Men's Night Out, 12/14/12

Men,

I have planned a Men's Night Out for December 14, 2012, starting at 6 pm, at The Alpha & Omega Coffee House in Puyallup. They are a Christian business and worthy of supporting. Here's their website for directions and their menu so you can plan on how much you want to spend, lots of good food to choose from. I have been told the food is great!

http://alphaandomegacoffeehouse.com/index.php

They have live music too!

You do not need to be there right at 6 pm, just get there when you can. I will be there by 6 pm to get the table. We will stay as long as you all want and you can leave when you want. Bring friends or come by yourself.

If you plan to attend, please let me know so I can get a table for all of us. I look forward to fellowship with you all!

Leech Lake - Rescheduled to July 28, 2012

I have rescheduled the trip to July 28, 2012. Again, I would like to know who would be going, so please tell me if you are planning on going. So far many of us will be going to date. I really like Leech Lake! Can't wait.


Leech Lake requires a Recreation Pass (Forest Service) to park; the Discover and the Fish & Wildlife access pass are NOT valid up there for "parking" permits - although you must have the Fish & Wildlife pass on your mirror. I recommend paying the day use fee, unless you are going many times this year, instead of trying to find a place to and buying the Rec. Pass.


I rescheduled due to communications that the lake was inaccessible, however, thanks to Don and his friend giving Don a report on Dog Lake nearby to Leech, the area is quite clear of any snow and quite accessible. Apparently I have been had by the District Ranger up there. Jerks. They just don't want to open the area when the people want it opened apparently. I understand the cutting of funds and lack of people to open the Leech Lake campground, but don't tell me it isn't accessible - when it IS!


Trip Destination — July 28, 2012. Leech Lake, White Pass Summit, WA. We will meet at Graham Safeway parking lot at 6 am to carpool if we can. Bring food and fluids for the day,
we can go to dinner in Packwood afterwards if you'd like.
You will need a boat, i.e. float tube, pontoon boat, raft, rowboat — NO MOTORS are allowed on the lake. Fly Fishing Only. See the current reg.s for all the info.


Fly Patterns - All flavors, sizes, and colors of Wooley Buggers. Damsel fly nymph and ant patterns. Chironomid patterns - small.


Floating lines, 2wt - 6 wt, with longer, 10 - 12 ft, overall leaders/tippet lengths will do.

No Seal Bombs Needed!

In this case, let 'em eat their fill!!!!

Men,

The website is up and running again and has also been updated to 2011 - Thanks be to God! Prayer works! Not too much different, but working - and finally up to date. Click the logo on the right side menu -----> or the link:

http://www.oslcflyfishing.org/

On the website, in the On the Fly page, are the two April flies, the Snot Dart and Chum Baby, and their recipes. As I stated, I will provide the materials, not tools and thread, for April 28 when we tie them, but the recipe is there for you to see what is going to be used and for you to go buy the materials so you can tie some up after that. The address to West Campus is on the ride side menu. ----->

We will still be using the blog for more information too. We will be putting tying tips on it, trip information (more than what would be on the website), general updates that don't need to be emailed out to everyone - I don't like SPAM either - etc, and so on.

Reminder, the two dates as options for saltwater fly fishing in May are May 15 and/or May 22. Please let me know which date you would like to go, if you would like to go. I will put the info for the day (each day if needed) on the blog, so start watching the blog in May for it. I will follow up with an email too. I would like your input for this trip by April 26, reply to the email I sent out, please.

In regards to fly tying, Blake, the owner of Gig Harbor Fly Shop, has offered to provide a tying night at their shop. I would like to know from you all if this is something you would like to take part in. If so, I will get with Blake and see what we can do for setting a date and discuss the level of tiers that would be coming. Please tell me if this is something you would participate in and what fly tying level you think you are at - beginner, intermediate, advanced. (Be careful, you may also walk out with a new spey rod too..........inside joke)

The email addresses info@oslcflyfishing.org and derfliegenfischer@oslcflyfishing.org are working again too. If you wanted to know and have them in you address book.

Ramblings of a new Fly Fisher

It has been a little over a year since I started my trek as a Fly Fisherman. Actually it really started about 11 years ago. I bought a 9 wt Lamiglas rod one evening with Fred, a guy that I worked with at Sears. We were going to start Steelhead fishing. It was a great thought at the time, but I never went any farther with it. I had a rod, no real or line and I parted ways with Sears and moved away from Fred.

Fast Forward 11 years. My mom asked what I wanted for Christmas. I told her it would be nice to get a fly rod for Trout. So, now I had two rods and no reels, waders, fly's, etc. Is history going to repeat itself? So my wife and I are going to church one morning. I was talking with her about how it would be nice if we could do the fun things we do, with people from church. Like, ATVing, Fishing, Hunting, etc. We get to church and are in the 3rd pew from the front, where we normally sit and are getting ready to worship and my wife points to an 'add' in the bulletin. It was for the 'OSLC Men's Fly Fishing Ministry'. WoW my prayers had been answered and I didn't even have a chance to pray yet. I communicated with Brad and Paul via email and went to some casting classes with Brad. History didn't repeat itself! I started picking up the gear that I needed with Brad's good advise. Over the course of a few months I learned to cast. It wasn't pretty , but it would get the bug to the water. I went on the 1st annual Yakima trip with OSLC Mens Fly Fishing Ministry and had a blast. I didn't catch a fish, but lost a lot of fly's and bonded with a great group of guys who are now close friends and Brothers in Christ.

On the Yakima, during the evening, I tied my first fly. The Wooley Bugger. I have been hooked on this ever since. Don, the guy who got me hooked, apologized to my wife at church last weekend for starting me out on this very addictive, new passion in my life. We all laughed. Well at least Don and I laughed. My wife looks at the piles of tying materials and my vise always on my desk and shakes her head. She is fine with all of this. She knows that I am hanging around a great group of guys and am doing something I love.

Oh, and it all isn't only about fly fishing. We get together and study the Bible, talk, support and are a good accountability group for each other. Yes, things do seem to focus on fly fishing a lot, but we all want to use this group to bring more people to Christ. Finally as it was stated in an earlier post on this Blog. We are MEN. We like to have fun and I hope that shows thru. What you see is what you get. Within our group we can discuss and talk about anything, church, personal, whatever. It stays in the group and that's that.

Even if you don't want to join the OSLC Men's Fly Fishing Ministry, I encourage you to join some sort of small group at church. God will bless you with a Band of Brothers, or Sisters, just like he has me. I know that I would be fly fishing, but I don't think that I would have such a passion for it without my Band of Brothers.

I did finally catch a trout last summer. It was awesome!

21st Century Communications

Amazing! God equipped me with enough knowledge to create and maintain our ministry's website - and be very HTML dangerous - and now He has equipped us with bloggin' technology to enter into yet another prime way our society communicates in the 21st Century. Hopefully our thoughts, insight, direction, and general brain dumps will help and encourage you all to participate in our ministry and you realize we're just a bunch of guys with a passion - for God and for fly fishing.

Welcome to OSLC Men's Fly Fishing Ministry Blog.