Saturday, June 27, 2020

June 29th Casting Monday, June 30th Club Meeting

Social Distance Casting
Monday, June 29th

5:00pm starting
Big Island Field, City Park Alexandria

Big Island has lots of space and there is strict adherene to social distancing guidelines.  You're welcome to come join at any time starting at 5pm. Improve on your casting skills with the help of our casting coaches. Or participate in the Casting Skills Challenge program and earn a Bronze, Silver or Gold recognition.

General Membership Meeting (Zoom)
Tuesday, June 30th

6:30pm
www.zoom.us (see email for meeting id)

Join us for an online general membership meeting Tuesday, June 30th.  We will be meeting using the Zoom app (laptop, tablet or mobile).  The instructions for using Zoom have been sent out via email.

During the meeting we will discuss our way forward for fly tying and fly casting.  We will also share some of our favorite local area spots to fish during summer, and what flies to use. 

Upcoming sessions:

Virtual Tying Tuesday, July 7th
6:30pm
Catch Cormier will lead in tying the Sili Minnow

Virtual Tying Tuesday, July 21st
6:30pm
Larry Offner will lead in tying the Jitterbee

VTT is open to all members of Kisatchie Fly Fishers & Acadiana Fly Rodders. Join the meeting at www.zoom.us using meeting ID and password.

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Bluegill Belly Bean revisited

Back in February - at our last live attendance tying session - we tied up the Bluegill Belly Bean. The BBB was created by Paul Beel of Indiana, fly fishing writer and owner of FrankenFly website.

This fly gets down deep, where bigger bream hang out during late summer. Beel suggests letting the fly sink down using the countdown method, then stripping short strips.

I got a report this week from a crappie fishing guide at Toledo Bend. He mentioned that he's finding bream in 5-10 feet of water on submerged humps and points.  Perfect scenario for the BBB.

Since we didn't post it before, here's the materials list:
  • hook: jig hook size 8 standard length (J2 602, J2 604, Diachi 4640 or 4647, Lightning Strike JF2, Hanak 480, * Umpqua 555) 
  • eyes: double pupil x-small chartreuse
  • tail: midge flash in root beer color
  • legs: Chicone's Barred Micro Crusher legs, olive color
  • abdomen: Estaz petite, opal olive color
  • thorax/head: Hares Ear Plus Dubbin, olive color
* Be careful when buying Umpqua U555, these run 2 sizes larger, eg, size 12 is really size 8


Saturday, June 20, 2020

June 22nd Casting Monday, June 23rd Tying Tuesday

Social Distance Casting
Monday, June 22nd

5:00pm starting
Big Island Field, City Park Alexandria

Big Island has lots of space and there is strict adherene to social distancing guidelines.  You're welcome to come join at any time starting at 5pm. Improve on your casting skills with the help of our casting instructors, or participate in the Casting Skills Challenge program and earn a Bronze, Silver or Gold recognition.

Virtual Fly Tying
Tuesday, June 23rd

6:00pm
www.zoom.us (see email for meeting id)

This week, Glen Cormier will lead us in tying the "Black Boudreaux", a pattern created by Ray Boudreaux of New Iberia, a longtime member of Acadiana Fly Rodders. Ray had just joined AFR and participated in a fishing outing at a local pond. One of the members was having great success catching bream on a small fly.  Ray tried to recreate the fly and in the process, came up with something new and different. Fellow member Bob Boese was so impressed with the fly, he named it after Ray.

The original pattern uses the following materials:
  • hook: size 14 scud
  • thread: size 8/0
  • tail: brown kip tail
  • body: peacock herl
  • hackle: grizzly hackle
  • eyes: small black bead chain
Bob's variation of this fly uses brown or black hackle for the tail, and tinsel instead of peacock for the body.  We're going to tie the original, but with hackle for the tail. The reason will be explained during the session.

As our usual procedure, Catch will first do a walkthough demonstration of the fly that will be recorded for later use. After the walkthrough, attendees can tie or watch and ask questions.

If you did not receive the email from Bill Morrison with the meeting ID and password, please email Bill prior to the meeting.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Tying the Rusty Sparrow

Tuesday we held our bi-weekly online fly tying session using the Zoom video conferencing application. Bill Morrison led the group in tying the Rusty Sparrow, a variation by Kyle Moppert of Jack Gartside's original Gartside Sparrow. Jim Guillory learned it from Kyle some dozen years ago, and it's been one of his favorite flies for trout on the Little Mo. Here is a video of Bill's walkthrough of tying the Rusty Sparrow.


Sunday, June 7, 2020

June 8th Casting Monday, June 9th Tying Tuesday

Rusty Sparrow
Social Distance Casting
Monday, June 8

5:00pm starting
Big Island Field, City Park Alexandria

Big Island has lots of space and there is strict adherene to social distancing guidelines.  You're welcome to come join at any time starting at 5pm. 

Virtual Fly Tying
Tuesday, June 9

6:00pm
www.zoom.us (see email for meeting id)

This week, Jim Guillory will lead us in tying the Rusty Sparrow.  This fly is Kyle Moppert's variation of the original Jack Gartside Sparrow.  Jim learned to tie it from Kyle about 12 years ago, and since then, it's been one of his favorite patterns for trout (hook sizes 12-16) and in larger sizes, for bass.

The original fly used feathers all taken from different parts of a pheasant, but did not use weight.  Here is a YouTube of the original Gartside Sparrow. The Rusty Sparrow variation uses weighted lead to get the fly down deep.

As our usual procedure, Jim will first do a walkthough demonstration of the fly that will be recorded for later use. After the walkthrough, attendees can tie along with Jim and ask questions. Or attendees can simply watch, and ask questions.

If you did not receive the email from Bill Morrison with the meeting ID and password, please email Bill prior to the meeting. The meeting is open to all members of KFF as well as Acadiana Fly Rodders.