www.natgreeneflyfishers.org Email: info@natgreeneflyfishers.org
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www.natgreeneflyfishers.org Email: info@natgreeneflyfishers.org
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Nat Greene Flyfishers August 2006==================================================== NAT GREENE CALENDARMEETINGS & EVENTSAugust 8, 2006 - Monthly Meeting: Seth Thompson will be speaking and showing a slide presentation on reading water. All are welcome. Leonard Recreation Center, 6324 Ballinger Road, Greensboro, NC 27410, 7:00 p.m. map and directions September 12, 2006 - Monthly Meeting: Topic TBA. All are welcome. Leonard Recreation Center, 6324 Ballinger Road, Greensboro, NC 27410, 7:00 p.m. map and directions October 10, 2006 - Monthly Meeting: Topic TBA. All are welcome. Leonard Recreation Center, 6324 Ballinger Road, Greensboro, NC 27410, 7:00 p.m. map and directions ==================================================== August Monthly MeetingThe speaker for our August 8th monthly meeting will be Seth Thompson. Seth is a former Orvis guide, and he is originally from Grand Junction, CO. After finishing college, he began teaching shooting and flyfishing for Orvis. He spent 1 1/2 years in Manchester, VT, a year in Millbrook, NY, and another year in Maryland. Teaching flyfishing took him from Maine to key West. Seth will be speaking and showing a slide presentation on reading water. All are welcome. Leonard Recreation Center, 6324 Ballinger Road, Greensboro, NC 27410, 7:00 p.m. map and directions ==================================================== A Simple But Workable Leader SystemMy mind doesn't wrap itself very successfully around technical matters, and I'm lazy about leaders. For many years I hand-tied a variety of leader lengths, tapers, and tippets from formulae, and carried them in a bulging vest pocket wherever I went. I always had the precise right leader for everything from a tiny and tumbling mountain stream to the broadest and smoothest tailwater flat. I also found myself always neglecting them, and using a single 9-foot 4X base leader that I would extend and fine down if glassy water and selective trout demanded it. As time went on, leader manufacturers began making knotless tapered leaders that were far removed from the noodles of yesteryear. When leaders became better and better I began tying my own less and less, and finally have simplified my own trout leader selection to a single 7.5' 3X knotless base leader. I always have a foot length of 25# to 30# stiff monofilament butt nail-knotted to the end of my line. The base leader is tied to this with a 3-turn blood knot. That way, every time I need to replace a leader, I nip the butt and not my fly line tip. I carry spare tippet spools in 3X, 4X, 5X, and 6X. This allows me to rebuild the 3X leader if I'm fishing a heavy nymph or streamer. I add a two-foot 4X tippet to fish a moderately large fly, size 10 to 14. If I desire to go smaller, size 16 or 18, I use a foot tapering section of 4X and two feet of 5X. The finer I want to go, the more tapering sections and longer tippet I add. As you can see, the system automatically adjusts itself to fish longer and finer as the situation demands. The leader remains in balance, and therefore turns over flies nicely. The largest benefit for me: my vest pockets don't bulge, and no brilliant thoughts are required. When I want to dangle nymphs, in all but the deepest and most brutal water such as my home Deschutes River, I use a yellow yarn indicator. I snip about an inch of yarn, dress it with dry fly floatant, bend it in half, and slip knot it into the leader where I want it, anywhere from the depth of the water to twice its depth, depending on its speed and the weight of the nymph or nymphs I'm using. The more weight I need to suspend, the larger the fan of yarn I use. That's my leader system for about 90% of my fishing. For delicate hatch-matching situations, I carry one or two 10-foot base leaders in 5X, and again lengthen them with 6X and rarely 7X for the tiniest flies and most selective trout. I'm sure this system is oversimplified, but it compensates for some other aspects of my life, which are overcomplicated. ==================================================== Ed Engle to Speak at 2007 Spring Banquet and SeminarRenowned flyfishing writer Ed Engle will speak at the Nat Greene Fly Fishers 2007 Annual Spring Banquet and Seminar. Ed is a really nice guy and we've had great reports from people who have seen his presentations. The 2007 Banquet will be held on March 10th, 2007; more details will be released as the plans come together, but go ahead and reserve the date because you won't want to miss this great event. Ed will present "A Fly Fisher’s Life,' a lighthearted and non-technical program ideally suited for general audiences -- a travelogue of Ed’s fly fishing adventures on Montana’s spring creeks, the warm water spring creeks of Texas, Mexican bonefish and permit, Chilean fiords, and Alaskan silver salmon. Ed has been an avid fly fisherman for the past 30 years for a variety of game fish species. Ed is especially interested in small fly tactics and techniques -- his small fly research has taken him to a many of the West's famous tailwaters and to spring creeks across the country. He is also dedicated to fly fishing small streams and high country lakes for wild trout. Ed balances out his interest in the “small side of fly fishing” with the avid pursuit of king salmon on the fly. Ed lives near the South Platte River, one of Colorado’s premier tailwaters, where he guides and instructs fly fishers. Ed currently holds the positions of Southwest Field Editor for FLY FISHERMAN MAGAZINE, columnist for FLY FISHING & FLY TYING JOURNAL, outdoor writer for the BOULDER DAILY CAMERA, and a regular contributor to AMERICAN ANGLER. His freelance articles and photographs have appeared in: Fly Fisherman Magazine, Fly Rod & Reel, American Angler, Trout, Warmwater Fly Fishing, Fly Tyer, Saltwater Fly Fishing, Angler’s Journal, Sports Afield, Fly Fishing Magazine, and Gray's Journal. He hs authored books including FLY FISHING THE TAILWATERS, SEASONAL: A LIFE OUTSIDE, SPLITTING CANE: CONVERSATIONS WITH BAMBOO ROD MAKERS, TYING SMALL FLIES, and FISHING SMALL FLIES. ==================================================== What Is Angling Etiquette?One of the missions of NWF is: To promote and encourage stream etiquette and to educate our members. In our excitement to be fishing we sometimes forget our manners around the water, and exhibit less than exemplary behavior. THE LAW: Buy and carry a fishing license. THE ENVIRONMENT: If you brought it in, take it out. Every scrap of it. WHO HAS THE RIGHT A WAY ON A STREAM? All of the following: ==================================================== LOCATING THE SPINE OF A FLY ROD BLANKBuilding a graphite fly rod is not a high-tech operation requiring a lot of equipment. If you can tie a fly you can build a fly rod. Your first step is to locate the “spine” on each section of the fly rod blank. Some sections may have a minor as well as a major spine. The reel seat, guides, and tip top must be properly placed in relation to the major spine to prevent the rod from twisting when it is loaded by the fly line. Here is a two step process for accurately locating the major spine. WARNING: Do not try to determine the spine with an assembled blank, or even bend an assembled blank until the female ferrule(s) has been wrapped and coated with Flex Coat. Place a wrap of 3/4 inch masking tape near the center of each section of the rod blank. Because these tapes will remain in place until the rod is finished, locate them so that they will not have to be moved to wrap a guide. You should have a guide spacing chart for your rod blank. Do not simply space the guides evenly along the blank. Fly rod blanks do not have a uniform taper. Place the tip of a section on a smooth, level surface and support the butt with your dominate hand so that the rod is raised about 45 degrees. Press down on the blank midway between the tip and the tape wrap with the open fingers of your other hand--placing a good bend in the blank—and roll the butt with the thumb and first finger of your upper hand until the rod “jumps” into position. Repeat until you are sure you have located the major jump and not a minor jump. Make a pencil mark on the masking tape along the top of the blank—on the inside of the curved blank. This marks the spine of the blank—the “hard” side. There are several reasons why your pencil mark may not be precise. The tip of the blank may not be cut off square, there may be irregularities in the finish so that it is not truly round, the table top may have irregularities, or you may have inadvertently restricted the action of the blank with your hands. However, your mark should be fairly close. To finalize the exact location for your mark, place a foot or so of the butt on a smooth table with the tip hanging off the table. Be sure the blank is held at right angles to the edge of the table. Hold down the butt firmly with the heel of one hand—with the pencil mark facing directly up—and press straight down on the overhanging tip and suddenly release the pressure. The overhanging section will vibrate up and down. As the vibrations diminish, you may see the tip start to move around a circle. Be sure you are looking directly down along the top of the blank. If the tip comes to a stop without moving in a circle, your pencil mark is accurate. If it does move in a circle, slightly roll the blank along the table until you find a location where the rod tip will vibrate directly up and down to a stop. Make a final mark on the tape with a red pen. It was necessary to do the first procedure in order to be close before performing the vibration test. ==================================================== Newsletter Editor Position AvailableIf anybody has an interest in learning to produce and distribute the Nat Greene monthly newsletter, please send an email to admin@natgreeneflyfishers.org and let us know of your interests. We'll show you how it all comes together and we'll be glad to coach you through the first few months. ==================================================== NAT GREENE FLYFISHERS CLUB
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