The Middle River Group, LLC

fly fishing, conservation and politics.

sports show

AFFTA and the Fly Fishing Retailer Show

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First, let me offer a quick explanation for my absence. After enjoying a week’s vacation in beautiful Rhode Island, I found myself hurrying back when my mother was stricken with pneumonia. She wound up spending a week in the intensive care unit at Newport Hospital.

I spent three weeks up there, but all’s well that ends well and mom is recovering nicely at my sister’s home in New Hampshire.

My next stop was Denver, Colo. Last month I was elected to a three-year term on the board of directors of the American Fly Fishing Trade Association. My first board meeting was during the Fly Fishing Retailer show last week.

AFFTA’s mission is to “promote the sustained growth of the fly fishing industry.” To do that, the association focuses on attracting more people to fly-fishing, promoting business excellence and educating elected officials and government agencies on important policy topics such as the economic importance of conserving fly-fishing habitat or thorny tax and trade issues.

The Fly Fishing Retailer is the industry’s trade show. At this show, manufacturers show and promote their new products to dealers like shops, guides and outfitters and also members of the outdoor press. Only members of the fly-fishing industry can attend, it is not open to the public like a consumer show is.

AFFTA Board members, like me, get a guest pass to the show and I spent two days wandering around the floor, looking at new products and visiting with many of my friends in the business.

Over the next few weeks I will share some thoughts and observations about some of the more interesting things I saw at the show, like the latest in the rubber versus felt for the bottom of wading boots, flies without hooks and the latest in bobber technology. No kidding, bobber technology.

Of course I got a chance to try new fly rods from the likes of Sage, Scott, Loomis, St. Croix, Temple Fork Outfitters and Winston. Casting a variety of rods is one of the best parts of going to the show. It is also a great chance to give friends a hard time about casting techniques, which greatly adds to the entertainment value of the show.

There is a pretty robust party circuit each night after the show closes. The most entertaining one is the Annual Drake Flyfishing Video Awards. This was the fourth year for this event showing of ten five-minute film clips about fly-fishing. A panel reviews all clips and the top ones win prizes for being the best in their category. There are awards for best humor, best story, best fishing, and best overall.

You can see clips from the last three years at the Drake Web site. Check out “Running Down the Man” from the 2006 films, it is one of my favorites.

I have now returned to the Valley and am looking forward to some fall fishing and the hunting season. Hopefully you have already had a chance to get out enjoy some time afield.

If you want to have some fun, get some wing shooting practice and support a good cause, come out to Flying Rabbit Sporting Clays on Sept. 27 for their first Hunters for the Hungry benefit shoot. The donation is $50 for this 100-target event. Lunch, soda and water are included, you just need to bring shells and eye and ear protection and of course your shotgun. You can get more information by calling 540-574-2529 or go to their Web site.

Finally, it is not too soon to be marking your calendars for next year’s Virginia Fly Fishing Festival on the banks of the South River. The festival is scheduled for April 17 and 18. This is the ten-year anniversary of the event so it should be a good one.

You can read more of my columns at News Virginian.com.

A time to reflect, learn new tricks

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When you hit certain milestones in your life, in my case turning 55 years old in July, you get a chance to reflect on the things you have accomplished and the things you might still want to accomplish in the future.

As I write this I am enjoying a family vacation in Exeter, R.I. We are at a cabin on Yagoo pond. It is a typical New England lakeside scene — if you saw the movie On Golden Pond then you get the picture. The place hasn’t changed all that much in the 55 years I have been coming here. I like that.

There is some wonderful fishing here. Over the years I have caught my fair share of bass, pickerel and sunfish. For more than 40 years, I have fished here with a fly-rod. Since I am reflecting on future accomplishments I decided to learn to how to use a bait casting rig on this vacation.

For the last 10 years or so I have taught fly-fishing professionally. I enjoy teaching, especially watching my students discover those personal keys that help them become good at fly casting.

My last attempt to use a bait-casting rig was not pretty. With no instruction I just hung a plug on the end of the line and “let her rip”. Those of you who fish with a bait caster are now smiling and thinking “bet he had one heck of a backlash with that approach”. And I surely did. The net result was more time untangling then casting.

Now like most humans endowed with a Y chromosome, reading instruction manuals is not in my make up. However, I have learned a thing or two over the years and for this learning experience I read up on how to “adjust” the reel to help prevent backlashing.

There were two reels collecting dust in my gear closet both pretty old school. A Quantum Tour and an Abu-Garcia Ambassadeur. They had magnets and brakes and all sorts of “fine” adjustments to assist you in casting.

Reading carefully and setting the reels up as suggested, I ventured forth to test my skills.

My first cast was tentative and somewhat misdirected. But, no backlash. A few more casts improved my accuracy. As my timing improved so did the length of my casts.

Soon I realized the adjustments could be modified to allow for more independent control of the spool with the thumb. Clearly, this was how the big boys did it. I was ready to advance.

I quickly came to appreciate that point in the learning curve when you think you should be able to do something, but for some reason it just doesn’t work out that way. My mind raced back to all the time my students had that perplexed look and I thought, “come on it is not that hard”.

I eventually got to a point where the backlashes were not taking the fun out of fishing. The casts were going where I wanted and I started to enjoy a new skill.

I probably won’t trade my fly-rod in, but it is good to know this dog can still learn a new trick.

More importantly it reminded me what it is like to be a student again. That just because something is so routine for me doesn’t mean it will be for everyone. The real lesson for me was to remember to put myself in my student’s shoes. That was certainly a lesson worth relearning.

You can read more of my columns at News Virginian.com.

Teaching our kids to fish

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Two weeks ago, I had a chance to spend some time at the Western Virginia Sports Show. Mark Hanger, the producer and owner of the show impressed me with his commitment to conservation and getting families interested in the great outdoors.

When I caught up with Hanger at the show I asked him how the attendance was. He told me it was better than they expected given the economy, then he made an interesting observation.

“The only thing we can point to is they want to be happy for a while, they don’t want to hear any bad news. They want to be enlightened, entertained and come out and spend some time with their family at a reasonable cost and have some good entertainment,” he said.

In his show brochure Hanger said “on your next trip, take a young person with you and teach them to love, respect and enjoy God’s great outdoors.”

I asked him about getting kids into the outdoors.

“There is no doubt about it that that is the most important because it is our future. If we don’t get children in the outdoors, then our sports are going to diminish and be gone forever,” he said.

Hanger pointed out a number of educational elements at the show including the Bucks, Bows and Does, Outdoor Adventure archery education trailer and the show’s wild game display.

A great example of getting kids engaged in the outdoors was the Orange County High School Anglers Club. They are a 4-H and Junior B.A.S.S. Federation Nation club.

The club is made up of students ages 11 to 19 who love to bass fish competitively.

I spoke with Becky Gore, the club’s advisor. Gore is a teacher and a former coach. She is the power house behind the club and a joy to talk with. If every school in the Valley can find a Becky Gore, then fishing will have a very bright future.

Gore told me how she got the club started.

“In 1999, about ten years after my husband had died, I had just gotten my kids in college. I decided I wanted to start fishing again, so I went to the high school principal and said I would like to start a fishing club and she said ‘sure, go for it,’ ” Gore said. “We have three entities, we were first 4-H and the high school together, and then the B.A.S.S. Federation found out about me and they were trying to implement a youth program in Virginia. They called me up and asked me if would I be interested. I asked what they could do for my kids. They said they could advance to a world level. I said ‘Sure, let’s do it.’ Plus, they mentioned the word scholarship and I jumped on it.”

Gore told me what other high schools could do to get do to get the program started. She ticked these items.

“You’ve got to have someone who loves kids and loves being with kids and is willing to do it without getting compensated,” she said. “You’ve got to have some kids that are interested. Once those kids approach that principal and say ‘We want a bass club,’ then that principal may go out or tell those kids, ‘Well, you find a sponsor and then we will do it.’ ”

Gore told me the kids can receive their high school letter if they meet the criteria. She has developed that criteria and told me that all another coach or teacher needs to do is contact her and she would be happy to share it with them.

“And that is the other cool thing about this, it’s parents and kids working together,” she said. “And the other thing I have tried to do is give the kids an opportunity to be with their parents. Be with their dads or moms out on the water on a Saturday or Sunday.”

Gore credits the parents, students and her volunteers for making the program a success. She considers them all family.

Nothing is more important for the future of hunting and fishing than helping the next generation learn about the sports we love. Let’s all do a little more where we can.

On the road

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First stop TU’s National Capital Angling Show, Saturday, March 14, from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. at Georgetown Preparatory School, 10900 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD

This show is always fun with national known and local fly-fishing pros and celebs, casting classes and clinics, and great vendors.

More info!

Next week I will be at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, March 16-21, Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, Virginia.

This is the premier gathering of professionals from the hunting, fishing and natural resources community. Loaded with special sessions, workshops, meetings and great changes to socialize with friends and colleagues.

More info!

Survival at the Big Game Show

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One of the great things about sports shows, besides seeing all the new gear and shopping for special deals, is the wealth of information you can get for free. It’s also amazing what you can learn if you just ask a couple of questions.

Sunday I went to the Greater Virginia Sports and Big Game Show at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Stacey Rowe, who along with her husband Max, owns and manages the show explained one of the show’s main goals.

“Our passion is getting others involved in the outdoors,” Rowe said. “And if you can take one person and get them involved then it is kind of like a chain reaction.”

One person who takes a very interesting approach to getting folks engaged in the outdoors is Tim MacWelch, founder and head instructor of the Earth Connection School of Wilderness Survival.

Earth Connections offers more than twenty classes in subjects like wilderness survival, primitive technology, deer hide tanning, friction fire making and wild, edible plants. The school has two locations, a 10-acre farm in Somerville and another sixteen-acre wooded lot near Durham, N.C.

Outdoor skills are as important as they are interesting. No one goes on a hike or a hunting or fishing trip with the idea they might get injured or lost, but it happens. Hunters, anglers or anyone who spends a lot of time in woods and mountains here in the Valley should have a basic understanding of wilderness survival.

“We teach as many things as we can put under the umbrella of self-preservation, self-sufficiency and self-reliance,” said MacWelsh. “We teach modern wilderness survival with modern techniques, tools and technology and we teach primitive, Stone Age survival skills with sticks and mud and rock and dirt and string and whatever you can make out of the materials at hand.”

I asked MacWelsh what type of people came to his schools.

“We have one of the broadest demographics I have ever seen. I have high school kids up through retirees, who are from every possible region, every income level and all the adults we have come through [are] from every walk of life,” MacWelch said. “I have carpenters and doctors in the same class, I’ve got mechanics and lawyers in the same class. I’ve got computer people and I’ve got landscapers in the same classes.”

One of the most interesting things he showed me was how simple and easy it was to build a snare. He used a tabletop demonstration of a spring pole snare trap to teach me.

Here is how he explained it.

“What we have is a slender sapling, it’s a little tree and it is bent down under tension and its held in place by a string, which goes underneath of a hook and is held in place by a toggle. The toggle wants to slide out but it is held in place by a little small peg. The peg would have bait on it that would entice an animal to go in and investigate it and hopefully nudge it a little bit,” he said. “While they are investigating the peg they have their head through a noose to be able to reach that peg. And if they disengage the peg then the snare engages and hopefully they are caught around the neck or by the foot.”

The trap was pretty simple to build. Everything you needed could be built without tools. It was just a matter of finding a branch, breaking some twigs and adding a length of twine.

Like I said you can learn a lot if you ask a couple of questions.

You can enjoy another sports show and the National Archery in the Schools Program Tournament this weekend.

The 22nd Annual Western Virginia Sport Show takes place at Augusta Expoland in Fishersville today until March 1. You can get more information on the show’s Web site at westernvasportshow.com.

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is conducting the First Annual National Archery in the Schools Program Tournament on Saturday. The tournament is being held in cooperation with the Western Virginia Sport Show.

Take a kid or a friend and go enjoy the show.