August 2013 Volume 18 Issue 8 Bighorn River Youth Fly Adventure Adam Urban Wichita, Kansas www.flatlandflyfishers.org It turns out that I was able to get out of At the time I applied for this and was state right before our first real heat wave selected we had already planned and that some of you might remember as hap- booked our regular summer trip and it hap- pening in the later half of June. I hadn’t pened to fall directly after the Youth Ad- INSIDE THIS ISSUE planned it like this but with my dislike for venture. We ended up going straight down hot windy weather it worked out nicely to Colorado for our week in Granby which and I’m glad it did. I took a little over two is between Winter Park and Grand Lake, to Alaska Trip week leave from here in KS and ended up give an idea of location. I got to fish a heading west for a couple of different rea- wide variety of water and caught fish in From The President sons and locations. most places but the dry fly action wasn’t as Page 2 The first of which was that I applied for good as I had hoped for and ended up re- ______and was selected to attend the Bighorn sorting to nymphs most of the time. Not Minimal River Youth Adventure which as its name that there’s anything wrong with that Page 3 & 4 implies was held in Ft. Smith, Montana on though, between Rocky Mountain National ______the famous Bighorn River. Park, the Fraser river, the Colorado river, and a couple of private waters I was lucky Blue Gill Fest enough to get access to. It was a great trip What’s Cooking and prevented a letdown that would have Page 4 definitely occurred after the Bighorn expe- ______rience. McKenzie River Page 5

______My Tenkara Experience Page 6 ______The Youth Adventure is put on by the Club Information Bighorn River Alliance and the Federation Page 7 of Fly Fishers and is their yearly event where they select 12 youth between ages 14 to 18 to come stay in Ft. Smith and re- ceive four days of guided fly fishing, tying Between these two places I could bore instruction and various other events all at you to death with a huge article but instead no cost to the participants. With all of this I’ll be doing a short presentation on it at to look forward to I headed off to Montana the August meeting. Also doing a short and in short; flies were tied, fish were presentation will be Bruce Garren who was Visit our website caught. I just had an overall great time lucky enough to take a trip to Alaska. www. flatlandflyfishers.org/ with all the other young people who were Hope to see you all there. just as into fly fishing as I am.

Next Meeting August 1, 2013 7:00 P.M. Flatland Fly Fishers 2

Alaska Trip From the President

Bruce Garren

"After many years of dreaming of a fishing trip to Alaska, my son Jarad and I recently managed to make that trip. Flying from Anchorage to King Salmon we made the last leg of our journey to Naknek River Camp. You will be able to see a slide show of some of our fishing and bear adventures while we ex- perienced the wide open spaces of the Alaskan wilderness."

Hey, July was not so bad. We got some rain and the temperatures were fishable. I hope that you got out and wacked a few fish. At our August club meeting two of our members, Adam and Bruce will do presentations on the trips that they had this summer, I know I’m looking forward to seeing their pictures. In other club notes it will be November before we know it, and as you know November will be the club elections, so if you are inter- ested in seeking a position on the board let me know.

You know that if you give a kid a fish he or she will have a dinner. Teach a kid engineering princi- ples and they could start an aquafarm, or devise a better fishing system or maybe come up with an entirely new way to combat your chronic fishlessness. Science is not just for scientist. Teach what you know to a kid and take them fly fishing.

Last November the club went down to Roaring River for the opening of the season. If you would like to do a club trip this year let me know so that I can call the resort and set up a room rate. If you go you will have to make your own reservations with Roar- ing River Resort. There will be more information on this trip in upcoming newsletters.

The top water Bluegill season is going strong right now so get out there and smack a big one. Flatland Fly Fishers 3 The Essentials of Fly Fishing Chapter 1 Rick Brown

How to be successful at My Fly Fishing Ten Essentials The Basic Fundamental Indispensable Stuff needed to get minimalist fly fishing out on the river. 1. At least one good 9’ 5 wt. 4 pc. Rod. Can you have more than one rod and still be a minimalist, sure you can. But when I was out fishing in Colorado a few years ago and while you head down to the river pick one. standing in the middle of the river I heard some noise on the 2. At least one good reel with a good drag system. Same river bank, when I turned around a young guy popped out the thing for reels as for rods. You may want to have an extra bush and bounded down a steep bank into the river behind me spool for that reel. and bounced across the river in about four steps. All he was 3. Good Fly Line (weight forward floating) (line weight to wearing were wader boots and swim trunks with a ball hat and match rod) no shirt. He had his fly rod taken apart and was in one hand. 4. A selection of leaders and tippet material. A person could When I asked where he had been fishing he said, as he went build their own leader. by, that he had been in the upper end of Brown’s Canyon. That 5. A selection of flies (Trout, Bass, Bluegill’s, etc.) was three miles upriver from where I saw him. He was able to 6. A pair of forceps and nippers. (With zingers) (Dr. Slick cover a lot water that day because he did not have anything and Redington make both in one tool) with him he did not need. I watched as he made his way up to 7. At least two fly boxes (water proof) (that fit in your vest or the parking lot, pitched his rod in his old car and was gone. bag or pocket) When I got out of the river that day it took me about half an 8. Some type of vest and or bag. If your vest weighs forty hour to get out my boots and not to mention all the lbs. you have missed the idea here. other stuff I had with me; like a vest with nine fly boxes, net 9. At least one pair of good waders and wading boots, etc.. The point here being; I had all the toys and spent two Wading staff (I know these are three items but they go togeth- hours setting up and tearing down for two small fish and I had er) only fished about five hundred yards of river. The other guy 10. Net covered six miles of river that same day and had twenty some fish and one that was up around 21”. Note to self, there has to Remember this is a basic list and some of the items may be be a better way. exchanged for other items that fit your needs better. Could the

list have items added so that it becomes the fifteen or twenty

essentials, yes it could but keep it simple. Over time you may

get it down to seven items. If the idea is to be a minimalist fly

fishing person then you need to have some sort of guidelines. You need to have a fly fishing philosophy. If you want one can go all the way to the extreme of minimalist fly fishing. Sell all of your rods and all the other stuff you have and buy a Tenkara rod. One rod, no reel, ten feet of level line, some tippet materi- al and 6 to 12 flies. That’s as thin as it gets.

Here are some things to think about. Do you really need to wear your waders or can you wet wade? Do you really need My vision here is to present a concept. The concept of how your vest or fishing bag, how about putting your fly box in to make our fly fishing life simpler and not try to make it more your pocket? How many flies do you really need for a day’s complicated than it needs to be. So what does it really mean fishing on a river that you know well? The right small fly box this minimalist fly fishing? Minimal means the minimum. It’s will hold a hundred flies. The same for your leaders and tippet; that simple. Below is my list of essentials. As with any list of they will fit in your shirt pocket. And you can hang your for- stuff that you make it needs to be flexible. There is always ceps and nippers on a lanyard around your neck. Rig your net room for refining your essentials depending on a number of on a belt loop if you think you need your net. Do you see things, like the time of year or fishing location. You may want where I’m going here? If you start with ten essentials and you to have two lists, one for cold weather and one for hot weath- don’t use three or four of them then your list of essentials just er. You also could have different lists for different kinds of got shorter. And the great part is if you do need something it’s fish; i.e. one for Trout and one for Bluegill. The idea here is to in your car. Doing this does not require a change of life style; make the most of your time on the water catching fish and not only an adjustment of your thinking process. The lighter you messing around with your gear. My needs are different than your needs; so take what you will and make it fit you. (continued on page 4) Flatland Fly Fishers 4

(Minimal Fly Fishing continued from page 3) What’s Cookin’ Chicken and Dumplin’s go with less gear the better you’ll feel because you don’t have fifty lbs. of stuff with you that you are not going to use any- Ingredients: way. The idea here is to have fun and catch fish not see how 2 large envelopes chicken noodle soup mix much you can carry. (not single servings) There are some other things you should not be without but, the- 1 12 oz can chicken meat se items are a given, like rain gear and a wide brim hat not to Buttermilk biscuit mix mention sunglasses. A wide brim hat and sunglasses are safety (see box for needed ingredients) items. Sunglasses will protect your eyes from not only the sun Season as you wish but also flies that coming back at you at a high rate of speed. A hat with a wide brim will also give protection from flying Instructions: hooks as well as the sun. A rain jacket and rain pants that will Preheat dutch oven to 250 deg. keep you dry when you need to stay dry. Like I said in my (Place oven on 10 briquettes and check temperature with infra- manifesto, buy the best you can afford. red heating device) Mix soup mix with about half the normal water I have given you a lot of details about what my concepts of Add chicken and bring to boil essentials are and what I think the minimum should be. There (add briquettes to bottom as needed) are extremes in both directions and what we need is to be Mix biscuit mix and drop by spoonfuls in the somewhere on the down side of the middle. So in reality your chicken soup lists of essentials should be what you feel is the minimum you Cover and bake at about 350 deg for 30 minutes can live without. or until dumplings are done (Check and replace any briquettes for a total of 17 briquettes Chapter 2 in September newsletter on top and 7 on bottom)

Optional ingredient: Can of corn, peas, carrots or mixed vegetables. Blue Gill Fest

Dutch Oven Cooking at Club Picnic Dutch Oven cooking will be available for any person who would like to try at the club picnic on Saturday, Oc- tober 19, 2013. If interested contact Dwan Welty or C. H. Hermon

Use every third letter in decoding the message (the message is not “eat more ovaltine”)

H R I D Q F A C I K X N B U T P L E W Y R I T E A O S W Q T M N E S I D L K I G R N P D B A T E H E I W E N J B G V R A O U 2 C R 0 E T 1 A K 4 L M C T D L A Y U L P B G H O S E F V O F L Z I S Y C W H E A P R P L T Q W A V N L I T K P Y T S C O E R A P H N M O Y W Q 2 P K 0 A W 1 C P 3 Y F O M T F W P F K D I B M C P S E W J R

Flatland Fly Fishers 5

McKenzie River Eugene, Oregon Dwan Welty Being a father has provided me with many good and not so the line was stripping out a trout jumped and Heather com- good experiences however as I am into my grandpa years I mented on how beautiful it was. Stan said “Heather the trout realize that the good experiences out weigh the not so good that jumped is on your line”. Heather proceeded to strip in the experiences. As a grandpa and looking back at my parenting trout and said it must be pretty big because her arms were get- years I am able to filter out the negative moments and focus on ting tired. She got the fish to the boat and noticed she had a the positive ones. Picking some of the highlights would be all fish on both flies, a real double catch. my kids are healthy, went on to high education and contrib- uting to society and allowed me to become a grandpa. A question that I get every year is what do I want for my birthday, Fathers Day and Christmas and my never changing answer is as long as the family is together I have all I need. For Fathers Day, this year, the kids decided to get me a trip to Oregon. They explained the NCAA National Track and Field Championships were being held in Eugene, Oregon and my middle daughter, Mellanee, who is an assistant Track and Field coach at the University of Florida, would be there. I could not decline the offer so on June 4 Heather and I went to One of the more exciting times we had during our Eugene, Oregon. float trip down the McKenzie River were the rapids. One of my requirements for visit- ing new places is to check out the fly fishing opportunities. I searched the web and contacted several fly fishing guides and using my limited wisdom chose Stan. Stan was an excellent guide. www. Oregon-fly-fishing-with- Stan.com

The trip was scheduled for Thurs- day June 6 and the weather, scenery and fishing was excellent. We fished the McKenzie River which is just outside of Eugene.

If anyone gets the opportunity to visit Eugene, Oregon I would highly recommend you find a local guide, Stan is a good choice, and fish the McKenzie River. It was also a great Fathers Day present. Heather, the youngest daughter, is not an animal person but agreed to go with me on this fishing trip. Heather was very impressed with the clarity of the McKenzie River and did more sight seeing than fishing. As we drifted Stan would have to remind Heather that she had a fish on the line. At one point Heather had landed back to back fish and had just let her line re-enter the water. As Proof I did catch a trout Flatland Fly Fishers 6

My Tenkara Experience Rick Brown

had done some research before I got a Tenkara rod I was able to make a better decision on the right rod for me.

I acquired a TFO 10 ½’ rod for a couple of reasons. One was the TFO warranty and the fact that the TFO Tenkara rod comes with the top two tip sections. I consider that this was the best rod for me. For others this may not be the rod. It has been about two years ago now that I first started reading about Tenkara rods on the internet. I had found this As of the time I am writing this article I have only fished the site call Tenkara USA. I have no idea why this type of a few times and it was great. After work one day I went tripped my trigger, but it did, and I booked marked the site and out to the sand pit and walked the bank. I took a number of started reading. I was not ready to jump in and buy a rod. I small Bass and a few nice Gills. I was using a level line and started talking to other fly about this new type of had no issues. I have no idea if I was correctly or not, rod I had found out about when someone told me that Tenkara but I did hit the water and landed fish. I was fishing out to had been round for some time now in the US. OK, back to the about twenty feet from the bank, and the only down side if can internet for more information, just what I need one more ad- call it that was that you cannot cast out any farther. So if you diction in fly fishing. (Yes; I do have “the” addiction and my see a fish rise out at forty or fifty feet all you can do is enjoy wife paid for both the seven step program and the just say no the view of a fish rise. My plan is to fish my Tenkara rod this program and needless to say neither worked) so I browsed all summer out of my tube float and see what how that goes. I am the articles I could find and watched a host of videos on Ten- also looking forward to fishing it the next time I get down to kara. Now I know all there is to know about the subject. Roaring River. Right!!! I even went as far as to build my own version of a Tenkara rod, (9’ 3wt. 4 pc.) with just a handle and a tip top As I have said I’m sold on the concept of Tenkara. But and then wrote an article about my rod. Hey, it worked, but I Tenkara fishing may not be for everyone. To me it is just an- did not fish it too much for a couple of reasons. The biggest other tool to use to fly fish. It is not the answer; but it is part of reason was what if I hooked a larger fish and the top two sec- the equation. I prefer to have the right rod for the right situa- tions of the rod came off, I would have a really diminutive rod. tion. That why most of us own more than one fly rod. The last So I did not fish that rod and I kind of let my idea of a home- time I was on the White River the only rod I took out in the made Tenkara rod go. boat that day was my 7’ 4 wt. and I could not make a good cast trying to throw two flies, split shot and a strike indicator Then a year ago last March I was down in Mountain Home where the guide wanted, so he gave me a 9’ 5wt. to use and I Arkansas for some fishing and to take in the Sow Bug Round- had no issues getting the flies to where they needed to be. I up. As I was walking round at the show I ran into a table for then set up the 4 wt. with a dry fly and that worked out great. Tenkara and got to talking with the guy who was sit- By having two rods set up for two methods of casting presen- ting there, turns out he was the guy from one of the web site’s tations I was able to put more fish in the boat that day. The that I had been looking at. I don’t remember his name now but point here is that no one rod will meet all of your fly fishing he was the Tenkara Bum from New York State. We talked for needs so why limit yourself. Having that right rod for right some time about Tenkara fishing; I had lots of questions and situation is another part of the equation. To me that’s why add- he was kind enough to spend the time to talk with me. And I ing a Tenkara rod to my assortment of rods will be an asset. got to watch him tie some great looking Tenkara flies. He also What kind of rod to you think Izaak Walton used, Sage or had his Tenkara rod there for show and tell and he let heft the Winston? rod, it was a Diawa 13’ as I remember. Also at the same table was a lady who had Tenkara USA rods that I also hefted. I FYI, just in case you what to know the equation here it is, think that is when I got hooked all the way on the Tenkara concept. I almost got the Tenkara USA rod but really was not Fish = ∑ √ (R1+R2+R3+R4+R5) x sure that it was the rod for me. (Re1+Re2+Re3+Re4+Re5) ÷ (L1+T1) √(☼≈≡∂) Now fast forward to this year when two of our club mem- = (Rx+Rex+L1x+T1) x (≤≈≥) x (☼) ÷ (<=>) bers did a presentation on Tenkara fishing and rods. They had √(∂≠¥)℮ a number of rods there for us to look at. I was already sold on Or the concept and that presentation was just the motivation I (R1+Re1+L1+T1) ÷ ☼ = Fish needed to get off my butt and make a decision on which rod to buy. As I had not bounded in and got the first rod I saw and Flatland Fly Fishers

5709 N. Sullivan Wichita, KS 67204

Flatland Flyfishers meet monthly at the Great Plains Nature Center, located at 6232 E. 29th St. N, Wichita, KS

August Meeting

Club member Bruce Garren will present a slide show on his recent trip to Alaska.

Club member Adam Urban will present a slide show on the Ark River Anglers Fly Tying Class Bighorn River Youth Clinic.

Come join us at the August meeting for both of these presentations.

Up coming months: September— pending October — Stuart Weniger November— Elections, fly swap Fly Tying Seminars Saturday’s at 10 am December— movie and eats Please Call 316-682-8006 for additional dates and information

“Your Year ‘round Fishing Store” Fly Fishing/Tying Bass Pro Orders Accepted Hard to Find Items www.zeiners.com Lure Making Supplies

737 S. Washington Wichita, KS 67211 (316) 265-5551 (316) 265-6668 Fax

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Questions and Answer If you have questions regarding any aspect of Fly Fishing please submit them to: [email protected]

Flatland Fly Fishing Club Upcoming Activities

October 4-6, 2013 Fly Fishing Fair October 19, 2013 Fall Picnic/Banquet