Thursday, January 3, 2013

Alwasy a great time at annual Fly Tying Expo

If you like to fly fish and anywhere close to the neighborhood Jan. 12, consider attending the following:

Area fly anglers eager to cast a line will find their catch of the day on January 12.

That is the date for the North Coast Fly Fishers’ Annual Fly Tying Expo. Its port again is Lakeland Community College’s Building “Y,” the institution’s gymnasium that is located around to the back of the school.

Hours for the show are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission is $8 for those age 19 and older, $5 for those age 13 to 18, free for those age 12 and younger and youngsters wearing their Boy Scout uniforms.

“This is our 11th consecutive year and we see up to one thousand visitors, weather depending,” said Mark Hickman of South Russell Township and the show’s chairman

The last two years have seen “nasty weather depending,” too.

Yet the drive to the school - carefully navigated, of course - is well worth the challenge.

This year’s class of expert fly-tying demonstrators is expected to top 30, including about 20 from the Fly Fishers’ group, Hickman says.

“And that doesn’t include celebrity tier Dennis Potter from Michigan,” Dennis will be demonstrating advance techniques, using a system so that a large number of people can watch at the same time.”

However, not all of the tiers will be whipping up wizardly wicked flies. A lot of the tiers will undertake some of the basic flies, too.

Those are the sort of flies that catch fish and not just fishers, says Hickman.

“We’ll also have two of our members conducting introductory hands-on fly-tying classes as well as helping those folks who would like to add something to their own repertoire for flies,” Hickman said.

Besides the tiers there will be fly-fishing shop vendors who will have for sale everything fly-fishing related. Those tempting targets will range from fly-tying equipment and materials to ready-made flies, fly rods and reels, tackle, winter-weather gear and more, says Hickman.

Returning also is the Kinzua Fly Fishing School, a program located near Bradford, Pa.

“And a few of the vendors, like Chagrin River Outfitters in Chagrin Falls, will also offer fly-fishing guiding services,” Hickman said

Asked if anything new was scheduled to dock at the Expo, Hickman said his club is going to sell on commission the artwork of Canadian artist Dianne Michelin.

Michelin was the 2009 Canada Trout Unlimited’s artist of the year, Hickman said.

“We’ll have prints of her watercolors. She is a very impressive artist, and I’ll likely be buying one of her works,” Hickman said.

Along with all of this good stuff to tantalize visitors the Expo again is slated to feature a pair of concurrent seminars.

The one scheduled for the school’s large seminar room Y-22 will include: 9:30-10 a.m. - Steelhead fishing by Dan Pribanic; 10:30-11 a.m. - Fishing for smallmouth bass by John Johnson; 11:30 a.m.-noon - How to find “where to fish” by John Barbo; 12:30-1 p.m. - Pennsylvania trout fishing by Bill Steudler; and 1:30-2 p.m. - Cold-water fishing in Michigan by Kevin Feenstra.

In the Expo’s mini-seminar room the schedule includes: 9:30 a.m. - Strike indicator fishing by Steve Vorkapich; 10 a.m. - Pennsylvania trout fishing by Bill Steudler; 11 a.m. - Cold-water fishing in Michigan by Kevin Feenstra; Noon - Inland Ohio trout fisheries by Tony Sindt of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources; 1 p.m., Steelhead fishing by Dan Pribanic; 2 p.m.. - Fishing for smallmouth bass by John Johnson; 3 p.m. - Smoke-cooking fish techniques by Larry Singleton.

For further information and any updates, visit the North Coast Fly Fishers’ web site at http://ncff.net.


- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn

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