August 10 2005 Bud Guidry, pictured at right, has become one of my closest friends even though we have never met face to face. He is as unlikely a person as there is to be a Salmon Fly Dresser. Or at least that's what you would think when you first laid eyes on him. He's big enough to wrestle alligators (he does and wins) with hands that can palm a bushel basket. A 4th generation Cajun living in the Salmon Fly Tying Mecca of Southern Louisiana, Bud has spent his life trawling the Gulf of Mexico from New Orleans to the Dry Tortugas in search of shrimp. He grew up hunting and fishing the bayou but fly fishing was never part of the regimen. Bud was introduced to Ronn Lucas an Oregonian who is one of the top innovators and dressers of unique and lovely contemporary Salmon Flies around today. The rest, you might say, is history. In less than a year Bud has developed into an incredible talent making some of the most ornate and unique flies you will see today. Not only that, is he as prolific at the vice as anyone I know. Bud joined the Fly Tying Forum (something we all should look into) in February 2005 in hopes of learning from the contributors there. Bud has emerged into one of the top contributors of the group and has become one of the leaders rather than a follower. I wish he had made it for my site but he put together what I think is one of the best "how to" tutorials on tying a salmon fly I've seen. Click on Tying the "Woody"to see it.

Bud has a website of his own pertaining to the exotic birds he now raises. Visit Bud's site by clicking on B&D PHEASANTRY.

Also see Buds contribution to Flies in Stages Elegant Simplicity in the Educational Resources section.

July 24 2005 Bud has been tying up a storm and I haven't been keeping up. He also wanted me to replace the old pictures (the scanned rather than photographed) with some of his new stuff. I usually put all new flies at the bottom of the page but in this case I will begin posting the newer flies starting from here. I felt I had to leave the first picture of the Angel Fish. It was Bud's first attempt at married wings and one of the very first fly pictures Bud had sent me. The pictures that follow are not in chronological order, due to my filing system they are in alphabetical order.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger picture:


July 28 2005 Bud has sent another fly, the Speyside, second from the left in the row above. The pattern is a Chrlie Chute creation that Bud has fallen in love with. This is what Bud had to say about this fly:

"What'd you think of the speyside? I subed the golden pheasant on the wing because of all people who would not have any, it's me. I used amherst instead. Also I didn't add the seal on the body hackle because I wanted it to look more airy. Fact being i didn't want to hide the tensil on the forward body segment. I love this little fly. It's on a 6/0 noble DS by Ron Reinhold.
"


August 20 2005 The first picture in the row above is a fly that started out as a Kori Bustard fly Bud was going to donate to the Kori SSP. Bud has been in kind of a funk recently. Those of you who follow the Fly Tying Forum know about his wife, Darla, being sick which has really scared him. He felt he was not tying up to his expectations, due to the distraction. When he finished the fly he was so pleased with the outcome he named the fly "Darla". Several of us who had seen the fly told him, you can?t tie a spectacular fly like that and name it after your wife then give it to a stranger. All of us that know and love Bud are praying for Darla to have quick recovery and I know she had to have a smile on her face when Bud gave her the fly.September 8 2005 Bud and his family survived Katrina with little or no damage to their home. Their power has been restored and he is back tying flies. The third fly in the row above, Blood of all Men, was completed and named prior to the massive storm that destroyed the Gulf Coast. The next fly was tied yesterday and sent unnamed. It happened to be picture 047 so I went with that. Welcome back Bud.

September 13 2005 One Ray of Light.
November 6 2005 Unfortunately I've been neglecting Bud and all my friends lately. I was away from home for the month of October and had very limited computer capabilities. The new flies I will be posting are only a fraction of the flies Bud has done lately. They do include some of my favorites. The second fly in the row above, Old Orleans, is a "dedication to those that lost their lives in the katrina disaster". Bud mounted that fly and sent it to me. I can't tell you what that means to me.


November 6 continued: The flies in the row above give you a glimpse of Bud's skill level.One needs to look beyond the awe inspiring wings and take a close look at the bodies of his flies. They are spectacular beyond words. Not just his floss and tinsel work but I don't recall seeing a Chatterer style body any nicer than his Royal Chatterer. ____________________________________________________________________
July 24 2005 continued This where the new flies leave off and the old flies begin.
Starting with the only Realistic fly, Bud has tied.


April 7 2005 The third fly from the left in the row above, Gentle Persuasion, is a the first married wing Bud didn't have a lot of grief with. We had been talking on the phone the other day regarding the problems he was having with mounting married wings and I suggested he try Kyle Hand's Vulcan Death Grip. Here is a censored version of what Bud had to say when he tried it: "I threw the other wing out I had tied onto it and made these and tried the vulcan death grip. the X%## wing stayed perfect the first try and layed flat along the body completely intact once i released the death grip from it after i had made several wraps of thread. It seemed to be paralyzed in place and i?m feeling like DR. SPOCK at this moment, in fact dr. spock didn?t have poop over me and I could now kick his butt with my Cajun gator grip technique." Maybe every one should use it.

  April 16 2005 Since Bud's success with mounting the wing on the Gentle Persuasion (see above text) he has done the Scarlet Pirate and Romeo without any difficulty. Bud really likes my Dyed CDC Substitutes and decided to tie a Popham Variation in that he would make a rather ornate Popham style body then use the CDC as body veilings. He sent me a picture of the completed body (3rd picture from left above) with this note:
"well, the bodies done and I'm ready to mount the wing.I thought I'd send you a pic so you could see what Idid to the old popham fly body . This thing may not look at all like a popham when I'm done but hey, what the hell, you said to use my imagination right, well Ifigure that old boy that came up with that pattern years ago didn't have any john mclain cdc feathers in his arsenal so I gladly applied what he would have in this day and age. i love this cdc stuff. do you know where i can buy 25 pounds of the stuff? next pic will be the finished fly" A short while later I got this message: "tried tying the wing on the popham tonight and the thing exploded on me. i tried five times and it kept blowing up. i gave up and before i thru the wings i decided to count the fibers to see how many they had per wing.it was the widest wings i ever tried putting on a hook. there were 48 stands per wing. i guess thats why it blew up" I don't know anyone that has mounted a 48 barb wing at least not all at once. Bud's next email in part: "look what happened to the popham. now it's a pissum. I GOT FED UP WITH IT AND TIED SOME OTHER WINGS ON THE HOOK. I?LL ATTEMPT IT AGAIN SOON."



Bud has recently found some new and unusual materials to play with. He immediately went to work creating the above shown Palmetto Prince. He's incorperated a few rather interesting things in the body. He was also kind enough to send close-ups of: A-Tag, B-Mid Body, C-Forward Body Segment. Below is a portion of the not that accompanied the pictures:
"the things were so beautiful and i'm excited about incoperating these things into my tying. i did this fly tonight and used a couple of things to get the feel of it.
the flies nice but not my best work but here is a list of what bird species they have in this fly. i also tried some new things onthis flylikethe silk work and check out the tag on the fly. got this idea from ronn lucass. it's a silk skirt behind and completely around the tag or hook.
imatation indian crow from ringneck pheasant
toucan
golden pheasant
amhearst
macaw
peafowl
woodduck
manderine duck
silver pheasant
cul de canard or cdc
ostrich
impeyan
jungle cock

i always took for granted just how many species of bird feathers i use for a fly until this one, had just never counted before. i named this fly Palmetto Prince"

May 19 2005 Bud has been creating again. He's also been loading up his pallet with many new things. Just wait to see what the future holds:



May 23 2005 Bud created the (far right above) Couturier Cotinga for our friend Luc. The whale baleen he used for the eye (interesting substitute for gut) came from our friend Ronn Lucas. Below is how he describes it:

" Couturier Cotinga " fly I made with feathers from luc. the pic does not do this fly justice. the electric blue of the cotinga on the tail, veilings and cheeks just jump out at you, even with no light source the fly is amazing. I got to get me some cotinga. material list follows, check out the strange materials

Hook- Reinhold exhibition Williams & Bartleet 7/0
Tag- small silver oval tensil, light blue silk, fine silver oval tensil
tail- golden pheasant crest veiled by cotinga cayana ( chatterer )
butt- black ostrich herl
1st. body section- 1930?s turquoise japanese silk, ribbed by 1930?s japanese lilac silk bordered by small oval silver tensil. veiled by cotinga cayana ( chatterer )
mid body butt- black ostrich herl
forward body section- bright yellow alec jackson japanese silk ribbed by flat gold tesil bordered by small silver oval tensil
main wing- scarlet macaw covet feather
shoulder- vulturine guinea ( spotted blue egded )
cheeks- blue vulturine gunea, cotinga maynana ( chatterer )
under wing- scalet macaw covet feather, cotinga cayana ( chatterer )
eye - Whale Baleen
head- black hard head laquer"


The third fly from the left in the above row, Cleaner, was originated and tied by Bud (believe it or not) to catch Red Fish.



Bud has been working on his married wings of late. As I had expected they are spectacular. Even better he is having little or no trouble mounting the wings. His note accompanying the Jade above is as follows:

"been practicing alot on the married wings, saving my good colored feathers for more elaborate flies when i feel I'm ready. my wings are getting wider and wider. i tied this wing on first try and it stayed perfectly in place first time as the last few I've done. this is the last practice fly/ the next one you see from me will be something much more colorful in the wing. time to decorate some married wing creations with all the beautiful tiny feathers i have."

To me it looks as if he has tied more practice flies lately than most people might tie in a year or in my case a lifetime.

New Flies from Bud are now being posted at the top of the page.