Curt Nordrum - The God of Sheet Foam!

I attended another great seminar today at Bob Mitchell's...headed up by Curt Nordrum. Curt is the God of foam! After about 60 minutes I had learned that foam flies don't have to be perfect to catch fish. Curt is a great tyer, but not really a perfectionist. A breath of fresh air from the trout snobs that always seem to be stationed at the fly shop for these events.

This pattern is called The Slider or The Seagull and is by far my favorite tie of the Curt's presentation. He had some other patterns that were derivatives of Jack Garside's creations.

Curt also tied up Hot Lips (below), Jeremiah was a Bullfrog, Blockhead poppers and many other simple but extremely deadly foam patterns geared toward what else....Smallmouth Bass!

Curt was a great presenter because of his practicality. He uses sewing thread, el cheapo Aberdeen (cricket) hooks, $1 sheet foam, super glue, chenille and a bunch of homemade tools. His barb crimper was an old dental tool and his bodkin was a broken section of bamboo fly rod with a needle insert! I'll take ingenuity over fancy anytime!

Now to convert these to tube flies....