The weather is finally spring-like. The snow is gone and the ice is off the lakes. It’s time to shake the winter dust off our equipment and casting arms. Muir Lake opens up May 1st to Muir Midnight Madness. A few guys made a quick trip to the Crowsnest area with some luck and I would expect many trips to the local pothole lakes to be planned shortly. In anticipation, there are three of us off to Cuba for the first week in May on a trip organized by Fish Tales in Calgary. I’m really looking forward to trying out bonefish and other saltwater species.
Last month’s presenters at our regular meetings deserve our thanks including: Barry Wright who talked about Rotary Vices week one and Geoff Pieroway who spoke about Pieroway fly rods week two (where we even had a chance to try our hand at spey casting). Week three we had a visit from Jeff Surtees the new CEO of TU Canada who talked about the great organization we belong to. Week four was our annual swap meet. The Northern Lights thanks each of our presenters and participants for your contribution.
Our Beginner Fly Tying Session on April 10th went very well. Nine participants learned about basic tools, equipment and techniques of fly tying over the course of the day. We tied about 8 patterns that can be used for local fishing. We had five club members help out along with yours truly as head instructor. I would like to thank those who gave me a hand. Your assistance made it a fun day for everyone.
The end of May winds up almost all the winter program for the Northern Lights Fly Tyers. Come June our weekly meetings will wind down and our alternate week summer program will start. In the mean time, our program continues this month starting on May 5h where we’ll have Rick LeBlanc talking about New Materials from Superfly. Week two on May 12th has Michael Dell teaching us all about Spinning Deer Hair. Week three, on May 19th will be our Conservation Session with Kent Christainsen and Shona Derlukewich from Golder and Associates talking bout about Fish Resources of the North Saskatchewan River. Week four on May 26th we will have Dennis Southwick showing us various uses of Rabbit Strips.
The remaining main upcoming club event for spring 2010 can be found on page two. Aside from regular meetings, the May event is a two day long “Introduction to Fly Fishing” course. At this time we have at 15+ participants, so I’m sure it will be successful. We will be looking for people to help out with presenting some of the topics. An agenda will be available at meetings in May, so if one of the subjects is close to your heart, please let Dennis Southwick know as we would like to involve as many club members as possible. We will need volunteers to assist with the casting portion as well.
The final TU event of this month is the upcoming Trout Unlimited Annual Edmonton Dinner and Auction on May 6th at the Edmonton Crowne Plaza. Tickets are $150.00 each which includes your dinner and a TU membership. We’ll need volunteers to assist with activities on the evening. Be sure to mark our calendar for this major Trout Unlimited fund raiser.
And lastly for this month, Carl Johnson our fine treasurer had accepted a job down east. While we ‘re happy to see him get a leg up in his profession in the hospitality industry, we’re sad to see him go and we’ll miss his contribution to our club. Thanks go out to Mervin Hassler who has graciously agreed to step into the role of Treasurer when Carl leaves.