www.wyflycasters.org
Vol 42 No 1
The Monthly Newsletter of the Wyoming Fly Casters
January 2015
2
January 2015
What’s inside Bob Homer, President Derrick Dietz, Vice President Cheryl Wilson, Secretary Lee Tschetter, Treasurer BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terms expire in 2015: George Axlund, Joe Meyer
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the polar bear outing
6-8 bloom caddis
10 FISH-a-month
11 CLASSIFIEDS CALENDAR
Terms expire in 2016: Lee Wilson, Kelly Kukes Terms expire in 2017: Bob Fischer, John Yost, Spencer Amend The Backcast is the monthly newsletter of the Wyoming Fly Casters Editorial content does not necessarily reflect the views of the officers, board or members of the Wyoming Fly Casters. Annual dues are $20 for an individual, $30 for a family, or $250 for a lifetime individual membership or $450 for a life- time family membership. Visit the club website at www. wyflycasters.org. To pay dues or contact the club, write to P.O. Box 2881, Casper, WY 82602. The deadline for submission of information for each issue is a week before the end of the month. Make contributions to the next issue by e-mailing material to the Backcast editor at secretary@wyflycasters.org or call (307) 2671903. The Backcast is available either in electronic format or through USPS snail mail. To receive each newsletter through a monthly e-mail, you must be able to open .pdf (Adobe Acrobat, a software program available free of charge) documents. Usually, each issue is roughly 1 MB in size, some are larger. Your e-mail provider may have limits on the size of attachments. In order to be added to the e-mail list, send a request to secretary@wyflycasters.org. In addition to receiving each issue of the newsletter earlier than your hard copy peers, e-mail subscribers are able to print each copy in vibrant color -- an added plus if the issue is rich in color photographs. By sub-scribing electronically, you also save the club roughly $17.40 a year in printing and postage expenses.
Front Cover : Photo by Andrew Sauter, 2015; Back Cover : Photo by Andrew Sauter, 2015
NEW MEMBERS!
If you haven’t already, call Joe Meyer at 307-235-1316. He’ll give you pointers and advice to make sure you catch The big one! Mission Statement: The mission of the Wyoming Fly Casters is to promote and enhance the sport of fly fishing and the conservation of fish and their habitat.
Description:
The Wyoming Fly Casters club was formed in 1974. The membership currently consists of approximately 160 members. The WFC was organized by a group of dedicated fly fishermen and since the club’s inception the Wyoming Fly Casters have strived to further the sport of fly fishing through conservation and education. Conservation of our water resources is one of our primary goals and in cooperation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department we have and will continue to carry out worthwhile projects for the benefit of Wyoming fisheries. In addition to conserving Wyoming’s water resources we encourage conserving the fish themselves. A fish safely released today will live to give sport to others. For easy access to digital version of newsletter go to: www.wyomingflycasters.org
Wyoming Fly Casters
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President’s letter Hello Flycaster Members, As I write this letter I am in South Padres Island, Texas enjoying the warmth. I have not had a chance to do any fly fishing but did have a chance to go deep-sea fishing. We caught a few king fish, Vermillion Snapper and Grouper. Good times were had by all! As I mentioned in my last letter it is never too late to make a New Years Resolution and jump on board for the Fish-Of-The-Month program. This is a good way to force yourself to having fun at least one day a month. If you have any questions and/or concerns, give me, Joe Meyer or Lee Tschetter a call. We will be happy to help you get started. Our numbers are in the front of the newsletter. We will be happy to help you get started. This month our featured speaker at the general meeting will be Al Condor. Al is the Casper Regional Fisheries Supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Most of you know Al as he works very closely with our group on various projects. Bring your questions as there will be a short question and answer session. Again I ask for help with our annual banquet and fundraiser to be held in April. We need plenty of help and ideas to make this annual get together a success. You don’t have to have any experience to help out. We are still organizing and getting things together. We need help in many areas including, printing, selling, and taking tickets, raising donations, table decorations, creating buckets, advertising, setting up the room, helping with the live auction and the silent auction. The list goes on a on. There are plenty of ways to help and be involved . I hope you went fishing with John Dolan on January 1st. Bear Dip in the Gulf of Mexico . Until next time, Keep a taut line, Bob Homer
On that same day I enjoyed a Polar
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January 2015
The Polar Bear Outing January 1, 2015
A great way to start off the new year!
Photos by Andrew Sauter
Wyoming Fly Casters
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Attention Fly Tyers! We are working on getting new members ready to hit the water, and we need your help! We are currently asking for the following flies so that Joe can add these to the new member packets. Each member will receive a few flies to welcome them to the club and get them started in the right direction. Here are a few of the flies we are looking for:
Pine Squirrel Leech Halfbacks Stimulator (See next page) Elk Hair Caddis Midges
Renegades San Juan Worms (various colors) Rock Worms Eggs Pheasant Tail Nymph
Flashbacks (pg 9) Bead-headed flashbacks
Do you want to learn how to tie flies but don’t know where to start? Join us for Lyin’ and Tyin’! We meet the second Saturday of the month throughout the cold winter months. There will be spare vices and supplies needed to learn how to tie like a pro in no time! Call Joe Meyer at 235-1316 for more information!
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January 2015
Bloom Caddis
Credit for this pattern, and images below go to Charlie’s Fly Box. If you have a minute, check him out on Facebook, and on his website - http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/ Pattern Description This unconventional little parachute caddis pattern comes from the vise of Dave Bloom of Montana's Missouri River. Dave is a contract tyer for Idylwilde Flies and his patterns are in huge demand for the techy fish of the Big Mo. This is a cool pattern to tie and fish, its' hi viz para post making it easy to see and the unique golden pheasant rope body is a great match for many of our caddis species down Colorado way as well. Feel free to alter colors as needed to match up with your local bugs.
Materials Needed: All materials used here available for mail order. Please use the contact form for pricing and details. Hook: TMC 921 is used on the original, but you have all come to know that I use the TMC 100SP-BL wherever I can, so that is what I have used here: Thread: 8/0 UNI Camel Body: Golden Pheasant Tail Fibers, twisted into a rope Wing: Natural Yearling Elk Hair Para Post: Cerise McFlylon Hackle: Brown and Grizzly mixed, cree or grizzly dyed brown Thorax: Brown Superfine Dubbing or Natural Hare's Mask as used on the original
Start the thread at about the 75% point and wrap a thread base back to the bend. Return the thread to the starting point.
Cut a healthy clump of golden pheasant tail fibers from the stem. Be sure to take these from more toward the center of the feather so the fibers have enough length to complete the body.
Clip the tip ends of the pheasant tail fibers square across their ends and tie them in at the seventy five percent point with a couple of firm wraps. Pull the tips down flush with the thread wraps.
Hold the pheasant tail fibers slightly toward you as you wrap back over them to the bend of the hook. Allow the thread torque to pull the fibers to the top of the hook as you wrap over them.
Roll the pheasant tail fibers in your fingers to coil them into a cord. Don't twist them up so far that they start to double back on themselves, but make sure they form a nice, tight rope.
Begin wrapping the coiled fibers up the hook. You may need to re-twist the fibers occasionally as you move forward.
Continued on page 7
Wyoming Fly Casters
Wrap the coiled fibers up to the seventy five percent point, tie them off with a couple tight wraps of thread and clip the excess.
Make a thread base from the front of the body up to the hook eye and back again to the front edge of the body in preparation for the hair wing. Cut, clean and stack a small clump of yearling elk hair, measure it against the hook so it reaches just past the hook bend.
Transfer the measured wing to your material hand while holding it tight against the top of the hook shank. Make two loose turns of thread over the hair right at the front edge of the body. These wraps should close down around the hair but not be so tight as to flare the hair yet. Keep the tips of the hair firmly in the fingertips of your material hand while making these wraps. Do not release the hair!
While still holding onto the wing tips, tighten the thread wraps by drawing the bobbin directly toward your chest. This will tighten the thread and flare the wing butts. Continue wrapping toward the hook eye with firm wraps through the wing butts.
Come in with the tips of your scissors and trim the wing butts as close to the hook shank as you can. Wrap a smooth thread base over the stubs to smooth the thorax area a bit.
Take a short piece of copper wire and wrap it around the shank, gently binding the hair wing down against the body of the fly. This will hold the hair out of the way while we post the parachute wing and wrap the hackle later.
Move the thread to the midpoint of the thorax section and tie in about a half strand of McFlylon with two diagonal turns of thread.
Turn the McFlylon so it is perpendicular to the shank and make two more diagonal wrap across its' center. You are tying the McFlylon in like spinner wings, with a set of X-wraps. Make sure the wraps are stacked on top of one another and present a clean cross in the middle of the wing.
Pull both halves of the McFlylon up above the hook and make two post wraps around the base, grouping the wings into one piece.
Continued on page 8
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Select, size and prep a hackle feather and tie it in to the shank at the front of the wing base. There should be en`ough bare stem to wrap over it to the top of the thread base at the bottom of the wing post.
Wrap around the wing post and the hackle stem to the top of the post. There should still be about a half turn of bare stem left when you reach the top of the post. Wrap the thread back down to the base of the wing.
Form the thorax with the dubbing, Wrap the hackle feather from the top of covering all the thread work in front the post to the bottom, packing several of the hair wing and ending with the turns of hackle in tightly. thread wrapped around the base of the parachute post. If you tie right handed this wrap around the wing post should be counter clockwise and left hanging on the far side of the hook.
January 2015
Dub a thin strand of dubbing onto the thread and begin wrapping it just behind the index point. We are going to dub from the front of the hook to the base of the hair wing.
Pull the hackle feather down on the near side of the hook. Pick up the bobbin on the far side and make two turns of thread around the base of the parachute post, under the wrapped hackle. Take the thread and make a turn around the hook shank right behind the hook eye.
Clip the leftover hackle tip as closely Clip the parachute wing into a shortish Bottom View as you can. Whip finish the thread just stub. Remove the wire holding the hair behind the eye and clip it as well. wing down and add a drop of cement to the base of the wing post. You're done.
Wyoming Fly Casters
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Letter from the Editor Happy New Years fellow flycasters!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a fun New Years. It looks like there was a good turnout at the Polar Bear Outing. Lee and I were not able to make it this year, because we were in New Orleans! There are just a few things that everyone should keep in mind for the next few months. First of all, membership dues need to be turned in this month. Lee Tschetter will be collecting them throughout the month, and you can also pay your dues at the general meeting on January 14th. Please make sure you pay them as soon as possible- people who haven’t paid their dues by March 1st will no longer receive the Backcast (print or digital copies). We had a great turnout at the Christmas Party in December. There were some issues with the catering, that we will be sorting out soon. I want to say congratulations to Wilbur Yankey for winning both the attendance raffle and the second chance raffle! Wilbur has been at most, if not all of the meetings this year, and has volunteered for almost every event we have had this year! You deserve it! Also, congratulations to Sydney and Deahn for their first and second place winning Christmas flies! Great job ladies! I loved the creative use of Legos! The Spring banquet committee will start meeting on January 20th, at 5:30. For now, meetings will be held at the Ugly Bug Fly Shop. The meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. Please plan to attend! The more help we get, the better the banquet will be! There wasn’t an official board meeting in December. Just a few things we discussed- We might have an opportunity to have some publicity in the Casper Journal. This will include information on the club, our mission statement, and a little about what the club does for the community. There will be board elections taking place in March. Please consider taking a position on the board. Kelly and I will be stepping down from the board in March. We are both expecting this Spring/Summer, and will not have time to be as active in the club for a while as we welcome our new little ones into the world. I will still be able to do the Backcast, for as long as I can. There will be a general board position available, as well as the Secretary position. On the next page you’ll find a fish a month form for 2015. You can use this form for 2015, as well as for 2014 as well. Just print it out, or use the printed copy, if you receive them in the mail. Give these to Lee Tschetter as soon as you can so we can get the awards ready! Have a great year everyone!
Cheryl Wilson
Syd with a nice trout at Speas! She doesn’t let a little cold stop her from getting out and fishing! Great job!
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January 2015
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CLASSIFIED
Wyoming Fly Casters
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Outdoor storage $40/month. Call Clarke 307-262-3306
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Armadillo Storage. Cheap, safe and affordable storage located right behind the NCSD#1 central offices. Call Bill at 307-472-1073 Indoor and outdoor storage available. Local ownership.
Calendar
Sunday
January 2015
JANUARY 2015
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
1
New Year's Day
Friday
Saturday
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17 LYIN’ AND TYIN’ 8:00 A.M.
GENERAL MEETING 7:00 P.M.
18
19
ML King Day
20
21
BANQUET COMMITTEE MEETING
BOARD MEETING 7:00 P.M.
5:30 P.M. Ugly Bug
25
26
27
28
December 2014 S 7 14 21 28
M 1 8 15 22 29
T 2 9 16 23 30
W 3 10 17 24 31
Th 4 11 18 25
F 5 12 19 26
22
23
24
29
30
31
February 2015 Sa 6 13 20 27
S 1 8 15 22
M 2 9 16 23
T 3 10 17 24
W 4 11 18 25
Th 5 12 19 26
F 6 13 20 27
Sa 7 14 21 28
Wyoming Fly Casters P.O. Box 2881 Casper, WY 82602
January 2015