FFF South Eastern Council Flyfishing Festival

Started by MJAinKY, February 01, 2012, 20:31:20 PM

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MJAinKY

The FFF South Eastern Council Flyfishing Festival will be held April 27th - 29th at Unicoi State Park Lodge. We've changed to a Saturday-Sunday schedule to allow more folks to come up without having to take off work. We also moved into the cooler part of the year for some better trout fishing all around the park (and it won't be so blasted hot down on the casting fields). For 2012 we have headliners BOB CLOUSER and TIM RAJEFF plus a host of other super-talented Program Presenters, Fly Casting Instructors and Demonstration Fly Tyers. The line-up of programs is outstanding this year. Take a look at the FFF SEC website at www.fffsec.org and click on the Flyfishing Festival tab. From that page you can see all the programs, schedules, tyers, exhibitors, etc. Online Registration is working now and you can check the daily posted class participant lists to verify class availability.

Many thanks to Byron Begley and the Troutfest folks for allowing us this one-time use of the last weekend of April. Next year and later we'll be doing our Festival in May.
MJA

Peddler

Having not been to an S/E FFF Council Conclave in a few years I went back again to this one. I cannot believe how much it has grown and how much I missed over that time.
First off was the venue, Unicoi State Park was a better choice than Callaway not only for the lodging but for everything else including food and it's availability.
Georgia fly fishers really have their act together and it shows in how much they do for fly fishing, Project Healing Waters and Casting for Recovery.
Many who fly fish don't take into consideration that fly casting is an integral part of what we do as fly fishers and casting better means more fish. The Georgia crew and the FFF in general realizes this and do a lot towards making people better casters and thus better fly fisherman. Clouser, Rajeff and a wide range of casting instructors conducted lessons all weekend including on-the-water classes for line control and line management. Any of us who fish for big fish know the importance of this aspect but that importance is generally learned after one loses a fish of a lifetime.
The tying tables and sessions were rocking all weekend. Streamer and Streamer-lite were there. Jule was under the lights being filmed at one point and Colin conducting a beginner's class when not at the table tying. Anthony Hipps gave a good seminar on smallie fishing and also manned the tying table when not running the show (sadly, for the last time.)
Shops and vendors surrounded the tying tables giving us a chance to see the products we may have read about. The booth of much interest was the Allen Fly Fishing booth. Nice products at very nice prices. The warranty on their rods is the best I've heard of... take a picture of the broken rod and they'll send you another. http://www.allenflyfishing.com/
TFO has a 5 weight casting competition which was well turned out. Me and the other old fart I went with (Bamboo10) didn't embarrass ourselves among the hot-shots and casting instructors. We done good... especially without much practice over the past few years.

Stay tuned for this event next year. Unicoi will be closed for remodeling. We're 90% sure the 2013 S/E FFF Conclave will be at Western Carolina U in Cullowhee NC. We will have the school at our disposal as school will be out for the year and it won't be in peak season so lodging rates at nearby hotels should be reasonable. We envision indoor casting pools in the gym as well as fishing opportunities galore. The commute will be kinder to many of us too.
The early bird may get the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Woolly Bugger

sounds like a good time there. maybe I'll make it to one of those shindigs sometime ...
ex - I'm not going to live with you through one more fishing season!
me -There's a season?

Pastor explains icons to my son: you know like the fish symbol on the back of cars.
My son: My dad has two fish on his car and they're both trout!