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President's Pen:
A Flurry of Activity in April and May |
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Greetings!
 This last month I saw many of you at one of the several activities in April. AFF had a booth at the Great Alaska Sportsman Show early in the month. Big thanks to Mike Harsh and all the volunteers who manned the booth. On April 15, we held the AFF Annual Auction. Keven Kleweno chaired the event this year and he and all the volunteers work hard to pull off an awesome event. Also the Spring Seminar began with approximately sixty people registered and attending. A big thank you goes out to Richard Johnson and the volunteers who share their knowledge and experience with people new to Fly Fishing. I have been able to attend all these events and see first-hand the awesome work which goes towards our mission of fly fishing education and conservation. In between events, I joined several other AFF club members for a spring trip to the Naknek River. The photo above is our own Steve Lambert with one of the many big rainbows caught on the trip.
Our May meeting will be held at the Millennium Hotel on Monday May 2 at 7 PM. The program will feature Sam Snyder, the Director
of the Bristol Bay Watershed and Fisheries Protection Campaign. Sam had completed considerable research and lectures on the history of fly fishing and its role in the conservation and restoration of trout, salmon, and their ecosystems. His presentation is titled "Wading Through History: Understanding Angling's Evolving Ethics" and will be informative and enjoyable. You will not want to miss Sam's presentation.
For our June meeting we have Bruce Richards as a guest presenter. Bruce retired from Scientific Anglers after 33 years as their chief fly line designer. Bruce is also an internationally recognized fly casting instructor and expert fly caster. While Bruce is in Alaska, we have arranged for him to present casting workshops on Sunday June 5th and Tuesday evening June 7th. Each workshop will be three hours and is limited to eight participants. This is a rare opportunity in Alaska to work with one of the true greats in the fly fishing world. See the article on his casting workshops later in this newsletter. It is a real treat to have somebody of Bruce's caliber and expertise visiting the AFF club.
Also in the works is a new edition of the Fly Patterns of Alaska book. Art Peck is leading the group of volunteers working to bring this new book to life. See Art's article later in the newsletter.
Finally, in early evening of May 9th, we will hold the last session of the Spring Seminar which focuses on Fly Casting. Volunteers are needed to assist participants during this session. Again, see the article later in the newsletter.
See you at the May meeting.
Mark
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Samuel Snyder, PhD is our speaker
 Sam is currently the Director of the Bristol Bay Watershed and Fisheries Protection Campaign, with the Alaska Conservation Foundation. He comes to Alaska from his home of New Mexico with stops around the country for graduate school. In 2008 he completed his dissertation in environmental studies at the University of Florida. He taught environmental studies at the University of Florida and at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, prior to moving to Alaska with his wife Liz Hodges Snyder, who teaches at UAA. For more about Sam Snyder and the program he has planned for us, click here.
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by Richard Johnson
Monday, May 9th is the final night of our Annual Spring Seminar. On that evening we work hands-on with the seminar attendees to teach the basic casting stroke necessary for them to begin fly fishing this summer. Mark Huber will be giving a short introduction/demonstration at the front of the seminar and then we will break for outside to work with attendees.
Ideally I would like to have one-on-one instruction and to reach that goal I need the help of our members. All you need is one of your fishing outfits and a willingness to teach people what you know. After Mark gets done with his introduction, the hands-on casting instruction is very informal. We want each individual comfortable with the straight back cast and forward cast of 30 to 40 feet that they'll need for most fishing. Registration for the evening starts at 5:45PM and given all the stringing of rods that will go on, I'd suggest showing up as early as possible. Dress for the weather as we will be outside for over an hour. We provide straight mono and yarn (no hooks allowed).
Please consider being a volunteer casting instructor for our last seminar session. |
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YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED ON THE NEW AFF PATTERN BOOK |
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We are starting into the new AFF Pattern Book project and need your input on the flies you use. This is not going to be the third edition of the current pattern book, but rather the second volume of the set. There will be no repeats from the current book unless significant changes are made in materials or techniques that change the basic fly. Every fly will be carefully vetted to ensure the flies we use have the correct name. Often the same design pops up in different places and assumes multiple identities. Color variations will not be treated as individual flies, either.
A chart has been suggested to help visitors build a fly box for various parts of Alaska at different times. We need your help there especially to find out what you fish, where, and when; you do not have to be a fly tier to help. We also need the patterns you have designed and found effective. There is a lot of work to be done and if you would like to help, please let us know and you will be notified of meetings and your help will be appreciated.
The best way to contact the committee is through affpatterns@gmail.com a new email address just for book communication. Regular mail to the club PO Box is slower, but reliable:
Alaska Fly Fishers
200 W 34th Ave, #1233
Anchorage, AK 99503
So, please think about the flies you use and let us know what needs to go in the Club's new book.
If you wish to submit a fly, please complete this form and mail, email, or hand deliver to a committee member. We will require a hard-copy release before we start the actual design production to ensure we can use every fly we start which gets submitted. Any flies not up to very strict standards will be retied, but we will do all we can to help the originators tie their fly to presentation standards if they want to as we are fishing for book buyers with these flies.
It has been proposed to have a number of fly tiers render their personal version of the Alaska Mary Ann and then pass the flies around to various club-member photographers for a group shoot. If this is done the best photo will be used in the book to acknowledge the official AFF fly and perhaps start the streamer category.
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FishKey
A recent FISH TALK discussed the confusion among fisher folk and fishery scientists that can be caused by the usage of different names for a fish that area caused by regional word usage. Many non-salmonid fish, for example, have the word trout in their name.
Bream (or "brim") is used in the southeast United States as a collective name for the sunfish group. I grew up in a northern state where I caught bluegills and sunfish but I wondered what a bream looked like. FISH TALK then made a point of saying how it is important for fishery scientists to use the scientific name or a particular accepted common name when sharing information about fish with each other. This FISH TALK takes the next step of explaining how they can accomplish this. Read the rest of Bill Hauser's FISH TALK by clicking here.
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Casting Instruction Workshop
with Bruce Richards |
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Bruce Richards is an internationally recognized expert fly caster and fly casting instructor. Bruce retired from Scientific Anglers after a 33 year career as their chief fly line designer. For many years, Richards published fly casting articles in Fly Fish America magazine. See one of Bruce's articles on fly casting practice by clicking here.
Bruce will be the featured presenter at our monthly meeting on Monday June 6th. During Bruce's visit to Anchorage, we have arranged for Bruce to lead fly casting instruction workshops.
On Sunday June 5, 2011, Bruce will hold a three hour beginning fly casting workshop at 9 AM and a three hour intermediate fly casting workshop at 2 PM. Bruce will also hold a three hour beginner and intermediate workshop on Tuesday June 7, 2011 at 6 PM. Workshops will be held at an Anchorage park location to be determined.
Each workshop will be limited to eight (8) participants and cost $75.00. We are soliciting AFF members for the open slots first before going to the general public. You can email Mark Huber at
mhuber@gci.net to secure your slot for one of the workshop and arrange payment.
The beginning casting session will focus on what makes the fly cast work, introduction to loop control, shooting line, casting in the wind, common faults and how to correct them, individual assessment and suggestions for improvement.
The intermediate session is designed for casters who have loop control and are advancing to the double haul. This session will focus smoothing out your cast and double haul, identifying and overcoming faults, distance and wind casting, casting sink tip lines, and making adjustments in your cast to achieve desired results.
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Fly of the Month May 2011 by Riley Peck |
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During the spring, many rivers are closed to protect spawning rainbow trout. But other systems remain open, and most anglers know salmon smolts are making their way to the ocean. Many predacious fish feed on the exiting smolts and anglers who have not taken advantage of this should experience it. But with so many smolt patterns out there, which one should be chosen?
An excellent choice is one of the epoxy smolts designed by Keith Graham at World Wide Angler, simply because of their effectiveness and relative ease in tying. Lord of the Frys and Little McFry are very similar, but the former is tied much smaller (size 10 streamer hook) with a little red mark at the gills and a dark back, while the latter has parr marks in addition to the other marks and is tied quite a bit larger (size 6 on a streamer hook). The body tubing is sized for the particular fly. Keith taught me how to tie these flies and I generally tie them as he showed, though I tend to skip the parr marks, regardless the size. Click here for Epoxy Smolt tying instructions.
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2011 Science Fair Winners |
Each year, Alaska Fly Fishers recognizes excellence in science fair projects from a statewide pool of entries. Winners of this years' awards will be presented at the May 2 meeting.
Elementary School Winner: Chet Ellison
Middle School Winner: Leah Levenson & Ryan Terry
High School Winner: Stephanie Talbert
Abstracts of each project can be found at this link. Congratulations to these terrific students.
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In this Issue:
- President's Pen by Mark Huber
- May 2 Meeting with Samuel Snyder
- Call For Casters: Spring Seminar News
- New Book: Flies Sought
- Fish Talk by Bill Hauser
- Casting Workshops with Bruce Richards
- Fly Of The Month: Epoxy Smolt
- Fishing Buddies List
Banner photo by Lance Hankins, 2011 Photo Contest | |
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2011 Alaska Fly Fishers Membership |
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$25 Individual Annual
$30 Family Annual
$250 Lifetime
Be sure to get your membership card - it will save you money on fly tying materials. Details are on the back of the card.
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| Get Fly Lines Sent to Your Inbox |
We have email addresses for about 80% of our active members. If this email was forwarded to you, kindly help us get your correct email address into the system. A note to jhoward@alaska.net should get you squared away. |
| Fishing Buddy List |
Are you ready to go fishing and you wanted to go with a "buddy"? Join the Fishing Buddy List so you can link up with others who want to fish on lakes or rivers, etc. It includes beginners who want to learn how and where to fish as well as seasoned Alaskan fishers who are eager help others learn to fish in Alaska.
If you want to link up with others who have a passion for fishing, meet with Jan Schnorr at the May meeting to get the latest information about this fishers' network or send Jan an email at Janiceinak@gmail.com
to add your name to the list.
Please include your name, phone number, email address, and any special comments - lake fishing, salmon fishing; I'm a beginner, etc. The list will be distributed to members who can contact each other who share similar interests. |
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