SCATTERSHOTS

From The Prez

Jack Holder gave the program at the

last meeting. He talked about the procedures that must be followed in order to set an international fly fishing record. Jack is a member of the International Game Fish Association. He made a very good presentation. Thanks Jack.

The weather has not been good for fishing lately as we are finally getting a good amount of rain. Maybe before long we can get back on the water.

Our Christmas meeting will be December 2, 2000 at 6:00 p.m. at thee Chamber of Commerce building. Bring a covered dish and a gift to be exchanged. We always have a lot of fun at this meeting and I hope all of you will come. This will be the only meeting we will have in December. If you have any questions about what to bring please call either Linda McLendon or Ken Baker.

Our tying classes have been postponed for awhile. Maybe after the first of the year we can begin again. Be thinking of the time to hold these sessions. We need to know what you as club members desire to do and how often to meet.

I still hope to be able to meet with Jimmy Lee and have an outing calender compiled by the January meeting.

Dues for the coming year are now due. If you have not paid your $20.00 please do so soon. You can mail them to:

Pineywoods Fly Fishers

P.O. Box 153651

Lufkin, Texas 75915-3651.

This can also be taken care of at the December meeting.

I hope to see you December 2^nd and

remember as always "A Bad Day Fishing Is Better Than A Good Day Working."

The following part of this article is from the editor half of my job:

I am wondering if any of our members have been fly fishing recently? I know I haven't. I am wondering if any of our members have been fishing with any other methods? I know I haven't.

I wonder how many of our members and friends were at The North Toledo Bend Rendevous? I heard several people talking about the meeting, but no one wrote an article for the newsletter so I have nothing to report to the members.

I wonder if anyone has an article they would like to send me {the editor} for the next newsletter? I would sure like to hear from y'all. I know of a couple of you who have said that you wanted to inform the club about something on your mind concerning our fishing. Come on and write it down, e-mail it, hand it to me, any way you want to get it to me. I can check the spelling, and no one will know.

This is from the V-P half of my job:

I do hope each of you had a very Happy Thanksgiving. We had 12 family members at our house celebrating on Friday. My wife wore herself out baking and mixing and etc. I got up at 6:00 AM and started the turkey to cooking in our smoker. And everyone went home stuffed. Since over half of the family members present at our house were Aggies, we watched the A & M - UT game. That was the only bad happening at our Thanksgiving celebration. Just wait 'till next year.

Since I have nothing to say about our fishing, I will close out by saying: Have a good one!

Welcome New Member

Gary M. Lauter & Glenda, 2215 Copeland Road, Tyler, TX 75701 903-592-3135, cell 903-521-9331. [email protected] Gary is a member of the East Texas FF in Longview and is looking for more places to fish. He is a beginner to fly fishing, has been tying flies for about 6 months and he has built a fly rod already. Gary owns a new Old Town 16 foot canoe. He is retired and his hobbies are fishing, hunting and golf. He is very interested in joining us in all our activities and even helping in our youth education projects!

Gary has had a heart transplant but seems quite healthy. His legs get tired after a while and he needs to take occasional breaks like many of us but he will be an excellent fishing partner. Remember, he lives near Tyler State Park and Lake Tyler, and he would welcome a call from any of us who would like to fish with him around Tyler or jump in his vehicle to fish near us.

We hope to all meet Gary and Glenda at our Christmas Party on the 2nd.

Texas Seminar in Junction

by W. McLendon

I just returned from an enjoyable two days on the Llano River in Junction, Texas at the Texas Tech campus. We held round robin sessions with 23 members from 10 Texas fly fishing clubs. Presidents, newsletter editors and membership officers were invited to attend. Since some of these positions could not attend, subjects included were outings and other functions. We split into three groups, presidents, newsletters and others.

Some of the important ideas I came away with were:

Clubs want to communicate with each other more and join each other's outings when and where possible. Club presidents want to have a separate channel to communicate with each other and line up continuous communications.

Club officers should be responsible for club business and limit business exposure to monthly meetings. Most members are not interested in business details or voting on things to do. They expect programs, activities and projects to be offered to them.

Clubs should have quality programs and more outings.

Start emailing our newsletter to clubs exchanging newsletters.

Specific Ideas expressed/club:

Have Dutch Over cooking at outings or events. The Texas Dutch Oven organization near Spring Texas joined with Montgomery County FR to have outings together. This has nearly doubled club attendance.

"Celebrity Chef " Invite a local restaurant chef to cook fish or their specialty. This has brought nearly every wife to join their husband. Texas FF.

Quality speakers have increased monthly attendance and brought in more members. Jack Sparks FF.

Get "fishing success" into outings. Find places to fish where results are guaranteed. Take new members there to teach fly fishing, casting and presentation. Taking a new member to a lake without any catching results in intimidation. Getting a "fish on" without the perfect fly, cast or location "hooks" the member into the club. Texas FF

Outings chairman responsible for all new members. On organized outings, split off experienced fishers who refuse to help others, fishers with boats who will help others, and all beginners. Let refusers fish on their own, helpers take new members who can already cast and fish and the outings chairman takes all new members through casting lessons. This works best in stocked ponds or small lakes where catching is easy. Texas FF.

Outings Chairman does NOT do outings! He or she solicits two volunteer hosts for each scheduled outing. Hosts then arrange everything well in advance of their outing. If needed, they cook or bring necessary foods and snacks or reserve cabins for overnight outings and collect cash in advance when necessary at meetings. Austin FF & Brazos Valley FF.

Don't book paid or important speakers in June, July or August (especially August). All clubs agreed attendance is too low.

For free monthly meeting rooms plus casting area, contact local the university or college (or church) and arrange an "annual contract" guaranteeing access. Ft Worth FF.

Conduct free banquets rather than charge. Some clubs said their members will not pay for meals while the Austin FF charges $45 per person (about $10 club profit) and gets 50 plus attendance. They consider this a management nightmare because they never know how many are coming until the last minute but they manage make a big club profit. Montgomery County FR charges $19 per person (actual restaurant charge with gratuity) and has a successful event.

Have one annual grand outing complete with food or guide service. Texas FF

Instead of a board of directors, elect 3 trustees to control the club business. Conduct elections annually with staggered 3 year terms. Pull trustees mostly from new members and roll them into club officer positions after tenure. Dallas FF

Join the Texas Bass Club that contracts all the hot fishing private lakes in Texas. If our club joins then individual dues are waived but you still pay about $15 per lake to fish. Some lakes have lodging and their fees can vary. Texas FF

Most clubs have about 6 outings per year. The Texas FF has 18 (11 freshwater & 7 salt), Brazos Valley FF has 11 plus several impromptu outings. PWFF was the only club with 3 outings.

I enjoyed this seminar very much. We have an opportunity to link closer to our Texas neighbor clubs to share info and outings. We will be working on a way to communicate between clubs so that if you want to fish a particular lake, river or coastal spot in Texas, you can look up each club's outing schedule and contact their designated person to join them there. It will be like having a guided trip.

The Austin FF asked many questions about a future Texas Conclave and they intend to look into hosting one in Austin. Many of their members have previously expressed the desire to host one. It was agreed that all our Texas clubs should offer some help in organizing and conducting the Conclave. Volunteering might require a couple of hours of a duty to relieve another worker so he or she can enjoy the activities too. A Texas Conclave would solve the problem of logistics with the Mountain Home Conclave that our most coastal clubs have.

We were so impressed with the Texas Tech facilities that we discussed the possibility of reserving the facility for a big joint club outing to fish the Llano River sometime. Visit HYPERLINK http://www3.tltc.ttu.edu/junction http://www3.tltc.ttu.edu/junction to see their campus. We also learned there are two other nearly identical facilities in Texas, one on Lake Texoma.

Can You Play a Guitar?

By W. McLendon

I must first confess that I know nothing about guitars and I own two of them. My mother once asked me, if she bought me a guitar and paid for lessons would I learn? I refused! I was in Junior High, where on a rainy day, when we could not play outdoors, we were either herded into dance classes or a room to hear guitar playing. I hated dancing with girls with bad breath and could not identify with any of the "hill billy" or "country" music the guitarist played. My mother loved Eddie Arnold! This was about 1950.

In 1957, after High School, I fell in love with the folk songs of the time and the new rock and roll music featuring guitars. After the Army and back in college, my roommates played excellent guitar music and I found that Chet Atkins was a so-so artist but there were much better ones (I can not recall the names). When Mark Hansche lived across the street from me, he loaned me tapes of who he considered the best guitarists in the world. They reminded me of hippy or rock music but I could tell that the guitarist knew how to strum the strings.

Well at the Texas Seminar in Junction on Friday night, we were fortunate to just be there when James Bogle and Uros Dojcinovic performed right in our cafeteria after our dinner. I'm sure you recognize these two guitarist, right? Dr. James Bogle is the director of the guitar program at Texas Tech for 26 years now. He has played the guitar for 40 years, winning first place in many, many competitions. His students have done the same in Russia, Europe, Far East and the U.S. This only touches on his biography! I have it in case anyone would like a copy.

Uros began his first concert at age 8 in Yugoslavia. After 300 compositions (30 of his own) and winning every award in Europe, it seems, and performing all over the world, he and James teamed up to do concert tours since 1991. They start with music from the 1400's & 1500's through the 1800's and early 1900's into their own compositions. When James and Uros were playing, I kept noticing that sometimes James would strum the last strings with his left hand fingers while holding the frets down! Uros had to leave the room after about 30 minutes of duos with James to prepare for his solo. James then played for about 15 minutes. He played one piece that literally elevated the guitar into another world. With my crude ear and appreciation, I heard something I have never heard before from a guitar. Uros returned with only three solos but on the second one his right hand never touched the guitar!!!!!!!! His left hand held the frets and strummed the strings with a complicated piece that most guitarists probably would have problems playing with two hands. Our jaws were on the floor!

I ate breakfast with James and Uro and we compared fly tying history with guitar history. I loved it even though most of James' words and explanations were way above my head in discussing how music writing began and evolved since 1200 AD.

The Gary LaFontaine Medical Fund

FRED BUNCH Member Texas Fly Fishers, Houston(Taken from Greycliff homepage, Gary's publishing company)

Gary LaFontaine, a pioneer in modern fly fishing theory and technique, is in the fight of his life with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). Together we've raised nearly $18,000 for the fight against ALS. But now, Gary personally needs your help. There are some huge medical

costs associated with ALS that are over and above Gary's insurance package. In addition, Gary will be traveling to the John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore for new therapies, which are not covered.

Umpqua Feather Merchants has mounted a fund raising effort to assist Gary in his fight to overcome this disease. Umpqua and Greycliff invite anyone and everyone in the fly fishing community to join them in this effort by making a contribution payable to the Gary LaFontaine Medical Fund.

If you want to help Gary personally, please mail a check or money order to:

The Gary LaFontaine Medical Fund

c/o Pioneer Federal Savings

PO Box 191

Deer Lodge, MT 59722

Texas Women Fly Fishers

Texas Women Fly Fishers

"A new fly fishing club for women"

Our next combination meeting & outing will be January 26, 27 & 28

The Texas Women Fly Fishers meets six times per year in various locations all over Texas.

For more information call:

Constance Whiston

512-916-4393 or email: [email protected]

Watch for our web site coming soon!

From The Lufkin Daily News

Sunday, November 26, 2000

Two Texas Largemouths Die

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Remember!

Mark your calender for our club meetings, Every First Tuesday of each Month,

7:00 P M in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall.

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Calender

Outings and Events

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December 2^nd Christmas Meeting

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January 2^nd PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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February 6^th PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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March 6^th PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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April 3^rd PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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May 1^st PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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June 5^th PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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July 3^rd PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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August 7^th PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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September 4^th PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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October 2^nd PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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November 6^th PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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December 8^th ???? Christmas Meeting

Chamber of Commerce Building 6:00 PM.

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More Club Calendar to follow as dates confirmed

(Check your calender, There have been several dates that have been changed)

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Outings: Jimmy Lee

Library: Jay Renken

Conservation: Gene Sullivan

Programs: Linda McLendon

Membership: Walter McLendon

Editor: Royce Feaster

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Art work used by permission of Dave and Emily Whitlock

WET A LINE.... SOON!