Lakeland Fly Fishing Expo
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Although the attendance wasn't as great as expected for the first-time national fly fishing event in the state of Florida, the FFF Fly Fishing Expo was an excellent learning event for those who attended. The fly tying and fly casting demonstrations were excellent and there were a diverse spectrum of vendors.
The TCFF made its presence known by several of its Members demonstrating fly tying and quite a few members as attendees. (A big thanks goes out to TCFF Member Jack Neely for being chairman of the Fly Tying Group.)
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The 18th Annual South Eastern Council Federation of Fly Fishers Conclave & Fly Fishing Show
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If you missed the Lakeland Fly Fishing Expo, mark your calendars and gas up your cars as the 18th Annual South Eastern Council Federation of Fly Fishers Conclave & Fly Fishing Show is returning to Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia on May 29-31, 2008. Callaway Gardens is an outstanding facility, and Pine Mountain a great location to enjoy the Great Outdoors.
Featured will be special guests, casting instructors and fly tiers, and dozens of seminars and workshops on various fly fishing topics. Two highlights of the show are:
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Demonstration Caster Steve Rejeff who has dominated the world of competitive casting for over two decades.
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Jon Cave, an author/photographer/lecturer, a USCG licensed guide and he’s been a professional fly casting and fly tying instructor for over 25 years.
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The TCFF at the Umatilla
Black Bear Festival |
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Five TCFF Members staffed the Fly Tying and Fly Casting booths at April's Umatilla Black Bear Festival. This was a great event to participate in because of all the interaction with young families. (More pictures are on the Photo Album page.) |
Fly Fishing With Jack --
Largemouth Bass, Part 6 |
How to fish with Bass Bugs
Practice your casting to become an expert at hitting a target area. Bass hang around structure and under hyacinths and getting the fly to the right spot the first time is important to keep from getting snagged on something or scaring the bass off. Successful casting also includes establishing line control quickly at the end of the cast as slack line will result in a lack of hook set – sometimes bass will hit the fly just after it lands on the water and you want to be ready for it.
When retrieving, do not use the rod tip to move the fly. This causes immediate slack in the line and loss of fly control. Always point your rod tip at the bass bug and move the bug by variety of tugs (soft, quick, slow, etc.) on the line with the stripping hand (and not the rod hand) while the rod tip is close to the water's surface and pointed at the fly. (By the way, this is true for both top water and sinking flies.) Different style of bugs react differently to different line retrieval tugs – for most styles, a hard quick tug and the bug dives while a softer tug causes the bug to twitch.
Sometimes big bass will attack when a bass bug is let to sit for a long period (10 seconds or more) or when just slightly moved just after it hits the water. Most fishermen move a bug too quickly. No one retrieve is always best and experiment with all types of actions and retrieval speeds.
(Past articles archived in Jack's Notes.) |
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| Lake Weir Bass |
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While practicing with his 10-wt outfit in preparation for the upcoming Bahia Honda Club Trip, Dave Ferris stumbled across this six pound largemouth bass. The fly he used was the Marabou Muddler with weed guard that he demonstrated tying at a recent Evening Meeting
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| Doe Lake Fishing Report |
By Dave Ferris |
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Ocala National Forest is blessed with many pristine lakes. One with outstanding natural beauty is Doe Lake. Handy to the Villages, it is nestled amongst Pine Barrens. The water is gin clear and it is deep with a sandy bottom. One can cast a spinning line from shore and have the lure settle in 8 feet of water. Maximum observed depth was 22 feet. The fish finder showed quite a few larger fish settled in at 20 feet average and quite a colony of smaller fish at the 10 foot level.
When fishing the lake, you are the sole possessor of the water and the only interruption you may encounter will be people riding the horses along the adjoining trails.
Fishing the lake resulted in one fish per hour. Small bass and bluegills were cooperative early in the morning but with the clear sky and the bright sun, things slowed to a standstill quickly.
In two days,there were many observations of large fish swirling at the surface and aggressively taking fish. These larger fish would not take any fly presented to them or any spinning lures.
Would we go back again? Probably yes because a lake this beautiful deserves another chance to improve it's fishing identity. |
| Crystal River Fishing Report |
By Frank Matousek |
The Crystal River is very accessible, two ramps. One ramp is located at the end of Fort Island Trail, the other is about halfway down Fort Island Trail on the right. Both ramps are clearly marked. The ramp half way down is the best ramp because of water depth. You can fish the river all the way to Route 19 and down to the Gulf. Great fishing is just out in the Gulf along the channel markers. Stay between the markers at low tide until you learn the water. The south side is the best for fishing, the north side has a lot more oyster mounds and also very good. Fish from buoy #14 out to buoy #2. You will drift over 4 or 5 bars. The trout and various fish, grouper, redfish, sea bass, shark, cobia, jacks, bluefish, spanish mackerel lay on and around these bars. I have also taken two tarpon in this area last June.
Incoming and outgoing tides are best. The faster the tide moves the better the fishing. We usually take an average of twenty or thirty fish in a days fishing. Although I don't kill fish, we average about 8 or 10 keeper fish. The fly of choice should be a shrimp or a gold spoon pattern although we all have our favorite patterns, mine being the gray ghost wooly bugger. The water depth averages between 3 and 8 feet. I have found a hole or two as deep as 18 feet.
I fish the area about twice a week. The water is finally warming up so the fishing should get even better. When it is calm I also run out about 5 miles south from Crystal River entrance to the flats which can be really good for sighting redfish again depending on the tide. We fished Tuesday, April 1st, and took seven trout, one spanish mackerel and a bunch of other fish - king fish or whiting and sea bass and the usual catfish or two, yes, catfish on a clouser believe it or not.
The best part of this area is the manatees, dolphin, sting rays and the bird life. Life is good!
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Just Announced -- Renzetti Fly
Fishing & Rod Building Fair |
For a repeat of their successful 2006 event, Renzetti, best known as the manufacturer of high quality fly tying vices, has just announced this year's Fly Fishing & Rod Building Fair to be held in their Titusville facility December 5th. No other information is available at this time as to who is going to be featured or what seminars are planned. Check back at www.renzetti.com periodically for updates. |
There once was a man who fished with flies,
His tales of greatness mostly lies,
If he said he caught ten,
You better count it again,
and divide his total by five |
"Anglers...exaggerate grossly and make gentle and inoffensive creatures
sound like wounded buffalo and
man-eating tigers."
--Roderick Haig-Brown
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