Acting on a tip from The Fiberglass Manifesto, I recently ordered a few “Furl Girl” leaders from Joni, the Utah FlyGoddess. I haven’t had a chance to test them on the water. But so far, I’m very pleased. The floating versions are nicely limp and supple–perfect for delicately presenting flies to wary fish. The sinking version is made with kevlar thread, which should hold up very nicely dragging heavy flies along rocky stream-bottoms. They are all tied with loops for connecting to the fly line, and they have tiny (2mm on the lighter versions, 3mm on the heavier versions) metal rings at the tippet end (not very traditionalist, but nice for quick changes).

At my request, Joni tied the leaders in different colors, so I can tell them apart. My favorite, just based on looks, is the 6-foot floating leader for 2-5 weight line, which is tied in Light Cahill thread, with red added to the butt end as an indicator:

As testament to her Goddess status, Joni also included, for no additional charge, two other items to try out: a furled leader tied from monofilament (stiffer, but less prone to sticking on rocks in freezing conditions, than the thread), and a float-style indicator for nymping (which I’m just traditionalist enough to raise an eyebrow at, but will try with a  Czech-nymphing rig just to see how it works).

[UPDATE, December 7: I've confirmed that this event is totally legit. Lough Corrib, here I come!]

I retrieved today, from my university email’s spam filter, what is either a genuine invitation to an exciting event or a bizarre variation on the familiar email scam. The message appears to be from a lecturer at a university in Ireland, and it solicits participation in the “World Varsities Trout Fly Fishing Competition”, to be held in Ireland in August 2010.

I took a careful look at the email headers, and then checked on the university’s website (not relying on the link in the message, but independently searching for the university on Google). As far as I can tell, everything appears legitimate. There is indeed a faculty member with the same name and university email address as the sender of the message. There is no alternative “reply to” address in the message, as is characteristic of phishing or other scams. The message doesn’t ask me to send any money or provide any personal information.

However, a Google search for “World Varsities Trout Fly Fishing Competition” did not turn up anything — though there is a page for the competition under the university’s website (I’m not giving a link here until I verify that it is legit). And it just seemed unlikely that someone from Ireland would identify me as someone interested in fly fishing and track-down my university email address.

I’ve sent a message (not a direct reply to the email, but sent through the legitimate university website) to the individual named in the invitation, asking whether it is legitimate (and apologizing for my skepticism). If it turns out to be on the up-and-up, I will almost certainly try to induce someone from Elon (I have a few current and former students who are adept fly anglers) to join me as part of a team to represent the University. Since Elon’s president, Leo Lambert, is himself an avid fly angler, I suspect I can get official University blessing. Given my pitiful angling skills, I’d have no hope of actually winning; but it would be great fun and a lovely chance to see Ireland.