SCATTERSHOTS
From The Prez
We had a very interesting program at our September meeting. Bill Heugel presented a talk and slides on a
fishing trip he had just returned from where he fished for North Atlantic
Salmon. He also showed us some of the
flies he used. The presentation was
very good.
The month started off with the annual club breakfast
at the Ellen Trout Park pavilion. Jay
Renken was in charge and he cooked his famous “Pancakes”. We also had biscuits and Royce Feaster’s
Gravy. I cooked sausage and Walter
scrambled eggs. I think the attendance
count was 23 members and spouses. Many
brought fly rods and practiced casting.
A few even caught small bream. I
know all that attended had a good time.
Our next function was a tying class on Sept. 13th
at St. Cyprians Church. The class was
under the direction of Bill Heugel, who is the tying coordinator for the
club. He enlisted help from several
members. The club provided the material
and I know we all enjoyed the session and learned something. The session was attended by fifteen members
and spouses. We plan to have these
classes often, and I urge you to avail yourself the opportunity to attend. Our heart-felt thanks goes to Hugh Bell for
offering the facility for this class.
The Forest Festival is going on as I write this
article. Once again several of us are
manning a booth and tying flies. I know
the usual group will show up and represent our club.
Due to the fact that the Southern
Council Conclave will be October 5th and 6th at Mountain
Home, Ark., and several of us will not only attend, but also will be leaving
early, it was decided by the club members to cancel the October meeting. I like forward to seeing you at the November
meeting.
Club dues are now due. Please bring your dues to the Nov. meeting or mail them to
PWFF, P O Box 153651, Lufkin, Texas,
75915-3651.
You are now able to get the newsletter off the PWFF
web site. We will e-mail the web
address again so you may pull the newsletter anytime you want it. For those that don’t have a computer, we
will continue to mail out a copy to you, and to any other that prefers to get
it thru the mail. Just let Royce
Feaster know if you want it by U S Mail.
We have several plans for the club for the coming
year. We will be presenting the events
calendar soon. We want the outings and
other events to be what you, the members, want to have and will participate
in. This club is for all and not just a
few.
We have ideas to revamp our Open House by making the
day more our members. I plan to utilize
more of our club tyers along with a featured guest. We will still have our casting contest along with our raffles and
auction, and cook out lunch. You will
hear more about that soon.
I would really like to know what you as a member would
like for our club to do.
Should we have more outings?
Are you interested in more tying classes?
What kind of programs do you like?
I have tried to cut down on club business so we can
have more time to talk fishing. These
are just thoughts of things we can do if you like. Let me know of anything else.
I would urge you first of all to participate in some
of the activities. I know you may not
be able to be involved in everything the club schedules. I know that not everyone ties flies. No one is going to force you to tie. I know several people who fly fish and never
tie a fly. I even know some who tie
flies and never fish.
Again, we want this club to be your club. Let us know your desires.
The Rendezvous is coming up and there are some changes
this year. I know there will be
information in the newsletter so I will rely on it for any information you
need. I know it is at a different
location for this year only. I know if
you attend it you will enjoy it.
As was stated in the last newsletter, Bill Heugel is
the new fly tying coach for the club.
He will be glad to help you with any problems or questions you may have
concerning your thing. Also, Sonny
Mahan is the casting coach. Call him if
you need help with casting problems.
As always remember, “A Bad Day Fishing Is Better Than
A Good Day Working!”
FLYLINES
From the V-Prez
As most of you know by this time,
our club president, Kenneth Baker, suffered a heart attack early on the Sunday
morning of September 23rd .
He is doing well at home at this time.
He still is not finished with the hospital because there will be surgery
later to correct the rest of the problem.
Cards can be sent to him at 208
Darlington, Lufkin, Tx 75901. Home
phone 936-632-1022. Or better yet, go
by and see him. He isn’t going
anywhere.
Rendezvous
By W. McLendon
It is nearly deer season again and that means
Rendezvous!!! A true fly fisherman can give up a couple of days of the
religious practice of pursuing the trophy prize to join his peers in a weekend
of rest and recuperation. This year, we are moving Rendezvous to Lake
Bistineau, about 50 miles east of Shreveport. Our usual location will be shut
down for renovation for several months. Instead of the 5 bunkhouses we normally
share, we will have 20 cabins that sleep 8 each. Everything else will be much
the same.
For you newcomers, about 65 of us get together for an
unorganized weekend of fun, eating and fly tying. We take our families so the
kids and spouse can have a mini-vacation, in a very nice state park. Please
visit our website http://freepages.travel.rootsweb.com/~wem1
for details.
I
hope to see you there!
Texas Forest Festival
By W. McLendon
I would like to thank Hugh Bell, Jimmy Lee, Ken Baker,
Royce Feaster, Bill Heugel, Jay Renken and Linda for volunteering to man our
annual booth. We endured a little rain this year but managed to expose
fly-fishing to the public again. We agreed to drop our fly rod casting feature
so we can be relocated to a more favorable location next year. Casting forces
us to an area where we are isolated somewhat from the people who frequent such
demonstrations as ours. Our present location gets the flow of people to the
Carnival but most are in a hurry to get on a ride rather than even look our
way. Everyone donated their flies to the Texas Forestry Association’s annual
fundraiser for Teacher Education of Forestry.
The Texas Forest Service had several kid projects to
entertain the children with aquatic insect hunts and gold fish races for
prizes. It might be time for us to modify our routine fly tying demonstration
with something more suited to the kids. Please be thinking of ways we can make
this event more fun and educational. We have a display of East Texas insect
life cycles with matching flies we have tied for each stage in the lifecycle of
the mayfly, dragon & damselfly, stonefly and caddis fly. There are also
imitations of ants, grasshoppers, mice, frogs, grub worms, etc. Kids get
interested in this part even when they are too young to understand tying a fly.
If you like working with kids, please plan to join us next year and suggest
some unique, inexpensive ways to make our booth the best we can have.
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Fly Tying Class
Its time to consider our next class and when to schedule
it. It will be on Dry Flies.
We will cover more about tails, wings, dubbing and hackle. These flies
are good for Bream, Trout, and Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass.
Some of the future classes will include pencil poppers,
foam flies, and saltwater flies We
can also go back and revisit the deer hair.
Open House
We have talked much about the desire to reorient this
spring activity to a club activity instead of an East Texas event on fly
fishing. Ken Baker asked us to
consider a name change for the event. After
thinking about it, Walter and I came up with two names to be considered. Fly Fishing Workshop or Fly Fishing Clinic.
Lets try and settle on a name at the next meeting.
Bring any thoughts you may have as well.
Dying to Dye?
At the soon to be renamed open house, we can dye some
materials. You need to be
collecting duck feathers, squirrel tails and deer tails.
Then during that unnamed event, we could spend some time coloring those
or others you have purchased or want to have a different color.
We have available in the quality dye, olive, black and yellow.
We might even try some of the Rit Dye and the latest which is Kool Aid
Dye. This activity will require
some preparation the night before in order to get the materials ready for the
process.
Lets talk about it at the
November meeting. I will if you
will!!!!
Fly Tying Coach
Its now official, I am your fly tying coach.
Please call me or email me about any questions you may have.
I get to Lufkin and Nacogdoches at other than meeting nights and we could
schedule some hands-on events during those times.
If I don’t know the answer, I know where to find it or who to ask.
Lets make this job work for all of us.
Tying Tips
When adding materials such as chenille or tinsel to the
hood place it under the hook shank. This
will eliminate any lumps that show on the top of the hook.
Makes the fly look better. Also
build transitions between materials of differing thickness.
For example when you put lead on the hook shank build a transition to the
hook shank with thread at each end of the lead.
Lets Build Rods
How would you like to build yourself or some lucky friend
or relative a custom rod? We have
members who have all the skills. It
would take a few nights to work on it and maybe some time at home.
By working together we can save some money on the cost of bulk materials
like glue, thread, and tools.
The cost of the rod would depend on the quality of the
blank, guides, grip and reel seat. Prices
can start around $50.00 for the H&H beginner rods and go up from there.
Hook and Hackle has blanks from Pacific Bay, St Croix and Diamondback
in two piece and 4 piece rods. In
addition to the standard rods, there are some with spigot ferrules.
There are other rod blanks available from other catalogs
suppliers including NetCraft and Cabelas. You
might also want to rework some old rod you have.
The techniques we will employ are not limited to fly rods.
Casting and Spinning rods could also be built or reworked.
Come to the meeting in November and lets talk about it and
see about scheduling the activity.
