I attended my first Tracy Fly Fishers general meeting tonight in Tracy, CA. I arrived at about 6:30pm to catch a group of guys sitting around a table watching fellow member Steve Holtzclaw work his magic on a fly tying vise. I quickly recognized Stan Elijah whom I met just the day before at a networking event. Brief History: My rule of thumb is "if you don't tell people what you do, then they don't know". So, when I was greeted at the networking event someone asked what I did and I said "I'm a Fly Fisherman"! "Well, then you need to talk with Stan Elijah". So I talked with Stan and he said he was VP of Tracy Fly Fishers and they were having a meeting the next day. See how it works, I never would have known. Anyway, back to the meeting. Right before 7pm the members started pouring in and I was trying to meet as many as I could. Everyone was very friendly and the best thing was they all shared the same passion...Fly Fishing. What impressed me was there were probably over 40 member's and everyone was so happy to see each other. I along with 3 other people were first time guests. They asked me to introduce myself to the group and give a brief history of my fly fishing experience (i.e. when I got started fly fishing and where I primarily have fished). After the introductions the meeting quickly got under way. They talk about the some upcoming outing as well as some conservation concerns. Then we had a brief intermission to mingle and check out the raffle prizes. I was impressed with the raffle prizes. they had a new Rod, hand tied flies from a member, line, tools, wooden rod rack (which I won), several bottles of GREAT wines...Awesome!!
The second half of the meeting got under way and the guest speaker was Mike Wier. Mike is a big fish Magnet as well as a great cinematographer specializing in fly fishing videos. Hit the link and browse his site...Totally Awesome!! He talked about still water tactics in the lakes that are right in our backyard. Mike also mentioned how he loves to sight fish for trout feeding along the shoreline. He ran through about 5 or so different lakes that are in are area and explained the different techniques he uses on each one. The highlight for me came when Mike shared with us a 10min video he shot from his trip to Mongolia (follow link to Spring issue '09 Mongo Metal pirates). The fish they caught were the monster Taimen (see picture above). What an Awesome video!! All I know is Mongolia is NOW on my list for places to go fishing.
As for the still water presentation. What I ended up getting out of it was that I have fished some of my favorite lakes and I always would get in a tube or be in a boat. What was cool is you can have just as good of luck or even better sight fishing from shore... Man!! I can't wait for my next fly fishing outing.
So, the meeting ended with the raffle and I came home with a wooden rod rack. Yeah Baby!!! It is always cool to win a raffle prize. It was a toss up between a bottle of wine and the rod rack. I had been wanting to hang my rods in the office for some time now so I couldn't pass up the opportunity... Next time I will get some wine :).
Well, to wrap things up... I decided to join Tracy Fly Fishers. I can't wait to get to know all the guys & girls and start blogging about my new fishing adventures with the club.
See you all next time...Back on the Fly!!!
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