Across
the Stream – August 2006
A
Publication of Heart of America Fly Fishers
HOAFF August Meeting
Monday, August 21, 2006 - 7pm
Craig
Fuller
MDC
Fisheries Biologist, Niangua River
President's Message
Fly
fishing is a never-ending palette of experiences and opportunities
by Mark Borserine
Again,
my experiences provide me with something to write about!
On
Sunday, July 9th, I returned from Alaska,
fly fishing for Salmon and Dolly Varden, fresh from
the Ocean. On Wednesday, July 12th, I was
on Milford Lake in Kansas fishing for Carp and Buffalo.
The
variety our sport provides for us is worth pondering. Fly fishing is a
never-ending palette of experiences and opportunities. It can be as simple as
bluegill on farm pond or as thrilling as Tarpon in the Florida Keys. You can
build your own rods, tie your own flies; tie flies just to fish with or tie
flies to compete with or sell as art. You can just tie flies and not fish at
all or you can fish and never tie a fly. Our equipment ranges from diminutive
00 weight rods and reels on which a chub minnow is a challenge to 14 weight
rods capable of fighting and landing Pacific Blue Marlin. We can fish for sheer
pleasure, for food, for challenge and for competition. Fly Fishing is an
Olympic Sport with teams from different countries.
Speaking
of palettes, the visual aspects of our Sport are a pleasure for the senses: the
variety of colors in the flies we use are fine art in and of themselves. The
colors and patterns of the fishes we seek are some of the finest examples of
the beauty and intricacy of the Creation that surrounds us and that we are part
of.
Our
Sport reminds us that we are an integral part of this great Creation Nature. We
are blessed by our Sport in being able to experience in a unique way our role
in this great palette of Creation. We treasure our ability to experience our
World in this way. Our challenge is to leave a legacy of Education,
Conservation and Restoration that those that come after us may continue to
experience what we love so much!
Trash Fishing
By
Mark Borserine
Carp,
Buffalo and Gar are frequently considered “trash fish” but get a big one on a
fly rod and you’ll change your “tune”.
These are some of the gamest fish you will ever hook!
Hod McIntosh and I used our Auction Certificate from Capt. Paul “Sodie” Sodaman on Wednesday, July
12th.
Most of our club members know “Sodie” and he
is indeed a great guide and a genuine gentleman.
We
fished on Milford and Tuttle “Puddle”, the overflow basin for Tuttle Creek
Reservoir by searching for the Carp and Buffalo tailing and rooting in the
shallows just like bonefish. The casting
is challenging, it demands accuracy on short lines, which is more difficult
than one might think. The idea is to
cast just ahead of the fish, let the fly settle, then move it in short quick
strips. One might assume that Carp and
Buffalo are easy to catch, but they’re not at all; they can be very selective
and capricious. Hod
finally hooked a big Buffalo, nearly 10lbs which came very close to making the
IGFA record book. Had Hod been using a 6lb tippet instead of an 8lb, it would
have made it! I caught a 5lb. Carp that,
while not as athletic, pulled as hard as any comparable Salmon.
At
the end of the day, on Tuttle “Puddle” we came up on a good number of longnose gar finning lazily in
the shallow water. The gar is a very,
very primitive fish and is an “ambush” feeder.
Sodie taught us to cast just past the gar’s
head and srip the fly past it’s eye. When the fly came past the gar’s eye, the
strike was sudden and violent with the gar whipping it’s head suddenly to the
side and snapping the fly. Hod succeeded in landing about a three-footer that fought
him like a tiger for about 15 minutes.
When it was finally boated, Hod was tired but
giddy with the exhilaration – trash fish indeed!
If
you’ve never tried this type of fishing, by all means do so! It is intense, engaging and thoroughly
enjoyable – as “sporty” as any other type of fly fishing you will ever do.
Entering “Carp Fly Fishing” in your search engine will bring up all sorts of
sites on the net with a wealth of information; one in particular was a good
read: www.msu.edu/~connert/carpfly.htm
. For your first experience, I couldn’t
recommend anyone more highly than Sodie; his ad is in
our newsletter – this is a “Must Do” for all fly fishers!
2006 Officers
PRESIDENT
Mark Borserine
majborser@aol.com
(913) 381-0722
pAST
PRESIDENT/SECRETARY
David Andrews
davidgandrews@kc.rr.com
H (816) 741-8314
tREASURER
Paul Bennetts
pbennetts1@comcast.net
913-338-3837
NEWSLETTER
EDITOR
Tom
James
tom@blackdogsports.com
O (816)
718-0393
PROGRAMS
Cliff Cain John Bell
cliffcain@hotmail.com j.bell@kcc.state.ks.us
H (913) 780-3865 H (785) 843-1782
O (913) 433-5224 O (785) 271-3139
OUTINGS
Jim
Jorgensen Bill Lyon
jhjflyfisher@everestkc.net blyon51@yahoo.com
H (913) 469-1950 (816) 525-1243
O (913) 477-7701
MEMBERSHIP
Cliff Newton Fred Clark
ccnewton@sbcglobal.net fclarks@planetkc.com
H (816) 943-8306 H
(913) 831-0305
O (816) 426 3925 x260
CONSERVATION/BLUE
RIVER PROJECT
Open Position
LIBRARIAN
Doug McDonald
mcdoug5148@sbcglobal.net
(913) 669-5222
EDUCATION/RECOGNITION
Bill Lindley Jim Mattes
wlindleyjr@kc.rr.com jimmattes@mattesappraisal.com
(913) 888-3177 H
(913) 268-6161
SPRING
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Dick Martin Don Grundy
rlm@mllfpc.com dgrundy@sbcglobal.net
H (816) 781-9557 H (816)-781-9019
O (816) 221-1430
WEBMASTER
Vicky Newton
svnewton@sbcglobal.net
H (816) 943-8306
AUCTION/RAFFLE
Committee
Jim Mattes
jimmattes@mattesappraisal.com
H (913)
268-6161
HISTORIAN
Bill Brant
billandkathy@kc.rr.com
H (816) 941-9691 O (913) 458-6826
SOUTHERN
COUNCIL LIAISON
Hod McIntosh
singingreels@sbcglobal.net
Home: (913) 722-3684
BANQUET
CHAIR
John Richards
jreyedoc1@aol.com
H (816) 781-0545 O (816) 781-0500
Heart
of America Fly Fishers Meetings
Meetings
are held at 7pm on the 3rd Monday of each month
Community
of Christ Church
79th
& Mission Rd, Prairie Village, KS
Give Iowa a Try
September Outing
By Mark Borserine
We
are going to give Iowa a try on the weekend of September 9/10, 2006. The plan
is to leave Friday the 8th in the
afternoon, drive to Des Moines where we’ll stop at Second Avenue Bait & Fly
Shop: we’ll get licenses, pick the brain of proprietor, Jene
Hughes and buy any last minute supplies we need. The next “leg” will take us to
Dorchester, IA where we have a block of rooms set aside at the Sportsman Inn
& Restaurant. We’ll fish Waterloo, French & Bear Creeks Saturday and
Sunday, returning Sunday evening. HOAFF’s own Ron Carruthers, who is very familiar with the area, will act as
“guide”. I estimate each individual’s cost to be $150 for the entire weekend.
We currently have 12 signed up as “interested” with six “committed”. We’ll
divide up into multiple vehicles depending on who volunteers to drive. Call
Mark Borserine at (913) 915-1002 or e-mail at MAJBORSER@aol.com
to put your “hat in the ring”.
The Retired Life
By Jim
Ohnemus
Sure
was a nice break from the Midwest heat to spend a week a 10,500 ft. in the
Popo Agie Wilderness. The
name means “where the waters begin”.
The
area is 200 miles south east of Yellowstone. This was my 10th trip to the area.
We had planned to go in to another trailhead, but a gate was locked. This
closed down the federal roadway. The adjoining property is own by 3 Indian
property owners, one of the three had a problem, so he locked the gate, keeping
every one out!
The
Allen Ranch sent us to another trailhead, which turned out to a beautiful area,
lot’s of alpine lakes surrounded by mountains forming a cirque (a French
word meaning circle, the actual shape looks like the letter “C’.) Pat and
I found it to be very nice with great weather to go with it!
We
rode in 8 miles on horses, we were accompanied by 2 wranglers and 2 pack horses
with all supplies. We flyfished, day hiked, took some
great pictures, had a camp fire morning and evening, ate fresh trout once! We
were all alone other than seeing a few other hikers.
HOAFF Apparel now available
Now you can get a T-shirt or a fishing hat with the
new Heart of America Fly Fishers Logo. Hats $15, T-shirts $12
Memories of Dolly Varden
Saltery Lake Lodge, Kodiak
Island, Alaska
by Mark Borserine
Those
of us who have been to Alaska become obsessed with “Seward’s Folly”, so-named
because, at the time – 1867, many thought Secretary of State Henry Seward was a
fool to pay Czarist Russia the princely sum of 2 cents an acre for this
“wasteland”. The “Folly” is a
Sportsman’s (meant to include women) paradise.
There is simply no fishing like Alaska – the water, the numbers of fish,
the land, the wildlife are beyond compare.
Cliff
Newton and I purchased Saltery Lake Lodge’s “two for one”
Certificate at the Nov ’05 auction donated by owners Doyle Hatfield and Bill
Franklin. Cliff and I were the first
anglers of the 2006 season to come to Saltery Lake
Lodge; the entire week we were the only ones there and had the full attention
of the staff. We caught the first
sockeye to come up from the sea and the season’s first run of Dolly Varden. I was lucky
enough to come within one fish of a “grand slam” for Saltery;
had I caught a pink salmon I would have caught one of every species that can be
caught in this watershed. I caught
Sockeye Salmon, Steelhead, Rainbow Trout, Arctic Char and Dolly Varden – what a variety!
The Steelhead was quite large and very rare for that area, our guide,
Joe was more excited than I was!
Rainbows and Arctic Char are also pretty rare in the watershed.
Cliff
and I only caught two Sockeye apiece because they were just beginning to come
in from the Sea. Cliff caught the
largest of the Sockeye while fishing for Dolly Varden,
playing and landing it on a 5wt! The Sockeye
were “dime bright” silver, fresh from the ocean and the flesh the reddest I’ve
ever seen! They fought like Salmon “oughta” with lots of runs, jumps and strength. What we caught in large numbers were Dolly Varden, a char named for a Charles Dickens character who
was fond of dressing up in ‘frippery’.
We used 5wts with Clouser Minnows for the “Dollys” which was very effective since they were also “dime
bright”, fresh from the sea and feeding on small bait fish. Later in the season, after the salmon begin
the spawn, egg and flesh patterns become more effective for “Dollys”. Cliff and I
were both of the opinion that we have never caught any fish that pound for
pound can fight like Dolly Varden. Cliff landed the largest of the trip at about
21”. I hooked one we estimated at 24”
that I simply could not control, it ripped the reel crank out of my hand so
violently that my hand still aches two weeks after from the
“knuckle-busting”! After about 10
minutes, it just shook the hook out and swam off! What a memory!
I
had the impression that the Dolly Varden was
considered sort of a “trash fish” by most people who fish Alaska. My impression is now totally different: they
are not only great sport, they are as good as any fish I’ve ever had cooked on
the plank!
Wildlife
viewing was another added joy. We saw
Bear, Deer, Beaver, Fox, Bald Eagles were as common as Starlings and I had a
one-on-one encounter with a 400lb. Seal after the same school of Salmon as I. It was comical rather than dangerous, since we
were equally surprised by each other.
The seal swan off and watched me for quite a while, I’m not sure he ever
figured out what I was. The Salmon were
the beneficiaries, since they got away from both of us.
Cliff
and I had a wonderful experience at Saltery Lake
Lodge, so named because at the mouth of Saltery River
was an old cannery, called a “saltery”. The cannery is long gone but the Salmon and Dollys still come!
We highly recommend you consider Saltery for
an Alaska fishing vacation: the fishing is great, accommodations wonderfully
comfortable, food incomparable and the owners and staff nothing less than the
most gracious people possible. Their ad
is in our newsletter.
The HOAFF is YOUR Club
By Mark Borserine
We
had not had an “Open Forum” at one of our meetings for a while so I declared
one at our meeting of July 17th. No one said anything controversial but it
served to remind me to reiterate the processes and rights of our members:
• We hold an Officers & Directors meeting
every first Monday of the month at 7pm at the Community of Christ Church (same
place and time as our Member Meeting).
This is where the business of the club is conducted. These meetings are “open” to any member who
may wish to make a presentation, present an idea or a grievance. Suggestions or grievances may also be
presented by e-mail, fax or telephone.
The Officers & Directors of HOAFF assure you that your club exists
solely for your enjoyment and benefit and not for any individual’s purposes or
agenda. Your ideas and concerns are
always given consideration and a response will be given.
• Every quarter we will have a period at our
Member meeting where we have an “open forum”; this is a time when any member
may present an opinion to the other members, including those of a partisan
nature as long as it is related to the purposes of our club and is done in a
way that maintains proper decorum.
Opinions or presentations given during this time will not be the
official opinion of the HOAFF or the FFF.
Any Officer or Director offering an opinion will be doing so as an
individual and not as a representative of HOAFF or FFF.
• We have a published set of ByLaws that govern the conduct and guide the operations and
policies of our club. These are
available for review by any member on request (simply because we don’t carry
them with us all the time). The purpose
of these ByLaws is to provide us with order and
process that assures that our Club always operates for the benefit and
enjoyment of our members.
• A membership list is available to any member
who wishes one. It’s use is limited
solely to the purposes of our club. Any
member using it to solicit the other members for the purpose of sales, etc. or
providing it to outsiders for purposes of solicitation will be subject to
disciplinary action by the Board.
FFF SOC Embroidered Shirts
Michael
Ames of the FFF SOC has light blue embroidered shirts with the FFF SOC logo
available for $38. He will be listed on
the SOC website: www.southerncouncilfff.org
or they will be available (if supplies last) at the Conclave.
Southern Council Conclave
Mountain
Home, AR - Baxter County Fairgrounds
October
6,7& 8
Registration
will be reduced $10 “across the board”
Featured
Presenters:
Charles Jardine – UK
Ian Colin
James – BC CANADA
Lori Ann
Murphy – “Reel Women” USA
For
details; look for the upcoming June issue of Long Casts or, see the FFFSOC
website: www.southerncouncilfff.org.
Fly Tying Contest
The
Southern Council will hold a Fly Tying contest. The fly to be tied is the Gray
Ghost as originally tied by Carrie Stevens of Maine in the 1920s. Two examples of the fly are due by Sept. 1st.
The
Gray Ghost is the classic streamer represented on the Southern Council
logo. Recipes are available on the
internet by searching “Gray Ghost Tying Instructions”.
Complete
tying instructions are available in the book: “Tying Classic Freshwater
Streamers”, by David Klausmeyer: Mark Borserine has a copy.
Cabela’s offers 5% Discount
Cabela’s will give a 5% Discount to all HOAFF members on 3000-series
SKU-numbered items: Fly Fishing items if you will send them your e-mail. Log
onto yahoo.com, click on groups, search for the group “cabela”,
go through the registration process and you will receive special e-mails about
discounts from Cabela’s Fly Shop in Kansas City.
When
you present your HOAFF membership card at the register, you’ll receive a 5% discount on 3000-series SKU numbers.
Participation is purely voluntary.
Upcoming Events & Programs
August 21, 2006 Craig Fuller - Niangua
River
Sept 18, 2006 Annual Picnic - Shawnee Mission Park
October 18, 2006 Annual Raffle & Auction
Decebmer 2, 2006 Annual Club Banquet - Bennett Spring
Visit
our Advertisers:
Black
Dog Sports
The
Fishing Hole
Ray & Jonell Fincke
(913)
642-5554
3731
W. 95th • Overland Park, KS 66206
Rainbow
Fly Shop
4706-D
Shrank Drive
Independence,
MO 64055
816-373-2283
9-5
Tuesday - Saturday
K&K
Flyfishers’
Everything for Todays Flyfisherman
• Total Equipment Selection
• Great ”How To” Schools
• Pro Staff for Your Questions
• Fishing Trips: Alaska • Canada • Montana • Bahamas
87th & Grant, Overland Park, KS 66212
www.kkflyfishers.com • 913-341-8118
Diane
Cristopher-Fulks
Watercolor
Wildlife
Designs
by Diane
(816)
578-4615
Pomeroy
Auction
James “J.P.” Rozine
Auctioneer
Kansas City, Kansas
(913) 334-2153
Lilleys' Landing
1-800-LILLEYS
367
River Lane
Branson,
MO 65616
Wilkinson
Outdoor Adventures
Clint
Wilkinson
272
Wild Cat Shoals Road
Gassville, AR 72635
870-404-2942
Saltery Lake Lodge
1516
Larch Street
Kodiak,
AK 99615
1-800-770-5037
Fax
(907) 486-3188
Fishing
River Custom Rods
Bill
Kreitz
13715
Nation Rd.
Kearney,
MO 64060
E-mail:
b.kreitz@att.net
816-628-5071
Cell:
816-392-6720
River
Run Outfitters
2626 Hwy
165
Branson,
MO 65616
417-332-0460
877-699-3474
(toll free)
Branson
Lodge
2456 State Highway 165
Branson, MO 65616
1-800-334-3104
Eleven
Point Canoe Rental
Fishing
Outfitter
Canoe
Rental
Guide
Service
Camping
417-778-6497
Fishing
Pole Guiding
Bow
River
Crownsnest River
Southern
Alberta
Float
Fishing
Walk
& Wade
Mountain River Fly Shop
1177 West Main
Cotter, AR 72626
870-435-6166
Gartside’s Secret Stuff
www.jackgartside.com/tying_material.htm
Bennett
Spring State Park Concession Shop
26248 Hwy
64 A
Lebanon,
MO 65536
417-532-4307
1-800-334-6946
Gaston’s
Tackle
Bennett
Springs State Park
11798
Highway 64 - Lot 63
Lebanon,
MO 65536
417-532-9449
Sand
Springs Resort
1996 Hwy
64
Lebanon,
MO 65536
417-532-5857
417-588-3110
fax
Brass
Door Motel
Hwy 62W
Gassville, AR 72635
Motel
Phone
(870)
435-2988
Restaurant
Phone
(870)
435-2288
(877)
272-7736
White
Sands Motel & Restaurant
Highway
62B - Next to Cotter's Rainbow Arch Bridge
870-435-2244
Bass Pro Shops
Chapman Creek Fly & Tackle
2701 North Marshall
Chapman, KS 76431
785-922-6630
Rim Shoals Lodge & Fly Shop
River Front Lodging
Guided FIshing Trips
Boat/Motor Rental
Full Service Fly Shop
Gary & Paula Flippin
(870) 435-6144
Anglers
and Achery Outfitters
136B Eden Way
Branson, MO 65616
(417) 335-4655
Parkview
Lodge
1-888-727-5883
5477
Hwy 165
Branson,
MO
Reading’s Fly Shop
Fly Rods • Reels
Nets • Waders
Tying Materials
Over 1200 Book Titles
11937 Highway 64A
Lebanon, MO 65536
417-588-4334
Two Ocean Pass Outfitting
Tightline Guide Service
Vogels Homestead Resort
Bennett Spring State
Park - Niangua River
Lodging • Canoe &
Raft Rental • RV Park
11451 Hwy 64
Lebanon, MO 65536
417-532-4097
Americanfishes.com
More
color illustrations of freshwater fish than anyplace on earth
Cabela’s
White River Trout Lodge
752
County Rd 703
Cotter,
AR 72626
877-84TROUT
Flats Lander Guide Service
Spring
and Fall in Kansas,
Summer
in the Florida Keys
Capt.
Paul “Sodie” Sodamann
785-456-5654
Table Rock Inn & Restaurant
5631
State Hwy. 165
Branson,
MO 65616
417-334-4965
/ 800-234-5890