President Kenneth Baker

V-President Royce Feaster Chapter of the Southern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers

Sec./Tres. Bill Heugel MEMBER

Founded 1988 April 2001


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PWFF

OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, April 21, 2001

Chamber of Commerce Building



Featured Guest : Brian Gambill

of G & W Guide Service

1100 N. Shore

Little Elm, Texas 75068

972-294-3202



9:00 - 11:30 Guest Tyer - Brian Gambell

11:00 - 1:00 Hamburger Cookout (Feaster)

1:00 - 2:30 Guest Tyer

2:30 - 4:00 Casting Contest ( Jay Renken)

4:30 - 6:00 Break

6:00 - 7:00 Covered Dish Meal (everyone)

7:00 - 7:45 Slide Presentation - B Gambill

7:45 - Til - Auction - Rod winner will be awarded last.

Raffle items will be offered during the day.

Tickets are $1.00 @ or 6 for $5.00.

An Orvis Rod made for the club by Jay Renken will be raffled. Tickets are $5.00 each.

Raffle Tickets and Rod tickets will be sold by Bill Heugel.

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Heugel Haus Outing

April 7th

Saturday



Starts as soon as you can get there ( Bill hopes it won't be before 6 A M )

Bill & Conni says "the meal is furnished"



Directions to my house.

From Lufkin come to Hemphill and head south on 87. Turn left at 3315. About 3 or 4 miles down turn left at Oakridge.

About � mile to Heugel Haus. The community is called Fairmount. There are some excellent Maps available on the web at http://www.maptech.com. When you get to the web site you need to go to the map server section. This will provide topographic maps of the area including the lake and my cove. I will be up and have coffee available about 6:15.

Bill

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SCATTERSHOTS

From The Prez



Our last meeting began with an excellent program given by Richard Donovan on his canoe trip down the Neches River. I know Bill Heugel will have a detailed report so I will just say it was a very good report and I know each one of us enjoyed it.

Our emphasis is on our coming Open House to be held April 21, 2001 at the Chamber of Commerce Building. Our guest will be Brian Gambill of G & W Guide service

on Lake Fork. Royce & I were fortunate to see his slide presentation at the Conclave last year and I know you will enjoy watching him tie flies and visiting with him. I look forward to having him with us. He will present his program that night after our covered dish dinner. I know not only our members and spouses, but also any guest will enjoy it.

We will finish the day with our annual Auction. Many of our members as well as some other donors will some very nice items to bid on.

Other things to look for are the casting contest, conducted by Jay Renken, which sill feature a challenging contest consisting of distance and accuracy casting with either hand.

I urge you once again to bring items for our raffle as well as items for the night auction. If we have enough flies, we might offer some as door prizes given during the day.

One of the highlights will be the raffle of an Orvis 3 weight fly rod that was made by Jay Renken. The tickets will be $5.00 each and will be on sale at the April meeting and will be sold right up to the drawing at the end of the Auction.

I know we will have a good meal as we have our members bring their favorite dishes, We always have a great day, and I urge each member to take part.

We signed up two new members at the last meeting: Tina Murray- husband Gerald

299 Johnny Ave. Pollok, Texas 75969. Also

Patrick Dewane - wife Jane 308 Sawgrass Cir.

Lufkin, Texas 75901

We welcome you to The PWFF.

Our next outing will be our annual visit to Heugel's House on April 7th. We always have a good time visiting and fishing together. There are driving directions given by Bill in this newsletter.

I know fishing in some areas has been lousy due to the cold weather and rain, as well as wind. Maybe some of you have been able to fish somewhere and we can have some reports at our meeting.

We also are finalizing plans for the all day Saturday fly tying class. It is something different for us, but I understand some other clubs have tried it with some success. It is hard to set a time that fits everyone's schedule. I hope you will give this a try. If it doesn't work, we will not do it again. We will try to tie simple flies for the beginning tyer, and maybe advance as far as possible. A date has not been set, but Bill Heugel is working out a plan and a list of materials. We will put out the word soon. Our plans are to have lunch together and staying into the afternoon.

Be sure and bring your tied flies to the next meeting so you can take part in our club drawing. You can also get in on the drawing by putting in a dollar if you don't have a fly.



Remember: "A Bad Day Fishing Is Still Better Than A Good Day Working!"



Subject: Nomination for the Dick Nelson Fly Tying Instructor Award.

Michael Verduin



Last year was the first year that the Federation of Fly Fishers awarded the Dick Nelson Fly Tying Award. I nominated Michael Verduin for the award (See a draft of the 2000 nomination letter that I send in below). As I understand, the competition for this award was very stiff and will probably be even stiffer this year. The criteria for all 2001 Federation Awards can be found at:

http://www.fedflyfishers.org/ClubhelpFFF1.htm#announce

Michael more than meets all the awards criteria. In fact in my opinion, the criteria seem to have been written with Michael in mind.

This year, I am asking that you join me in writing a nomination of Michael for this award. If you do support this nomination, please send in a "Letter of Nomination" which justifies your support. Remember that these letters must convince council presidents, many of whom have never seen or heard of Michael but do know members in their own councils who also more than qualify for this prestigious award. Therefore, please don't just copy my draft, but write original cases from your experiences with Michael that are justification for "your" nomination of Michael.

As you know Michael is undergoing a very tough time, and I know for a fact that if Michael were to receive this award, it would mean a lot to him.

Don't delay too long. It is a natural tendency to put off things like this, and then we regret that we didn't get around to it. So, talk it up with others in your club/council and enlist their input also.



Thank you for your time and support in this effort.



Kyle Moppert

P.S.

I do apologize to those tyers and other friends of Michael's, who I have not sent this directly to, but I don't have the email addresses for a number of people to whom I'd like to send this. Therefore, please review the addresses above and then pass this on to Michael's friends whose email addresses that you may have, and please don't relay any information of this to Michael.

Thanks again,

Kyle





THE DICK NELSON FLY TYING TEACHING AWARD - This award is to be presented to an individual who excels in teaching the art of fly tying to all skill levels. The criteria are as follows:

A. Must be a member of the FFF in good standing for a minimum of five years.

B. Must be able to demonstrate and teach the varied skills of fly tying not necessarily an innovator. But able to teach techniques developed by others or themselves to tiers of all skill levels.

C. Must have experience teaching both in group and individual environments.

D. Service to the Federation may either be at the national, council or club level.

E. The person should embody the spirit of the Federation, imparting both not only a love of fly tying, but also of fly-fishing and the conservation of the resource.

F. The person should have not previously won this award.



Nomination Letter from

Kyle Moppert



To the Federation of Fly Fisher Awards Committee,



Like a number of Federators, last week I received an e-mail from the Federations Award Chair, Rhea Topping. Rhea was warning us that the deadline for Federation Awards Nominations for 2000, was fast approaching on May 3rd. Rhea also suggested possible nominees for several awards, including the Federation's newest award, the Dick Nelson Teaching Award.

At last year's National Conclave in Gatlinburg, I had the pleasure of meeting and spending a good deal of time with Dick Nelson's son, David Nelson. When David told me of his proposal for a new FFF award for teaching, he described it in terms of a means of recognizing those individuals who, like his father, rose from the ranks of the Federation clubs to unselfishly share their time, skills, and talents with the members of this organization. David envisioned this award as being designed for those individuals who fulfilled a passion for imparting the knowledge and craft of this sport to others in the Federation.

He did not want it to be another trophy for the "pro" flyfishers. The Federation already has a number of other venues for these members and friends of the Federation, but rather this should be a recognition of lifetime achievements in teaching for the Federation's "regular guy" instructors. We all know such individuals in our club, council, or regions. Most have no plaques or awards from outside their own small circle. It is from the ranks of these individuals, that this Federation award was envisioned.

I remember first meeting the person that I would like to nominate about 14 years ago while tying at a Federation conclave. He was quietly tying small, beautiful, innovative, uniquely sculpted deerhair bugs. Many other demonstration tyers were crafting alluring, but very complicated, "show bugs". But this individual had a sparkle in his eye as he "walked' the people who sat in front of his tying station through the "how-to" of the techniques and the logic behind his unique creations. Those are not unusual traits of the hundreds of Federation demonstration tyers, but what set him apart was that even then, he was considered a "teacher" to a number of the other demonstration tyers.

As the years since that conclave have passed, I've had the honor of calling this man my friend. He has initiated to fly tying and/or helped to hone the skills of many of the innovative Federation demonstration tyers which have come from Texas and Louisiana in the last few years. I've seen him at every Texas and Southern Council Conclave, as well as, the South Eastern Council Conclaves. He's participated and taught all comers at every Toledo Bend Rendezvous, usually until the wee hours of the morning. He co-founded the "Road Kill Roundtable", which is a weekly tying session with an open chair policy that he's chaired for quite a few years.

For more than the last ten years, he has repeatedly taught at almost every Federation club throughout his home state of Texas and at nearly every club in Louisiana, as well as, Federation clubs in other states in both the Southern and South Eastern Councils. A simple phone call to him from a Federation club officer is all that it has ever taken, and he would do whatever it took to be at that Federation club's meeting or event.

Often he's driven all night, 3, 5, or 7 or more hours, in order to take a short nap and then to tie and teach tying all day for a Federation event or club. He'll usually then donate a collection of previously tied masterpieces to that club, for their fund-raising efforts. He'll then disappear into the night for the return trip home. I've seen him do this not just a few times, but over and over and over again, year after year.

An amazing thing about this man is that, as an injecting diabetic for more than 30 years, he cannot do these "road trips" alone. Due to health concerns, he must have a friend accompany him on these travels, and there always seems to be one of his friends and/or students who are gladly willing to travel with him so that he can teach another class to another Federation club.

Not a wealthy individual, he often has to take time off from his work in order to be of service to the clubs. I've never heard of him utilizing these teaching sessions as a means of personal profit by arranging private lessons or selling flies. Quite the contrary, in the true spirit of the Federation of Fly Fishers, he presents all the flies that he ties at these sessions to the students. He usually refuses to let a the club provide him with a hotel room or money for materials and has to be pressured to even accept any money for gas.

As an amateur naturalist and entomologist, he collects the creatures of the Class Insecta and Crustacea for later study and illustration for his students. Once on the way to a Federation club's function on the Louisiana coast, he begged me to stop on Interstate 10, so that he could collect the very large black and red lubber grasshoppers that we could see in the roadway's median. Even though I'm an entomologist, I've never seen a man in his fifties get so excited about a bunch of grasshoppers! He just kept talking about how thrilled his tying students in Texas were going to be when they saw those huge Louisiana Lubbers.

As one of the kindest, gentlest, most humble souls that I've ever had the honor of knowing, he doesn't need this award. He's already thought of with the greatest regard by hundreds of Federation club members throughout the Federation's two largest councils as one of their "favorite" instructors.

With this said, I would hereby like for the Awards Committee to consider presenting the Dick Nelson Teaching Award to Lewisville Texas's,

Mr. Michael Verduin.



Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Kyle Moppert



Outings Report

by Jimmy Lee

This past weekend the Brazos Valley Fly Fishers held their first outing of the year at

Houston County Lake. They invited our club to join them in a joint outing and three of our

members did attend. The fishing was a little off and it rained late Saturday afternoon, but

the fellowship and food was great. Walter, Linda, and I attended and had a very good time.

There is something about a group of men and women sitting around a huge camp fire that brings out the best in everyone and we had a huge fire both Friday and Saturday night. The tall tales, laughter, and the sharing of fishing tips was worth the trip. BVFF had 13 members present, which is about their average for the first trip to the lake each year. I fished

Friday afternoon and Saturday till about 2:30 PM. I caught several small bass, crappie, and

blue gill. I considered this a very successful fishing trip. We also found out who the real fisherman (person) is in the McLendon family!! Linda caught what is probably the Houston County Lake record Red Ear. Needless to say Walter is still hearing about the size and beauty of the fish. Linda will submit the fish for the record book before our meeting.

Congratulations Linda!!!!!



Up Coming Events:

Our first outing of the year will be at Bill Heugel's house on Saturday April 7. This is always a great outing and lots of fun. Bill supplies the lunch, bring your own drinks and lawn chair and have a good time. The fishing is usually great. Bring your boat, float tub, kayak, canoe, or fish from the bank, but come share in the fun and fishing. Come early and stay as late as Bill will allow. A map to Bills place should be attached, if not we will have hand outs at the meeting.

Don't forget about our open house on the 21st of April. We expect to have a good day of learning new files, and improving our casting techniques. The day will be topped off with

an evening meal and the chance to bid on some great prizes.

We have an outing planned for the 5th of May also. This is supposed to be a float trip on the Angelina River, because of the rains we may have to change locations. They may still be letting too much water out of the lake at that time. If the site is changed we will notify everyone.

See you at the meeting or on the water.



March Meeting Report

by Bill Heugel



Linda McLendon has done an outstanding job lining up programs for our meetings. It's a tough job and she has always come up with something interesting. This month's program was by Richard Donavon. He is an environmentalist and the program was on his 26 day trip down the Neches River by canoe from below Palestine dam to Lake Steinhagen.

He made the trip in October of 1999. At that time the water in the river was very low and he had many physical obstacles go over and portage around.

His purpose for the trip was to promote the Neches as a special river which would be destroyed by the construction of the Rockland dam. Newspaper and TV coverage of his trip had been provided. The few people he came across on the trip were very friendly and supportive of his efforts

Richard had kept a journal of the trip and he quoted from the journal as a part of the program. His descriptions were vivid as he talked about the plants, the river, the camp sites and the animals he saw. There were several stretches of the trip that had a maze of waterways where he had to struggle through to find the main channel. One of the benefits of the low water was that there were no mosquitoes and that the wildlife had to come to the river for water. He closed the program with some slides he had taken on the trip..

One interesting discussion was on an old Spanish Fort which was supposed to have gold stored in caves and in cannon barrels which were dumped into the river. So far no gold!!.

He is thinking about another trip but with more company. Walter is ready to sign up.



The flies were won by Jared Satterwhite and the door prize by Doug Douglas.





Open Invitation to the Clubs of the

Southern Council Federation of

Fly Fishers



As we enter the new millennium it seems befitting for each of us to enjoin our fishing and FFF membership with new vigor. To this end we invite everyone to join Flyfishing's 2001 Odyssey, by coming to Mountain Home, Arkansas, October 5th and

6th. Old or young, practiced or novice, come one and all to join the party. What a joy it will be to enter this new age with each club actively involved in our celebration.

First and foremost we want each of you to attend the Conclave. Secondly, we request each alliance send a representative program. Our goal is to have all clubs of the Southern Council deliver a presentation from within their ranks about fly fishing in home areas, casting, knots, fly tying, pursuing unusual species in particular ways, whatever energizes the fishers in your neighborhood. We suggest that every club has a program to share. We know that every group is organized around quality fishing and people who have stories to be told.

Thirdly, for this occasion, we implore that every club donate items to the Conclave's auction. Again, we are particularly interested in items which represent your place in the world. The money raised goes to support the education and conservation programs of the Southern Council which benefit us and the sport overall. In this, the Odyssey of the coming millennium, we seek the pleasure of your company and good spirits.

Sodie

check us out on the web

http://personal.wamego.net/~sodies/







Letter from Fort Worth Fly Fishers



Dear fellow fly fishers:

Each year FWFF holds an auction as a fund raising event. These donated items are sold to support our efforts in training the next generation of fly fishers and fly tyers. My question is...would the tyers in your club be interested in tying their favorite fly or signature fly, if they have one? Or the flies that work best in your area. I am sending this letter to all clubs in the Southern Council. My goal is to get at least one dozen flies from each club to auction at our fundraiser.

Please include tyer's name, name of fly and recipe if possible. We would be glad to reciprocate when you have your fund raising event. Cordially,

Richard Thomas

RR 1 Box 674-S

Morgan, TX 76671 [email protected] (254) 622-3409



Brian Jones

8515 Grapevine Hwy - Apt 1704

North Richland Hills, TX 76180 [email protected] (817) 788-2606



BVFF Outing to HCL

by W. McLendon



We just completed a great weekend outing to Houston County Lake with the Brazos Valley Fly Fishers! Linda made her mark with a new lake record Redear of 10 1/4 inches. That is pretty good among such an avid bunch of fly fishers who continuously set lake records. They are now trying to induct her into their club.

Jimmy Lee joined Linda and me representing our club. Constance Whiston came from the Austin club, so we had 14 in all, renting 3 cabins plus sleeping in pickup shells. These guys really know how to have a cookout. Everyone brought their share of ingredients for Friday night's World Famous BVFF Sausage Wraps and Saturday Night's Chicken/Beef Kabob's.

I don't know which is most fun, fishing in a great lake or sitting around a campfire exchanging stories with great company. The water was really murky, nearly chocolate which made catching interesting. I managed a nice bass right on the heals of Linda's record catch. I had a # 10 Renegade on with a #10 brown nymph dropper. The dry caught sunfish and the nymph caught bass. Joe Autry came with us from Richland-Chambers. Joe is well know for catching lunkers on trout flies. When you see and listen to him talk, you would never guess a Prince Nymph to be one of his three favorite lake flies. Joe told stories about his flying days in Vietnam. Not war stories but interesting flying stories including crashes, in interesting aircraft, even off carriers. The women balanced the discussions with Denise Watson talking about her upcoming dissertation for her doctorate degree. With College Deans, professors, ISD teachers and well traveled fly fishers continuously injecting new subjects, things never slow down until the sleepy eyes head for their bunks.

I hope you all had as good a weekend and can join us sometime in the future.


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

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April 7th Heugel Haus Outing. Toledo Bend at Bill Heugel's home.

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April 21th PWFF Open House at the Chamber of Commerce Building 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM

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May 1st PWFF Meeting in the Lufkin Room in

the Lufkin Mall. 7:00 PM sharp

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May 5 - 6th Float Fishing trip on the Angelina River

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June 2nd Tag Team Tournament at Kurth Lake

7:00 AM to Noon

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

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

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

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August 11-12 Tentative date for the Expo Garage Sale (More later)

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

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

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October 5-6 Southern Council Conclave in Mt. Home , Arkansas

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

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December 8th ???? 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