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Welcome! We are an active community of fly fishers whose goal is to promote our sport in a variety of ways. Click Here to find out more! |
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May Meeting We are pleased to announce that Troy Basso will be our speaker for the May meeting. Troy is the owner of Creeks Bend Outdoors. Creeks Bend Outdoors is a full service fishing and hunting guide operation and for the past 6 years he has been a freelance outdoor writer. Troy will be presenting a program on Smallmouth Bass fishing here in Middle Tennessee and will focus on the Collins River and the Duck River. If you would like to learn more about Smallmouth fishing here in Middle Tennessee be sure to mark your calendars for the May Meeting. The Fly Of The Month for May 2008 is the Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle. This is a great pattern on many of our tailwater fisheries. This pattern can be fished on the “swing”, dead-drifted under a strike indicator, or stripped back to you. Eric Berkovsky will be tying the Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle at May’s meeting. Please check out the Fly Tying Forum for a photo and pattern for the fly as well as a downloadable PDF of the pattern. The MTFF club meets at the TWRA Region II building at Ellington Agricultural Center. The doors open at 5:30PM for the tying session and the meeting comes to order at 7:00PM. For directions, check here. May Outing Caney Fork River, May 16-18. This year the May Outing is at the Caney Fork River. This is a good chance for everyone to get together and camp / fish our home waters. This is usually a well attended outing since most us live near and fish this river often. The Beginning Fly Fishing Class will be held in conjunction with this outing too. As another added bonus, the Cast Iron Cooking Class will be finishing up that day too; hopefully there will be plenty of Ray’s famous peach cobbler or cherry chocolate cobbler. Group leaders will be Mike Kingston (615) 969-5515. Look for more information in the handout at the May meeting or on the Outings Fishin' Forum. 
From the PresidentI think one of the greatest fisheries we have here in Middle Tennessee, and often overlooked, is the smallmouth bass. Smallmouth are incredible fighters and an absolute ball on a fly rod. And with the way the Corp has been generating on the Caney many of us are looking for alternative ways to tighten our lines. That’s why I’m excited about having Troy Basso come give a presentation to the club on smallmouth bass. I’ve been reading his articles for a few years now and he is definitely a great source of information. If you’ve been trying to do more smallmouth fly fishing like I have, then you don’t want to miss the next meeting. Don’t forget, we have our annual Beginning Fly Fishing Class coming up May 17. If you want to take the class, be sure to sign up soon. If you have any friends that would like to get into fly fishing, this class is an excellent way to get them started. Also, we still need river helpers so if you can spare the afternoon, please come out and help. We’ll even feed you lunch. Please take a moment to look at your address on this newsletter. There should be either “Jan 09” or “Life” next to your name. If it still says “Jan 08” then we don’t have your dues for 2008. Starting with the next newsletter we will drop from the list all those that aren’t up to date. We’d really hate to see you go. If you have paid already and it doesn’t show “Jan 09” then please see Winston at the next meeting or give him a call. Scott Weber Ramblings from the Past President Helping with the Casting for Recovery Retreat in East TN. Scott Weber & I made the trip to East Tennessee to be River Helpers at this retreat. We drove out on Saturday morning to visit Little River Outfitters and try our luck at fishing in the park. We decided on Abrams Creek which I have never fished before. My first clue should have been when Scott stated that if we were going to fish there he was buying studded boots. It lived up to it reputation as being a very slick river. We both managed to land a rainbow and saw lots of big Mayflies. As we hiked back to the truck that evening my thoughts turned to the participants at the CFR retreat. I hope they are having a great time and I look forward to working with them on Sunday morning. We met up with the other River Helpers at Norton Creek Estates on Sunday morning. When the participants got there they were ready to go fishing already dressed in their waders and having more enthusiasm and excitement than anyone I have ever taken fishing. We immediately got to work with quick introductions, setting up rods, a group photo and we were off to the river. It was quite cold with snow expected later in the day. Little did we know we were going to get snowed before the morning was through? The lady I was fishing with thought the snow was great, it was pretty cool. I believe all the participants caught fish I know they all had a great time. As the morning wrapped up we all headed over to the Buckberry Creek Lodge for a wonderful lunch. It truly amazes me the sprit of these ladies I’m truly proud to be part of this program. To find out more about Casting for Recovery program you can visit their website. Jeff Barrett Upcoming Classes Entomology Class: (May 10, 2008) - The entomology class on Saturday, May 10, 2008 is currently full, but there is a waiting list if anyone drops out of the class. If you have any questions about this class, please contact Rich Casalone at 615-504-9675 or rlcasalone@yahoo.com Beginning Fly Fishing Class: (May 17, 2008) - Our annual BFFC will be held May 17 along with our Outing on the Caney Fork. The location of the class is the Long Branch Picnic Pavilion. The class fee is $40 for MTFF members and $60 for non-members. The fee covers instruction, handouts, lunch and snacks. A sign-up sheet will be available at the meeting for those interested in taking the class. Also, there will be a sign-up sheet for MTFF members willing to be river helpers for the afternoon session. Lunch will be provided for the river helpers. Contact Rich Casalone at 615-504-9675 or rlcasalone@yahoo.com to sign up as a student or a helper. Cast Iron Cooking Class: (May 17, 2008) - This one has become a club favorite, not only with the students but the rest of the club members that get to take part in the feast. Ray Alley will be teaching this class again, during the Caney Fork Outing in May. In the meantime contact Rich Casalone at 615-504-9675 or rlcasalone@yahoo.com if interested. |
MTFF Meeting May 7, 2008 MTFF Class May 10, 2008 Entomology Class MTFF Outing May 16-18, 2008 Caney Fork River MTFF Class May 17, 2008 Beginning Fly Fishing MTFF Blass May 17, 2008 Cast Iron Cooking FFF New Member Drive Extended The Federation of Fly Fishers has extended its new member drive until June 30th 2008. So, now you can still get an annual membership for only $15. That’s $20 off the normal membership of $35. Visit http://www.fedflyfishers.org/ to learn more about the Federation. Applications will be available at the meetings and must be signed by MTFF’s President to qualify. 
Don't forget to order your Trout Unlimited specialty license plate. You can do so either on line at www.tuplate.org, by downloading the order form at the Cumberland
TU Chapter website or filling out the TU specialty plate brochure distributed statewide. By ordering your TU specialty plate, you'll
be showing your personal support for Tennessee Rivers and streams conservation. - Jeff Barrett
Our brochure contains lots of club information in one place.
It tells about membership, outings, classes, contacts, and has a map with directions to the meetings!
(Free reader required)  You can find the latest FFF ClubWire at the next MTFF meeting or access it on the internet.  MTFF Hats for sale We still have a number of MTFF hats for sale. At $10.00 these are a great deal. These are low profile ball caps that come in colors green, dark khaki, and light khaki. See Winston at the next meeting if you are interested. |