Club News - Feb 19Th '17

[PeterSL]

Firstly, the Edmonton Boat and Sportsmen's Show is on March 16^th to 19^th. Once again we are offering our traditional fly tying booth where kids of all ages and the occasional adult will have opportunity to tie a fly with help from a club member. The Alberta Conservation Association is sponsoring the booth this year through the donation of grant monies for hooks and materials, parking and meal subsidies for volunteers and the development of a brochure on introducing kids to fly tying. The brochure is written, printed and ready to hand out. You can get a copy at the next club meeting. We do need more volunteers to help with the tying, however, especially on the Saturday and Sunday. Please consider offering a few hours of your time to let others, especially young folk, experience some of the pleasure that you have found in tying, and to encourage interest in fly fishing and the outdoors. Let Michael Dell know if you can help. We are also running the Lloyd Shea Fisheries Enhancement Fund bucket raffle with prizes organized by the Fishin’ Hole and donated by exhibitors at the Show. Believe we now have that fully staffed by club volunteers.

 

The executive met on Friday, 17^th Feb., this time at Kristi’s house. We had some interesting and productive discussions on a range of topics:

 

· seminar plans for next year – we lost $2300 on this year’s seminar and only 39 attended. That deficit would have been about $5000 if we had had to cover fees and expenses for George Daniel, the other presenter who was unable at the last minute to get here from the States. We had to look at alternatives and reconsider what would be of sufficient interest for fly fishers to attend in future. We’ve had about 34 responses to the survey so far and expect to be able to provide a summary of results in about a week.

 

· programs and meeting format – Bob has basically filled the calendar with presenters and activities until we take a break in June. Our aim going forward is to provide opportunity for tying and social interaction on the first and third Weds. of each month and presentations by knowledgeable/experienced people on the second and fourth Weds. What we do if there’s a fifth Weds in the month we’re not too certain as yet, so if you have ideas we’d appreciate hearing them. Sometimes, based on availability of speakers, we’ll need to vary the format but hopefully that shouldn’t be too often.

 

· identifying the club and its volunteers at external events – we’re told that we need to make it a little more obvious that we’re volunteers not passersby and that we represent NLFF/TU Edmonton not the event organizers. A simple blue t-shirt with the club name that we can lend out to volunteers might be the answer (Kristi’s volunteered to do the laundry!)

 

· changes to the website and forum – we’re looking at adding a prominent Contact Us link, fixing some broken links, and deleting some of the forum sections that have rarely if ever been used in the past couple of years.

 

· Cabela’s North has asked us to do fly tying demonstrations at the store on April 8, 9, 15, 16. Our response will be, as always, that we will present the opportunity to members, that if there are any members interested in so doing we will let Cabela’s know but that we cannot commit to meeting their request beyond that. We value the time that members volunteer to help the club achieve its aims and objectives and do not want to ask for more.

 

Upcoming Meetings and Events:

 

Feb 22 – Megan Posein will be passing on tips to improve your outdoor photography, maybe even showing us how to make that 12” rainbow look a little bigger!

 

Mar 1 – Short business meeting followed at 7:30pm by a “FIRE SALE”. There’s some real bargains to be had at this especially on tying materials and books, at least 50% off actual value. If you have items you’d like to sell please bring them along and set up shop. Bring friends and colleagues – that applies to all meetings!

 

Mar 8 – A ‘Bring Your Vice’, info sharing, social evening. Coffee will be on and we may even spring for some timbits!

 

Mar 15 – Jason Doucette will be in attendance to talk about competitive fly fishing in northern Alberta

 

Mar 16 to 19 - Edmonton Boat and Sportsmen’s Show

 

Mar 22 – Craig Copeland is coming in from Cold Lake. Craig is responsible for the provincial government’s Fish Hatcheries. He’ll provide an overview of what’s been happening at the hatcheries since last he was at the club, info on the rainbow trout adult brood program ( there are two new strains being developed for the first time in 40 years), Tiger Trout update, whirling disease update for the fish hatcheries and modernization projects - looking to invest capital dollars on improving our fish hatcheries.

Craig will also talk about lakes stocked in the Edmonton area and would like to get feedback from the anglers in the audience if possible. Here’s our chance to influence local stocking decisions! It’s good to be asked for our feedback.

 

Mar 29 – Shona Derlukewich is coming to the meeting to provide some interesting information on cold water species

 

April 5 – Business and tying – hopefully we’ll have some individual demonstrations going on around the room for those wanting to learn more

 

April 12 – Mike Blackburn, AEP biologist for the Edson area, is driving in to give us an update on the area with particular reference to the grayling population and the ongoing project work in which we are involved.

 

April 15 – This will be our Saturday ‘OPEN HOUSE’ at the Queen Mary Park Hall to promote fly fishing and find out about the club. We’re advertising it all over the city as an opportunity to drop in between 10:00am and 4pm to ask questions about the how, where and whys of fly fishing, to learn to cast a fly, tie a fly or see some tied, to see some of the bugs that trout eat and find out about local fishing locations. Hot dogs served around lunch time! If you’d be willing to help in any way please let us know.

 

Other presenters are booked for May including Wally Lutz from Edson. We’re also in process of scheduling a senior member of AEP’s Fisheries Management staff and a Fish and Wildlife enforcement officer. If there are speakers or activities you’d like to see on the agenda we’d really like to know and will do our best to accommodate them.

 

A Beginner Fly Fishing course will be offered on Apr 29 and again on May 6 by Rick Lang and Ross Chow. If there’s anyone you know who might be interested let them know.