FLORIDA FLYROD CLUB S REEL NEWS February 2014

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1 FLORIDA FLYROD CLUB S REEL NEWS February D Fortenberry Rd, Merritt Island, FL floridaflyrodclub.com OFFICERS President Dave Deithorn Vice President/Weigh Master Frank Adams Secretary/Newsletter Editor Betty Brown (Cell) Treasurer Alex Montminy NEXT MEETING March 11, 2014 Jimmies Restaurant Turtle Creek Golf & Country Club 1279 Admiralty Blvd (off Barton Blvd), Rockledge, FL Social 5:30; Dinner from menu below 6:30; Meeting at 7:30; Awards at 7:45 AWARDS BANQUET: The Florida Flyrod Club s awards banquet will be March 11 at Jimmie s Restaurant in Rockledge. Dinner selection will be from the following menu: Choice of 8 oz. Prime Rib with Baked Potato or Baked Chicken with Mashed Potatoes or Broiled Fish with Rice Pilaf Plus a Tossed Salad, Beverage and Dessert You will receive a call in February for a head count to give Jimmie a heads up on how much of each type of food to prepare. Dinner tickets will be $25 per person and can be paid at the door on March 11. Payment by check is preferred, but exact cash is acceptable. Please do not combine the dinner payment with the check for your dues. Raffle Prizes: Inasmuch as we no longer receive donations from commercial enterprises, we are dependent upon our members for support. If you would like to donate a new product for the raffle, please let Betty Brown know what the item(s) is(are) or get it to her before the meeting so she can prepare tags. Or you can bring it the night of the dinner if getting it in early isn t possible. As most of you know there are two catagories for the raffle items those that are valued at $25 or less and those over $25 with no upper limit. They can be fishing related, but don t need to be. Many of the wives/girlfriends come to the dinner, so items that are meant for women are also welcomed. CONDOLENCES: The club sends condolences to the Jennings family upon the death of Jeff Jennings father in early February. Mr. Jennings had been ill for quite some time. DUES: Annual club dues are due in March and can be paid in advance or at the Awards Banquet. Dues are $25 for a single or $30 for a family membership. Make check payable to the Florida Flyrod Club. Although there is a grace period until May 30, it is requested you pay your dues by March if at all possible. Please make this check separate from the check for dinner.

2 FISH FRY: Everyone who catches more fish than they plan to eat for one meal are requested to donate the surplus fish to Tom Heitpas to put on ice for the fish fry at Doc s Bait House on Merritt Island sometime in March. There will be more on this very soon. FISHING REPORTS: It appears that Dave Deithorn was the only angler smiling after the January 11 Lake Poinsett trip. He came in with a 28 oz. speck for the Big Speck of the year. Congratulations, Dave! Only two others weighed in that day. Dave Deithorn, Don Donoghue & Ed Stahley caught quite a few specks in Gentry Canal the first week of February. Lots of crappie have been caught in Lake Poinsett recently as well and the lake waters have risen a bit from the rains that are always welcome this time of year. GET-WELL WISHES: We wish Dave Benham well with the new pacemaker that had been installed on February 12 at the VA Hospital in Tampa. A get-well card has been sent to the family on behalf of the club. LICENSE-FREE DAYS: The State of Florida and the FWC have declared license-free days for If you have friends coming from out of town, these might be the times they would enjoy coming or if you only have a freshwater license, here s your chance to fish saltwater without a license. Saltwater License-free Days: Schedule for 2014: First Saturday and Sunday in June First Saturday in September Saturday following Thanksgiving Freshwater License-free Days: Schedule for 2014: First Saturday and Sunday in April Second Saturday and Sunday in June MEMBERSHIP PROPOSAL: From Don Barker: I was just looking through my Meetup Group ( BoardGames-Activities/) that I organize, and thought this might be a great additional method to get our club name out there, and increase participation. The "Meetup.com" is a web site that handles event scheduling, communications, updating, comments, replies, event reminders, photos, and membership for a cost of $72 every 6 months. If we were to charter a new Meetup group called "Florida Flyrod Club" (the name just came to me out of the blue), it could help in sending out schedules for meetings and tournaments as well as notifications for changes to tournaments, and it's very easy entry. The biggest advantage for us would be to get our name out there for people in the area interested in fishing to inquire and join the group. It's amazing how many people use and check on groups in Meetup.com, and Meetup.com does a lot of advertising to members of Meetup about meetups from others groups that those people might be interested in. You can post pictures on the site associated with each scheduled event, and you can also keep track of dues in a simple page they have. This subject was brought up at the February meeting and it was decided members would check out the website and revisit the discussion at the April meeting.

3 NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Our thanks to the Nominating Committee--Rob Adams, Dave Deithorn, and Lenny Stahley for proposing a slate of Officers for 2014 to the members at the February meeting. Our new Officers by unanimous vote are: President: Vice President/Weigh Master: ecretary/newsletter Editor: Treasurer: Dave Deithorn Frank Adams Betty Brown Alex Montminy PROJECTS: The club is still looking for a project to work on in A proposal from Parks and Recreation on a gazebo for the Leroy Wright Park was submitted, but the subject is tabled until the April meeting. TOP BASS LAKES ACCORDING TO FWC: Below is a list of top bass fishing sites. See MyFWC.com/Fishing and click on Fishing Sites/Forecasts to find more details, lots of specific local fishing tips, local contacts, specific rules, access points, attractors, ramps and quarterly updates. The website also includes top destinations for other black bass species (e.g., spotted bass, shoal bass and Suwannee bass) and other freshwater fishes (e.g., bream, crappie, catfish and striped bass). West Lake Tohopekaliga (Lake Toho; 18,810 acres) Lake Kissimmee (34,976 acres) Lake George (46,000 acres) Lake Monroe (9,400 acres) Rodman Reservoir (9,500 acres) Lake Tarpon (2,500 acres) Lake Istokpoga (28,000 acres) Tenoroc Fish Management Area (8,400 acres) Winter Haven Chain of Lakes (more than 4,000 acres of fishable waters) Mosaic Fish Management Area (1,000 acres) Lake Weohyakapka (Lake Walk-in-Water; 7,500 acres) Lake Okeechobee (470,000 acres) Everglades Water Conservation areas 2 and 3 (1,125 square miles) TOURNAMENT COMMITTEE: The 2014 Tournament Committee was announced at the February meeting. Frank Adams: Vice President for 2014 (Elected in February 2014) (Committee Chairman) Lenny Stahley: Mr. Flyrod Grand Master Angler Division 2013 Rob Adams: Mr. Flyrod Master Angler Division 2013 Dale Johnson: Mr. Flyrod Sportsman Division 2013 Ed Stahley: Member-at-Large from Grand Master Division (selected by 2014 VP) Don Barker: Member-at-Large from Master Angler Division (selected by 2014 VP) Don Couls: Member-at-Large from the Sports Angler Division (selected by 2014 VP) The proposed 2014 Schedule will be drafted by the Committee and presented in the March newsletter. You ll have an opportunity to make suggestions at the April meeting where final approval will be made. The approved 2014 Schedule will be issued with the April newsletter and will be included on the website. If you lose your copy of the Schedule, you can go to the Website or get another copy from Betty Brown.

4 TOURNAMENT LADDER: The 2013 Tournament Ladder is attached. The tournament ladder for the 2014 season will begin after the February tournament and will be in the March newsletter. TOURNAMENT RESULTS: (Final Tournament of 2013) Lake Poinsett 01/11/14 Grand Master Bass Panfish Other Total Big Fish Deithorn Dave oz. Speck Stahley Lenny Master Bass Panfish Other Total Big Fish No one weighed in this division. Sportsman Bass Panfish Other Total Big Fish Heitpas Tom TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: The 2014 tentative schedule will be issued with the March 2014 newsletter. The schedule will be discussed and approved at the April 2014 meeting. If you would like to voice your opinions on the 2014 tournaments, please attend this meeting. TOURNAMENTS, UPCOMING: 02/22/14 Lake Washington Times: 6:30 am 1 pm Weigh-ins: Lake Washington Park near ramp Weigh Master: Frank Adams The March tournament will be determined at the Awards Banquet on March 11. WANTED OR FOR SALE ADS OR ARTICLES: If you have an article, a For Sale or a Wanted ad, or anything else you d like included in the next newsletter, please give the information to Betty Brown no later than February 28, 2014: Phones: (H), (C) lizbrown@cfl.rr.com Snail mail: 855 Clifton s Cove Ct., Cocoa, FL If you need a faster response, give the information to Tom Heitpas to put into the website. WEBSITE: Tom Heitpas, Webmaster Great website. Check it out. This site is a work in progress, so there will be changes nearly every month. If you have recommendations for the website, call Tom. If you find an error in the website, please let Tom know immediately especially if it has to do with upcoming tournament information.

5 YOU NEED TO KNOW: Open letter about Project Healing Waters: Folks, For those of you who may or may not remember me, I'm John "JB" Boyer from here in Rockledge. I was formerly a member of the Florida Fly Rod Club back in the early part of the last decade. Since that time I've worked at Harry Goode's for 3 1/2 years and then the past year and a half for Lily & Andy Renzetti up in Titusville. I attended the IFFA Conclave in Oct. of last year and was introduced to Larry Lurie from Tampa who is the Regional Coordinator for the PHW. Some of you may have know the former coordinator, Pat D'Amico, also from Tampa. I know the idea of establishing a Chapter in Brevard has happened before, and because of the scope of requirements that needed to be met to sponsor a Chapter, all of the Clubs in Brevard were unable to help this happen. Recently, a few of the bigger issues such as Liability Insurance have been straightened out and are now being provided for by the Charter Organization in Maryland. After talking to Larry and the founders of the BackCountry Fly Club I'm a member of in Melbourne, we came to the conclusion that the best option for us would be to try and get a number of "volunteers' from the 3 clubs here in Brevard and see what we could do, or even if it was possible. I agreed to be the "Project Coordinator" for Brevard and try to go forward with this. Larry has a contact at Patrick AFB which is where we would try to launch any kind of program. PHW is a little different then organizations such as Casting For Recovery in terms of having a longtime relationship with these Disabled Veterans vs. having scheduled one time events. I'm hoping to get enough people from the 3 clubs to be able and go forward with this. I really can't say exactly what would be expected from the volunteers at this point, but I do know it will involve activities that include flytying and flyfishing. Beyond that, I would have to coordinate these activities or events with the contact at Patrick, but I cannot get to that point unless I feel there's enough interest to make this a possibility. I did attend last nights meeting of the Florida Fly Fishing Assoc. in Cocoa, and I had one person volunteer. Next Thurs. I will speak briefly at the Backcountry monthly meeting, and hopefully I might be able to say a word or two at one of your meetings in the near future. Once I've spoke to all the clubs that allow me, I will make the decision to go forward with this if there's enough interest. For information on PHW, please go to I think it would be a worthy cause for any who would like to help out our disabled Vets. Thanks for your time in reading this and the opportunity to tell you about this! Sincerely, John S. Boyer

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7 FLORIDA FLYROD CLUB c/o Betty Brown 855 Clifton s Cove Court Cocoa, FL 32926

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