Tight Lines Sept

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1 Tight Lines Sept San Luis Obispo, CA Mike Powers, Editor PRESIDENT S LETTER Lew Leichter September 2017 John Gierach on dry fly snobs: We believe that a 12-inch trout caught on a dry fly is 4 inches longer than a 12-inch trout caught on a nymph or streamer. NEW MEMBERS: Let s welcome our newest member Scott Burns and welcome back Mike Schwiebert. We look forward to getting to know you and spending some time on the water together. ENTOMOLOGY CLASS: While I didn t have a chance to attend heard some nice comments. Big thanks to Rich Bug Man Chubon for all his time and effort (see article below). These classes are some work to put together. They are however appreciated and well attended by members. If you have a class you would like to do or an idea for one let us know. Bernard and I are talking about reviving our still water class from a couple years ago for an encore sometime this winter. SEPTEMBER PROGRAM: Thanks to Bob Bayer we ve been introduced to Scott Sugimoto. Bob fished with Scott earlier this year on the Lower Sac with other members and all we ve been hearing is what an outstanding guide he is. Scott focuses solely on the Lower Sac and it is such a great fishery, why not! Scott also was gracious enough to donate a trip to our fund raiser. Hope you will join us in getting to know Scott and thanking him for his support and, oh yes, booking a day with him on the Lower Sac. Visit his website at (1

2 SAVE THE DATES SEPT 14th: SEPT 16th: OCT 12th: OCT 14th: OCT 21st: 5-6 Board meeting 6:30 General meeting (see below) Sea Jay overnight trip to the Channel Islands. Still a couple openings. Contact Andy Malovos for more info. General meeting with Lance Gray as our guest speaker Weekend outing to Bishop. Class with Pat Jaeger Sat morning (may be full). Dinner Sat night. Contact George Protsman for more info (MY Birthday) and the Southwest Councils Rip Tide Rendezvous (see article below for more info) Thursday, September 14, 2017 at 6:30pm Margie s Diner, 1575 Calle Joaquin, SLO Fly Fishing the Lower Sacramento Scott Sugimoto Growing up in Fresno, the heart of the Central Valley, I found my love for fishing at an early age. My grandfather would take my brother and me to the Kings River to catch trout and to the San Luis Reservoir for striper fishing. We would go out with our salmon eggs or anchovies and fish all day long. It wasn t until I moved to Redding and I picked up my first fly rod that fishing became my passion. I started guiding on the Lower Sacramento and found that teaching people to fish was even more exciting than catching. Please join me for an informative night, and hopefully you will learn something new! (2

3 Rod Repair & Rod Building Class Rich Chubon Jim Snodgrass, Bob Bayer, Paul Crafts, and Don Nott joined Rich for this year s workshop on Rod Repair and Rod Building. Jim and Don elected to repair and refinish bamboo fly rods handed down to them by family members. Paul and Bob tackled building new graphite fly rods. For first timers these guys really went after it!! Bob and Paul, custom built two identical 3 weight fly rods. As shown in the photos, they are now the proud owners of these beautiful fly rods. With these rods in hand, they are set to enjoy many new fly fishing experiences. Jim and Don worked on repairing and refinishing bamboo fly rods. Always enthusiastic, Jim completed the restoration of 9 bamboo fly rods. That right 9 rods!! The photos show some of Jim s beautiful restoration work. Great work guys! It was fun working with you. (3

4 Santa Lucia Fly Fishers Introduction to Fly Fishing Entomology Randy Dobbin On Saturday, August 23, 2017 The Santa Lucia Fly Fishers hosted a first ever introductory class on fly fishing entomology at the Odd Fellows hall in San Luis Obispo. Entomology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of insects (which are of particular interest to us as fly fishers!). Instructor Rich Chubon led eleven fly fishers through the interesting world of water born and terrestrial insects, including their life cycles. As Rich put it, Understanding the progression of life cycle stages helps you to anticipate what s next during a hatch and what fly to deploy. From videos, slides and class interaction we learned about Nymph, Emerger, Dun and Spinner stages of insect development. Rich presented the life cycle stages for Mayflies, Caddis Flies, Midges, Stoneflies, Dragon Flies, Damsel Flies, Aquatic Beetles, Crustaceans, and Annelids (worms). Much of what we learned will help us to be better fly fishers and to catch more fish! For instance, we learned that during the Emerger stage of development, water born insects are the most vulnerable to hungry trout. That is because in this stage the nymph has moved up the water column to the surface, where it must wait for its new wings to dry and deploy before flying away. Woven throughout the class were practical applications of entomology to our sport. Rich and class members alike shared their fly knowledge and how it relates to our everyday fly fishing experiences. It was good to see the interaction, sharing and friendship of our members. Hopefully, Introduction to Fly Fishing Entomology will become an educational staple for our members as we all strive to become the best fly fishers we can be! (4

5 Lake Almanor Trip Report Mark Shelton Our annual Almanor fishing trip in June was enjoyed by about 16 SLFF club members. Some folks had come over from Manzanita lake and reported challenging fishing, but I ll leave that to another trip reporter. As usual, George & Madeleine Protsman were our trip hosts, and they worked hard to point us toward good fishing, and put on another wonderful rib BBQ on Friday night before most of us went home. The Protsman s generosity and friendliness is legendary, and this year was no exception. Renowned fly fisher, Hal Janssen and his lovely wife, Jane joined the BBQ and shared some of Hal s original artwork with us. Jennifer Labreque purchased a beautiful original trout painting to hang in her future Alaska home. A few of us joined George & Madeleine for a nice Italian dinner in Chester; watching him interact with restaurant staff and patrons, it s pretty clear to this writer that George is the unofficial mayor of Chester! Most folks gathered at Tom s Maumoynier s fly shop at 9 a.m. to find out current fishing conditions/locations, which were different than usual this year, due to high water everywhere. Except for a few creeks like Deer and the north fork of the Feather, most streams were running too high from snowmelt to fish. Most of us fished the lakes, including Almanor and Butt Valley, which had spotty Hex hatch action between 7 and 9:30 p.m., with nice trout caught by Bob Bayer, Art Chapman, Pierre Labreque and a couple of other club members. It seemed that the Hex hatch was more scattered than in lower water years, and perhaps the fish weren t keying in on the mayflies as much, either. Nevertheless, seeing a 20 trout slash a 2 mayfly at the lake surface is awesome. Most of us enjoyed a day (or 2 Larry Sederberg) at little Crater Lake, which always seems to be full of willing trout on nymphs and dry flies. Rich and Judy Chubon spent a good day at Echo Lake, and Prez. Lew Leichter, Art Chapman and yours truly had a pretty good day on Silver Lake. Lew and I also did a rendezvous to McCoy reservoir, full to the brim for the first time in years, just to see how it looked. This was the site of an epic trip for big bows and browns in 2015, before it was drained for irrigation use. If it stays full, it should be a good bet in a year or 2. (5

6 Other SLFF clubbers/spouses on this trip included Ray Belknap, Maxine Sederberg, Bernard & Christine Pieters and Don McGeorge, who kept this writer in stitches at the Protsman BBQ. (6

7 Attention Fly Tiers Come Join Us!! Tuesday - September 26th Place - Odd Fellows Hall Time - 6:30 PM September s Fly RS2 Emerger Fly August s Fly Tying Session Featured the Almanor Special Fly The last fly tying session was held at the Odd Fellows Hall in San Luis Obispo on Tuesday, August 22 at 6:30. Jim Snodgrass demonstrated how to tie the Almanor Special Fly. Those people that didn t catch fish at Lake Almanor this year, but came to this fly tying session, are going to catch fish at next year s outing because they will have the Almanor Special in their fly box. According to Tom Mauymonier, owner of The Lake Almanor Fly Fishing Company, the Almanor Special is a classic soft hackle nymph fly used in the Lake Almanor area of Northern California since the 1920 s. It is not so much designed to emulate any particular insect. Rather according to Tom, it s action in the water seems to be the big attraction for trout. It is best used where rivers flow into the lake (e.g. the Feather River, Hamilton Branch and Last Chance Creek). But, it can be effective in still water too. Materials: Thread Hook Rib Tail Thorax Wing - Black 6/0 or 8/0 UNI thread 2X-Long nymph hook, Size 10 Copper ultra-wire, small Pheasant Rump Patches Peacock herl Pheasant Rump Patches Web Sites on Fly Fishing at Lake Almanor: (7

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9 PRIVATE CASTING LESSONS AVAILABLE While our six IFFF certified casting instructors generously put on a series of free casting clinics for our club members each spring we wanted you to know they are available for private casting lessons throughout the year. If interested please contact them directly for additional information. Bernard Pieters Arroyo Grande bpieters84@gmail.com Eric Sherar Atascadero esherar1@gmail.com Bob Hurd Arroyo Grande rbrthurd@gmail.com Todd Tose Grover Beach trtflyfisher@charter.net Chad McPartland Paso Robles chadmcpartland@gmail.com Sally Stoner Halcyon fishsal44@gmail.com Do you want the SLFF Club logo embroidered on any garment? Contact R & T Embroidery current cost $7.75 each. Support IFFF and your local Fishing Outfitters (9

10 Announcing the SWCIFFF Riptide Rendezvous! Calling all fly anglers! On Saturday, October 21, 2017, the SWCIFFF will hold its first annual Riptide Rendezvous, a flyfishing-only surf fishing contest. The event will be held at Rincon Beach Park in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County There is no cost to enter the event, which will follow a format similar to Al Quattrocchi s previous One Surf Fly events. Anglers are restricted to the use of just one fly during the allotted fishing time, and all fish will be measured, photographed, and released. In addition to awards for first, largest and most fish caught, there will be a great raffle of fly-fishing and outdoor gear, with all proceeds benefiting the Southwest Council, International Federation of Fly Fishers and their related outreach programs. Past surf fly fishing events have been a great place to see old friends, make new friends, and share a tale or two, on top of helping raise money for a worthy cause. Make sure you mark the date on your calendar! More details to come. We ll be launching a website and social media page soon with the details as they are announced. John Loo Rendezvous Director SLFF MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION An individual regular membership is $35.00 per year For 12 months (January through December). Enrollment after July 1st is $20.00 for the remainder of the year. To join, please download the Membership Form from our Website: Send completed form with a check for dues to: Santa Lucia Fly Fishers c/o Secretary (10

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12 OFFICERS President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Lew Leichter Art Chapman Sheri Bryant Judy Chubon Directors Bernard Pieters Rich Chubon Jim Snodgrass Ron Bryant Mark Shelton Tom Nickelson Committees Conservation Tom Nickelson Ron Bryant Doug Daniels (TIC) Website Art Chapman Robert Benassi Newsletter Mike Powers Education David Holmes Programs Rich Chubon Mark Shelton Casting Bernard Pieters Eric Sherar Membership Mark Shelton Fly Tying Jim Snodgrass SECFFF Coordinator Lew Leichter Rod Building Rich Chubon Fresh Water Outings Art Chapman Rich Chubon Library Steve Soenke Banquet & BBQ Sheri and Ron Bryant Nominating Rich Chubon Lew Leichter Bernard Pieters Salt Water Outings Fundraising (12 Andy Malovos Lew Leichter Bob Bayer Lew Leichter Rich Chubon George Protsman

13 P.O. Box 166 San Luis Obispo, CA Come wet a line with us! Thank you for supporting those who help support our chapter. (13