As many of you know, your FATC opened up our membership with a full flyfishing class in Springfield, Missouri. There are many fly fishers in Springfield since they have Bennett Spring, lake Taneycomo and Roaring River so close to their location. Six men, with the help of member George Wong, attended a full weekend fly fishing class back in February. One Springfield member finished the graduation and now two more guys from the Springfield gang have completed the course as they graduated this past Thursday at Montauk State Park.

We had six members welcome Bob Heath and Randy Stephens from Springfield to the FATC. Kenny Klimes and Jim Craig would take the guys through their graduation day while Bob Hassett, Vernon Preston, Don Varner, and Bob Palisch wished them luck. As usual the new “grads” started their adventure below the boulder where they had the opportunity to cast, strip streamers, swing soft hackles and do a little dead drifting techniques before lunch. I understand that Randy caught a fish on his first cast – oooo bad omen. But he recovered from that during the rest of the day. Bob on the other hand decided to wait until after lunch to do his catching.

The weather was perfect all day until around 3:30pm when a slight drizzle turned not rain at about 4:30pm. All day the rain was threatening but only low clouds showed up -my kind of fishing weather. At lunch we discovered what we thought – the fishing was tough. Not sure why just don’t say there are no fish in the river – we saw hundreds. The trout seemed to want small (midges) but also took olive mohair leech patterns. Kenny caught three almost back-to-back with the rod under his arm pit while helping Bob with his dead drift. Go figure – I guess they just know him personally.

Both Bob and Randy had a few fish for the day and again it was tough for everybody. But we didn’t let that stop the ribbing and laughter. I think they will be back for more fly fishing. We had our fellowship dinner in Salem at Arandas Mexican restaurant so the Springfield guys could join us and have a straight shot home. I am always amazed how all the guys in our FATC realize the importance of “fellowship.” I just sat back at times and just watched the guys talk, laugh, and just get to know each other. You know – men need other men in their lives – good, solid men – we have that at the FATC. Ask a friend if he would like the same!