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Club Events

Events, Meetings, Meetings 2016

Annual HFF Club Members Picnic

Normally the month of May marks warmer weather, plentiful hatches and good fishing. The constant inconsistent weather patterns this Spring has me all confused on how to dress for fishing, neos, lightweights or buff. Some days I am wearing my winter buff and some days no buff at all.

Best burgers on Lake LemonOne thing you can always depend on is the Annual HFF Picnic. You can’t beat great food, fellowship, fish tales, a great location along with a little fly fishing. If you top all that off with a piece of TimMs chocolate cake you have a perfect day. Once again this year Barry Clarke will be hosting the club picnic on May 14th, members and guests should arrive around 11:00 ish.  Club Members can check the forums for more information, be sure and send an email to Barry to let him know how many are coming.  Hopefully it will be a no buff day.

HFF Club member, Roger Daily , has been traveling about and fly fishing a lot of different places. Early this month he ventured South to Jamestown, Kentucky for the opening of a new trout stream and he sent in this report:

Roger Daily
Roger Daily

“The Cumberland River is a well known and long established cold water fishery supplied by low level discharge and power generation from Lake Cumberland. The fishery starts at the Wolf Creek Dam and goes downstream for several miles (30-40). The river has a very large population of trout (rainbow, brown, brook) , walleye and stripped bass. Fishing the river can be frustrating because of power generation and large flow rates. There is also a fish hatchery near the dam. For years the hatchery discharge was into a ditch that ran 1/4 mile and dumped into the main river. A couple of years ago, they started a project to replace the ditch with a “stream”. The stream is now done and exceeds expectations. They have not done any stocking on the stream. However, it is loaded with fish. Loaded with large fish. The average fish in the stream is larger and more robust than the average fish in the river. We averaged 15 per four hours of fishing and the fish had to average over 15″.  If you have an interest in some high quality cold water stream fishing, this is the place to go.”

Check out the video about the new Kentucky stream, what a great project it was! Congratulations Kentucky on a job well done. New Kentucky Trout Stream

 

Events, Fish Report, Meetings, Meetings 2016

Hospitality, Meetings and the Expo.

Talk about Hoosier Hospitality and we’re talking Bobby’s Colorado SteakHouse.  The Club holds it’s regular monthly meetings at their restaurant and the month of February was made special by Steve who cooked us up a fish fry for the evening meal. Thanks Steve it was great!

Jill Vance INDNR Naturalist
Jill Vance INDNR Naturalist

The speaker for the February meeting was Jill Vance, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Interpretive Naturalist for Lake Monroe. Jill informed us about past and present activities offered by her office around Lake Monroe . Activities range from Nature Hikes in the Winter to Youth Activities in the Summer. Some of her favorite projects involve wildflowers, youth activities, hikes and Lake Monroe Cleanups. Jill is a very good speaker and presents an interesting program about Lake Monroe and the year round activities that are available from her Office and the INDNR. To find out more about Jill and scheduled activities around Lake Monroe for 2016 visit their Facebook Page or the DNR website for Lake Monroe. You can download updated activity sheets and read more on recent events sponsored by Jill’s office.

The second half of the meeting featured Mike Donovan at the fly tying vise. Mike always does a good job showing everyone how to tie traditional flies.  This month Mike demonstrated tying a hair wing streamer.  I’m sure it will catch fish.

Don’t forget your Indiana State Park Entrance Pass this year. The prices have gone up again but if you’re a Senior you get a discounted rate. If you have a boat, registrations are due and you must have the DNR Launch permit on State waters. March will be time for new fishing license, don’t forget.

Indy Fly Fishing Expo: A few of us attended the fly fishing expo at the Indiana State Fair Grounds last week end. Coupled with the Indy Boat Sport and Travel Show, a guy could spend an entire weekend looking at all the GUY stuff they had there. The Fly Fishing part of the show was a three day event. It took us a few hours to visit all the booths and talk with some new friends and some familiar faces. They had a casting pond setup and fly fishing seminars were held all day long, featuring some of the most informative fly fishing experts in the Midwest . Booths were full of fly tackle, guide services, fly tying supplies, fly tying demos, zingers and forceps by the hundreds and free hats for special anglers.

Fish Report: What a weird year for weather and fishing around Lake Monroe. During the mild winter fish were very active up to the end of last year but the fly bite slowed down a little in January as water temperatures dropped into the 30’s. Fishing was slow but with patience fish could be found where there was open water. February sunny days have prompted fish to move a little shallower and they continue to bite on small flies. Fishing will only improve if the water temps continue to rise. Spring is on the way, get out and fish.