Gateway TU’s Coming Out Party at the Fly Fishing Film Tour

2013-03-26pic008resized-800pxThe Fly Fishing Film Tour hit St. Louis again this Spring on March 26, 2013. It was a huge success this year again with over 400 local fly fishermen, fisherwomen, and fishy kids coming out.   This year was the coming out event for Gateway TU and we were rewarded with a primo table location as all the anglers entered the theater.  Gateway TU board members were there handing out some GTU swag that included stickers, hats, and even at GTU shirt along with some other goodies that we picked up from manufacturers along the way.  We were also given some time to introduce our chapter to the audience during intermission, so it was a great event for Gateway TU.  If you missed it this year, you will not want to miss it next year.

Updating The Blog…..Long Overdue…

2010-11-20pic002(Resized)This blog update has been a long time coming.  I couldn’t believe that it was November 2012 since the last site updated.  The lack of updates hasn’t been from a lack of fishing last year, just a lack of time.  Lots of things have been going on in the land of OzarkChronicles from the fall of 2012 to today.  Another Missouri Trout Odyssey was had towards the end of 2012, along with plenty of other fishing trips, the start of a Trout Unlimited Chapter in St. Louis (if you are not a member, you need to become one….check out www.gatewaytu.org) of which I am president, and alot of time with family and friends….and even my first saltwater adventure.  So 2012 and most of 2013 have been a busy year.  It saw me being published 5 times, including two feature articles and plenty of other photos popping up all over the interwebs, along with a crazy time at my day job.  But nonetheless this shit needed to get done.  So over the next few weeks, look for me catching up on blog posts.  I will leave them up as new posts for awhile, but then will eventually bump them back to the posts on the original date of the trip…..that way the site acts like a trip log for me (half the fun is looking back at my reports from 2001….yeah, they are on here if you look…..that is how long the OzarkChronicles has been on the interwebs).  At any rate, I hope you enjoy the updates and I look forward to fishing with many of you over the next year.  — Tucker

The Conclave Is Dead….The Fishing Is Not.

2012-10-06pic001(edited)(resized)Two weeks ago I made my first trip of the fall season south to the White River.  October is the time of year that the pilgrimages south begin for me, and the Natural State never ceases to disappoint.  This trip was something I had been looking forward to for a couple of weeks; as I was finally going to fish with some new folks and hit up the conclave between floats.  It was going to be a busy as shit weekend, but it had lots of potential, and with that (and the boat in tow) I rolled out of St. Louis around 6pm on Friday night pointed towards the River Rock Inn in Mountain Home.

The plan was to hook up with Chance Maxville from the Chasing The Dream blog and Jimmy “T” Traylor from FlyFishArkansas.com and do a quick float on the White River before heading over to Conclave and checking it out.  Chance rolled in from somewhere in Oklahoma around midnight and we hung out bullshitting until about 1am or so, before I headed back to my room to grab a few hours sleep.  Generation was weak and we didn’t have many short float options, so we opted to float from Dam to White Hole and after dropping the boat in and running shuttle we were on our way.  The fishing was slow, as we  were throwing big streamers, but fish were caught although no pigs gave us any love.  The morning was filled, like any good first date feeling out of a new fishing buddy, with stripper stories, beer, and political jokes.  Any day in the boat with JimmyT is a good day, and Chance fit right in.  Hell, we even had JimmyT on the oars for a bit (the sucker volunteered to row through Gaston’s hole…just as the wind kicked up…).  We finished up about 11:30am and pulled the boat out and headed towards Conclave.

This was my 2nd time (maybe 3rd) at Conclave and I have absolutely no interest in going back. Just walking around, the average age of the attendees was close to two decades above my own age and as a 35yo, that is unfortunate. I don’t care to sit and watch fly tyers tie or take part in many of the seminars (although there were a few I would have maybe went to)……so I may be the exception; I want to meet people I correspond with over the internet for some beer, fishing, and food and try and solve the world’s problems (like why there is not a bustling adult entertainment business in Mountain Home or why the hell won’t the Corp of Engineers keep their page updated more frequently or perhaps more USGS gauges along the river to tell you where the flows are at and when). I have never been to the banquet, so I can’t offer any input on that. But as I looked around…..the place was smoky as hell from the kitchen and the hall was empty (at least on Saturday…..and it was a cold, wet day)…..I hope everyone was on the river.

I was hoping that more of the success of the Fly Fishing Film Tour would have rubbed off on the SCFFF, but it doesn’t look like it did. Make it a place where fisherman can congregate after a day on the river and toss back a few beers while listening to live music and bitching about their problems. But don’t call it a banquet……or an auction…..I won’t go to those until I get an ARP card. Why not combine it with an even like the Cotter Trout Festival. Why the heck wouldn’t they make this a Film Tour stop is also beyond me. I got in to town late on friday night and the hotel I was staying in was packed with young guys and drift boats….they were holed up in their rooms drinking and bullshitting….they were looking for a party….and had to throw their own. About midnight they walked back to their rooms with coolers in hand. For those under 40, I say conclave misses the target completely.

The issues facing the Southern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers (SCFFF) is simple.  It is member engagement.  This is the same issue facing its member local clubs within the fly fishing industry and this is nothing different than what every other volunteer organization and association faces on an annual basis.  Sure there may be other issues such as conveying value, identifying future leaders and leadership development, but at the end of the day membership engagement will help to solve the other issues.  So the question that should be asked is, how do we get more of the members we do have involved and how do we get the younger members involved. In my past experience with a large local construction organization, the answer was simple, give members what they want.  It was an organization that struggled to get 70 members to a monthly meeting, we were able to get monthly meeting attendance to over 110 members by giving them what they wanted and breaking from the mold of the association and providing them with networking opportunities and not monthly educational meetings.  Suddenly, identifying future leaders of the association was easy because as the participation grew so did those willing to help because we created something they valued.

I like to bitch about things as much as the next guy, and have absolutely no interest in helping plan an upcoming event until someone can tell me what the Southern Council of the Federation of Fly Fisherman actually does for Matt Tucker.  Tell me that the Southern Council FFF or the National FFF is being instrumental in having CFS Flow Gauges placed every 10 miles down the White River so anglers can get real-time flow data that means a damn, or that it was instrumental in helping establish additional smallmouth management waters, or how they have a lobbyist working towards minimum flow in the state of Arkansas?  But I haven’t heard any of those things, so for me the FFF is just another organization with its hand out.  About the only thing I can tell you about the FFF is that they offer fly casting certifications…………and at the end of the day fly casting isn’t fly fishing.

Secondly, it comes down to how I value my time.  I am married 35yo guy with two daughters (ages 15 and 10).  I am a partner in a small construction company in a midwest metro area and between work and family, I have very little time for anything else.   For me, after choosing to spend time away from my family and my business, going to a “banquet” is the last thing I want to do.  I have a hall pass and want to blow off some steam and fish.  On Saturday night, while you a few were at the banquet, I was out at a bar living it up with about 12 others (many from the area, that chose to avoid the banquet as well).  I have no incentive to plan something like this, because I will just grab my cooler of brew and find a party somewhere (I don’t need much…..but I won’t ever call it a “banquet”), but throw a party that I like a time or two and suddenly I want to become involved with it.

Sometimes the difference is in message and other times the difference is in content.  Unfortunately for the Conclave I think the problem lies with both.

I can’t bitch about something, without offering up suggestions, so here you go:

  1. Move the location closer to a river (one of the events that does this right is Trout Fest out in the Townsend area…..just a spot on great event and set in a beautiful area) — at the fair grounds, it doesn’t even feel like fly fishing.
  2. Put up a beer tent / music stage with live music and tables / chairs for guys to sit in (and make sure it is going on after hours…when guys are on their way back to the hotel after fishing….hell serve up some BBQ for dinner)(you can either charge a ticket price or charge beer sales).  There is a ton of great music in that area, why not help showcase it.
  3. Make Friday Night a FFFT event and make it outside (The Toad Fly’s approach is spot on)…you could possibly do this at the State Park (think of all the potential walk-in from campers staying in the park).  Weather sucks, I get that, so if that is a concern than do it in house….but give us something to hang out for after the shows are over.
  4. Lose “Banquet” in the name of your Saturday night event.  Nothing says “old” like “banquet”
  5. I am intrigued by the Casino Night event (in the construction organization I was president of, we changed our annual “Christmas Party” to a “Casino Night” and were able to increase attendance and draw new members.  But it took people talking about how much fun it was to do that.  The key for us was getting the alcohol flowing.  Lose the sit-down-dinner, the food at any of those types of events is hardly ever very good, and provide appetizers and cocktail tables throughout the floor along with live music (DJ’s are for weddings and raves).
  6. Be family friendly (your future leadership has commitments to family), give the kids something to do during the day while dad is bullshittin’ with his buddies and both the kid’s and dad will want to go back next year (again, Trout Fest does this spot on).  (I know it seems odd to say….make it a party….but make it something I can bring my kids to….but it can be done)
  7. Promote what FFF does and show value.  Why is it so damn important for me to be a member of FFF (I currently am not).
  8. Promote the fishing and promote the fuck out of it

 

After saying a few hellos, Chance and I couldn’t get out of the Conclave fast enough, and Brian Wise (yeah, that Wise from Fly Fishing The Ozarks) was right behind us.  As we “wadered up” (not really sure that is a phrase, but what else do you describe it) in the parking lot of the fair grounds and contemplated floating the Norfork on zero generation (I hope minimum flow starts soon), cooler heads prevailed and we floated the same stretch in the afternoon.  The fishing was a little better than in the morning with Wise hooking into a good fish and getting tight on it, only to have it throw the hook.  We took our time and picked up a few more fish than in the morning (all on streamers), and all in all it was another great day on the river.  It was great to hook back up with Wise and to finally get on the water with Chance (something we had tried to do a few times in the past, just never been able to make it happen).  We ended up pulling off the river about 7:00pm tired and exhausted, but the fun was just beginning.

We ended up heading into Mountain Home to a sports bar called The Arena to meet up with Larry Babin (Hogs On A Fly), Dominic Zametto (Two Rivers Fly Shop), Corey Dodson (Chasin’ The Dream), Steve Dally (Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher) and his wife, and a guy from Tailwaters Fly Shop out of Dallas, whose name escapes me.  I can’t even begin to describe the evening at the bar.  Phrases such as “Bitch don’t you know who I am”, the owner of the restaurant wanting to show me his meat (and me subsequently buying it), lots of beer, talks of motorboats, and deep conversations about the paths we are headed down filled the evening.  It was the way a day on the river is supposed to end, and for that I was grateful and reset. We ended up leaving the bar around 12am and headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep; for me, it was everything the Conclave wasn’t this year and that made me happy.  Early rise on Sunday morning, as I am fishing with Larry Babin and Dominic Zametto.

–Matt Tucker

The Passing of a Spring River Legend

I first met Tom Anderson at the Lassetter Access on the Spring River back in 2003.  Mark Kotcher and I had headed back to the access for lunch and in rolls Dan Sears and Tom to do a little fishing.  Dan suited up real fast and was on to the water but Tom, as he always did, took time to talk with Mark and I about the Spring River and his love for it.  He then offered for us to hop in his mini-van and give us a grand tour of the various access points and fly recommendations.  We spent the next few hours with Tom riding to Bayou Access, Dam 3 access, and a few other places on the Spring River.  He offered his insight on how to fish the river, and didn’t hold anything back.  It was a conversation I remember to this day, and signified everything that is right with helping a couple of new to his river fishermen.

 

 

Tom lived near the Spring River for many years and considered it his home waters.  We traded emails off and on ever since that first trip.  A year after our first meeting, Tom and his wife joined Craig Peterson, David Stinnett, and I on our annual trip to the Norfork River.  We camped next to each other in our pop-up campers, and all I can say is that Tom was right there with us by the campfire during the trip and fishing as hard as the young bucks; with his wife up at the camper “tending to things”.  Tom landed a nice Norfork River brown during this trip, and it is this image of him that I will forever carry with me.  He was so excited over the FRS radios we convinced him to carry, and he hollered for us to come with the net, as the water was coming up and he wanted to land the fish.  He was all smiles, under his beard that night.


We traded more emails over the years and met up for dinner or breakfast once or twice in Mammoth Springs, but we only spent those two days fishing together.  Funny, how strong the memory of those two days on the river are.  Tom left this world on  08-16-2012, his daughter notified all those whose name was in his permanent address book of his passing on Sunday via mass email; I was one of those lucky ones to know Tom.  There was no public wake or funeral service, as Tom chose for his life to be celebrated and not mourned.  So to you Tom Anderson, I say thank you and god speed.

–Matt Tucker

2011; An OC Year-End Review

[youtube]http://youtu.be/ndpyK7Ad7vo?hd=1[/youtube]

I came across this video and rogue unfinished post, when I logged in to the site last night to do some maintenance.  Better late than never I guess.  Here is a look at how 2011 treated me and those I was lucky enough to share the waters with.  Not a bad year at all.  My daughter really took to the sport, I got a new boat, and some big fish were caught.  All in all, another great year.

The music is from a now defunct St. Louis based band called “Stir”.  They were awesome…….still waiting on a reunion……

Enjoy.

–Tucker