The Dieppe Fly Fishing Forum – 8th Year!

I’m writing this on the first day of spring, and sure signs of spring are a robin spotted in Upper Caledonia by our Letter Carrier Joan MacGrath of Aspen NS, and the Dieppe Fly Fishing Forum.

The Dieppe Fly Tying Club presents the eighth Fly Fishing Forum on March 26th and 27th, 2011 at the New Brunswick Community College in Dieppe. The principal objective of the Forum is to promote the sport of fly fishing in general and attract underrepresented demographic groups like women and youth to this activity; while this continues to be the goal, the Forum has become the harbinger of spring for fly fishing enthusiasts throughout the Maritimes.

This is a great show, well worth the trip. There are, in addition to dozens of dozens of exhibitors, seminars, guest fly tyers and authors:

Seminars:

Saturday March 26th, 2011- Amphitheatre and Room 1104

11:00 Fly Tying Stories - Bryant Freeman (English)
  1:00 Session A-Book Launching: Salmon Country: NB’s Great Angling Rivers - Doug Underhill
         Session B- Watercraft for stillwater fly fishing- Denis Pellichero
  2:00 Session A- Exotic feathers for classic flies and their uses - Bob MacDonald
         Session B- Fly Casting instructions for women - Verlie Grant
  3:00 Session A- Miramichi Headwaters - Understanding Sea-Run Brook Trout, habitat & protection- Chris Léger
         Session B- Spey Fly Casting demonstration - Frank Blanchet

Sunday March 27th, 2011- Amphitheatre

11:00 Warren Duncan's method of tying salmon flies - Bill Carpan
    1:00 Basic Fly Casting: Hands-on instructions- Verlie Grant
    2:00 Fly fishing in PEI- Dwayne Miller

Guest fly tyers include some of our local tyers – Bill Carpan, Bob MacDonald & Damian Welsh.

Authors featured this year are Doug Underhill and Peter Clark. This year they have also added a fly casting lane. The show just keeps getting bigger and better.

Time: Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM

Sunday 10 AM to 4 PM

Location: Dieppe New Brunswick Community College

505 College Street, Dieppe, NB 506-856-2200

See www.flyfishingforum.ca for details.

DFO published the 2011 angling seasons in the Chronicle-Herald on Saturday, March 19. Some DFO genius must have based it on some very old schedule (several years) because it is riddled with errors, for example seasons for the West River Antigonish system. At very least DFO should print an apology accompanied by corrected information so that anglers won’t be able to claim “It was in the paper!” Typical DFO, eh? And they get paid for it, with our dollars, even!

The correct information appears in the NS Inland Fisheries booklet distributed with fishing licenses,

which should be for sale by the time you read this.

Our fly of the week is by Sheet Harbour’s Bill Williams. Bill’s extensive fly fishing experience and fly tying skill enables him to create some great trout flies. This one is uses the Thunder Creek style created by Keith Fulsher of Eastchester NY in the early 1960s. I’m a firm believer that prominent eyes create a better streamer. Remember Jungle Cock feathers?

Thunder Creek Minnow

Hook – Mustad 79580 or 9672 Streamer hook, size 4 - 8

Thread – Red GSP, 75 Denier

Body – Flat silver tinsel

Wing - Brown bucktail on top of hook, white bucktail on bottom of hook, tied on with tips forward of the hook eye, then pulled backward and tied off to form head and upper/lower wing

Head - Glossy head cement, then doll eyes, then more head cement or 5 minute epoxy.

Please send comments and suggestions to slim@rivermagic.ca

Please stay on the line …