May 12 membership meeting

Our next monthly membership meeting will be held on Monday, May 12 at the Louisiana Wildlife & Fisheries Buiding on Quail at 7:00 PM.  There will be a presentation by Jim Wright on the Lower Mountain Fork trout fishery located near Broken Bow, Oklahoma.  This is also the potential location for a club trip this Fall and we hope to gauge interest, so please plan to attend.  We will also have updates from the trip chairs and discussion regarding our two upcoming saltwater trips, the Spring Catch and Eat (May 16-18) and Grand Isle Weekend (June 27-29).  Hope to see you there.

March 10th meeting - DST Casting

Our next general meeting will be on Monday, March 10, at the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries building on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.  Time is 7:00pm.  Guests are welcome!

Now that Daylight Savings Time is here, we'll initiate our casting practice sessions outside the LDWF building starting about 6:30pm.  Bring your rod.  Perhaps you learned a few new things - or many new things - from casting guru Tom Jindra on Red Stick Day.  Now is a good time to put them to use and let our club casting experts assist in making sure you practice as Tom preached!

Red Stick Day Conclave - Saturday, March 8th

22nd annual Red Stick Conclave
Saturday, March 8, 2014
8:30am to 4:00pm
LDWF Waddill Outdoors Center, 4142 N. Flannery, Baton Rouge
Cost: FREE
Open to all ages, families welcome!

The Red Stick Conclave is a celebration of fly fishing featuring programs, fly tying demos, casting demos, kayak demos, exhibitors, and more. Guest speakers this year include Tom Jindra, Pete Cooper Jr, Larry Offner, Richard Evans, and Roger del Rio. Guest tiers include Fred Hannie of Lake Charles, Bob Boese of Broussard, Stephen Robert of Houma, Kirk Dietrich of Arabi, Marc Pinsel of Hammond, Jerome and Dena Hebert of Henderson, Kyle Moppert of Baton Rouge, and Mike Jackson of New Orleans.

Backpacker of Baton Rouge will be onsite for free on-the-water kayak demos from 11am to 1pm. There's free refreshments during the day. A jambalaya lunch with salad for $7 will also be available.

For more details on this event, click on the RED STICK CONCLAVE page, or click here for the 2014 RSFF Conclave Leaflet.

February 10th Meeting - Red Stick Day Preparation

Red Stick Day is quickly approaching and we need EVERYONE to chip in to make it a success.   As you know Catch Cormier has been the events chair for many years and most of us have no idea of how much goes into this event to make it a success.  As the March 7th banquet and the March 8th Red Stick day are closing in I have prepared an action item list that should help us ensure we’ll have all the items covered. Be prepared at the Monday, February 10th, meeting to commit to the items you will be responsible for on Red Stick Day.  It might be cooking for the banquet, tying some flies or leaders, donating books and DVD’s, or contacting our sponsors for prizes.  Too many items to mention here, just be ready to jump in and help make our event a success.

Meanwhile back at the ranch I have contacted several tiers and am just a couple of folks shy of having our maximum allotment for the Waddill Center.  I have one speaker committed and others are being contacted to see if they will come share their knowledge with the club.  We may want to enlist a couple of Red Stick’s Finest to round out our speakers.

Please come and volunteer so we make this event the success that it has always been in the past.

Any questions email me, or text or call 225-335-4596.

Looking forward to seeing you Monday February 10.

-Emmitt Simmons

January 13th meeting - Lyle Johnson of LOWA

Our next general meeting will be on Monday, January 13, at the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries building on Quail Drive in Baton Rouge.  Time is 7:00pm.  Guests are welcome!

For January, our program will feature Mr. Lyle Johnson, who will give a presentation on the Louisiana Fish Records.  Lyle is president of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association and curator of the state fish records maintained by the LOWA.  The records include both Rod-and-Reel and Fly Divisions, and a top 10 listing is maintained for each species.

Lyle is also co-host of Ascension Outdoors TV Show, shown weekly on Eatel channel 4 and Cox 113 "The Pelican".  He is a freelance writer and also does a weekly column in the Gonzales Weekly Citizen and online at www.ascensionoutdoors.com.  You can follow him at "Ascension Outdoors" on Facebook.   

Rainbeaux trout have arrived!

Every year around Christmas, BREC does their annual stocking of rainbow trout in select ponds throughout East Baton Rouge Parish.  Last week, the trout arrived!  Stockings took place at Burbank, Perkins, Forest Park and Zachary Community Park.  Also new for this year, Ascension Parish has stocked their pond at Lamar-Dixon.

The best flies have been black or olive woolybuggers in sizes 10 and 12.  But once the trout get acclimated to the natural food items, a wide selection of flies will work, including parachute adams and black gnats.  Already the trout at Perkins Pond seem to be acclimating, as a good number have been caught-and-released on parachute adams sizes 14 and 16, mostly in the afternoon.

Rainbeaux trout are a coldwater species that can't survive our summer heat.  However, they provide terrific action - with lots of leaps - on winter days when native species are dormant.  As always, we recommend releasing these fish for now, and keeping them starting in February.  These trout can survive until late March or early April.  The more fish released now, the longer we can enjoy rainbeaux trout!