March Chapter Meeting – “Dry Fly” Dick Frantes Fly Tying Meeting and Book Sale/Swap – Tuesday, March 7th at Juniors in River Falls
This is an open tying event. Also joining us is the Lund’s Fly Shop group of tiers! Bring your vice and materials and join in or watch the tips and tricks of master tiers. Don’t tie? Show up and I will let you try tying or watch and see what it is all about. Or hang out with friends, swap fishing tales, and pick up a good book.
We have an all-star line-up of tiers set for this evening!
Pitching – Paul “Ace” Johnson – hoppers
Leading off – Pat “Rubber Legs” Houlton – mini leech and articulated streamer.
Jon “Dyno-mite” Jacobs – terrestrials
Mike “The Sour Kraut” Alwin – soft hackle
Batting clean up – Bob “Boom Boom” Trevis – stonefly
Scot “The ‘Stache” Stewart – midges
Catching – Greg “He Missed the Tag” Olson – all the dry flies you need from one bag of CDC feathers
Also I’ve seen the tiers that show up for Lund’s tying nights and there are some really good ones.
Don’t be intimidated to bring you vice, all are welcome – heck, I will be tying flies!
If you intend to tie, bring your vice, materials, and any extra lighting you require we should have enough extension cords.
There will not be a ZOOM component to this meeting. Tying, eating, drinking, socializing starts at 6 pm. I will make a few short announcements at 7 pm.
A word about Dick Frantes, legendary KIAP member for whom our fly tying meeting is always dedicated to, in the words of Jonathan Jacobs taken from the April 2004 issue of RipRap. He sounds like quite the guy, I wish I could have met him or better yet, fished with him.
“Dick was an able, ardent and intelligent conservationist who worked hard to stay informed on pertinent issues and to take action on them. He wrote to government officials to urge them to do the right thing. He raised money for conservation organizations. He worked hard for Kiap-TUWish, serving as chapter secretary for four years and as chair of a membership committee for several more. He made it a point to attend TU meetings both here and in the Twin Cities and was a member of the Rush River-Eau Galle Sportsmen’s Club, the Federation of Flyfishers, the Nature Conservancy, the, Audubon Society and the St. Paul Fly Tiers Club as well. And he rounded up fly tiers for our tying meetings, too, which is reason enough to memorialize him every spring. You would do well to pattern your membership in TU after his. You could do worse than to pattern your angling attitude after his, too, because I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who took more pleasure from fishing and I am certain that I’ve never known anyone who more enjoyed displaying the persona of a trout angler. Dick was, by any reasonable definition of the term, a character. It was as if he’d read Robert Traver’s stories of fishing-obsessed souls in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and decided that he ought to replicate that lifestyle here. Then again, perhaps the judge heard of Dick and modeled his motley crew after him. He surely did his best to look the part of a cartoon angler. His standard fishing uniform consisted of a U.S. Postal Service pith helmet (which was heavily festooned with truly godawful looking flies, placed there, I think, to distract fellow anglers from looking at the fly that was at the end of his leader), a khaki shirt with the phrase “Save A Worm’s Life —Fly fish” emblazoned across its back, a vest that Lee Wulff himself might have sewn, and canvas waders with old khaki pants worn over them to protect them from punctures. I never quite figured out what held the pants up, as they were never zipped. This created, at first glance, quite an arresting vision.”
Book Sale/Swap
Here’s how it works. If you have some fishing, hunting, or outdoor books on your shelf that you no longer want, bring them to this chapter meeting. If you bring some books, pick up some new ones. If you didn’t bring any, feel free to pick some up, but consider making a $2-5 donation to the chapter. HOWEVER, if you bring a book that is not picked up by another chapter member you must take it back home with you! I was left with 8 books at the end of last meeting!
Fundraising Auction
Our KIAP-TU-WISH Fundraising Auction will be started March 6th, ending March 21st. Over 80 items!!!! Check it out!
