Mine arrived Saturday, great flies folks, love the talent in this group. Thanks Murf for hosting, and the "Xtra" surprises. Jimi
Swappers, Let me finally post after an exhausting work schedule about a few things lest I hurt feelings or have irritated anyone with certain things regarding the IOFF swap I hosted and the Mayfly swap I delayed a month. So busy that I only got to read a sample of posts briefly about 4 a.m. those mornings I could with a surprising surge of responsibilities running the company. First, sincere apologies to all for repeatedly promising dates and never meeting them. Special apologies to one I chided for timeliness who had to drop out. Second, my billing as an experienced swapmeister....actually, it has been some years since my last hosting duties and Rodney really made me realize I missed the boat by not forming a little database to communicate off-list. A few tyers I really thought were in never came through most likely due to my not contacting them directly. In the end, my error helped reduce the swappers from 35 to 29. The one thing I did pay attention to was how the other swapmeisters controlled their swaps. To alleviate some of the pain, we got some neat prizes from Line's End and Murf's obsession chest finding little things cheap to turn into flys, use streamside, etc. The prizes were awarded based on three criteria. The size of the return packaging, guessing who had everything already and what happened to come out of the box when I got to each envelope (too big to fit & it moved to the next one...hope Tony likes the minnow bucket). Some of you have everything imaginable and are getting something I hope brings tears to your eyes. ;-) The prizes vary greatly in value and have no bearing on how nice your fly was or how many extra you tied DonO, Joyce, et al. so don't be upset that you got a patch of fur instead of the Winstod rod....whoa! There is no rod but Byard had some stuff you might be able to use and Walmart had an expensive product which will tie a few ants. I want you to know that I put out 33 cents AMERICAN for a sheet but some only got 8.175692 cents worth due to size. IF YOU DID N-O-T recieve a prize (we recounted flys so much we lost track), let me know and include your snail addy. If you got a crappy fly of mine, a certain non-FFer thought some of my experimental throw-ways were buggier looking than the pattern that was supposed to be sent so let me know and I'll send you another. Plenty of extras tied beyond what I should have from the 3 sets of 35 I tied. The first 5 of each version are not as good as the last 30 so I'll hand pick these. The uglies WILL catch trout though so use em. Before you all get antsy about the dates being spread out on arrival, I based the shipping method on what was realistic for the package weight and destination or used the supplied postage of the swapper. Certain extras kept me busy and some were due before the swap began which put me back even more. The last few packages have "time-sensitive" materials in them and leave tomorrow except for one which I'll die if I can't get this right and out on Monday. NEXT...the pic page collage and recognition. Lastly, Rodney's Mayflys will go out whatever next-day option they have in the morning as I took the rules with me yesterday to the post office and read them while waiting in line with a sigh of relief only to realize a major goof-up. So Mr. on-time spent last night tying another batch NOT on size 14 caddis hooks. Murf [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Member: www.virtualflybox.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Search, shop, and browse smarter using tabs with the MSN Search Toolbar-FREE! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.4/146 - Release Date: 10/21/05 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.4/146 - Release Date: 10/21/05
