Pineywoods Fly Fishers
Founded 1988
Chapter
of the Southern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers
Web page http//freepages.outdoors.rootsweb.com/~wem1
President: Kenneth Baker V-President: Royce R Feaster Sec/Tres: Bill Heugel
May 2002
We had
another outstanding program at the April meeting. Captain Chris Philips gave a slide presentation on Fly
Fishing Salt Water. He gave
some very good information on locations, equipment, casting tips, fly selection,
etc. I am sure there is
another report in this newsletter, so I will just say it must have been a good
program as Jared Satterwhite and Steve Watson contracted with him for a fishing
trip. We will be looking
forward to a glowing report from them when they return.
We also had an outstanding workshop April 20th. If you had to miss it, you missed an opportunity to hear Tom Nixon tell his experiences fly fishing and to watch him tie some simple, but outstanding flies. He also gave two slide presentations: one in the afternoon and the other that night. He also had his book on sale and he sold several copies. A copy of his book is now in our library. He also donated a copy, along with many of his flies for our auction. His visit was well appreciated.
We also had another very good lunch provided by the club and cooked by Jimmy Lee and Jay Renken. We had hamburgers and hot dogs; and they were excellent! Good Job, Guys.
Jay Renken had another very interesting casting contest. Each person cast to five rings at different distances, and each person was timed. Several members had very good times, but the winner was Paul Steinbach with a time of 40 seconds. This was Paul’s second straight win.
We also had a hair (deer) dying demonstration by Bill Heugel assisted by Linda McLendon and several others. Several of us came away with samples.
After the day’s activities ended, we awarded several raffle items to the lucky winners. There were some very good items contributed from our members including some very good flies, books, tie downs, caps, and many other items.
After a very good covered dish supper and Tom Nixion’s slice presentation, we had a very spirited auction which featured fly selections tied by club members, a vest and rain jacket donated by hook & Hackle, fly selections by Tom Nixion, a fishing shirt, a very beautiful tying desk and tool caddy, several very good saddles, a beautiful musky fly donated by Dan Edwards, As well as a beautiful fly plate donated by our own Bill Heugel. I am now the proud owner of that item. Actually, my wife, Gwen, made the winning bid. The last function at the workshop was the drawing for the “Brian Gambill Guided Fly Fishing Trip To Lake Fork”. The winner was a very happy Hugh Bell. He will make arrangements to fit his time schedule, so we also look for a good report from him in the near future.
Everyone had a good time and The PWFF even made some money. I hope you can make the workshop in 2003, and I know it will make you a better Fly Fisherman.
Our next activity will be our annual outing at Bill Heugel’s house on Saturday, May 4th. I hope you get this newsletter before then as instructions and directions will be in it. This is always one of our better outings.
I know several have been fishing, so be sure to bring a report and a tied fly for our drawing at the May 7th meeting, and remember,
“A Bad Day Fishing Beats A Good Day Working”.
P.S. Friday , April 26th was a good day fishing.
Some Raffle
Items
And The Winners
Donor Item Winner
K. Baker Fly Selection Hugh Bell
S. Sherrod Fly Selection George Reed
R. Feaster Fishing Trip Buddy Price
B. Heugel Fly Selection Carrie Haliberg
S. Sherrod Fly Selection Paul Steinbach
B. Heugel Fly Selection Carrie Haliberg
S. Sherrod Fly Selection Linda McLendon
R. Feaster Fishing Books Jimmy Lee
W. McLendon Tie Downs Jimmy Lee
Tom Nixion Point .56-fly Jimmy Lee
J. Lee Hackle Case Royce Feaster
J. Lee Rubber Legs Etc. Bill Heugel
J. Lee Fly Fish 2002 Cap Bill Heugel
My trip
to Lake Fork! It was great!
I have never indulged in a guided fishing trip. My wife and two sons decided to give this trip to me as a Christmas gift. Wow! I never realized what it would be like.
I drove up to Quitman, Texas the day before and got settled into my room at the OakRidge Motel there on the lake. This is where Brian Gambill arranges to meet his clients at 6: AM in the café.
The next morning , Brian and I met and had breakfast together and left the boat dock about 6: 45. Brian changed out the leader on my new, just finished, 8#, fly rod and then tied on the popper we were going to start out using. We had to contend with a pretty good breeze most of the morning, and Brian graciously stated that the breeze was probably the cause of my casting problem. I was so excited that I couldn’t control my target area very well.
After we moved on into a more sheltered area, Brian began to show me bedding bass. He stood on the deck and called my targets and helped me that way. When we got into some bedding areas, Brian tied one of his rabbit tail flies onto a 6# Scott rod he had in the boat (he stated that he kept 4 rods in the boat at all times… 6# thru 11# for client use if needed). Even after I began to recognize bass on the bed, I could not see the fly very well, so Brian tried to tell me when the bass picked up the fly and when to strike. When I got trash on the fly, He would just grab the line as I brought it in and clean the fly himself. He wouldn’t even let me do that.
At lunch, we came back to the café and ate and rested a short while. Then it was back out across the lake to other areas. My catch record for the day went like this: first fish weighted 4.20 # on his digital scales, 2 thru 4 weighted in at 3 # each. I lost three bigger than my 4 lb. One. Brian said they would have gone 5# and slightly over. I will take his word at that. Two of them got my line tangled around a stump and pulled off. The third one went under a log and snagged a knob on the bottom of the log and pulled off. We saw two LARGE bass that could have eaten my 4 lb fish.
We saw a 12 foot alligator, two raccoons, one very looong snake, and several beautiful pelicans. We watched a large, male crappie herding the female crappie into his nest for propagation. We watched 4lb,male bass herding 8 lb, female bass into the nest, also.
Twice my hand and arm got so tired that I handed Brian the rod and told him to fish until I got some blood back into my casting arm. The first time I gave it to him,. He caught a bass of about 5 lbs. He didn’t weight it (I think so as not to show his client up), but it was a beauty. The second time he didn’t catch any thing.
Just before the sun went down, we went into a cove that we hadn’t been in all day. We were fishing poppers. Brian asked if he could try my 8# rod. He caught two small bass on the poppers and he was fishing over the same area I was fishing in front of him. He does know his business. This was where I saw the biggest bass. I cannot even guess at its size. We got back to the dock after dark. The whole day was an experience that I will gladly repeat anytime I can save up the money to do so again.
And I will call on Brian again to go with.
On
another note, I met a gentleman at the gas pump while filling the car’s tank,
and found out he is interested in fly fishing around here.
It seems that his son got he and his wife interested in fly fishing in
California. And now he is
looking for fly fishing opportunities here in Texas.
I have also met him working at the hardware store in Gaslite Square.
His name is Lynn, and he said that he would try to come to the PWFF May
meeting. Since I will be in
Birmingham, Alabama as my nephew has back surgery then, please welcome Lynn and
plan a fishing trip with him.
Extra
Special Note
On
Michael Verduin
Michael's new
email address is [email protected]
W. McLendon
The 2002 Bud
Priddy Memorial One Fly Contest will be held at Camp Wood,
TX on May 18.
Registration is $15 which includes a full day of fly fishing on the beautiful
Nueces River and dinner at 6 PM. Prizes will be awarded for most fish, largest
bass and largest bluegill. Registration will be from 7 to 9 am on the 18th at
the park in Camp Wood.
For more information contact Buddy Robichaux at 210-492-7125 or at
By Walter
McLendon
Saturday, May 4th, we will meet at Willow Oak Park on Highway 87 just before you get to FM 3315 to turn off to Bill Heugel’s house for lunch. The park is very nice, worthy of camping the night. You will find a boat ramp there. The inlet is shallow, wadeable in but ideal for float tubing, kayaking and canoeing, It has several creeks that feed it. Bill said it has areas of lily pads and good cover for bream and bass.
Bring chairs if you want to sit around the park to visit. You can either fish from the park or from Bill’s house during the afternoon. Let me know if you plan to spend the night in the park. We could plan a good meal for supper and breakfast on Sunday.
By Ken Baker
Although Jay Renken and I had a very good day at Lake Nacogdoches on Friday, April 26th, the main reason for this article came while we were securing the boat as we left.
First of all, we caught many fish of several kinds and sizes with some very small bream and some very large Bluegill and Red ear. WE also caught some bass and a crappie. We were using 3 & 4 weight rods which made it a very interesting day. It was cloudy and kind of windy, but a good day anyway.
As we were getting ready to leave, a man pulled his car up beside us and said since we were fly fishing, he wanted some information. His name is Alan Czenkusch, and he is an aquatic biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Surprisingly, he lives in trout country and prefers Bass and Bream fishing as well as saltwater fly fishing. He is on a fishing vacation and has already fished several Texas spots, and has many other places in his plans. He was interested in renting a guide and/or a boat for Nacogdoches Lake although he had some kind of vessel like a Kickboat that he was planning to use if he had to. We might have taken him back out, but I had an appointment and had to get home.
We gave him some information and he showed us his fly assortment which covered a lot of beautiful flies he had tied for this trip. He had a lot of Bass flies and Saltwater flies. I noticed he had everything tied on fairly large hooks, so I made him a gift of several Cypert Minnows tied on #12 hooks as well as several foam spiders. I even gave him a brand new Round Dinny. Jay also gave him a selection of some small spinners he had made. Alan made us a gift of a couple of his flies.
He was very interesting and very friendly, and we exchanged addresses and Jay & I offered him an invitation to a PWFF meeting, and he said it probably would be next April but he might visit us then.
Just goes to show you what interesting people you can meet when you take time to go fly fishing.
By Walter
McLendon
I really enjoyed our first Workshop. You know we could do this more than once a year? We could have our own club talent take turns being our host for the day doing whatever they want. I am so glad Ken changed the Open House to Workshop. It was a waste trying to get the public to attend. Now we can do anything we want without feeling any restrictions. I was disappointed again with the fact that many new members did not attend. I know that Doug, Chris and Melvin had to work, I think they always have to on Saturdays. That means we should do something they can attend. I think all three of those guys are important to our club. I know I really like them but we see them so seldom or such a short time, it is a problem.
I enjoy being with our core group of members who attend everything but it would be more interesting with new faces.
Tom Nixon was great as expected. Since we already know him from Rendezvous and Conclaves, I knew he would be a hit for the serious minded fly fisher. Bill sent me an article that Jack Ellis wrote about Tom. If I had thought about it, I would have called Jack to invite him to attend. For you new guys, Jack helped form our club back in 1988 and then wrote two fly fishing books and then disappeared from view. Jack lives outside Woodville and has two lakes on his property that none of us have ever fished (ESPN featured these lakes in one of Jack’s videos they did). Jack tells about how he bought Tom’s book and set it on a book shelf for a year or two and then did not take it seriously until he began to see that fly fishing is not a pure sport, it has room for the Tom Nixon’s of this world. Tom carved out his own niche in fly tying, it just did not get accepted by many fly fishermen. With the advent of fingernail flies, everyone should review what Tom has contributed to fly tying. We bought his book so you can now check it out of the library. Jack used Tom’s book to direct his thoughts more to the plastic worm as a fly. Many people got offended! Can you imagine people getting mad over something like that? In America? I can guarantee you that we will all be casting a worm fly in the next few years as people develop their ideas of how to make one. Bill and I keep hearing of the new ideas. Fish went wild over plastic worms and will over worm flies.
You know that the Chamber of Commerce building is free to us to use when we can reserve it so why not use it more? What better way can we spend a Saturday if we are not fishing? Sharing and learning!
Don't miss our next monthly meeting program. Ray Sims from Dallas, a manufacture's rep and master fly tyer will be tying some bass and saltwater flies and talking about the products he sells. St. Croix and Legend Ultra Rods to name a few. Be ready to ask a lot of questions.
By Walter
McLendon
This event was a great success except for the absence of those who have complained most about our Fall Rendezvous falling on opening day of deer season. We really got into Dutch oven cooking this time and fly tying was much less a factor this time around. As for myself, I wanted to visit my friends more than tie flies. It was so good having clear warm weather but the fishing just was not there. We continually saw fish slapping about on the shoreline right in front of the dining hall but no one brought fish back from their excursions in the lake. Jimmy Lee tried hard.
I am sitting here thinking about our next Spring Rendezvous, I need to begin planning for a date for next year because I cannot afford to wait too long before getting park reservations. I sent out several emails to coordinate the date for this one and then several people who had committed to attend did not show up. I also sit here thinking about how much our club would enjoy having this facility for a regular weekend outing. With 6 cabins that sleep 8 each, we can share a cabin with our best friends. Where else can you do this so for $30 for a weekend for the entire family? It is just over a two-hour drive to have a mini-vacation in a great place.
By Bill Heugel
This trip was to the Southeast Conclave in Gulf Shores Alabama. The SE Conclave is haven of our friends from Louisiana and many of the attendees of the famed Rendezvous. We had been planning the trip for some time with great anticipation of new places to fish. Little did we know what lay before us!!
Our first stop was just the Fountinbleu Louisiana State Park. This proved to be a bust. The park was crammed because of Spring Break and spaces were also very close together. The night proved to be interesting because of the many motorcycle events that were conducted. With my sworn plan to never return to that park we left for Alabama and the conclave.
We found a great campsite in the park at Gulf Shores, just across the road from the hotel from the conclave. I selected a spot which exposed me to the gentle breezes coming from the lake. This would make the nights cool.
No fishing yet. The LA guys had plans for food. They were cooking up a Cajun dinner for that night. We finally met up with them at the community center and learned about making Gumbo and Jambalya. When the final moments arrived we formed up lines and went to tables inside. A couple from Florida joined us and we struck up a fun relationship. Talking about fishing, and food.
The next
morning we went to the hotel and met with friends from Dallas and LA.
There were many fly tiers there including Chris Helm, one of the greats
with Deer Hair. These folks do the
same kind of fishing we do Bass, Bream, and Saltwater.
I didn’t know where to start watching.
One of the first stops was Chris Helm where he gave Walter his famous
deer hair mouse. (Walter has been
trying to get back at me ever since I got an Arctic Shrew from Royce Dam).
Tom Whiting, from Whiting farms the provider of some of the most
outstanding feathers gave a great presentation on the chicken business.
It was also rumored that Jim Stewart was there.
I have recently been tying many of his patterns.
However I did not see anyone by that name and no sign of his being there.
Part of the first day was also doing some fly rod testing.
In particular rods with many guides.
No fishing on the first day!!
Getting back to our campsite I found my tent had been blown over by the winds. The only thing that kept it from rolling into the lake was all the stuff I had inside. Shades of our first trip to the Sow Bug where Walter’s tent went in the drink never to be seen again.
The
second morning I met the lady we had been with at dinner the first night.
She said her husband was setting up to demonstrate and pointed him out.
I went over and much to my delight found he was Jim Stewart!!!
Nice way to start, spend an evening with someone and not know who they he
is. Takes all the pressure off.
Jim showed Walter and me his complete run down of flies and how to tie
them. He ties flies that emulate
hardware baits. Needless to say I
was entranced. Since I had been
tying some of his patterns I took them out to show him and we all had a great
laugh. You can see some of his
patterns in the Stewart and Allen books. Jim
develops patterns for production by Umpqua.
That afternoon Walter and I managed to find some places to fish, but there were no fish to be had. One man who was watching us said he had been coming there to watch and had never seen a fish caught. We decided later that we would go to Florida the next day. Walter had some knowledge about fishing the Florida area.
While doing some exploring we found a park with a great pier and lights. We even saw some of the locals catching reds using live shrimp. After hours of casting and changing flies we still had no hits. One of the locals felt sorry and offered us some shrimp. Of course we turned him down.
That night the wind reached hurricane levels or so it seemed.. In the morning we decided to check with the park people to see what the weather was going to be. WIND and RAIN. Head for home.
By Bill Heugel
Linda McLendon did it again. She brought in another outstanding guest presenter. Captain Chris Phillips is a guide on Galveston Bay as well as off shore. He has been a member of the FFF for 44 years and has been guiding for 28 years. He gave a program on fishing those areas. He had slides of the area and many of the fish that had been caught. Our own Hugh Bell was in one of the slides showing the sheephead he caught while he and I were on a trip with Chris. One of the benefits of the offshore fishing is that you never know what you will get. You stand the chance of going deep into your backing on those off shore trips. Chris uses bass flies, poppers and clouser minnows. He uses one fly that includes a rattle. When Hugh and I fished with him that was the fly we used for the entire trip.
Shannon Sherrod won the flies
Chris Hinton got the door prize.
By B. Heugel
We had
another great time at Lake Bistinu. It’s
just South East of Shreveport. The
lake is one of those scenic places where the trees are mostly cypress and they
are full of Spanish moss. I think
one could get lost out there. As
usual the food was great the accommodations were great and we had a great time
with the other attendees from Louisiana. I managed to come back with a piece of Arctic fox. Some
really gorgeous hair. I think its a
close substitute for polar bear. These
rendezvous activities give us a real opportunity to talk and work with some of
the great fly tiers and fisherman in our sport. Al Wilkie was at this one.
By W. McLendon
When Bill Heugel and I attended the Southeast Conclave, we both tied flies a half-day each day but this gave us time to take part in all the activities. I found a booth that had a new experimental fly rod that is not for sale. Last year the rod was shown there but its design was different. Get ready for this – last year it was a four-piece rod comprised of sections from different rod manufacturers (Sage, Thomas & Thomas, etc, etc)! The idea was to join different modulus graphite’s to see what happened. Well, they liked it so much, that this year the four piece rod was specially constructed of different modulus sections from the same supplier. They had the rod blanks manufactured to their specs and the result was a 5-8 weight rod. Hey, I know about 5/6 weight rods or 7/8 rods, what’s this 5-8 weight business? Well they said the rod would handle from a 5 weight to 8-weight line. The booth sample had an 8-weight line on it. I took the rod outside for a test but in the prevailing gale force winds, I could not give it a proper workout. The rod did not seem to load properly. But other people liked it.
While
casting it, an interesting situation occurred. One casting instructor walked up
looking for the class that should have gathered at the beach. He found two
people with me who were looking for him so he immediately began showing them his
stuff. Instantly, I recognized Lefty Kreh in this guy. His every cast and words
were exactly what I had learned from Lefty. I was impressed and the guy showed
how to cast in the high winds we were having. In the meantime, another casting
instructor walked up to me and we struck up a conversation. He was actually
criticizing the other instructor. He did not know I am a Lefty freak but I
thought what he was saying was fascinating. After all the students disappeared,
there were only three of us standing there, the two instructors and I! Well, I
took advantage of this situation by confronting both with their differences.
Captain Paul Darby, was the one who criticized the other instructor. Paul
challenged Kent, the Lefty guy, to throw a tailing loop while casting the rod
with the least amount of power possible. All FFF certified casting instructors
must throw a tailing loop to be certified. Well Kent threw a slow cast and
nothing happened, he tried again and I noticed how much effort he put into not
only trying but thinking about how to do it. Well he never did. Paul’s message
was that an over powered cast causes tailing loops.
Paul may have been a strange character but he showed me a new way of casting, He could easily throw 40 feet of backing out on his new Titanium Gloomis 8 weight rod. Paul said to first drop the word “cast” from your fly rod vocabulary. “Casting is what lure chunkers do!” Casting is something you have to get rid of when using a fly rod. First “DEVELOP” your cast with your right arm if you are right handed. Develop means form tight loops on both the forward and backcast. Concentrate on gently developing movements that let the rod do all the work, no power, no forcing, just perfect form. Your mind will guide you if you only think about forming the tight loops but gently. Power comes from your left hand, your linehand! Power comes from “hauling”.
With your right hand you develop the perfect loops and then you gradually shoot line out using your left hand by gently clasping the line with your thumb and forefinger. Haul or double haul on every cast, make this a habit. By combining the “developed” cast with your haul, you force the rod to pull harder on the fly line, thereby shooting line on every cast. This is a delicate balance and your mind has the control. Concentrate on what your right hand is doing. Develop the perfect tight loops and let out a little more line with each cast. Forget about power casting. Forget putting any power into your right hand, only the perfect motions of developing the perfect tight loops. Do not progress to longer casts until you have developed the perfect loops.
Good casting is just this simple! If you can develop a tight loop on both the forward and backcasts, then combine a small haul of about 6 to 8 inches (not the long one that Lefty warns you about); your line speed is doubled when you precisely do the haul at the precise time and precise place in the stroke. This timing is difficult to master. Lefty teaches the perfect foolproof method but you must be shown the details. Each cast is done on the ground not in the air as most instructors try to teach.
When all this is done properly, you should feel a tug on the line at the end of each cast. That tug is the result of the perfect developed cast. Fly line wants to go, that’s the tug you feel. If you don’t feel it, you need practice or you have reached the outer limit of distance.
Balance is the perfect control of the developed cast with your right arm and the perfect haul with your left hand. Balance results in power. Balance results in distance.
###################################
Remember!
Mark
your calendar for our club meetings, Every First Tuesday of each Month,
7:00
P M in the Lufkin Room in the Lufkin
Mall.
####################################
Calendar
Outings
and Events
*********
May
4 Willow Oak
Park/Heugel Haus Lunch Toledo Bend
bass & bream
7 PWFF meting 7:00 P M Lufkin Room of Lufkin Mall
June
1 Tag Team Event
place to be determined
4
PWFF meeting 7:00 P M
Lufkin Room of Lufkin Mall
July 2
PWFF meeting 7:00 P M
Lufkin Room of Lufkin Mall
August
6 PWFF meeting
7:00 P M Lufkin Room
of Lufkin Mall
September
3 PWFF meeting
7:00 P M Lufkin Room of
Lufkin Mall
21-22 Rockport
reds & specs
October
1 PWFF meeting
7:00 P M Lufkin Room
of Lufkin Mall
3-6 Conclave
Mt. Home, AR
19 Red Hills Lake
Breakfast bass & bream
November
1-3 Rendezvous North
Toledo Bend State Park
5 PWFF meeting
7:00 P M Lufkin Room of
Lufkin Mall
16-17 Caney Creek Park
Sam Rayburn bass
December
7 Christmas Meeting
Chamber of Commerce
14 Tyler State Park
trout stocking
*********
More
Club Calendar to follow as dates confirmed
(Check
your calendar, there have been several dates that have been changed)
*************************
Outings:
Walter McLendon assisted by Jimmy Lee
Library:
Jay Renken
Conservation:
Gene Sullivan
Programs:
Linda McLendon
Membership: Walter
McLendon
Editor:
Royce Feaster