Across
the Stream – March 2006
A
Publication of Heart of America Fly Fishers
HOAFF March Meeting
Monday, March 20, 2006 - 7pm
Phil Lilley
Lilley’s Landing on Lake Taneycomo
President's Message
HOAFF Members responds to “Emergency
Calls”
by Mark Borserine
By
the time you get this newsletter, the Spring Seminar on March 11th, featuring AK Best will be accomplished. I’ll
have the opportunity to report on it in the next newsletter and at our upcoming
Member Meeting on Monday March 20th where
our featured program will be Phil Lilley from Taneycomo.
Phil is a well-known Taneycomo guide and a recognized
authority on midge fishing – plan to attend!
I am
continually over-whelmed by the generosity of our members in responding to
“emergency calls”. Our guest speaker, Darrell Bowman, for last month was unable
to come at the last minute and Monet Drake responded
by giving a presentation on his recent trip to Chile with K&K Fly Fishers.
Monet had spent the time to make sure he had this ready to go just in case of
an emergency. His generosity and concern for the HOAFF paid off in a genuinely
engaging presentation!
Last
Monday, just before our Officers Meeting, I got a call from the National Wild
Turkey Federation, that they were having a “Being an Outdoors Woman” event
March 4th at Cabela’s
and found out at the last minute that the personnel from Cabela’s
were going to be unable to assist in teaching Fly Tying and Fly Casting
classes. My heartfelt thanks to Bill Lindley, Gordon Gifford, Mike George, Jim Bebb, Tom James, Norm Crisp and Gervis
Beiringer who generously volunteered to help and who
patiently waited out the week as information “dribbled” in. They braved cold
and wet to make the classes a genuinely enjoyable experience for all the women
who attended. See the photo spread in this newsletter.
These
sorts of things always make me aware of what is really enjoyable and important
about this club and that is the people!
The people who are so generous and joyful in sharing their love of the
sport with others!
Sister Carol Anne Corley: Material
Girl
Flytying material that is
Sister
Carol Anne Corley works with teenagers whose troubles are from broken homes,
lousy attitudes and too much time on their hands.
In
1999 Terry Looper, who is an air conditioning
contractor, approached her to work with kids and they started the U.S. Youth Flyfishing Association. They work with groups such as the
Arkansas Baptist Boy’s Ranch in Harrison, Arkansas and the Moffett Baptist
Mission in Moffett, Oklahoma, as well as several churches, schools and the Boy
and Girl Scouts.
In a
Catholic elementary school in Hot Springs she teaches fly casting for physical
education, fly tying for art and even pitched in to
assist the science teacher in a water ecology course.
To
assist with her fly tying classes, she needs fly tying materials. We need to
gather our extra materials, feathers, thread, dubbing, whatever we have that we
can spare and bring them to the March member meeting. Mike George will collect
the items to send to her.
“You
thank God for the kids you get and you pray for the ones you don’t.”
2006 Officers
PRESIDENT
Mark Borserine
majborser@aol.com
(913) 381-0722
pAST
PRESIDENT/SECRETARY
David Andrews
davidgandrews@kc.rr.com
H (816) 741-8314
tREASURER
Paul Bennetts
pbennetts1@comcast.net
913-338-3837
NEWSLETTER
EDITOR
Tom
James
tom@blackdogsports.com
O (816)
718-0393
PROGRAMS
Cliff Cain John Bell
cliffcain@hotmail.com j.bell@kcc.state.ks.us
H (913) 780-3865 H (785) 843-1782
O (913) 433-5224 O (785) 271-3139
OUTINGS
Jim
Jorgensen Bill Lyon
jhjflyfisher@everestkc.net blyon51@yahoo.com
H (913) 469-1950 (816) 525-1243
O (913) 477-7701
MEMBERSHIP
Cliff Newton Fred Clark
ccnewton@sbcglobal.net fclarks@planetkc.com
H (816) 943-8306 H
(913) 831-0305
O (816) 426 3925 x260
CONSERVATION/BLUE
RIVER PROJECT
Open Position
LIBRARIAN
Doug McDonald
mcdoug5148@sbcglobal.net
(913) 669-5222
EDUCATION/RECOGNITION
Bill Lindley Jim Mattes
wlindleyjr@kc.rr.com jimmattes@mattesappraisal.com
(913) 888-3177 H
(913) 268-6161
SPRING
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Dick Martin Don Grundy
rlm@mllfpc.com dgrundy@sbcglobal.net
H (816) 781-9557 H (816)-781-9019
O (816) 221-1430
WEBMASTER
Vicky Newton
svnewton@sbcglobal.net
H (816) 943-8306
AUCTION/RAFFLE
Committee
Jim Mattes
jimmattes@mattesappraisal.com
H (913)
268-6161
HISTORIAN
Bill Brant
billandkathy@kc.rr.com
H (816) 941-9691 O (913) 458-6826
SOUTHERN
COUNCIL LIAISON
Hod McIntosh
singingreels@sbcglobal.net
Home: (913) 722-3684
BANQUET
CHAIR
John Richards
jreyedoc1@aol.com
H (816) 781-0545 O (816) 781-0500
Heart
of America Fly Fishers Meetings
Meetings
are held at 7pm on the 3rd Monday of each month
Community
of Christ Church
79th
& Mission Rd, Prairie Village, KS
White River Outing
April
22 – Mountain Home, Arkansas
by Jim Jorgensen
The
first club outing of the year will be held on the weekend of April 22nd. There
is a variety of water to fish on the White and North Fork Rivers.
Accommodations
will be at the White Sands Motel and Restaurant, Brass Door Motel and
Restaurant, and the Rim Shoals Lodge.
All locations have contact information in the newsletter. The club will meet for dinner on Saturday
night at the Brass Door Restaurant in Gassville, Ark.
around 7:00 pm.
For
additional information contact Jim Jorgensen, 913/481-1129.
Membership List
We
are going to publish a membership roster in hardcopy to be available at the
April member meeting or mail by request. The roster will only contain name,
address and phone number. To satisfy current legal requirements, anyone who
wishes their name not to be included in the roster should notify us of their wishes
before April or, at the time they take out their membership (for new members).
Notice can be given to Mark Borserine or Cliff Newton, whose information is
given in the Officer Section of the newsletter.
2006
Membership
As of our
Officer/Director meeting of March 6th we have 55 paid members for 2006.
There are 68 unpaid who were paid members in 2005. We ask that you update your
membership for 2006 in the near future!
Conservation
Team
Encouraged
by Ray Zook, the Officers and Directors established a
Conservation Team. The purposes are:
• To keep abreast of significant
activities related to conservation in areas of interest to the club.
• To make appropriate and timely reports
to the club pertaining to these activities and make recommendations or
proposals for actions to be taken by the club.
• To write grant applications to the
Southern Council.
There
will be four members covering the following areas:
General – Nationwide:
Missouri:
Arkansas: John
Bell
Metro Kansas City:
Assistant
Newsletter Editor
Tom
James needs help with the Newsletter. Would someone like to be a Reporting
Assistant? Contact Tom. Also, any member who would like to submit articles (200
words or less preferred) and photos that would be of interest to our members is
requested to do so.
HOAFF Apparel now available
Now you can get a T-shirt or a fishing hat with the
new Heart of America Fly Fishers Logo. Hats $15, T-shirts $12
River Journal
with Ol’ twofly January 18-19, 2006
by John Bell
Little Red River
Wed
Jan 18: Drove down to Heber Springs, Arkansas on the
Little Red for an AG&FC meeting on the Trout Management Plan for the Little
Red.
I
stayed at Lindsey’s Resort located right on the river about a mile below the
dam. I paid $60 a night for a room with kitchen and two queen beds. Lindsey’s
is a typical White River resort that offers rustic housekeeping cabins, trout
dock with boat rental, and restaurant. It’s a fairly large operation, and in
the summer I bet it’s rife with patrons, however in the middle of the week in
mid-January I was the only guest there. That may explain the presence of the
mice that kept scampering around my room, but after a couple of drinks, I found
some amusement in it and we got along just fine. If you are a fisherman, I
recommend Lindsey’s; they are both friendly and knowledgeable about the water
and area.
My
plan was to fish all day Thursday hitting the most famous of the walk-in access
points, and then go the AG&FC meeting that evening. A good source of info
on the Little Red River is the MidSouth Fly Fishers
book Home Waters which has a very good write-up by famous Arkansas guide
and artist Duane Hada. The Ozark Angler (with fly
shops in Little Rock and Heber Springs) also has some excellent maps and
information on its website. www.ozarkangler.com/river/ The Little Red begins at
the base of Greer’s Ferry Lake Dam. There is about 30 miles of trout water
(with the upper 10 miles the most popular) and then another stretch of warm
water fishing before it flows into the White River near Searcy, Arkansas.
Thursday: I’m up early and the weather is WARM. Not exactly what I
expect even for Arkansas in January. I started fishing just below the dam at
John F. Kennedy Park. The Park is very similar to other parks below White River
dams, with campsites, picnic tables and all the other accoutrements common to
Corp of Engineers facilities. There is also a fish hatchery at the Park which
is open to the public. The river just below the dam is in a narrow canyon with
large boulders and slab rock that has broken, which provides good cover and
depth for the fish. A hotspot is the out-flow from the hatchery where trout
congregate. Caught a couple at the discharge pipe on small scuds before moving
downstream. The weather is so warm, that upon my return to the car, I am in a
full sweat. The wading is easy because they are not running any water. Greers Ferry Lake like all lakes on the White River system
is experiencing major drought this winter. The lake is 15 feet below its
customary level and the Corp has not run any water for several weeks. While
this is good for the wading, it’s not so good for the fishing in my opinion, as
the low water concentrates the fish in the runs and causes them to be quite
skittish. Sidebar: Dedicating JFK
Park was the last official act of J.F.K. before he was assassinated.
Cow
Shoals is probably the most famous fly fishing stretch on the Little Red. It is
a major spawning site for brown trout in the late fall and winter. There are
nice riffles both upstream and downstream of the access point. Amazingly, I
share the AG&FC parking lot with only one other vehicle/angler. By mid
January the spawn is over and most of the browns have moved out, but I managed
to land a couple on a size 18 red midge pattern. I first tried the scuds that
had worked at the hatchery discharge but they would have none of it. The river
here is still fairly small, about half the size of the Norfork.
It was a good thing that I shared the area with only one other angler as the
river (in low water) could not take a lot of anglers at this location.
At
Swinging Bridge we are several miles below the dam and the river has widened
and deepened substantially. There is considerably more water than at either of
the two previous access points. There are parking lots and boat ramps on both
sides of the river here and quite a bit of interesting shoal/pocket water below
the bridge on the left. This place looked very promising for streamer or pocket
water nymph fishing. I didn’t get a fish here but, I didn’t fish long as I was
running out of time to make the Trout Management meeting back in Heber Springs.
But I would wet a line here anytime. The water looked very promising.
White and Norfork
Rivers
Friday:
I’m up early and on the road to Mt. Home where I will meet up with
former HOAFF member David Games (now from Tulsa) and fish with him for two
days. It is both a pleasant and scenic drive from Heber Springs up to Mt. Home,
especially if you slow down. Highway 5 twists and turns through the Ozark
mountains until it comes out along the lower White River below Norfork. Talk about low fishing pressure. I didn’t see one
angler for miles, and there are trout down there. Our plan was to meet at the
wheelchair access on the Norfork. David beat me there
and was in the riffle just upstream. Lucky for us they had just stopped
generating and the water was falling. As I was putting my waders on, I could
see David in the river and he was getting strikes on every other cast. He
caught and released about a half dozen before I could get my waders on and rod
rigged. I quickly entered the river, by-passed David and hurried to the islands
above. With the water still fairly high wading was tough but fish were
everywhere. I fished double scud’s in size 14 to 18 with a strike indictor. The
smaller fly took the most fish. And, we caught a lot of fish that afternoon.
When the fishing is good on the Norfork, it’s good.
And it was good that afternoon. Conditions couldn’t have been much better. For
mid January it was 60+ degrees, no wind, and we had the river (almost) to
ourselves all afternoon. We fished until dark and headed to Charlie’s Rainbow
Trout Resort on the Norfork just below the dam.
Charlie caters to fishermen and he is most favorably situated right on the
river between the dam and McClellan’s. At Charlie’s you don’t have to call the
Dam Information number to find out what the Norfork
is doing; you can just look out the window.
Saturday:
We drove over to the White and fished at
Wildcat Shoals all day. The fishing wasn’t as good as the day before, but we
had enough action to keep us in the water. The White is quite a bit larger than
the Norfork and it was fun to move around and fish
more water. I took the scenic route back to Charlie’s traveling on county roads
and stopping at several walk-in points along the White to see how many folks
were about. Not many. That may say something about mid January. No mice at Charlie’s
but that didn’t stop me from having several scotches and a dose of ESPN and I
was off to sleep.
Sunday:
My plan was to rise early, fish the Norfork
and head home. Around 5 am I am awakened by the sound of rain hitting the roof.
When the alarm went off at 6, it was still raining. At 7, when I got up, it was
still raining, and not just a drizzle, but a heavy rain. By 7:30 it was light
enough to see the river and I could tell that they were running both generators
full. So, I had a leisurely breakfast and ESPN Sports Center. At 9am it was
still raining, so I completely rebuilt the leaders on both rods. Finally, at
10am after I had packed the car and checked out, the rain stopped. As I pulled
out of Charlie’s I took a last look at the river and low and behold, it looked
like it was coming down. I beat a hasty exit to the C&R section below
McClellan’s. Again, I moved up the islands and had a pretty good morning
fishing scuds and midges (WD 40’s).
While I didn’t run into the numbers
of fish that we had on Friday afternoon, I did stick a couple of pigs that gave
me quite a tussle. Of course, with tiny flies, 6x tippet, and a 3wt rod, you
are well rigged for 10 to 14” trout, but woefully out-gunned by anything over
16 inches. So be it. I really didn’t expect to land any of the big ones. It’s
just fun being attached to one of those monsters for a while!
It’s not as bad as the Blue River
By Bill Brant
Our club’s annual Blue River clean-up will be April 1st, at 8:00 AM (or later if you sleep in a
little).
Our site this year will be located along Blue River
Road, south of I-435, north of Red Bridge Road. To get there, take I-435 to
Holmes (2 miles east of State Line), go south on Holmes 1 mile, turn left
(east) on Red Bridge Road and go 1 mile, turn left (north) on Blue River Road.
Go north ½ mile and park in the gravel lot at the Alex George Lake. Walk north
along the side of the road to where we will be working.
There is a limited amount of parking at the location
we are working. If you park at Alex George
Lake, it will be safer and will allow for vehicles to shuttle supplies in, and
shuttle trash out.
The lake is a popular fishing location. Trout are
stocked for winter fishing. Bass, bluegill and catfish can be caught in warmer
weather.
As in years past, we will coordinate our clean-up
with the Lakeside Nature Center. Their effort is run by Gervis’s
daughter, Vicki Richmond. Lakeside will provide a continental breakfast and
lunch at the Nature Center in Swope Park. We generally skip the breakfast, but many
club members have attended the lunch. It’s fun. The Nature Center will also
provide supplies and haul away the trash we pick-up.
In a departure from tradition, our larger focus will
be to cut down shrub honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is an invasive plant species
imported from Asia. It is taking over many of the natural areas in the metro
area. Consider it as the plant equivalent of the zebra mussel or consider it as
the plant equivalent of the bug that causes whiling disease in trout. Go to
www.kcwildlands.org for more local information. We will be using loppers and
saws (graciously loaned to us by KCWildlands) to cut
down the honeysuckle and then use a reasonably safe herbicide to kill the
remaining honeysuckle stumps.
We will also pick up trash, primarily at 2 spots
where you can access the river. The
area selected is a location where Blue River Road is close to the Blue River.
The honeysuckle in this area is blocking the view of the river from the road.
Each year it grows a little taller and thicker, and blocks more of the view of
the river. Opening up this area will give people the chance to see a natural
stream, in a scenic woodland environment, as they drive along Blue River Road.
Also, removing the trash in this area will improve the scenic value of this
wonderful resource.
The reason for working in this particular spot, is
the hope that our 2 improvements would affect many individuals outside of our
club in a positive manner, and maybe make them more inclined to support the
health of the bodies of water where we fish. They also might be more inclined
to join our ranks as flyfishers.
At the recent officer’s meeting we discussed washing
our hands in the Blue River. Someone joking compared the honeysuckle herbicide
to the stream by saying “It’s not as bad as the Blue River”. Maybe our work
will change the false, but common perception, that all of the Blue River is
horribly polluted.
RSVP’s are welcome (816.941.9691), but not required.
So far 14 people have signed-up. Mark your calendars (and set your alarm clock)
for this event, April 1st
An
Educational Opportunity for New Members
We
realize that one of the main reasons for new members to join Heart of America
Fly Fishers is to learn more about fly fishing. We want to offer classes at no
cost to our new members; but we want to adjust those classes to your needs. If
you will contact either our Club President, Mark Borserine or, our Education
Chairman, Jim Mattes, we would like to hear what kind of classes you would like
to have and an idea of what scheduling would fit into your needs. These classes
will include books for you to add to your library. This offer extends as well
to those who are not yet members: the
$30 membership will include access to these classes and materials.
Mark
Borserine Jim
Mattes
(913)
381-0722 res 913-268-6161 res
(913-915-1002
cell/offc 913-248-1030
offc
913-642-9767
FAX
MAJBORSER@aol.com jimmattes@mattesappraisal.com e-mail
Cabela’s offers 5% Discount
Cabela’s will give a 5% Discount to all HOAFF members on 3000-series
SKU-numbered items: Fly Fishing items if you will send them your e-mail. Log
onto yahoo.com, click on groups, search for the group “cabela”,
go through the registration process and you will receive special e-mails about
discounts from Cabela’s Fly Shop in Kansas City.
When
you present your HOAFF membership card at the register, you’ll receive a 5% discount on 3000-series SKU numbers.
Participation is purely voluntary.
Upcoming Events & Programs
March 11, 2006 A.K. Best Spring Seminar -
Discovery Center
March 20, 2006 Phil
Lilley - Lake Taneycomo Midge Fishing
April 1, 2006 Blue
River Cleanup
April 17, 2006 Eric Pietz
- Fly Fishing Utah and Colorado
April 22, 2006 White River Outing
May 6, 2006 Fly Tying 101 - Red Bridge Library - 2pm
June 17, 2006 One Fly Outing
June 19, 2006 Norm Crisp - Fly Fishing Strategies
Many
thanks to Monet Drake for his excellent program on his fishing trip to Chile
last month. My fondest recollection is of Monet’s complaints about the 12 hour
plane ride and the associated amount of leg room. Oh well, once there, I’m sure
he forgot about it.
For
our March program we will be hosting Phil Lilley. Phil is a Branson outfitter,
guide and proprietor of Lilley’s Landing on Lake Taneycomo.
He will be talking about fly fishing Lake Taneycomo
in general and more specifically about the tremendous midge fishing
possibilities there. Hope to see you at the meeting. -jb
Visit
our Advertisers:
Black
Dog Sports
The
Fishing Hole
Ray & Jonell Fincke
(913)
642-5554
3731
W. 95th • Overland Park, KS 66206
Rainbow
Fly Shop
4706-D
Shrank Drive
Independence,
MO 64055
816-373-2283
9-5
Tuesday - Saturday
K&K
Flyfishers’
Everything for Todays Flyfisherman
• Total Equipment Selection
• Great ”How To” Schools
• Pro Staff for Your Questions
• Fishing Trips: Alaska • Canada • Montana • Bahamas
87th & Grant, Overland Park, KS 66212
www.kkflyfishers.com • 913-341-8118
Diane
Cristopher-Fulks
Watercolor
Wildlife
Designs
by Diane
(816)
578-4615
Pomeroy
Auction
James “J.P.” Rozine
Auctioneer
Kansas City, Kansas
(913) 334-2153
Lilleys' Landing
1-800-LILLEYS
367
River Lane
Branson,
MO 65616
Wilkinson
Outdoor Adventures
Clint
Wilkinson
272
Wild Cat Shoals Road
Gassville, AR 72635
870-404-2942
Saltery Lake Lodge
1516
Larch Street
Kodiak,
AK 99615
1-800-770-5037
Fax
(907) 486-3188
Fishing
River Custom Rods
Bill
Kreitz
13715
Nation Rd.
Kearney,
MO 64060
E-mail:
b.kreitz@att.net
816-628-5071
Cell:
816-392-6720
River
Run Outfitters
2626 Hwy
165
Branson,
MO 65616
417-332-0460
877-699-3474
(toll free)
Branson
Lodge
2456 State Highway 165
Branson, MO 65616
1-800-334-3104
Eleven
Point Canoe Rental
Fishing
Outfitter
Canoe
Rental
Guide
Service
Camping
417-778-6497
Fishing
Pole Guiding
Bow
River
Crownsnest River
Southern
Alberta
Float
Fishing
Walk
& Wade
Mountain River Fly Shop
1177 West Main
Cotter, AR 72626
870-435-6166
Gartside’s Secret Stuff
www.jackgartside.com/tying_material.htm
Bennett
Spring State Park Concession Shop
26248 Hwy
64 A
Lebanon,
MO 65536
417-532-4307
1-800-334-6946
Gaston’s
Tackle
Bennett
Springs State Park
11798
Highway 64 - Lot 63
Lebanon,
MO 65536
417-532-9449
Sand
Springs Resort
1996 Hwy
64
Lebanon,
MO 65536
417-532-5857
417-588-3110
fax
Brass
Door Motel
Hwy 62W
Gassville, AR 72635
Motel
Phone
(870)
435-2988
Restaurant
Phone
(870)
435-2288
(877)
272-7736
White
Sands Motel & Restaurant
Highway
62B - Next to Cotter's Rainbow Arch Bridge
870-435-2244
Bass Pro Shops
Chapman Creek Fly & Tackle
2701 North Marshall
Chapman, KS 76431
785-922-6630
Rim Shoals Lodge & Fly Shop
River Front Lodging
Guided FIshing Trips
Boat/Motor Rental
Full Service Fly Shop
Gary & Paula Flippin
(870) 435-6144
Anglers
and Achery Outfitters
136B Eden Way
Branson, MO 65616
(417) 335-4655
Parkview
Lodge
1-888-727-5883
5477
Hwy 165
Branson,
MO
Reading’s Fly Shop
Fly Rods • Reels
Nets • Waders
Tying Materials
Over 1200 Book Titles
11937 Highway 64A
Lebanon, MO 65536
417-588-4334
Two Ocean Pass Outfitting
Tightline Guide Service
Vogels Homestead Resort
Bennett Spring State Park - Niangua River
Lodging • Canoe & Raft Rental • RV Park
11451 Hwy 64
Lebanon, MO 65536
417-532-4097
Americanfishes.com
More
color illustrations of freshwater fish than anyplace on earth
Cabela’s
White River Trout Lodge
752
County Rd 703
Cotter,
AR 72626
877-84TROUT
Flats Lander Guide Service
Spring
and Fall in Kansas,
Summer
in the Florida Keys
Capt.
Paul “Sodie” Sodamann
785-456-5654