North Idaho Fly Casters
Last Thursday, I attended a North Idaho Fly Casters monthly dinner/meeting in Coeur D'Alene at the Best Western 506 W Appleway Ave. The North Idaho Fly Casters is a club looking to improve local habitat and water quality, as well as educate and help others. Every member is passionate about fly fishing, and helping others.
The meeting is held in a spacious conference room from 5-8ish on the third Thursday of every month. The evening starts off with a general meet and greet while watching club member, Jim Rogers, tie some very innovative flies. Be sure to bring one of your favorite fly patterns to enter it in the fly raffle. Every person that enters a fly into the bucket receives a ticket and a chance to win the whole bucket of flies! Members of the club have free access to an immense library of fly fishing/outdoor books and videos. Once you have ran through the awesome library available, it is time to buy tickets for the raffle that is held after the guest speaker. The raffle had a variety of items including: fly tying materials, fly boxes full of flies, a creative wine bottle with several wine utensils built into the bottle, and many more.
The dinner starts around 6 and is an opportune time to share stories and mingle with some of the club's fine members. After dinner, one of the members takes the mic and keeps everyone up to date on upcoming fly fishing outings, and projects like Casting for Recovery. Fly casting has proven to help strengthen lost tissue for those who have undergone breast cancer. Casting for Recovery is a program to help inspire and recover breast cancer survivors in a fun environment with people that truly care. More information on Casting for Recovery can be found at http://castingforrecovery.org.
The guest speaker this evening was Head Hunter fly shop guide, Mark Raisler (sounds like Crysler but with an R). Mark 's specialty is the Missouri River, and he went over important tactics for anyone looking to fish the Missouri. Some of the topics Mark reviewed were the importance of a reach cast, how the river is losing their caddis number, and to always be the heron. The heron is important because herons are excellent fisherman, and they are exceptionally patient when it comes to catching their prey. He reminded us to take our time when presenting a fly to a fish, so we don't rush to fast and spook it. Some upcoming guest speakers are Kelly Galloup and Bob Jacklin.
The North Idaho Fly Casters are always looking for more friendly members to join their wholehearted club, and partake in monthly fishing outings or Casting for Recovery. Guests are always welcome to sit in on the meeting as long as the guest is willing to stand up and introduce oneself to all of the members with a microphone. More information can be found at their website www.northidahoflycasters.org