Next Club Meeting
Our new public meeting place is the Bass Pro in Pearl, 2nd Thursday. We meet in the large conference room, upstairs in the Northwest corner of the store, behind the footwear. Our next meeting date, is May 11, 2023, 6:30PM. The program is a continuation of Greg Smith’s presentation on reading various kinds of water conditions for fishing.
We will continue to meet the 4th Thursday in Richland at the Senior Center for fly tying, beginning in May. The first tying meeting is May 25.
(Updated 5.3.2023)
NEWS
Minutes from March 23, 2023 Meeting
Magnolia Fly Fishers,
We had another good turnout out at the last meeting. We had mostly business to take care of as it was John Tindall’s last night to be president. Steve assumes the role of president for the rest of 2023 and we elected Greg as Vice President. Greg will assume the President’s role in 2024.
Seen in attendance were Jack and Julie I., Rusty and Penny, John T., Steve D., Pat M., Jim D., Read J., Bill R., Greg S., Mark P., Ed C., Barry M., Steve H., Bill H. and of course, yours truly.
We heard from members that made the Arkansas trout trip. Unfortunately they ran generators the entire time and there apparently weren’t a lot of fish caught.
We raffled off items generously donated by Meredith of Orvis, Ed Venator and myself. From Orvis we had three tapered leader packs, , three pairs of line nippers, and an Orvis cap. From Ed Venator’s donation were three fly fishing books, one was Saltwater Flies by Lefty Kreh, another was a rod building book and I forget the third book. Also in the raffle was a box of eight Rosborough Hare’s Ear flies.
I think I can speak for the members in that we are all looking forward to a great year.
Thanks,
Glen
Minutes from the February 23, 2023 Meeting
Magnolia Fly Fishers,
We had a really well attended meeting last Thursday night with approximately 28 members/visitors. I had to take a pic of the crowd to know who was there. I see in my photo the following:
Jack and Julie I., Rusty and Penny F., John T., Steve D. and son, Pat M., Roger and Ineke P., Albert W., Bickham F., Jim D., Read J., Dick H., Bill H., Dan C., Bill R., Greg S., Mark P., Ed C., Barry M..
In addition to the above we had four new guests:
Steve H. – Steve tied in the crappie jig tying contest with Albert
Past member Dusty M. – Dusty ties great looking bass flies and was a member over 16 years ago but also had a young family that has kept him busy but he has found some time for us now.
Michael B. – Michael does some guiding in Colorado and will be returning to fish and do some guiding in the Spring, hopefully he will be able to give us a presentation on fishing In Colorado before he goes back.
Steve H. – Steve lives and fishes at Lake Cleary
And before the night was over the rest of the Albert’s family showed up, Cullen, Kazzi and Bonnie. Cullen will soon be on his way for military training in March.
Abert W. and Steve H. gave us information about the crappie jig tying contest where Albert placed second and won the People’s Choice award and Steve won third place in the competition and third in the People’s Choice awards. Albert’s trophy was on display and it is really quite incredible. Albert and Steve both tied together recently at a booth at the Sportsman’s museum and Albert mentioned that the club might consider that enity for future participation.
Our speaker was John L., a local fly fisher, who gave a great presentation on fishing the chalk streams of England.
The March trout trip is coming up soon, Ed gave the deadline as the night of the meeting for signups.
I know for sure that Pat, Barry, Greg, Chuck, the Woods family and the Iveys are signed up to go.
Several members have had rods built by our October speaker, Norm M.. Both Bickham F. and Mark P. have had rods built that they are very happy with and now yours truly has put in an order with Norm for a 12 wt on a CTS blank.
John reminded everyone that Red Stick Day is coming up this Saturday, March 4 in Baton Rouge and the Gulf Coast Classic May 4-6.
Steve D. will take the helm next month as President and John T. will continue on the board as the immediate past president. Thank you John for a great year and getting the club started again.
Dues will of course be due in March. One thing Steve would like members to think about is possibly making changes in our meeting site as Bass Pro has offered up their conference room once again. The topic was discussed but nothing was decided yet. One alternative was suggested as meeting at Bass Pro but re-establishing our tying meeting and having it at our Richland Senior Citizens Center. Think about it, I am sure Steve will bring it up on March 23, our next meeting date.
That’s all I have, or all I can remember.
Thanks,
Glen
Minutes from the January 26, 2023 Meeting
Magnolia Fly Fishers,
We had a really good turnout for our first meeting of 2023. Normally the lull of holidays and hunting season requires a few meetings to get rolling but this time we had quite a few members present for Steve’s presentation on fishing the Toccoa River in Georgia.
I saw these members in attendance:
Read J.
John T.
Steve D.
Pat M.
Dick H.
Mark P.
Chuck W.
Jim D.
Greg S.
Roger and Ineke P.
Ed C.
Bill R.
Steve W.
Rob M.
In addition to the regular members we had three visitors interested in joining the club, Chris R., Larry T. and Bill H.
Steve gave a great presentation on fishing the Toccoa. He went out of his way to try and fish most of the well known spots and make notes and take photographs. Steve’s handout is now on our club files page.
John reminded us that March begins our fiscal year and dues will be due once again. I might add that some members have been contacting us as they had not been receiving emails. When we jumpstarted the club in 2022 the club had not had but a few meetings during the 2020,2021 “Covid” years plus we had received an angry complaint from someone that claimed he was getting spam etc because of the way we included everyone’s email address on our emails. He was not a dues paying or attending member and when we restarted the club we realized we had far too many people like that on the list. That’s why we went back to the last year where we had had regular meetings and put everyone that had paid dues on the email list. So we apologize, we certainly want folks that care about the club to get the emails, but then we also had to have some way to determine that and attendance and dues paying are the only physical evidence, that or someone requesting to be on the list. Anyone wanting to not receive emails can simply reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in the reply subject and we’ll take care of it. The club web page typically has all the latest info if anyone is ever interested in becoming active again and it has a contact email link.
John and Ed brought before the club an issue to vote on which was whether to remain an affiliate of the Wildlife Federation, which amounts to $100 dues every year. The club voted with a show of hands to stay in.
Ed is planning another March Arkansas trip and John encouraged folks to attend Red Stick Day in Baton Rouge on March 4. Also the Gulf Coast Classic is in May and should be really good this year.
We have some great news, Albert participated in the Crappie Jig tying contest and won second place! I’m only surprised that he didn’t place first! I am sure we can coax Albert to tell us all about it at our next meeting.
Thanks,
Glen
Minutes from the October 27 Meeting
We had a good meeting last night. Attendance was pretty good considering the number of members that were already in Arkansas for the fall trip or were on their way. Members I saw at the meeting, were John T, Bickham F, Bill R, Steve D, Joseph A, Mark P and Tommy S, Ed and Joseph are going on the AR trout trip also and riding together.
We had a visitor who will hopefully become a member, Dan C. Dan and his wife moved back to Mississippi after being in Oregon. Bill has been fly fishing for about 25 years. He fished the Deschutes and other famous rivers while out West and even did some two-handed spey casting with Skagit heads.
Norm M. gave a great presentation on rod building. Even if you don’t want to build rods it is useful to know more about how they are built. Norm dispelled what he said were some myths about the importance of spine in rod building. He explained how he concentrates on straightness as opposed to spine. Apparently all rods have imperfections and he proved it to us by letting us look down a rod blank where one could see the bend toward the tip. Norm builds his rods with that tip bend in plane with the casting stroke and also pointed up, to provide the maximum lifting power as well as when you put a flyline on the rod, the weight of the line tends to pull that little bend back down, effectively straightening it. At least that’s how I understood it. Norm really knows his stuff and the rod building members had lit up eyes as they examined some of his products like the fiberglass rod blanks from Northfork Composites, epoxy “paste”, graphite rod grips and bendable guides. Norm demonstrated, using only a couple of heavy books to trap the line and provide friction, a two color wrap on a rod. He made it look easy.
Bill R. brought his new Tenkara rod to show. Bill also brought a proposal for the club to help with a fly fishing club for Jackson Prep students, which the members said we certainly could help with.
I brought a box of all the donated books from Ed V’s collection and members were allowed to pick through them and take any book they wanted. Several books were taken but we still have quite a few.
We did a door prize raffle and everyone won something, well, at least everyone with a ticket, as Bickham and Joseph arrived late and didn’t get in on the raffle. Sorry about that, I should have picked up on that fact for Joseph as had arrived in time for the drawing but I didn’t click that he needed a ticket. Steve Davidson won the fly box from Orvis, the other prizes were mostly small fly tying material like CDC feathers, tin sinkers, camo sinkers, pheasant tail, stonefly heads, dubbing etc but even all those items were of a $4-$5 value.
John brought up some business. We agreed to just skip the November meeting because the date our facility is available is Thanksgiving day and instead we will focus on getting an early Christmas party venue worked out. Bill R. suggest the Trace Grill. Bill is going to contact them for us. We talked about Dec. 1 as a suggested date but Bill may have to just find what dates the Trace Grill has available and get back to us. Stay tuned.
Thanks,
G
Minutes from the 9-22-2022 Meeting
We had a very light crowd last night as many were fishing or had unfortunate circumstances that prevented them from attending. We did have in attendance, Read, Albert, the Ivey’s, Steve W., Greg, Cullen, myself and Read also brought a guest, Gil (I missed the last name).
Albert did a jam-up good presentation on the spoon fly. I picked up some things from Albert that will definitely help me. I think some were skeptical about the spoon fly, but unless you’ve experienced the many, many grasses that the redfish love in the marsh, you don’t have a way to appreciate the fly. In LA on a single trip you will paddle through vast areas of widgeon, coontail, fibrous algae, milfoil and others. Sometimes we will be poling as though on a carpet, the grasses sticking to the paddle. That’s why folks use poles because if you use anything that isn’t slick the grasses will catch on to it making you pull it off every time you dip the paddle. In these situations the flyrod excels in that you can spot a redfish floating high and happy in a small clear pothole in the grass and drop the fly in and pick it back up and cast it right back in whereas gear fisherman are forced to drag the lure through the grass each time. In these scenarios there is not much room to give a typical fly action but the spoon fly provides action as soon as it drops in as it flutters down, sparkling all the way. If grass gets on the fly, you do a hard backcast and inertia at the stop will rip the grass off of the spoon fly whereas the grass just become a part of a regular feather or fabric fly. Enough of the sales pitch, those of us that fish the marsh know its effectiveness.
As I was the only board member present, I brought up some club business. We discussed the November meeting being on Thanksgiving and though we didn’t vote, the consensus seemed to be to just not have a November meeting and shoot for maybe a Christmas party because it would have to be in early December anyway. I will pass that information on to John, Steve and Ed for a decision.
As far as “good” fishing reports, Greg and I hammered the bream on mayfly hatches a couple of times at the Rez this past month and Greg played with rough fish in the Delta using Euro techniques. Greg has a new vessel which is a blow-up pontoon boat and he has been doing really well working on the crappie below the dam at the Rez using Euro and Loch style equipment.
We used raffle tickets to give away the five fly boxes that Meredith and Orvis donated. Winners of a fly box were myself, Read, Albert, Cullen and our guest Gil.
I have no idea what we will do for a meeting in October but as bow season is kicking in as well as redfish season, my participation will be thinner until Spring.
Thanks,
G
Minutes from the 7-28-2022 Meeting
Magnolia Fly Fishers,
We had a good meeting, but the crowd was light. I remember seeing Bickham, Read, John, Albert, Cullen, Chuck, the Ivy’s, Ed, Chris, new member Bill R. and two new interested visitors from Pulaski.
Bill showed a photo of a particularly large and vibrantly colored longear sunfish that he had posted on a social group and there was lots of discussion as to whether it was a longear or a dollar sunfish. If it truly is a dollar sunfish I think that would explain the disparity in size and shape of what we always call a longear. Bill’s fish looks to me more similar to the fish that started me fly fishing as a kid, which at the time I simply called “red bellies. As pretty as any fish in the ocean. I caught stringers of them in the Bogue Homa below New Augusta.
Cullen did a demo tie for us showing us how he ties surf candy flies, which are a great saltwater fly and a great white bass, striper fly as well. Particularly good for fish that like a fast stripped streamer. Bickham was also tying as well as myself and Chris. Good job, thanks Cullen!
We did a drawing on raffle tickets and everybody in the meeting got a prize worth at least $10. Prizes were donated by Sally Pleasant, Ed Venator and Meredith of Orvis.
Our next meeting will be August 25th and our speaker will be Dr. Ray Fisher, an entomologist that can answer lots of questions about aquatic invertebrates that our fish prey on. Should be really good!
I didn’t make it to the Mexican restaurant afterwards but I think the “after meeting” was well attended too.
Don’t forget there is a fall trout trip October 28-31. Call Ed for details.
Minutes from the 8-26-2022 Meeting
Magnolia Fly Fishers,
Had a great meeting last night. The rain ruined any casting opportunities but members met the challenge. As Jim said in a text to let me know he and Chuck were on the way, “we’re paddling as fast as we can”.
Greg crushed his presentation on Loch style fishing and Euro nymphing. He knows his material and can make it work, I’ve seen him. Thanks Greg, now I have more stuff to buy.
We didn’t call a roll but I saw the following folks attending the meeting, John, Jim, Chuck, Bickham, Steve, Read, Bill, Rusty and Penny, Joseph, our speaker Greg and new member Mark, from Clinton.
There’s been some fishing going on and we heard about it at the meeting. Greg and I fished rough fish over the weekend, Bickham told about his fishing at the reservoir some of which was with me when we caught over 40 some-odd bream in the eleventh hour. Bickham is headed West some time in the Fall will have some stories for us sometime after Thanksgiving. Bill has bought a new Tenkara rod on order which he is looking forward to bringing to a meeting and showing us.
The next meeting is a tying meeting and it is September, 22. Albert will tie a spoon fly for us. If you want to get a jump on Albert’s program, the spoon fly is a the Rich Waldner recipe, and we have a video of Albert tying the fly in our magnolia fly fishers instructional series we keep on our youtube channel, the link is here: Albert tying the Rich Waldner spoonfly Albert does a good job on it. I’ve been trying to tie some lately and I’ve been struggling. I need to go back and watch his video because he nails it in the video.
John brought up that we have some issues with the November meeting because the fourth Thurs. is Thanksgiving which presents a problem. I don’t remember deciding anything specific so stay tuned for info on October and November. John and Steve will figure it out, I guess we might send out a poll to find out what members want to do.
We do want to plan a Christmas part meeting this year.
Thanks,
G
Minutes from the 6-23-2022 Meeting
Magnolia Fly Fishers,
At the meeting last night we held a Pick Up and Lay Down casting contest and I know I had fun and I think others did too. We just used rods members brought and we had 6 wts and 8 wts so we had two categories. The winners in the 8 wt category were Glen, Ed and Cullen. The winners in the 6 wt category were Cullen, Steve and Glen. Meredith sent zingers to spice up the prizes I had chosen, and as organizer I abstained from the prize winnings. Cullen got the Patriotic Popper along with a zinger because he was high man with the 6 wt and was also third in the 8 wt. Ed and Steve got Camo non-toxic split shot and zingers. Bickham got a buff and Jim got a pair wool socks. Thanks to everyone that participated. I think everybody had fun, I know I did. All prizes except the Patriotic Popper were donated by Meredith at Orvis and the Popper was from Breambugs.com. If you attend the Sowbug Festivals or if you phone order from Breambugs, be sure to thank Don, my brother for his donations.
An impromptu, “for all your worth, no holds barred, cast as far as you can” contest was held and Glen squeaked out Cullen. 🙂
We handed out raffle tickets and raffled off items until I basically ran out. I still have more potential prizes for subsequent meetings thanks to Meredith and Orvis. We had one potential new member attending but I have to apologize, I forgot his name. Ed, can you send me his info if he joined or maybe wants to get emails?
- Our next meeting will be July 28. It will be a tying meeting. Ed has the video recorder and projector all working so that should really enhance the tying meetings. Cullen volunteered to tie for us and I think he is going to tie a saltwater pattern though he has a foam ant that he may tie if there is time.
- John would like everyone to bring their best fly box with their own flies in it at the next meeting. We will vote or have choose a judge and we will award a prize or two for the best fly box.
- Our August 25 meeting will be a speaker, we have booked Dr. Ray Fisher, an entomologist specializing in aquatic insects. I have talked to Dr. Fisher and he is super knowledgeable, obviously loves his discipline. I think it will be a very interesting program. That’s the August 25 meeting.
- Pat told us about his recent trip to Alaska where he caught some Dolly Varden and had a close call, not with a bear but with losing the key to the gate which almost made him “miss the boat”.
- John received a call from David B. of the Eastern Shore Fly Fishers. David was asking for someone to be the FFI Liaison and wanted someone that could serve multiple years. We only have 4 individual memberships in the FFI, John, myself, Steve and Read. Steve volunteered to serve as the liaison and the club accepted Steve wholeheartedly to represent us. (We are an FFI affiliate club so the club is affiliated but then individuals may choose to be members of the FFI ($35 or $25 for seniors w/o magazine).. Charter clubs of the FFI have ALL members being members of the FFI.)
- This past week I was able to fish with a member of Eastern Shore Fly Fishers, Blaine. He is 27 years old, from Orange Beach but is working during the week in Jackson and staying in Clinton for the next three months. I took him to the Rez and we hit a mayfly hatch, he had a lot of fun. He has a tattoo of a tarpon eating a fly on his arm. I expect I will fish with him a few more times and if anyone wants to take him fishing let me know and I’ll get you in touch.
- Many of the members went out to eat after the meeting. Mexican?
A good time had by all.
Recent Fishing Trips
The Wood boys, Albert and Cullen, made a father/son red snapper trip and broke out the fly rods when the snapper made an unexpected trip to the surface. They managed to catch several snapper and a dolphin that passed by.
The Davis boys, Glen and Chris, made their annual father/son “Silver King” trip to Chandeleur. I hooked and broke one off. The fish gave a spectacular jump after breaking the leader, trying to shake the fly. We got quite a few looks and follows from crawlers. It was incredibly hard, “combat” fishing conditions as the fish were next to and inside the breakers. Dancing on the bow trying to keep from being thrown overboard, trying to make long casts and work fish that were about three feet deep, moving one way while the boat moved the other way, was very challenging. And we loved it! After the heavy wind pushed the silvers down we waded some and Chris caught some ladyfish and I caught a decent red and a catfish in the breakers.
Another day was spent sight casting redfish near Shell Beach. Chris caught one red and one nice sheepshead and had a couple of reds come unbuttoned. I caught three.
May flies have made a couple of appearances on the Rez. You just never know when they will show up.
HOSSFLY Annual Jack Rodeo – June 1 – Oct 1, 2022
Dates: June 1 – October 1, 2022. Location: AL, FL, LA, and MS Gulf Coast
Species: Jack Crevalle
Tackle: Fly rod and reel with hand-tied fly only. No conventional tackle or chumming allowed.
Entry Fee: Free for HOSSFLY members and $25 for non-members (entry fee includes a 2022 HOSSFLY club membership). All participants must be registered and paid by May 31. Non-member registration must include name, contact info, and make payment to “HOSSFly Club” and mailed to Clark Gordin at 1902 Kensington Street Ocean Springs, MS 39564.
Winners: First, second, and third places will be awarded based on length (total fork length). Multiple catches are allowed. One award per angler.
Required Documentation: A picture of the fish, fly fishing gear with measuring tape is required. Please email documentation within the week of the catch to Roger Apperly ausjollyroger@hotmail.com. Catches must be submitted by midnight on October 1st, 2022
The tournament will be catch and release unless a state record is caught.
State record requirements:
The Mississippi fly fishing record is 28 pounds and 15.36 ounces by Dwayne Armes on 7/25/05. Attached are the Mississippi Saltwater Fish Record Application and associated rules.
There is no recorded record for Jack Crevalle in Louisiana. Attached is a link to the Louisiana rules and the application. https://louisianaoutdoorwriters.com/awards-records/fish-hunt-records/
The Florida fly fishing record is 37 ½ pounds and by Carlos Solis on 2/11/94. Attached is a link to the Florida rules and application. https://catchafloridamemory.com/programs/records/
Winners will be recognized at the October 11th HOSSFLY meeting at 6:00PM at the Ocean Springs Yacht Club.
Rules and Judges Committee consists of Bill Hancock, Richard Schmidt, and John Bottko.
Please be respectful of others by reporting forthright and truthful catches – Honor System rules apply.
Welcome to Magnolia Fly Fishers 