Next Monthly Club Meeting: Tuesday, March 23rd - Stay tuned for program details.

At our February meeting, Captains Greenan, Grassett, and Hand gave a wonderful presentation on local fly fishing in with a question and answer session full of great tips for catching fish in local waters.

These veteran local guides gave an overview of the best places, strategies, flies, and techniques for fly fishing in Sarasota, Tampa Bay, and Charlotte Harbor.
Thanks guys, for a great presentation!

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FLY CASTING INSTRUCTIONS: Capt. John Hand, a FFF Master Certified Casting Instructor, and local Guide, has offered to give free casting instruction. This program is available for free to current dues paying MCFF Club Members only, who have an interest in learning new, or improving their knowledge and execution of, different kinds of casts.

Classes will be held at Twin Lakes, at 5:30 P.M., before the regular monthly club meeting based on the schedule below. Everyone, who is signed up will meet in the parking lot at John’s Truck.

He can only take 6 people for each class, so if you are interested in signing up for a class, please contact John at tomatoesjh@yahoo.com or call 239-842-7778 to get your name on the list.

This is in addition to the general casting practice that is held before each meeting.

CLASSES/DATES:
March 23, 2010 - Double Hauling

April 27, 2010 - Slack Line Casting
Includes the following: Wiggle or S castm, Pile cast, Curve cast, Reach cast

May 25, 2010 - Change of Direction
Includes the following: Round the Clock, Straight Cast upstream, Spey Cast, Backhand roll cast, Switch Cast (Snap-T)

June 22, 2010 - Casting in Wind
Includes the following: Horizontal upwind of caster, Belgian Cast, Galway Cast, Off shoulder downwind cast, Non dominate hand downwind, Back cast downwind, Roll cast downwind

July 27, 2010 - Correcting problems

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At our last meeting in January, Captain Pat Damico did a great presentation on Night Snook Fishing, titled: "Lighted Docks for Snook and other species that like flies."

Capt. Pat Damico, a FFF Master Certified Fly Casting Instructor, is from St. Pete Beach and fishes Tampa Bay as well as other areas to the north and south. A retired PA dentist, he has fly fished the northeast for many species and also the Bahamas, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and Canada.

A Florida resident for the last 13 years, as well as a guide for most of that time, local saltwater fly fishing and fly tying has occupied most of his interest. The Deep South Coordinator for Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing has extended his fly fishing experience into a very gratifying level attained by very few sports. Lighted docks are a favorite and produce snook, redfish, trout and other species. Techniques, tackle, flies and presentation will be covered so that your chances for success will be increased. His fly fishing articles have appeared in several publications as well as both the Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club and Suncoast Fly Fishers Club newsletters.

Further information is available at http://www.captpat.com or by contacting Pat by email at: pat4jaws@hotmail.com.

Thanks for a great presentation Captain!

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At the November 24th meeting, Captain Pete Greenan presented a great program on fishing for redfish in area waters during the winter months.

With Pete's extensive knowledge and many years of experience fishing Charlotte Harbour and other area waters, he gave some great tips and even specific locations to catch reds in area waters. Thanks Pete!

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At our October 27th meeting, MCFF member Joe Polidoro presented a great program on Atlantic salmon fishing in Canada—the camps, the history, the fishing experience.

Fly fishing for Atlantic salmon in Canada’s private fishing camps is a glimpse into a vanishing world. When the salmon are moving, it can also be one hell of a fishing experience. Joe provided a great presentation on Atlantic salmon and the history of the camps from a fisherman’s perspective at Two Brooks, on New Brunswick’s Upsalquitch River, where Lee and Joan Wulff, Nelson Bryant, Jack Nicklaus, and others have fished for salmon on the fly.

Thanks for a great show, Joe!

PHOTO: Two Brooks Camp manager Gerry Thomas with an 18-pound hen

Joe Polidoro is an MCFF member and co-founder of Triplestop (http://www.triplestopmedia.com/), a marketing agency specializing in web 2.0 applications. He has fished the Upsalquitch, Restigouche, Kedgwick, and Matapedia Rivers for Atlantic salmon.

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The speaker for our September meeting was Capt. Bryon Chamberlin. Capt. Bryon told us of a fishing trip with friends and fellow guides, Capt. Frank Rhodes and Capt. Pat Damico, to fish extreme southern Mexico for permit, bonefish, and tarpon. Thanks to Bryon for sharing his experience of this little known but very exciting fishery.

Bryon also donated a trip for our raffle, featured during our September and October meetings. The drawing was held in October.

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The Speaker at our meeting in August was Capt. John Meskauskas, who gave us a fabulous photographic look into what Stuart, Florida has to offer.

If you would like to learn more about fishing with John, contact him by checking out his website at http://StuartFlyfishing.com or if you like somewhat "useless flyfishing entertainment" (According to John!) you can check out his blog at http://Stuartflyfishing.blogspot.com.

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On Tuesday, June 23rd Jim Swann gave a very entertaining and informative talk about freshwater fishing in the area. Jim is a renowned tier of freshwater flies and an expert freshwater fly fisherman. Jim is also the proprietor of Jim Swann's Fly Fishing Outfitters, located in Dade City, Florida (north of Tampa in Pasco County). Jim's shop offers a large selection of fly Fishing and typing materials. The store also offers instructional videos, "how to" books, area history books, central Florida fishing guide services, kayaks, gheenoes, casting lessons, limited-edition prints, clothing and much more. Be sure to stop by Jim's shop someday and thank him for his presentation to the Club!

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At the May meeting, Captain Rick Grassett made a great presentation titled "How To Find Fish in Sarasota Bay".

The presentation incorporated Google Earth satellite photos and surface level photos of deep and shallow grass flats and structure such as docks and bridges. The presentation showed anglers how to find their own hot spots, what to look for, etc. and covered most species in our area. It also covered fly tackle, flies and how to fish them. Thanks for a great presentation, Rick!

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Don't forget these regular activities at our monthly meetings... Fly Casting with FFF certified casting instructors (before the meeting); Fly Tying with Craig Smothers and/or Bobby Hilbrunner; outstanding scholorship raffle items, 50-50 fly raffle, fishing reports from guides and members, MCFF Shirts and much more.

See you there!

Location for MCFF Club meetings - Twin Lakes Park. The entrance to Twin Lakes Park in Sarasota is located on Clark Road, just 1/2 mile east of I-75, on the south (right) side of the road. From I-75, take the Sarasota / Clark Road / State Road 72 exit (#205) and head east to the park. Once you've entered the Park, look for the Green Building on the right, closest to the front of the park. Enter by the RIGHT DOOR to our meeting. Doors open at 6 PM, meeting begins at 7 PM.

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