Pineywoods Fly Fishers

                Founded 1988

    Chapter of the Southern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers

          Web Site http://home.sprynet.com/~waltermc

President: Jimmy Lee             Secretary/Treasurer: Ken Baker 

 From the President

Jimmy Lee

The summer of 2005 is upon us and with the heat and lack of rain has made fishing slow in some areas.  I have not heard any fishing reports from club members, but if the couple of trips I have made to Lake Nacogdoches are any indication the bite is very slow.  Still, as Ken Baker often says a bad day fishing is better than working. 

As discussed at the last meeting several changes have taken place with the Federation of Fly fishers.  The most notable change is in the price of membership.  Membership has gone from $29.00 to $35.00 per year, however if you are a member of an affiliated club that club will receive $3.00 from your membership.  All new members will receive a fishing package worth $50.00.  There are other notable changes and this will be presented after the annual Federation Conclave August 8-13. 

The annual community garage sale will be held July 9 and 10 at the Angelina Expo Center.   Persons who have booths are allowed to start setting up Friday July 8 after 3:00pm.   A majority of the club members present at the June meeting voted to participate in this year event.   Proceeds from the Garage sale items will be used to finance the trout stocking a Tonkawa Springs.  

Any and all items you or your neighbors no longer want or need, will be welcomed.   If you have an item that you want to sell but need the proceeds for the sale of the item, bring them on; set the minimum price you will take and the club will keep any monies above the base price you set.  In the past we have sold some strange items that no one expected to sell. 

The primary item needed is your help and assistance Saturday and Sunday.  If you can come give a couple of hours or all day that would be great.   The garage sale benefits everyone in the club and we need your help and assistance in this venture.  If all goes well this year with the garage sale, we plan to stock more and bigger trout. 

If you need assistance with getting items to the Expo give me a call and I will help and pick up the item.   My cell phone number is 936-554-2985 if no answer just wait and leave a message. 

From The Secretary     

Ken Baker 

We had the outing at the Heugel Haus on May 14.  As usual it was a fun time and Bill and Connie served us some great food.  Thanks to both of you. This year it was not only a fun outing, but we also held our annual tournament.  It was a little different due to the fact that the two anglers catching the most fish were declared the winners, regardless of whether they were fishing together or not.  Jay Renken and I were the winners with a total of 17 fish each caught. We also all used the same flies.  I had tied some foam spiders and Jay had tied the Bully spiders.  They were all tied alike and the same color, and each person picked their fly out of the box. I think it was fair and I think each person enjoyed it.  Jay and I will each get to keep the paddle for 6 months. 

We also had a new man fishing with us, William H. Jackson, of Newton.  Bill made it official and joined the club at the last meeting.  We also were glad to have Steve Watson, paid his dues and rejoin. 

Our Flea Market sale at the Expo Center in Lufkin will be July 9-10.  The club voted to once again participate and use the proceeds to finance the Trout Project at Camp Tonkawa. We need each person to participate.  We need your sale items and also need help in not only working during the sale, but also to help us in setting up on Friday and taking down on Sunday.  I know as we did last year that you will be able to pay a fee (last year $50.00) and be able to fish even if you did not work at the sale.  But we really need your help.  Some helped last year and did not fish much, that was their choice.  Most of us treat this as a club outing.  Come join us. 

We had a great program last month. I know someone will write about it, but I urge you to attend the monthly meetings and enjoy the information that we get from the programs. I hope you have been able to fish even though it is hot and dry.  Jay and I have been to Kurth Lake.  We caught several fish, although not as many as sometimes we do.  But we had fun. 

AS ALWAYS ," A BAD DAY FISHING BEATS A GOOD DAY WORKING.” 

From the Editor

Walter McLendon

I have just returned from three weeks at Camp Urland near Woodville where I taught the Fly Fishing Merit Badge along with Canoeing, Kayaking, Forestry and Engineering. I really enjoy working with the boys. Some are very intelligent and want to learn, while some just want to have fun. These boys know how to make the most of a great summer camp. Even though the first week was torture, it was unbelievably hot; I sweated for about an hour after walking up or down to the lake to teach my classes. We had a storm that blew trees down and a scout found a 5 ½ foot Timber Rattler was found. Did you know that our government released over 1,000 of them to make our lives more interesting in the woods? This one was about 30 inches from a boy when he spotted it. They found another scout milking a Copperhead in his tent. The second week boys actually wore light jackets during some mornings. On Sunday of the 3^rd week, it rained heavily for about an hour just after the boys put up their tents and several had to dry out their sleeping bags. There were about 4 more snakes found including a full grown Coral Snake.  

I am in the process of trying to get the last requirement dropped of the Fly Fishing Badge - catching two species of fish and cooking one, so I can spend more time teaching casting, the weakest area of the class. I only have one hour per day for 5 days to teach quite a bit; then the next week a new batch of scouts arrive. The canoeing class is actually first class, it should be divided into beginners and intermediate but I do my best at it. Have you ever done a canoe rescue? Watching four boys coordinating and lifting a capsized canoe onto an up-righted canoe to empty out the water is something to watch. Next week I return to take on the Cub Scouts, that should be an adventure. 

August 8-12 will be National Fly Fishing Week, if we would like to conduct an event to teach casting or something related. The FFF would be appreciative for they want to get all clubs involved and maybe the public will take notice and get interested. 

More on Saltwater

Bruce Sublett

Fly fishing the upper coast recently has been pretty frustrating.  The wind finally quit howling out of the South, but for the last month or so, the beachfront has been a mess of sargassum weed, which has made fishing difficult and has kept the water off color out to the third bar. 

I've been down twice in the last couple of weeks, hoping for a break.  The first time down (June 22-24), I started fishing the Bolivar flats about 9 a.m.  The water was pretty flat, but also weedy and off-color.  However, I caught two schoolie trout (about 13-inch fish) right away on a chartreuse/white clouser minnow.  Unfortunately, that was it for the next three days on the fly rod.  I did catch a few more small trout Friday morning, but all on conventional tackle.  I couldn't seem to find the right fly or retrieve to get them to hit.

Last week (July 29-30), I caught a ton of throwback trout and bluefish off the little beach between the north jetty and Ft. Travis.  There was still quite a bit of floating weed, but the water was clean and flat.  Once again, though, I couldn't connect with a fly.  I could catch a fish about every other cast on soft plastics, Mirro-lures, and hair jigs on conventional tackle, but for some reason they wouldn't hit a fly.  I think speed of retrieve may be the key--I'm fishing a "whip" retrieve with the casting rod that I can't seem to duplicate with the fly rod.

I finished the trip fishing live mullet in the third cut off Bolivar beach--the weed was temporarily gone and the water had some clean streaks moving in and out.  No trout, though; just a lot of small blacktip sharks.  I caught three in about a half hour, each one larger than the last up to about 24 inches, and that made me decide that being waist deep a quarter mile from the beach with a neck-deep trough to cross coming in wasn't where I wanted to be.  Also, the last time the surf was weed-free enough to fish from the beach, we caught a 3-foot bull shark. All in all, I've never seen so many sharks around as there are now, from 10-inch bait stealers up to the ones big enough to be a little scary.

I think it's just now time to start fishing the beach for trout--for the next 90 days, they ought to be pretty consistent when the water is right.  One of these times, I'll find the key to turn them on to the fly.

Editors note:  Bruce, it may be time to try out kayak fishing to avoid the sharks and get you through the neck-deep cuts.  

Programs

Linda McLendon

Walter received a nice video on the proper handling and releasing of fish from his friend Terry Edelmann who was a guide from California who moved to Brownsville a few years ago. Terry moved to Oregon recently and made the video and sent us a copy for our library. It is entitled Catch & Release but it is more in depth than we have been taught. To learn more about Terry visit http://www.sugarcreekranch.com/clinicsedelmann.htm and http://www.edelmannadventures.com/ We can view the video at our meeting if you like. See you there. 

Monthly club meeting are held in the Lufkin Room, Lufkin Mall at 7 PM, the program for the first hour and then door prizes and fishing discussions until 9 PM.

Club Calendar

2005:

Jul 8-9     PWFF Annual Garage Sale

Jul 15-17 Grand Isle Outing  LA

Aug 8-12 National Fly Fishing Week -           (we need a project??)

Aug 8-13 FFF Conclave  Livingston, MT

Sep 17     Calvary Sportsman Expo

Oct 6-8    Conclave  Mountain Home, AR

Oct 21-23 Oktober Fest in Fredericksburg 

Nov 1      PWFF Monthly Meeting – Jerry Loring, wading & kayaking the Gulf Coast

Nov 4-6   Rendezvous  North Toledo Bend State Park, LA

Dec 3       PWFF Christmas Party

Newsletter

Send your articles, photos and other material to mailto:[email protected] or mail to Walter McLendon 139 Lancewood Circle, Lufkin, TX 75904. I can scan your photos and return them at the next meeting. If you know of any future events or activities of interest, please send them to me. Monthly article deadlines are set on the 25^th of the month so the newsletter can be completed by the Thursday preceding our Tuesday meeting.