Cape Fear Flyfishers Meeting Minutes—April 18, 2018
At 5 p.m.., a large group of casters gathered pond-side for the Casting Clinic and the Meet-N-Greet.
President Ed Smith called the meeting to order and announced that beginning in May, meetings will begin at 6:15 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. since we can’t get into the building until 6 p.m.
Ed also happily reported that all members have now paid their dues and that the club has 77 paid members. Ed thanked all concerned for joining and/or for renewing their membership.
New members in attendance included Scott Bleacher and Tom Brennan and guests included Bill Brown, Mike Thomas, Kevin Murray, and John Sanders.
Treasurer Scott Ewing reported that we have $8,277 in the bank with about half of that amount due in June to our parent organization, Fly Fishers International. Various other upcoming expenses for the year include our picnic in June and banquet in December, among other items.
The fly drawing was won by Nancy Fuller.
The topic for our next meeting May 16 is, “East Coast Stripers” led by Captain Rob Thompson. In July we will have a speaker from Coastal Conservation.
UPCOMING TRIPS
Bristol TN—Unfortunately, several participants recently cancelled due to personal or family health issues. In addition, the weather forecast is not looking too good so if your guide cancels because of bad weather, no fees are due; however, if you decide to cancel, you will owe half of the cost of your trip for each day that you cancel. As of now, the trip has about 14 participants.
New River VA for Smallmouth—Fishing will be July 23-27. Nine people are currently signed up and there may be room for more so let Jim White know if you are interested in going on this trip.
Twin Bridges Montana—Harry Gobble is coordinating this trip which is scheduled June 24-29. There are five people participating with room for one more. Let Harry or Ed know right away if you’d like to go as final arrangements are being made.
Asheville North Carolina—Twenty one people have signed up for this October trip which is in the reservation stage of planning. Club members are staying at the Residences of Biltmore and each member is responsible for making their own hotel reservation there. If you have any difficulties in making your reservation, please contact Jim Larson for assistance.
Patrick at Hunter Banks is coordinating the guides and boats for this trip and will be calling each fisher to determine their desires for boats, etc. Fishers will contract individually with Hunter Banks for the fishing they want to do and will be required to provide a credit card to reserve their spot. Patrick will try to arrange personal preferences as far as fishing buddies, etc. If you do not hear from Patrick soon, please let Ed or Jim Larson know. Please be sure you ask questions and understand the cancellation policies of Hunter Banks.
Patagonia—Joe Rinaldi is coordinating this trip scheduled for February 1-10, 2019. There are still openings so contact Joe if you would like to go along.
POND FISHING
Wednesday pond fishing
for bass and bluegill at The Woodlands pond
in St. James is going well with fish being caught, however, this week and next
week the club fishing at this location will be canceled due to the meeting and
the Bristol TN trip. If you would like to fish on your own, contact Ed Smith to
arrange for a gate pass but please keep in mind that non St. James residents
who would like to fish must be accompanied by a St. James resident. Club pond
fishing reconvenes on May 2 between 4 and 6 p.m. and will continue on May 9 and
May 23, also between 4 and 6 p.m.
EVENTS CALENDAR
- Our summer picnic is June 20 at the Waterway Park in St. James. This year the picnic will be a catered affair and Diane Wyte is in charge of arrangements with the caterer. Follow up information about the picnic will be coming out shortly. A few volunteers are needed to help with set up/clean up and Bill Buchsbaum is coordinating the attendance.
- Our annual winter banquet will be December 15 at the Members Club in St. James.
- Jim “Rev” White is presenting an “Intro to Flyfishing” as part of Jerry Dilsaver’s “Women Anglers in Training” (WAIT) program on April 28 at the Oak Island Recreation Center. While WAIT primarily covers spin fishing, one hour of the two day program is devoted to fly fishing. Volunteers are needed for this event to assist with casting.
- Jerry Dilsaver has a kayak fishing class on May 5. The class will cover safety, how to fish from a kayak, etc.
OLD BUSINESS
Dan Smith held the Boy Scouts Merit Badge event on April 3 and 4 with help from Jim White. Jim reported that maybe next time participating Scouts should be a bit older and the event should cover less information. Three Scouts did participate this time and one completed the requirements for the badge. The other two Scouts made progress towards completing the requirements.
WHAT’S BITING?
A few members reported sporadic catches in the ICW near Bald Head Island, the Woodlands Pond at St. James, and Lake Sutton using both spinning and fly gear.
NEW GEAR AND GADGETS
Jim White purchased the
$42 rod recommended by Steve Moore. Jim says the ceramic insert on the main
stripping guide broke the first time he used the rod but he was able to fix it.
He said he has used the rod several times since the repair and it is holding
up. So Jim says, “It’s not a Sage but for $42 it is a good deal.”
Ed Smith suggested that members bring any used gear catalogs they are ready to discard so that newer members can have them. Ed says he learned through experience that beginners need not invest in high end, overly expensive equipment to begin fishing. Jim White agreed and paraphrased the late Lefty Kreh by saying, “Any rod costing more than $250 is better than 99% of the people using it.”
FEATURED PROGRAM
Author David Paul Williams from Bellevue WA near Seattle presented our featured program on “Smallmouth, Largemouth and Panfish on the Fly.” His website is thefishingwriter.com. David writes articles and gear reviews for several flyfishing publications and also wrote a book titled, Smallmouth Fishing on Western Rivers. The book covers eleven western rivers in the first few chapters but the remainder of the book discusses techniques for catching fish that apply anywhere. David also includes 61 fly recipes for his preferred flies in the book.
David started off his presentation by agreeing with member’s comments that plenty of the more economically priced rods and gear are great pieces of equipment. He likes TFO and mentioned Echo Ion II rod at $169. David says the Echo is a fantastic beach rod and is a real cannon. David also likes the Orvis Helios III rod which is super expensive but is a super rod.
David grew up catching trout in OR but caught his first smallmouth bass on the fly in 1971 while fishing for bluegill on Putah Creek in the Bay area of CA.
Smallmouths are not native to NC but instead were introduced here from Canada where they occur naturally. However, as various canals and waterways opened throughout the U.S., smallmouths spread west and arrived in CA around 1860 and in WA in 1923. Smallmouths are in 47 of the 50 states; none inhabit AK, LA, or FL. Smallmouths also live in some locations in Europe.
Only about 25% of smallmouths spawn each year and the males tend the nest until the fry swim up about a week after the hatch. The NC record smallmouth is 10 lbs. 2 oz. In WA, the record is 8.75 lbs. and that was a fly rod caught fish.
Smallmouth rivers and waters in NC include the French Broad, Tuckasegee, Nantahala, and Lake James among others.
Smallmouths, as all other fish, eat what is available and abundant. And both available and abundant are critical. A food source can be abundant but not available and vice versa. For example, crayfish in winter may be abundant but they are buried in the mud so they are not available. So knowing the particular water where you want to fish and what food sources are available and abundant are key factors for successful fishing. Forage fish are considered to be any fish smaller than the predator fish. A favorite food of smallmouths is small crayfish which are typically abundant in spring. So a small crayfish pattern would be a great fly choice when targeting spring smallmouths. Conversely, during the fall when the crayfish have been growing all season, a larger crayfish fly would be a good choice.
David mentioned that he visited Greenfield Lake in Wilmington during his visit and noticed lots of red dragonflies, maybe Red Darters, and suggested that this would be a great pattern to fish with at Greenfield Lake.
David likes flies with spun deer hair, rubber legs, and marabou. Yellow crosscut rabbit is also a favorite material, especially in clear water. In dirty water he likes black or brown. His book details and gives recipes for many of the flies he uses.
David says he always fishes two flies no matter where he is fishing. He ties the first fly with a clinch knot and leaves an 18 to 24 inch tag end which is where he ties on the second fly. The tag should be 90 degrees perpendicular to the main line. He says this method seems to work better for landing two fish at the same time vs. the method of tying a second fly to the bend of the hook. Typically he will have different flies on the two hooks, e.g. if he is using crayfish, he will use different colors or different sizes. For topwater, he may have a small baitfish on
the bottom. And of course, he loves chartreuse and says that
color will work for
EVERYTHING! Of the 61 fly recipes in his book, one is called the Chartreuse
Caboose.
Smallmouths are structure oriented, temperature driven, ambush feeders. Catching smallmouths is dependant on water temperature with 43° usually being the magic temperature to turn on the action. At 75°, smallmouths become eating machines; however, prime temperature is 63°. The fish will move into deeper water as the temperature increases. David highly recommends that every angler should have a thermometer to measure water temperature at depth.
Smallmouths prefer structure and structure is “anywhere that is different from the surrounding place.” Broken bedrock is the preferred structure so fish over broken and cobbled bottoms rather than unbroken bedrock Shadow is structure, particularly in moving water. If fishing a lake in the morning, fish the shadow side of the lake first and as the sun changes throughout the day, follow it to always fish in the shadows if possible.
David zeroed in his discussion to information about flies, saying that for largemouth, fish mice patterns, crayfish, salamanders, frogs, small birds like ducklings, etc.; these patterns will all catch largemouth bass. David uses the same flies for smallmouth and largemouth.
Topwater flies are poppers, sliders, gurglers, and chuggers. Poppers are intended to move lots of water; chuggers are intended to move lots of water; and, gurglers and sliders are not intended to move lots of water. David says to slap these flies down hard and wake up the fish, wait a bit, then get ready for the explosion! Traditional topwater wisdom says to fish in low light conditions and not in cold water; David says do it anytime. He firmly believes topwater is effective at any time. And he loves to fish at night.
David preferred lots of black Woolly Buggers in the past but now he uses color spots on his buggers which are spots of another color such as chartreuse, red, etc. He believes the spots help the fish key in on the fly. On flies with legs, he likes to mix colors on the legs. David also uses lots of aquatic insect patterns, grasshoppers, Chernobyl ants, and Adams dry patterns.
David suggested to be sure to have sculpin patterns when fishing for Montana trout and suggested “little finger size.” Keep in mind when tying that these fish are always on the bottom so weight your fly accordingly.
Traditional Clousers can be tied with marabou instead of bucktail for freshwater fish because freshwater fish don’t have teeth. Marabou is much more lifelike in the water than bucktail. Keep the materials on Clousers very sparse—don’t overdo it.
Baitfish are always a lighter color on the belly and darker on their backs so keep that in mind when you are tying, especially on flies like Clousers that typically have weights such as dumbbells to counter balance the hook. Olive over white and brown over white are great choices for forage fish.
Crayfish can be sort of orange, dark purple, olive, or almost black, etc. so tie a variety of colors if you know crayfish will be in your fishing location.
On weighted flies, David likes to use strips of lead parallel to the shank instead of wrapping coils around the shank.
For crappie and panfish, try electric blue damselfly patterns. If you only have one crappie fly, make it white marabou. We have both white and black crappie in NC.
For bluegill, try poppers and dry flies. Below Lock No. 1 on the Cape Fear River is supposed to be good bluegill water.
Rock bass and red ear sunfish are also another fun fish on the fly.
David uses a 3 wt. rod for crappie and bluegills. For smallmouths he will use a 5 wt. for anticipated 14″ or less fish and for multi-pound fish he might even go up to an 8 wt. rod. David uses all kinds of fly lines based on his application (floating, sink tip, and full sinking line) but he will use a tapered leader for topwater and straight mono 5′ leaders for underneath.
Keep in mind that stealth is important when fishing. Not so much voices but don’t bang on the boat, run your motor, etc.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Fuller
Secretary