John Loebach

The weather report for Sunday made me cancel what was left of the float outing. I called newer member Jim Krueger & Stan Zarnewecki as they both had planned to come & we agreed to meet & try some local ponds. With Stan's freind Dave we fished retention ponds in 4 stops & found a few fish. One pond looked like it was worth returning to. On the way back to Lombard Jim & I checked out a local favorite & left prior to the rain with a couple more fish tired out. Thanks Jim, Stan & Dave, new water is always fun.

Nice report , Alan. Like you with limited time I did some local pond hopping that produced a few fish before the weather intervened. Good to get out even if to test how far I can cast into the teeth of the southwest wind.

Dan - good question. The site to meet is Montgomery park near the dam. We will likely walk from the meeting point after a demonstration to the planting sites. Some may take a short ride to start but we will all meet up back at the starting point afterward. Wish I could be more specific but I have not walked the area on the west side where we will plant this year. Soon I will post more detail after I get out there. Once we get started teams of 3 are seperated by a couple hundred yards at most & the planting takes place against the shoreline in a foot of water if the river is up, on the waters edge if its low( very unlikely this year). Mark has it nailed dead on you will learn more than a fishing outing because of the number of participants, the close proximity, & most of us realize that if you do this kind of activity you can be trusted with a little information. Besides its just fun.

Nice find Mike, I agree that we are off the beaten path a bit but like you it sure feels like the norm. Those trout guys may have numbers & lots of press but most don't know what they are missing. More of them slowly awakening to how much more there is to flyfishing than trout & they are welcome to join us.

Its a few weeks out but coming up fast. I know we will have help but I wanted to specifically invite any who have not tried this yet. ESPECIALLY new members - come out for the morning & meet a bunch of ISA members, plant a couple of flats, talk about fishing, have lunch on us & fish later if you have time. This is my favorite conservation activity - the results are there in the river to see, this is year 5 I beleive. We will meet below the dam in Montgomery on the west side. Anyone want to help with day of event coordination? Let me know. John

PLEASE NOTE BECAUSE OF CONTINUED HIGH WATER THE PLANTING IS CANCELLED - WE WILL DO IT NEXT YEAR

Water willow planting, first - cast & compare outing second - Any fishing outing I can attend anytime- a close third.

I have 17 signs & 10 posts. See ya there.

Jim, I have 1 pounder plus one of my own if I can find it. Also posts & signs. Will have drills & bolts - see you at 7:30 at weigand park.

I'll help. Jim , I may start on the north end of the east branch & work my way down to the main Dupage. Anyone else want to start at Churchill woods on St. Charles rd.

Good to hear from you, Craig! High & cold water has limited the opportunity to flyfish the rivers so far but that should change soon.

Seven of us met to tie the Clouser swimming nymph (twice) as taught by Michael Taylor. Thanks to Michael for another intro to a good pattern. He says it is a good early season producer. Ed took some pics & I'm sure he will post them soon. Next time out Cory will tie a foam hopper & if time Carl will tie a soft shell craw. Time to fill out those fly boxes for the fishing season. Thanks to all who came out. John

I will be there, we had a good turnout for this last year.

I have a list of ten shirts to order for members & will do so soon. These are the shirts with ISA logo that we used for this years shows. Cost is $40.00 each, any interest post or pm me by the end of March. Thanks, John

I have a list of ten shirts to order for members & will do so soon. These are the shirts with ISA logo that we used for this years shows. Cost is $40.00 each, any interest post or pm me by the end of March. Thanks, John

How do they cast, I would worry about spin.

Very interresting craw patterns. How do the feather claws hold up to casting & fish chewing on them?

Welcome Joe. You should come to the Flies of the ISA next saturday. It looks like you could contribute alot at our 2nd Thursday & 4th Monday tying sessions. Hope to see you soon.

Two invites to anyone interested from Drift this week. Both are more than worthwhile & I will be at both. The auction on friday is Drift's equivalent of our blowout. Good deals are available & you are helping a good cause.

All

Chris Helm will be at DRiFT at 7 PM, TUes, March 11 weather permitting. Check our website on Tuesday to reconfirm. It is updated with last minute cancellations. I see no reason to expect such a cancellation this time. By the way last Tuesday storm didn't hit us, but it Toledo, Ohio where Chris lives with a vengance.

Don't forgrt the auction this Friday. No fish fry this year. Any questions, communicate directly with Ted Bernhard.

15th Annual DRiFT auction

As in past years, the event will be held on Friday March 14, 2008 at the VFW Hall in Villa Park. The address is 39 East St. Charles Rd. in Villa Park. Registration begins at 6:30PM and the auction will begin at 7:00PM. The VFW also sponsors a Friday night Fish Fry which begins about 5PM if you would like to eat there. The VFW has cancelled their Friday night Fish Fry. If anyone knows of any alternatives in the area, please let Ted Bernhard know as indicated at the end of this message.

News Flash!! I have just received the specifications for the bamboo fly rod being built by Gordon Koppin. The original rod design is from FE Thomas and one of Hiram Leonard’s rod builders. The rod is 8 foot, 4-5 weight rod with two nodeless tips in a blond color. The action will be a soft tip with an overall medium action (semi parabolic). It will be wrapped with green silk and has a reel seat of Myrtle burl with a champagne cork grip. Pete Metelski is making a custom rod tube.

The auction provides multiple opportunities for participation. If you didn’t get the present that you had hoped for during the holidays, the auction is the place to buy it. If you did get what you hoped for, then the auction provides an opportunity to recycle the equipment that you may no longer be using by donating your old gear to the auction. We also need members’ participation the night of the auction to register bidders, sell raffle tickets, announce the live auction items, collect money, etc.

The auction has provided DRiFT with $6000 to $7000 each year which covers the majority of our finances that are used for education and conservation as well as our weekly meeting room rental, tying materials, special guest speakers and other programs to advance the future of fly fishing and fly tying. The support of all members and their friends and family is needed to help this fund raising event again be successful.

Please remember that all of the donations and all of the people helping won’t by themselves raise funds. We need members, their families and friends to attend, buy raffle tickets and bid on items. This is one of our primary fund raisers and provides the funds for our weekly meeting room rental, tying materials, show booths and programs such as Bass in the Class, etc.

Bumping this up. Tomorrow night , 7pm, Room M165ag

Great place to see & learn about boats- often the manufacturer has some of its design personnel in the booth. Prices are better than normal & many boats are availabvle to take with from their warehouse. Good deals on blems & returns but these sell in the first couple of hours- go on Friday if you are going to buy, have an idea of what you are looking for. don't miss out on the seminars.

Mark, do you have a fixed location that you use? I have some stuff on shelves in sterlite shoe boxes that works well to keep stuff seperated by type, hair in one feathers in another, flash in another. That way you narrow down the search from the start. Eventually you will get to where you know you have things you will never use, when you organize & purge give the stuff to another beginning tyer to practice with, or bring your castoffs to a tying nite & share with the group. Furniture is nice but costly & any system you think is ok eventually you will outgrow or end up with stuff packed elsewhere. Small boxes like plano makes are great for lead eyes & beads, buy a hook organizer box at a fly shop they are worth it. Last if you tye on trips or in other locations have a box or bag that can cover some materials & tools is agood thing, I use a soft sided tool bag (cheap ) that fits this great.

Right you are Mark! We have 6 members at least that are also Drift members. Guests are welcome & Bob Rung (2/19) is a must attend in my opinion, he is the District fishieries biologist for the DNR for our region. The topic is our annual water willow planting that we fund & heavily support with manpower. The other 2 volunteer groups are Drift & Freinds of the Fox. Most of us know Craig Reindeau, he will be at the Blowout tying at the beginning as well as Monday nite(2/25) with the Bassbuggers, Tuesday with Drift & Thursday at One More Cast / thursday nite jam (7pm start). Lots of interesting stuff to stave off the midwinter blues. I really hope to see some ISA faces at one or more of these!

Received this from Ted Bernard today,

I just read the post by Mark K about the Chris Helm article in Fly Fisherman on the Web.

On the behalf of DRiFT, we would like to invite the ISA BassBuggers to the March 4 meeting of DRiFT. Chris Helm will be the guest speaker and the topic will be warm water flies using deer hair.

The meeting will be at room M165 A/G at COD starting at 7 PM.

Please announce this to the group. We would like to have a full room for Chris.

Thanks,

Ted

Like last year we are asking for flies to make up boxes "swap" style for the blowout. I have 5 or 6 sets to date & want to encourage ALL our tyers to participate. To that end I have a donated fly rod that will go to a raffle winner awarded at the Flies of the ISA on 3/15/08. Wait, how do you get tickets? One entry for each set of 6 flies donated to the blowout. So get tying no limit to entries. Bring them to the tying this month or the blowout .

Like last year we are asking for flies to make up boxes "swap" style for the blowout. I have 5 or 6 sets to date & want to encourage ALL our tyers to participate. To that end I have a donated fly rod that will go to a raffle winner awarded at the Flies of the ISA on 3/15/08. Wait, how do you get tickets? One entry for each set of 6 flies donated to the blowout. So get tying no limit to entries. Bring them to the tying this month or the blowout .