Over the last 7 months or so a fly tyer from the US has been playing with Bug-Bond™… nothing strange in that, as many from across the pond have chosen to use Bug-Bond™ the first Tack-Free light cured acrylic for fly tyers… the big deal is that this particular tyer has an affiliation with Tuffleye the first guys on the block. Pete Gray has been documented here humorously under the name of Two Hatz or McPhantom… Pete has pushed the boundaries of tying saltwater flies and was the first to publicly declare his hand with fly welding… correction “Phly Welding” (as Pete calls it) is an innovative method developed by Pete in constructing a fly without using thread to tie in the materials!
Initially Pete started welding with Tuffleye and then decided to conduct a back to back test of the Tack-Free products. Pete has been forthright with his comments and I was delighted to find that Bug-Bond™ had Pete’s support based on its Tack-Free finish. Pete now uses Bug-Bond™ as part of his armoury to Phly Weld… I guess the dilemma for Pete was that he was and is still part of the Tuffleye camp… torn between two materials and also a friendship that had been built with Dr Ned Lunt the creator of Tuffleye and now the new protagonist Bug-Bond™ and its designer!
Pete and I have emailed a lot; we met also met up in Somerset NJ at the Symposium and now subject each other to Skype! We have formed a great friendship – a similar anarchic sense of humour assists… and also a respect for Tuffleye team who broke the ground for the use of innovative light cured material in fly tying.
It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that Pete Gray has joined the Bug-Bond™ Pro-Tying team… Pete’s unmistakable tying styles can be seen at shows in the US in addition to the select forums he posts on. Just in case you haven’t spotted him before he is instantly recognisable!
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