Newsletter - Land O' Sky TU

Monthly Meeting
Kim Ryals presented on the Back the Brookie program, TU’s premier conservation effort to save brook trout. This program partners TU volunteers with professional fisheries staff and focuses on the brook trout’s historic range from Maine to Georgia. There are ways for everyone to get involved. This was an extremely good presentation. For more information please go to: www.brookie.org.

Members voted to continue exploration on the topic of taking over the lease of Camp Hope.

The new Board of Directors is: John Richardson, Jim Hefley, Earl Vaught, and Spencer Elrod along with the newly elected officers, Jeff Curtis, Bart Fitzpatrick, Dick Heald and Starr Nolan.

A very special thank you for all those who helped with first North Mills stocking. Click here for a picture of the "Polar Stream Team"

Casting for Recovery
Casting for Recovery is in the process of forming a planning committee that will be responsible for coordinating planning and fundraising for the 2 North Carolina retreats. Anyone interested, please contact Starr Nolan at brooksideguides@charter.net.
LOS TU's web will soon be adding a Casting for Recovery page

North Shore Road Update
For current information see: http://www.northshoreroad.info/

The Clean Up will be the Biltmore section on March 12 with Riverlink. LOS TU volunteers are needed. Also need 2-3 flat bottomed boats for the deeper and more difficult to reach sections.

The Education of a Fly-Fisher – A Day Long Event

GREENSBORO , N.C. – The Nat Greene Fly Fishers, local affiliate chapter of Trout Unlimited and The Federation of Fly Fishers, proudly present A. K. Best, author of Production Fly Tying, Dying and Bleaching Natural Fly Tying Materials, A. K.’s Fly Box and Advanced Fly Tying. Mr. Best has been a professional tier, instructor and photographer for over 40 years. He is an accomplished fly tier and lecturer on all facets of fly fishing. He will be demonstrating some of the tying techniques from his book Advanced Fly Tying and conducting a casting clinic along with some individual instruction.

Fly fishing and tying since the 1950s, Best has extensive experience with all types of casting, tying, and fishing techniques for cold, warm and salt water.

Beginning at 9:00 the morning of Saturday, March 26, 2005 A. K. Best will be leading a seminar on Tying Trout Flies followed by a group seminar, Improving Your Cast.

During the casting session, fly tying demonstrations by members of Nat Greene Fly Fishers will be held inside the clubhouse. These talented tiers will show off their skills with feathers, synthetics, hair and fur as they tie up some North Carolina specialties that trout, warm water and saltwater fish find irresistible.

A. K. Best will also be the featured speaker at the Nat Greene Fly Fishers Annual Banquet that same evening. His program, entitled Matching the Naturals, not the Hatch, will provide you with a secret or two that will enhance your chances of reeling in the BIG ONE.

This year’s festivities will be held at the Cardinal Golf and Country Club located just off Fleming Road at 5700 Cardinal Way in Greensboro . The fly tying seminar, Tying Advanced Trout Flies will have 30 seats available. The $25 fee covers the seminars and lunch. There are limited number of spaces for the Group Casting Clinic which will be held outdoors.

The evening banquet is $30.00 per person which includes the meal and dinner beverages (iced tea, coffee and water). There will be a cash bar and the opportunity to bid on a wide variety of fly fishing and non-fly fishing items at the silent auction. Raffle item tickets, $5.00 each will also be available for the two specialty raffle items. This year the items are a (1) SAGE VPS Light Fly Rod, 8’ 6”; 3-piece; 4 weight, and (2) a GARMIN eTREX GPS (Global Positioning Satellite). Call Neal Mitchell at (336) 643-5001 to make your reservations. VISA and MasterCard accepted.

Saturday’s day long event promises to provide the novice and experienced fly fisher and the non-fly fisher in the family with learning opportunities and some good old fashioned fishing fun. Monies raised will support North Carolina water conservation and the Buck Paysour Memorial Scholarship fund.

In many of our rivers, the March Browns are the first large mayflies of the new year. After a winter of fussy and unpredictable hatches of tiny blue-winged olives and even tinier midges, the March Browns are the heralds of all the delights of the next nine months.

Members of the clinger group of mayflies (Heptageniidae family), March Brown nymphs live in riffles and fast, rocky runs. Nymphs are so well adapted to their habitat that they are seldom found in the drift until emergence time. As the nymphs near maturity, they migrate to slower (but not slow) water. During the migration, they can loose their grip and drift in the current, but few actually do and trout rarely target them.

Emergence can start as early as mid-February and continue into April or even May, depending on the river or stream you are on. Hatches usually start in the early afternoon. Just prior to that, nymphs are often found drifting in the current, so it makes sense to present a nymph pattern near the bottom beginning a couple of hours before the hatch.

As the nymphs hatch, they often drift a long distance before reaching the surface, so you find drifting nymphs anywhere from just below a riffle to runs that are well below them.

Duns usually emerge on the surface. As trout switch their focus to the duns and you see surface rises, switch to a dry fly. Sometimes, however, emergence happens underwater and the dun floats to the surface. In this case a soft hackle or downwing wet fly works best.

The spinners return to lay eggs over the riffles, but they usually are so sporadic and in such a concentration that they rarely capture the interest of trout.

Scott Marsh advises the following dates for stocking on the North Mills: March 2nd - Wednesday, April 6th - Wednesday, May 2nd - Monday, October 6th - Thursday, November 3rd - Thursday. Usual time, usual place.

This is a camp for boys and girls 13 to 16 years old focusing on fly fishing and coldwater conversation. It is sponsored by North Carolina Trout Unlimited. It will be Sunday - Friday, June 12 - 17, 2005 at the Lake Logan Center in Canton, NC. There is a limit of 18 campers. Applicants must have been born between June 17, 1989 and June 12, 1992. Applications must be received by April 15, 2005. The tuition for the camp is $325.00 for the entire week and is not due until the applicant is notified that he/she has been selected. Financial assistance is available if needed. For additional information, contact: Craig Larson, Administration Director, lraymond35@mchsi.com or Betsy Craig, Program Director, ercraig@citcom.net

Tournament runs from April 1 - May 31, 2005. Proceeds will benefit NCTU Rivercourse Camp. For more information and directions to Curtis Wright Outfitters click here.

fish, this certificate, measuring device (tape measurer, rod, etc.), fly or lure used, rod used

4. Fish must be caught in the Western District as defined by NCWRC and in designated trout waters and the French Broad River .

We are adding pictures to this page. We want the pictures to be of flies tied by LOS TU members. Please submit your ties. If it is a pattern we do not have listed yet submit a recipe also. Thanks Brad S.

Curtis Wright Outfitters has several items from the fundraiser closet to sell. Stop by and check it out.

LOS has lent active support to a project by NC WRC to genetically type 50 of approximately 350 identified brook trout populations in WNC. The project is also supported by TU National, TU NC, other NC chapters of TU, and the US Forest Service. Lab work is being conducted by Peter Galbreath, Ph.D., of the Mountain Aquaculture Research Center at WCU in Culowhee. The project, when completed, will tell us more about the brook trout populations: whether they are pure "southern Appalachian strain," "Northern strain" (from stocking) or mixed. According to Dr. Galbreath, the research "meshes with the national movement to recognize the importance of genetic diversity and the need to preserve native species."

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The Education of a Fly-Fisher – A Day Long Event