MAY GENERAL MEETING
Delta Fly Fishers Wed. May 14 program will be a presentation by Bruce “Bruno” Huff vice -chairman of Alpine county Fish and Game Commission entitled Fly Fishing Alpine County. Bruce has worked, hunted and fished Alpine county for 20 years. A native of Stockton Bruce will share his considerable experience fishing the many lakes and streams of the highway 88, 4, and 89 corridors of Alpine county. Emphasis will be on easily accessible waters and the fly patterns and techniques to use on these waters as well as access points, contacts for information on local conditions. Lakes included in the presentation will be Alpine Lake, Bear River Reservoir, Silver Lake, Caples Lake, Red Lake, Indian Valley Reservoir and others. Presentation will be given 7pm at John R. Williams School 2450 Meadow Avenue. Program is free and open to the public.
MAP to John R. Williams School

ASSEMBLING A FLY ROD
By C.W. “Don” Coleman – Taken from the Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club Newsletter

The best way to assemble a fly rod is to first connect the tip of the rod to the next section and the butt section last. You should twist each one quarter turn while pushing the sections together. Of course to disassemble the sections twist in the opposite direction. As wear occurs, tiny groves will form like a screw thread and keep the sections from separating in use. Assembling the sections by pushing them together forms straight groves and often results in loose connections during use. If a connection does become loose, wiping the male end of the connection with candle wax—not canning wax—will provide a temporary solution.

I have watched fly casters go through ridiculous—and often dangerous—motions trying to assemble a multi -piece fly rod while seated in a canoe or small boat. The best way is to lay all the loose sections in front of you and first put the reel on the reel seat. Then pull off about 20’ of loose line and lay it on the floor. Thread the line through the guides on the butt section and through the guides on the next section in succession and assemble the two and continuing until all the sections are connected. You do bend over the tip of the line into a loop first so that if the canoe rocks and you drop the line it does not slip out of all the guides, don’t you?

Less Can Be More…
By Jay Forrest – Taken from the Alamo Fly Fishers Club Newsletter

One of the things that seem to appeal to many fly fisher persons is the diversity of gear, gadgets, and thingamajigs that are available. Forty years of observing fly fisher people leads me to the conclusion that most of us display a definite pattern in the amount of stuff we carry with us when we fish. From one rod, one reel, maybe one fly box, etc. we accumulate nippers, knot tools, fly floatant and fly sinkant, leaders, tippet, fly boxes of dries and nymphs and streamers and (one for each of course) other stuff, vests, chest packs, backpacks spare reels, spare lines, and on and on. While this hoard tends to grow throughout the life of a fly fisher person, the amount actually carried need not.

Rather than carrying everything you own (a common phase that typically ends with the fisherperson looking like a walking store display) the habit gets established and fisher people often carry far more than they will ever be likely to need. At some point the fisher person begins to get smart. At first the fisher person will probably strive to remove things that aren’t needed, say pulling shorter bass leaders and flies from the vest for a trip to the Guadalupe. That can work reasonably well, to a point, but I know members of the club (author included) who have arrived at the Guadalupe and rigged up only to find that they have only 0X and 1X saltwater leader material to use to tie on a size 22 nymph. (If you can figure out how to get an 0X tippet through the eye of a size 22 hook or to get a size 12 nymph to drift properly on 0X tippet, you are a wizard and don’t need to read this!).

The answer many of us arrive at is to assemble gear bags with appropriate tippet, flies, etc for each type of fishing we do, say one bag for trout, one for bass and sunfish, and one for the coast. While this does tend to encourage multiple nippers and such, it has the advantage of simplifying life. One can simply grab a bag for the right type of fishing and be ready to go.

Perhaps more importantly, it begins to simplify what one carries as well. And that is one of the typical signs of more experienced fly fisher people. While more experienced fishermen often have more junk, they often carry less – only what is needed.

Over the past few years I have increasingly focused on simplifying my gear. On the coast I strive to carry on my person no more than nippers, a spare leader, tippet (10 pound and 12 pound test) and no more than four to six flies. I will have more in the boat or kayak, but that is all I will typically carry. For bass and sunfish the list would be similar but with say 8 and 10 pound tippet and a few more flies, possibly one box. For trout I typically carry a similar kit with 4X and 5X tippet on the Guadalupe and two fly boxes – one with a variety of dry flies and one with wet flies.

I find that carrying makes my life simpler and lets me find things faster. Even better, it encourages me to get rid of those shoddy, ratty old flies I tied years ago and that I carried
for years. Try it! Try paring down your gear and see if simplifying will make your life easier and fishing more fun!

Fly Fishing at its Best

CATCH AND RELEASE
I'm certain some of you have had your wives ask why do we go through all this trouble to buy all this expensive fly fishing gear and license, drive to faraway places or whatever to catch that fish of a lifetime only to put it back in the water?   Well, I read in fly fishing magazines their answer is for the preservation of our fisheries.  Our grandkids would like to have a fishery like we are enjoying now, and this is one way to ensure they have that opportunity.  Even my wife complains we don't eat as much trout as we used to, and there's two reasons for that: 
Read the full article here...

ROCK SNOT
The Federation of Fly Fishers is disseminating information about a new threat to our waterways called “Rock Snot.” It looks just like what comes out of your nose. The FFF is leading an international effort to reduce the spread of this disease called Didymosphenia geminata. This alga is native to many cold water streams in the northern latitudes where it usually presents no problem. However, biologists in recent years have discovered the alga has become an aggressive invader. It is spreading around the world and is forming impenetrable mats that can be up to two feet thick and covers the entire bottom of the stream and makes it impossible to fish. It is already having biological impacts and the science community has yet to discover all of the damage that it causes. At this time it has and is spreading to Arkansas, West Virginia, North & South Carolina, Texas, Missouri and almost every western mountain state. It is a national bio-hazard and threat in New Zealand and has also spread to the UK and much of Europe. FFF is one of the leaders in educating the public regarding these issues and implementing programs that will serve to protect and restore our aquatic resources. It is recommended at this time that we take the following steps to prevent spreading this invasive alga. They are:
1 - Make sure to wash your gear before you leave a stream.
2 - Inspect your gear to make sure you are not transporting mud, vegetation or any other visible material.
3 - Dry your equipment thoroughly before you use it on another water.
4 - Never transport live fish or other organisms from one water to another.
More information can be obtained about invasives at http://fedflyfishers.org/conInvasiveSpecies.php