KFF February 28 meeting - Knots

KFF monthly meeting
Monday, February 28, 2022
6:30 pm
Rapides Westside Library, 5416 Provine, Alexandria
Also livestreamed on Zoom

This month's agenda will begin with a short session on club business items.  Afterwards, Robert Hughes and Chris Perkins will conduct a hands-on fly fishing knots tying clinic. This session will be very informative and useful for both new and veteran flyfishers.

Upcoming events:

• Mar 11-12 - Gulf Coast Council Sweetwater Classic, McComb, MS
• Mar 13 - Daylight Savings Time begins
• Mar 14 - KFF Fly Tying, A&W Emerger
• Mar 28 - KFF annual Spring Picnic at Cotile Lake Rec Area
• Mar 31 - Apr 3 - March Brown trip to the Little Mo, Arkansas
• Apr 11 - Fly Tying (TBA)
• Apr 23 - Fly Fishing 101, Booker-Fowler Hatchery

For Zoom connection, email Mike or Bill for meeting number and password. For the KFF YouTube Channel, use this link and go to Live videos - http://bit.ly/3oBk106

February 17th fly tying - Bream Killer

KFF monthly fly tying session
* Thursday, February 17, 2022
6:30pm
Rapides Westside Library, 5416 Provine, Alexandria
Also livestreamed on Zoom and YouTube

* please note the date change due to Valentines Day *

From Bill Morrison, Tying Committee Chair: 
This month, Jim Johnson will lead us in tying the Bream Killer, an effective bluegill/panfish pattern that is similar to a slow-sinking spider with the addition of a hair wing.  This will be a fun and relatively easy tie (especially compared to the Parachute Adams last month!), and we hope to have time to tie two copies.

All materials will be provided, and we will have several sets of tools for any who do not have their own.  Olive thread is used for this fly, but black also works as well.  Either 70 or 140 denier will work.  For your reference, I have included a material list below. I hope to see you on the 17th for this fun tie!  Thanks and tight lines!"

Material list for Bream Killer in Olive – these are the materials we will use, but almost anything will work.

• #14 curved nymph hook such as the Daiichi 1260 or similar
• .020 lead wire
• Olive or black thread: 70 or 140 denier
• Olive Wooly Bugger medium chenille
• Squirrel tail
• Round rubber legs – we will use medium size in white, but almost any color will work.

* please note: as this time, masks are optional at the library *

Festival time is here!

Cenla Fly Fishing & Light Tackle Festival
Saturday, January 29, 2022
8:30am to 3:30pm 
Kees Park, Pineville, LA
FREE admission!!

Every even-numbered year we hold our biennial Festival, a celebration of the light tackle lifestyle.  This event is a unique experience, vastly different from most outdoors shows.  With the Festival, it's all about education, instruction, and community.

We encourage attendees to come learn about new places to fish, how to fish them. Watch some of the top tiers from across the region tie flies, or make jigs.  Cast a fly rod or a spinning rod, or learn how a local rod company builds rods. Get casting instruction from top FFI certified instructors.  Learn why kayaks are an economical and very effective way to fish to fish the marsh.  

And please take part in our giant raffle and fundraiser to raise money for our friends at The Food Bank of Central Louisiana - and help feed some hungry families! Speaking of food, we'll have a pastalaya cooked by our own Greg Babin for just five bucks - including drink.

For complete details, including schedule, list of fly tiers and jig makers, exhibitors, speakers, and much more, click on the "2022 Fest" menu above.

KFF January meeting - Cenla Fest, ICAST report

KFF monthly meeting
Monday, January 24, 2022
6:00pm     * note change in meeting time *
Rapides Westside Library, 5416 Provine, Alexandria
Also livestreamed on Zoom 

This month, our meeting will kickoff at 6:00 pm instead of 6:30.  The earlier start is to facilitate final preparations for our biennial Cenla Fly Fishing and Light Tackle Festival which takes place later in the week - Saturday, January 29th at Kees Park in Pineville.  

We'll start the meeting with details on the Fest and proceed to where members can help.  

Areas include:

• setting up electrical cords for fly tiers
• greeting tiers and vendors and assisting them carry equipment into building
• volunteering at registration, membership, donation tables to allow breaks
• other actions to help make the event run smoothly for attendees
• donations for our club raffle, gamblers draw and silent auction
  

So that the meeting isn't just serious business, we'll follow up with a 30-minute two-part presentation by Glen 'Catch' Cormier from ICAST 2021 back in July.

•  Ten best and worst new fly fishing products / accessories 
•  State of the Sport - Fly Fishing statistics 2020
  

We need a strong turnout at this meeting to help get our festival organized.  Please make every effort to attend. As always, our meetings are open to the public!

For Zoom connection, email Mike or Bill for meeting number and password. For the KFF YouTube Channel, use this link and go to Live videos - http://bit.ly/3oBk106

January 10th fly tying - Parachute Adams

KFF monthly fly tying session
Monday, January 10, 2022
6:30pm
Rapides Westside Library, 5416 Provine, Alexandria
Also livestreamed on Zoom and YouTube

From Bill Morrison: we will tie the #14 Parachute Adams in a March Brown color as shown in the photo. This color should be especially good for those early morning or just-before-dark risers on the Little Missouri during our club March Brown trip (March 31-April 3). It is identical to the “regular” grey Parachute Adams, so the skills learned in tying this version will directly apply to the regular Parachute Adams.

 

The Parachute Adams is sort of the “gumbo” of fly tying. It seems that everyone has their own recipe and methods - though tiers may not be as passionate about their recipes as gumbo cooks! To many, the most challenging piece of the fly is tying the parachute post and there seems to be an almost infinite number of methods posted on the Internet. I struggled with this for a long time as well until I discovered an easy method to hold the post and wrap the thread.

 

As always, beginners and guests are welcome!  All materials will be provided, and we will have several sets of tools for any who do not have their own.  For more information, email me at kffcpr@gmail.com.

On-site attendees should bring a mask as the library requires masks when indoors. For Zoom participants, enter the meeting number and password sent by email.

2022 Mixed Bag Contest goes Live!

Our Mixed Bag Contest is back for a sixth year! The MBC kicks off tomorrow Saturday, January 1st at 12:01am.

Mixed Bag is a members-only, months-long tournament where the goal is to catch as many different species on fly rod. It's CPRE which means catch-photo-release encouraged. And best of all, there is no entry fee!

Are you ready?  Here's what you need to compete:

• Be a 2022 member of KFF
• Go to the Mixed Bag Contest page and review the rules
• Have your camera or smartphone available when fishing
• Take photos of your catch and include either the fly rod or fly, or both
• Log them in using the links on the Mixed Bag page.
• Bring your enthusiasm!  Remember, while the members who catch the most different species win prizes, all other participants are eligible for several consolation prizes.  Each entry gets you one ticket into the consolation drawing.  

Check out our website and Facebook page during the year for frequent updates.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!

Here's wishing our members and friends, and all of their families, a most blessed holiday season. Hope everyone finds something under the Christmas tree they can use for their piscatorial pursuits in the coming year.

While Christmas is a season of festivity, let's not forget the reason for the season: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us….” John 1:14. Please be giving to those in need, and pray for those who are less fortunate, for those in suffering, and for those away from their families this season.

We also wish everyone a prosperous and healthy New Year.  With much emphasis on healthy!  The new year brings many traditional club activities, in addition to our monthly meetings. Those include our 4th biennial Cenla Fly & Light Tackle Festival (Jan. 29), our Spring Picnic (Mar. 28), Fly Fishing 101 (Apr. 23), Summer Workshop (TBA), and several club fishing trips. Check out our Calendar page for these and other regional events and activities coming in 2022. 

Club honorees, Mixed Bag winners recognized at banquet

At our annual Christmas banquet on December 6th, the club honored those members who have had an outstanding year, either in service to the club, in their accomplishment and/or contribution as fly tiers, or with individual achievement. Each received a custom-designed coffee mug with their recognition, featuring artwork by famed fly fishing artist James Lady.  

The club also recognized the winners of our 4th annual Mixed Bag Contest.

Member of the Year - Bruce Shockley
Awarded to that member who has made great individual strides in our sport, and/or whose efforts have benefitted the membership, or furthered the mission of the club. Bruce participated in nearly every meeting and activity the club had, and personally made great strides as a fly angler in 2021.

Fly Tier of the Year - Flip Siragusa
Awarded to that club member who has dedicated themselves to the art of fly tying, either through significant improvement in their tying skills, or in enhanding the education of others. Flip has helped lead a couple of our tying sessions, as well as individual tying instruction to a couple of our members. He also teaches tying clinics for our friends at Pack & Paddle.

Presidents Award - Chris Williams
This award is chosen by the president. It goes to someone that he or she believes has helped the club internally. Chris participated in just about every meeting, and helped lead a couple of our tying sessions.  He also has been a great ambassador for our club, promoting our events and activities.

Mixed Bag Contest

Our annual Mixed Bag Contest is a months-long CPRE (catch-photo-release encouraged) tournament where size doesn't matter, but diversity does. This year, six places were awarded. In addition, every member who made at least one entry had their name placed in a drawing for several prizes.

Bill Morrison, MBC Chairman, provided statistics for this year's contest at our recent Christmas Party. We had 22 participants (slightly up from 2020), a record number of entries (164) and a record number of entries by a single participant (30).

Among the most common species registered were rainbow trout (16), bluegill (12), longear sunfish (11), largemouth bass (10). New species registered for 2021 included carp, mangrove5) snapper, hardhead catfish, whiting, atlantic croaker, striped mullet, flier, wiper, redfin pickerel, silver perch, and jack crevalle.

By state, Louisiana had the most entries (90) followed by Arkansas (41) and northwest Florida (13), Texas (13) and Oklahoma (6). The most common waters for entries were the Little Missouri River in southwest Arkansas (20), White River in north Arkansas (14), and Cotile Lake (10).  

The most common fly patterns were Clouser Minnow (20), Squirmy Wormy (13), EP Shrimp (10), Woolybugger (7) and Bully Bluegill Spider (5).

Here's the final standings for the 2021 Mixed Bag:
1st - Jerry Patton (30 entries)
2nd - Chris Williams (27)
3rd - Bill Morrison (18)
4th - Jim Johnson (10)
5th - Carlton Townsend (9)
6th - Robert Hughes (9)

The 2022 Mixed Bag will kickoff on January 1st. The form will go active shortly after midnight. There are a few rule changes for next year, so be sure to read them (changes in red text).