As the annual trip to Beaver Island to spend a week with was approaching, I realized that this trip was my 15th year returning to the
island to fish with Captain Kevin Morlock of
Indigo Guide Service and Captain Steve Martinez of
STM Outfitters. What started as a one day trip in 2010 to check out the island quickly grew into a week long hosted trip in early summer to one of my most favorite places. By my count, I've had over two dozen different friends come along making each trip unique and filled with memories.
Being that this was the 15th year, I wanted to make this trip a bit special for those going along and as a thank you to everything that Kevin and Steve have done over the years. Three good friends were going along with
Alex Landeen,
Mike Sepelak, and
Rich Hohne. All three are Beaver Island "veterans" who dig the island and know what to expect with what to be ready for. In the case of this trip, weathering a week with a spring that was unbelievably slow to arrive.
I started to think that it would be fun to put together a few trip gifts for everyone and turned my focus to a few favorite things that I carry along that I figured that everyone else would dig, too. The gift totes were a huge hit and appreciate the many industry friends and companies who made these possible.
Here's a breakdown of what was in everyone's gift totes in alphabetical order...
BEAR & BURTON BREAKFAST AND EVERYDAY HOT SAUCES In our house, we're huge fans of the various sauces from Bear & Burton and when they released 5 ounce bottles of their Breakfast Sauce and the new Everyday Hot Sauce, these were perfect to carry along to breakfast and in the boat to kick up lunch. As much as I like the two Breakfast Sauce varieties, don't sleep on the Everyday Hot Sauce. It's so good.
FISHPOND FLY PUCKThey hold a ton of flies, they're durable, they stack on themselves, and available in multiple colors with or without magnetic floors. The Fly Puck is perfect for trips since you can stash a few flies and then toss in your pocket, gear bag, or in a larger fly box to keep these flies separate from other flies. They are also handy to have for grabbing flies from the fly shop instead of using their likely single use plastic containers.
At a time when nippers have become way too expensive, Loon Outdoors has multiple choices but my favorite are the Nip N Sip XL, with oversized cutters, grippy thumb pads, a bottle opener, and comes with a handy paracord lanyard.
Along with the nippers, Apex Hook Hone XL made it into everyone's gift bag which are great for sharpening large flies with two different grits, a comfortable gripped handle, and the hook hone to beat all others. I tossed mine on the lanyard with the nippers to have both ready at all times.
LOON OUTDOORS APEX HD PLIERS
You'll read about the custom leather sheath below and I was able to include the Apex HD Plier in the gifts for the guides. I don't think there are a more robust fly fishing pliers for $100 than these. I'm not a huge fan of the included plastic sheath but that's just another reason to have a craftsman make you one for these worthy pliers.
We were all spending a week on the water, and we needed sunscreen. The Ultalight Age Defense SPF is a favorite and if you haven't checked it out, crcle back to the
review that I did recently. Want some of your own? Use the code "
CLEANCAST" for 15% off your order.
ORVIS ADVENTURE TOTE
I needed something to house everything in the anglers and guides gifts and the Adventure Tote was a great choice. These are durable with PVC backing which makes them weather resistant and easy to keep clean. These are also available in multiple colorways
RUTHLESS HANDMADE CUSTOM PLIER SHEALTHS
While I couldn't afford to have Corey Routh of Ruthless Handmade create custom leather plier sheaths for everyone on the trip, I did ask him to make redfish sheaths for the guides. Since Kevin and Steve split their year between several areas in Michigan and then fall and winters in Louisiana, they wanted the same redfish leather sheath that I have and you can see the step-by-step of Corey's build in this T.F.M. post.
Since the folks at S.A. haven't thought up a carp specific fly line taper (yet) and the flats around Beaver Island are similar to the many redfish marshes I've been, the Amplitude Smooth Redfish Cold fly line was a great choice to hand everyone a freshie fly line for their 10-weight outfit.
I've been a fan of the Vedavoo No-Kink Reel Covers in fabric or vinyl for years but Scott Hunter's latest offering made with heavy duty vent mesh fabric has taken a great product and made it even better. These reel covers are lightweight, great protection for your fly reels, and if you're good about rinsing your fly rod outfits with freshwater at the end of the day, these mesh covers allow your fly reel to "breathe" allowing it to dry.
Instead of stocking these in the T.F.M. Store,
Vedavoo has created a
landing page so that if you're interested in one (and you're going to want more), you can choose from five sizes in diameters from 3 to 5 inches, four colors of mesh (I'm partial to the multi-colored Serape), and with either the Comrade or Retro Fly patch sewn into the flap. Once an order is placed, Scott will get busy in the shop to create your handmade No-Kink Reel Cover.
For the past seaveral years, Danny Reed of
Crooked Creek Holler and his crew's trip was winding down when mine was just starting and he sent me some rad smallmouth artwork that was etched into a set of cups for his guys, the guides, and the guys on my trip, too. I'm starting to think that custom Lowball cups are the ultimate gift for trips and special events since they are handy for coffee to start the day and mixed drinks to end it.
Gift bags like this aren't a norm for the hosted trips that I put together but it sure was a lot of fun putting a loaded tote bag in everyone's hands to begin our celebration week on Beaver Island together.
