Panhandle Flyfishers. January The beginning of a new Year

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1 Panhandle Flyfishers January 2009 The beginning of a new Year Club Member Tom Lee holds up a nice Speckled Trout that he caught while on his fishing trip with Glen Cormier in Louisana. Tom had went over to Louisana on a two day trip that Glen (Jacob s Dad) had donated to the club last year. He also donated another trip this year in which was won at the Xmas Party by George Cox.

2 Meets 1 st and 3 rd Thursdays of each month at the Destin Community Center at 7:00 PM. Contact: Any officer or member for details. Our mailing mailing address is P.O. Box 1006 Destin, Florida Note: Jan meeting time and sites are changed. See the newsletter. For more info see our webpage blogspot. or contact any officer or member. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 1006 Destin, Florida President: Don Chattin- broglin@aol.com Vice President: Bill Streitz Secretary: Dennis Curley Treasurer: Debbie Mast Librarian: Mike Enos Members, Greetings to all and I hope you all had some good times over the Christmas and New Year Holidays. This newsletter ushers in a new year and hopefully an exciting one. With the help of all our members I am sure we will have an exciting and wild year. I am creating a new position, Program Director, which was suggested by Bill Streitz and whom also volunteered to become the Director. In doing so he does want to step down as vice President to allow him time to devote all his resources and time for this position. The Program Director, will be arranging for our guest speakers, Guest tyers, and other special events for the monthly meetings. This position will take some burden off of myself and mamimize our efforts to get Speakers in for the club. With this means we will need a new Vice President. I am looking for a volunteer for the position. experience not needed On the job training provided... On that note, our club officers have served and done a great job last year. With the new year here, I suggest we roll over the current officer positions into next year. IF there is any officer that needs to step down or if there is anyone who wishes to be an officer let me know. More on this at the club meeting. We do want to continue with our great programs and activites we have done in the past but also expand onto some new ideas. I welcome any ideas or suggestions from any member or guest. I also want to encourage everyone to get active in flyfishing and Flyting. Lets get after it this year... Our first club outing for the year will be a trip to Tallahassee to fish in Dr Galt Allee s pond. The trip will be on the 16 th of January leaving here early and getting back late evening. More details later in the newsletter. Don Historian: Cody Wells Club Guillies: JimWaters Al Mast tony Angelino Cody Goodwin Club Sponsors Corporate- Orvis Sandestin-store manager, Jason Silar and Fishing Dept mgr. Brook Kilpatrick. Consulting Master Flytyer- Greg Mehieve With the New Years Day being on our Meeting night our meetings dates have been changed this month. We are moving things down a week for this month ONLY. So for January we will meet on January 8 th and Jan 22 nd. Our first meeting we will have a guest speaker, Len Anderson speaking about trout fishing. Len as featured in last months newsletter is a guide from the Minnesota area and has fished extensively in Minnesota and Wisconsin for Steel head. Len also will be our featured Flytyer for this month. Please NOTE: Our Flytying will be held at a guest site...the Sandestin Orvis store at 6::00 pm. Please spread the word to the members about this site and time change.

3 January Guest Speaker- Our club speaker will be club member and guide Len Anderson. His bios and personal information was discussed in last months newsletter. Len has been a guide for steel head, bass, musky and Pike. He will discuss fishing for these and also do some flyting for us on January 22 at the Orvis Sandestin store. In detail Len will be will be talking about fishing for brooktrout on the sutton river in far north Ontario Canada. Old Club News- Its that time of the year when our First meeting last month was the Christmas party and For the second meeting we met and tied some freshwater flies for the trip to Galt s Pond. The Christmas party went great and we had a nice turnout. Many thanks to Pauline for getting things together and making the arrangements. Pics later in the newsletter. New Club News: New items on the list...election or re election of officers, club dues are due, Fishing outing on January 16 th at Galt Allee s Pond. There also has been mentioned about having our own Mini clave here in Destin. For those that have been to a conclave it s a gathering or meeting of flytyers, flyfishermen where they tie flies, do casting classes, have seminars, etc...we will discuss to some great length to see if the club supports this event. Fishing Reports: With the water temperatures being in the 60s not much activity going on unless your clubmember Len Anderson. Len sent me some pics of a pompano and a bonita that he caught from the beach. There have been other reports of bonita on the beach, Amberjack on inshore wrecks, bluefish, and Redfish. There were 20 lb grouper being caught at the east jetty and so being an old jetty fisherman I grabbed my flyrod, stripping basket and took off the east jetty. I went to the very end and spent the afternoon casting in front of the buoy marker and letting it drift down, sink using a sinkin line. I would count to 60 and then slowly strip with a large flat mylar Eat me designed pattern. I had 3 huge hookups where something (grouper?) grabbed my fly and I just held on...after a 3-10 second fight, or really a Mexican standoff I held on tight but would lose it...i was using a owner hook so not sure why I wasn t able to land them. BUT...i didn t see anyone else hook anything the entire time I was out there. Len Anderson- Len not only caught a bonita and a pompano, He also went over to West Bay and caught a redfish fishing from his kayak. Tom Wall and I went on a Flyfishing Exploration trip to West Bay on jan 2 nd..we got over there nice and early and the fishing conditions were great. The water level was down where many areas we weren t able to navigate to because water depth was only 1.5 ft or less. I am not suppose to tell you what we caught as we took an oath of secrecy. I will say after talking to a lot of guys/gals fishing that day it was slow for everyone. we did find some areas that you CAN NOT wade cause the mud/muck was so deep that I got caught and tom nearly had to pull me out..my

4 zip up high top waders did me proud by not coming off after spending several minutes rocking my feet back and forth to loosen them to pull them out... We went up to the head of the warm water canal and fished it...going up it was like viewing an aquarium with all the trout and fish running about. At the head of the canal we seen snapper, trout, ladyfish, and lots of mullet. Going there I also got to use my new Christmas gift Flip Video camera so now I can catch live action easier and it plugs straight into my computer. The last time I was over there the dirt ramp was there and hard for boats to get in and out...not NOW...They have re -did the boat ramp and now its high Tech and paved. Below are some of the pics from the jetties and from the west bay area. From end of jetty at 11 oclock position to 1 oclock to the 3 oclock postion looking at the west jetty...oh I did catch an old bird who swooped down a grabbed my fly...i managed to pop it out its mouth after he flew 30 ft up in the air. pompano that len caught off the beach bonita len caught also with a clouser

5 Above, My flybox loaded for bear...tom Wall surveying the water...far right, the entrance to the warm water canal. Dennis Curley Trip To Idaho- Dennis went to Idaho flyfishing and he sent me these pictures. As you can tell with the ice buildup on the guides that it was cold there. Dennis looking like Santa on vacation at north pole. On right a new technique using a balloon a Secret tactic Tom lee s Hunting Trip as Most of you know Tom takes an annual hunting trip to Texas and he usually gets a deer. Here is Tom s Hunting trip details and boy what a deer. One of a lifetime... O On several occasions during the three day hunt, I had watched "nice" eight and ten point deer for as long as an hour without shooting. I would make up my mind to take a deer but then change it and not shoot. Late evening of the second day, there were about 25 deer, does and small yearling bucks, on the four senderos (Texas for rough dirt paths cut through the brush) I was watching when this guy came out of the bush 250 years away with his head down spoiling for a fight but fortunately headed toward the blind. I took a quick look at him through binoculars and said, "This is the one". Did not take time to even count points or judge the spread. He chased a few deer back into the brush but then stopped and I dropped him with a single shot. Checked the distance after shooting and it was 198 yards. Whole thing did not take 15 seconds. There are 14 points - brow tines are 7", longest tine is 9" - and outside spread is 18". Deer was estimated to weigh pounds which is unusually heavy for the area. It was taken at 198 yards within 15 seconds of seeing him.

6 Tom Lee s Louisana Trip - I didn t get to put this in the last newsletter but Tom went over to Louisana to flyfish with Glen Cormier. Tom spent a few days over there and had a great time. I put on the front page one of the many specks that he caught but he also caught a redfish. Tom will have to tell you about the trip at our meeting... Tom fished for several days and fished with catch in his kayak/canoe. With George Cox being the winner of this years trip we cant wait to hear how he does over there. Galts Pond- Pictured here is the president of the Tallahassee club, Big Bend Fly fishers, Gerald Bell, holding a kamloop trout caught at galt allee s pond. Another stocking was done Jan2nd and the club has a planned outing on the 16 th. We will leave here early in the morning and drive over there (carpool) and fish the day come back inthe evening. Fishing in the pond he recommends barbless hooks so the fish can be released easily and quickly and an individual can keep 2 trout. More detals at the club meeting. Most guys use sinking lines to get the fly down to the fish. One can also use trailor flies off their fly and weight to also get it down. Suggestions of fies range from wooly buggers, Black matukas, egg sucking leach, and spinner fly

7 I got an from catch suggesting that we have a one day flyfishing conclave where we have a guest speaker come in, schedule some seminars, have some tyers and casting classes for a day...a sort of mini conclave. There was even a suggestion that we combine with the Pensacola club to do this sort of thing...there are several clubs that do this sort of thing with great success. It does take some planning and work and effort. We will discuss this at our next few meetings. Flytying event The louisana club, The Redstick Fly fishers club is having their conclave and glen sent me a asking for a tyer from our club to attend the conclave to represent us. Here is what he asks... We have our annual club conclave in Baton Rouge on March 7, and I'm looking to showcase tiers from various clubs around the Gulf Coast area. I've got several from Lafayette, New Orleans, Houston, Slidell, Ocean Springs, Pensacola. More details can be found at the Redstick website and/or Let me know if your interested. Christmas party Group Picture 2009 this past December at Landry s...great Party and Turnout..Thanks to all for coming and making a great party. We had our End of the Year Awards handed out for various categories. Largest Trout, Redfish, Bonita, Pompano, and Bass. Below are some of the pictures taken.

8 Above are some of the pictures of the party...george Cox Pesenting the winning ticket for La. Trip More pics of the party animals...tony s wife getting ready to have Happy Birthday sang to her... Largest Bonita-Len Anderson Largest Pompano Tom Wall Largest Speckled Trout-Lee Stelter Largest Redfish-Jim McCarthy Largest Bass- Don Chattin Awards and Prizes Table As you can see above we had a great time. May thanks to our sponsors, Orvis, Corbett Davis, Tony and all those who made this a great event. Thanks to Pauline, Dennis Curley, and Lee Stelter... and a I am sure I am forgetting someone but I appreciate all your efforts...

9 rd Flytying - This past month, December We tied some freshwater patterns for Galt s Pond. Tony hosted our session by tying the egg sucking leach pattern. We had a good turnout for the event even though it was a week before Christmas. I have been sending letters from the Tallahasse club about flypatterns to use over there and its given the members a chance to do some freshwater flytying. Here are different varieties of the egg sucking leach using marabou, crystal flash, zonker strip, hackle, and yarn. Some of the other patterns used to fish Galts Pond are: wooly buggers, matukas, and variety of nymphs, etc Len will be tying a hackle type black matuka pattern for steelhead in January for our 2 nd meeting. From Jodi slapcinsky,editor of North Florida Fly fishers...she recommends to check out these websites... : and Capt. John Meskauskas fly fishing blog: Both these sites are good are good reading. Club member Ryan Hawks deployed to the Sandbox and he took some flytying vices with him to teach his comrades some flytying and here is his report...sounds good also.. I've been tying a ton of spoon flies and teaching the guys to tie 'em. They picked it up fast and I daresay you'd have difficulty telling theirs from Rich's except for the red on the tail of course. We also tied a bunch of Terminators, Kwans, one of my own crab patterns, and sliders. I haven't tied any Ragin' Cravens yet but we'll do those next since the guys are doing so well. Working with a dubbing loop isn't easy for beginners but if they can get the hang of the spoon (took me a good while) they should be able to do it. I've got them all excited to go fishing when we get back.