Thankx Ray.....yes, that's Guinea.....Vulturine if i remember right......ah.....wait, thinking back, it may be a feather off a Grey Peacock skin. All those flies were auctioned (same guy bought them all....same guy who bought the fly i donated to April Vokey's on-line auction to save the B.C. steelhead.....he's a friend of mine.....member of the FFF Southern Council Board), at the dinner that night, so i can't go back and check. The peacock feathers are VERY soft.....extremely soft. By the softness (look), it's the Peacock feather.....but by the coloration, it looks like the Vultruine Guinea. It's one or the other.....
Man, i "should" write this stuff down.........but, i spoose it's to late now to be worrin' bout that. Over the years i've given away, donated, raffled, sold, swaped, etc., etc..............hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of originals...........and i will NEVER know what the recipes were...........Gone w/ the Wind. But it's really not important........specially since i never repeat a fly unless someone is payin' me to do so, or for a swap, or for fishin'. i do 'em and then i'm off to Somethin' Else." i go bananas if i have to do over a half dozen of anything usually.....unless there's money involved.....and even then..... Most i've ever done of any one thing (was a swap) was 30 something.....took a couple weeks. And i was using Marabou for the collars.....hadda use a straw to hold back the feather while i coated the heads 2/3 times each.....real pain in the ass, but they came out great. Was one of Iain's Christmas Swaps back round 2004, maybe '05. Sent those suckers to England and he sent 'em back.....didn't wanna pay the customes tax..........rotflmao............ ........been givin' them away every since. Some actually went to members of the swap......... i still have a few, maybe a half dozen. Want one?

[willowhead]

i'm bout outta pics until i take more.........3 different blue beads in this body.....all inexpensive.....just a havin' fun fly. Collar is obviously Blueared Pheasent. One of the reason i love MoHair so much is because you can pick it out in every direction equally............it just goes everywhere. i'd actually like to see what this fly would look like in the water.....but i highly doubt it'll ever get wet.