20th Anniversary of Paflyfish

[DaveKile]

I think it was December 5, 1995 was the first day I turned on the site. I'll work on a blog post and dig up some old stories on what I did to get this all going. I think I have some screen shots of the old home page and stuff.

First month I had 200 visitors. We are pushing 800,00 a year now.

Does anyone have any interesting stories or remember when they first started visiting Paflyfish?

 

[Tucker733]

I've been a frequent visitor for almost 2 years now. I never knew the site was almost older then myself. I don't contribute much but I spend way too much time reading everything on here. I appreciate the great environment and have to say the site has greatly increased my fly fishing knowledge. Keep up the good work for a nother 20

 

[krayfish2]

When I first joined 10+ yrs ago, chatted w/ Maurice and found that he lives right down by my brother.

Also, thanks for keeping the site going Dave. I've enjoyed it and met some good guys from it

 

[csoult]

Congrats!!!!

 

[salvelinus]

Ah the good old days... Win95 and dial-up. Congrats on 20! I seem to remember a whole lot of trolling going on, or am I thinking of another site? Thank goodness it is what is is now.

 

[pcray1231]

I joined in 2005 or 2006, I think. Was an avid member of the flyfishersparadise forum before it had a major meltdown, so I moved here.

 

[dryflyguy]

I got my first computer in 2000, and found PAflyfish shortly after.
If I recall correctly, it was mostly fishing reports then.
And a very simple format with no pictures.

Congrats for a job well done Dave!

 

[afishinado]

Congrats to Dave Kile and a nod to all the PAFFers that have participated on here over the years.

I lurked for a while and started posting sometime in the early 2000's.

 

[Maurice]

Lets see, bought first computer in, well it was windows 95 so soon after that.. dial up and AOL. Found PAFF and FishErie.com pretty quick.

Man that twitter feed of a message board was messed up. Topics were not threaded, posts across all topics were sorted by date. Some pretty lively characters back then.

Let's see; JeffF, John_F, BigDave, Chaz, CaveCurran, StreamNerd(troutbert), RLP, RRT, Tim Murphy, Padraic, PudiePaul

No moderators, the wild west.

PAFF was one of the first stream reports site on the web.

I've met a lot of folks on here that I fish with from time to time. Heck I even relocated my family 20+ miles based on intel gleaned from the members here. Of course a job was at the destination but the fishing weighed heavily as a factor.

I think the first official Jamboree was in 1999. Dkile was kind of like the wizard of OZ...we didn't meet him for a while, I think he was afraid of the monster he created and the nutz it attracted.

As many know, that first Jamboree involved a marriage ceremony on the banks of Penns Creek and a crazy all nighter that followed. I showed up Sunday AM at 8:00ish to about five picnic tables completely covered with bottles, all empty of course. NAd seven Coolers with not one bottle left in them.

Got to meet Jaff and his new bride Shelby, and PudiePaul who became my best fishing buddy for over ten years. Several times a week we would trapse around the region harrassing trout.

More later, gotta run.

 

[JF_]

Wow, 20 years!

I remember way back then finding this site, names becoming familiar, unbelievable that I could talk about fishing with others from PA, then the first jam to meet some of the faces. It was a wild first jam.

I have some pics from the jam, on film, at home. I'll try and find them and post some in this thread.

John

 

[McSneek]

Maybe found this site around 1999 - 2000? As Maurice said, the wild, wild west but as someone who was pretty new to fly fishing at the time it was a big help. I've stuck around ever since. I used to post as SteveB but when the format changed someone else grabbed an account name similar to that so I switched to McSneek, the name of a fly from a Charles Fox short story.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

i think i joined around 2000. love the site and info on it. miss some of the old regulars

 

[Christian]

I joined in 98 or 99, and attended 9 of the first 10 Jamborees I believe. I met most of my fishing friends here- Maurice, Pad, PaulG, Tim Bennett- and although I don't get much fishing time these days, when I do it's often with a friend I met here. I mostly lurk now as I just don't have a lot of time for posting, but I do browse the topics occasionally just to see if anything sparks an interest.

Wild west is a good way to characterize the early days. Some good flame wars took place on the boards, and Jamborees were a serious "burn the candle at both ends" event. I think the Jams served as message board "peace conferences" as much as anything. Hard to hate someone online after you spent a weekend drinking and fishing with them.

I brought my son Tyler to many Jams and called it his annual "man lesson"; just so he could see how men really behave when there were no women around :-D Hard to believe he's in college now...I think the first time he came along he was 6 or 7; he looked forward to it every year, and we landed many beautiful trout together. He was always impatient to go back to camp until he hit a massive March Brown spinner fall with me on Penns one night. Changed the whole way he though about flyfishing.

Good times.

 

[krayfish2]

Weird, nobody mentioned missing LJ. LOL.

Hope to continue my good form as I hated ending PAFF conversations in "that was right before I got banned (again)".

 

[FarmerDave]

Maurice wrote:

Let's see; JeffF, John_F, BigDave, Chaz, CaveCurran, StreamNerd(troutbert), RLP, RRT, Tim Murphy, Padraic, PudiePaul

Don't foget Stan or Shrec (before the movie). I think JeffK was around back then as well.

 

[McSneek]

krayfish2 wrote:
Weird, nobody mentioned missing LJ. LOL.

NO REBUTTAL!!!!!!!

 

[RLeep2]

I more or less remember when I first posted here. I say "more or less" because like a lot of my memories these days, it is more like one of the components of a soup than a stand alone entrée. But I'm pretty sure it was after I graduated from high school, but before I re-married in 1997. Somewhere in there....

As these things (internet forums) go, it has been a very good place to hang out now and then. Dave is to be commended for the original notion as well as for sticking with it over the long haul. The same goes for the moderators over the years. This (online forums in general) is not an easy medium to manage. Many (perhaps a majority) get weird or crash and burn, but this site has been exceptional in the steadiness of the guiding hands on the rudder.

Congratulations and happy 20th to PAFF!

 

[FarmerDave]

McSneek wrote:
Maybe found this site around 1999 - 2000? As Maurice said, the wild, wild west but as someone who was pretty new to fly fishing at the time it was a big help. I've stuck around ever since. I used to post as SteveB but when the format changed someone else grabbed an account name similar to that so I switched to McSneek, the name of a fly from a Charles Fox short story.

Steve! I remember you, you McSneaky bastage!

 

[moon1284]

I used to work in DE (but commuted to WNY on most weekends) and this site was a great help for fishing in PA. I think I found this site around 2007. Since around 2011, I've worked in central NY (and still commute to WNY on the weekends) but I still frequent the site because I learn a lot from it.

Working on the road has many negatives, but a big plus is being able to fish new water that I otherwise wouldn't have tried. I have been fortunate and able to fish lots of rivers and streams in PA from State College east, from the MD to the NY borders.

This site really helped me identify new areas to fish and helped me focus on (mostly) productive areas. Even now, I make 2 or 3 trips a year to the SC and CV areas. There aren't many spring creeks in NY (aside from Long Island and who wants to go there?), and the best one has been decimated by bird predation the past two winters and is currently a shell of itself.

I've never fished with anyone from the site, but maybe that will change one day. Thanks to all.

 

[FarmerDave]

McSneek wrote:

krayfish2 wrote:
Weird, nobody mentioned missing LJ. LOL.

NO REBUTTAL!!!!!!!

Funny.
I remember him from way back. He was a very decent guy. My understanding is that his change to the angry LJ was not his fault. I remember him fondly. Does anyone know if he is still around somewhere?

P.S. Dibs on his bamboo flyrods.