As the Salmon Flyer begins a new year, I would like to start by thanking all those that helped by providing articles for all the previous issues. Those contributions are what keeps this publication going. Without the support of the membership we do not have much of a publication. I would like to avoid what happened last summer, when no articles appeared for the July issue. So please keep the contributions coming. While it helps if the articles are on a computer disk, it is not necessary. Just as long as I can read it, the article will be fine.

In this issue you will find an article about a Blacker's pattern. This is a multi-part article that you may find interesting. I would like to challenge the membership to dress this fly and send it to me to have it photographed for the cover of a future issue of the Flyer. It would be interesting to have a collection of these fine fines for a photograph illustrating all the various interpretations of the same pattern. After the flies are photographed, I can either return them or save them for a fly plate to be shown at the next salmon fly symposium. The plate would be auctioned as a fund raiser for the Federation of Fly Fishers.

As a final note, I would like to correct an error that was made in the October issue. I mistakenly used the work "skunk" in John Bett's article in the October issue on Dressing Flies Without a Vise. Skunk was used on page 6, paragraph number 6, rather than the word "slunk." Slunk refers to a type of hair used in fly tying, usually the hair from aborted calves-see Chetham 1681.