FFI Gulf Coast Council

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Many of us are looking forward to this Saturday and the first-ever New Orleans Fly Fishing Expo at the new Deutsches Haus on Bayou St. John in New Orleans. Hope you are too!

Hosted by the New Orleans Fly Fishers Club, this event will feature seminars, exhibitors, casting instruction, fly tying demos featuring many of the best tiers from across the region, kayak demos courtesy of Masseys Outfitters, and even some unique activities such as an “Outdoor Writers Roundtable” and a “Iron Fly Tying” competition. For more details, see our previous post or go to www.neworleansflyfishing.com.

Fly Fishers International and the FFI Gulf Coast Council will have a table at the Expo. Joining us will be Tom Logan, Chairman of Fly Fishers International.  Tom will also be addressing the Expo that morning. At the booth we’ll be taking questions, and talking about FFI programs. The GCC has some exciting things planned and this will be the first public opportunity to share them.

The Expo will feature a few fundraising activities, some to raise money for charities such as Casting For Recovery. One of those fundraisers is being sponsored by the FFI Gulf Coast Council, to raise money for the St. Micheal Fly Fishing Club. This is a school club at St. Micheal High School in Baton Rouge, one of few school-based fly fishing clubs in the nation. With a membership of over 22 students, it was the subject of a recent article on the Louisiana Sportsman website. Click here to read about the St. Micheal High School club.

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Highlighting the donations in the draw is a framed limited edition print by Fred Hannie. Hannie is a nationally-renown, award-winning realistic tier, artist, instructor and author. His flies have been featured in various publications, such as Fly Tyer magazine. He is also Vice-President of the FFI Gulf Coast Council and it’s Fly Tying Chairman. He is also a member of the FFI Fly Tying Group.

Fred will be donating two framed limited-edition prints to the Expo. One will go into the GCC Fundraiser. They both feature his artwork along with one of his signature flies. One print is that of a speckled trout, the other of a warmouth sunfish. Each is valued at several hundred dollars.

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The draw will also feature a slightly-used TFO Axiom II 9-foot, 8-weight rod donated by Glen ‘Catch’ Cormier. It comes with the TFO case. Used only on two occasions, the rod brand new sells for $349. It’s Temple Fork Outfitter’s premium rod for saltwater and bass, very light in the hand and with zero swing weight.

There may be other items as well. The 1st winner will get to pick from the items on that table. The 2nd winner will get to pick from the remaining items, and so on.

The GCC is also coordinating individual donations to the St. Micheal club. We’re hoping for the club to be a great success and be the model for other such school-based clubs in our Council.

So come to the Expo this Saturday! Have a great time with other members of the fly fishing community on the Gulf Coast. Bring your money, check, credit card, and help some great causes while taking a chance to win some great prizes, including some one-of-a-kind items. And don’t forget to stop by the FFI-GCC booth and say hello!

New Orleans Fly Fishing Expo
Saturday, April 6, 2019
8:00am to 4:00pm
The Deutsches Haus, 1700 Moss St, New Orleans, LA
FREE admission!

The New Orleans Fly Fishers Club, a charter FFI club, is hosting the biggest fly fishing event of the year on the Gulf Coast.  The inaugural New Orleans Fly Fishing Expo will be held at the new Deutsches Haus, on the banks of Bayou St. John near New Orleans City Park.  It’ll have fly casting seminars, demonstrations, and instruction, fly fishing seminars, fly tying demonstrations and instruction, an Iron Fly Tyer competition, an Outdoors Writers Roundtable, outdoor equipment displays, vendors, exhibitors, and raffles.

Headling this event will be Jon Cave. Cave is a nationally-renown fly fishing writer, author, instructor and guide, who operates the Performance Fly Fishing School. Jon will be holding his semi-private casting class the day before the Expo. Everyone is invited to sign up for this rare opportunity, slots are limited.

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The Kisatchie Fly Fishers, an FFI-GCC affiliate club based in Alexandria, LA, will hold their annual “Fly Fishing 101” workshop on Saturday, March 30th at the Booker-Fowler fish hatchery in Forest Hill. Time is 9:00am to 12:30pm.

The workshop is free, but pre-registration is required. An online registration form is available on the club’s website at www.kisatchiefly.org. Click on the “Fly Fishing 101” page, then on the “Registration Form”.

This is the fourth year for the workshop, held each Spring. Attendance at each one has exceeded the previous year. As of this writing, 21 have registered. The workshop maximum is 30.

The last two years, students have been treated to a private tour of the hatchery prior to the workshop. But now Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which operates the facility, has announced a public touring all day, starting at 8:00am and running until 2:00pm.

Hatchery visitors who wish to learn about fly fishing are encouraged to sign up for the workshop while there is still room. The fly group will be on one of the early tours (8:00am or 8:30am) prior to the workshop start.

Booker-Fowler is the department’s primary fish production facility. This facility produces freshwater sportfish fingerlings to assist LDWF Inland Fisheries managers with achieving statewide management objectives. Since its first year of fish production in the spring of 1997, the hatchery program has released over 125 million fish into public water bodies throughout Louisiana.

Saturday, March 2nd is the 27th annual “Red Stick Day” fly fishing festival, which this year returns to the LDWF Waddill Outdoors Education Center on 4141 North Flannery Road in Baton Rouge. Time is 8:30am to 3:30pm. Admission is free.

Hosted by the Red Stick Fly Fishers of Baton Rouge, an FFI-GCC affiliate club, Red Stick Day is the largest and longest-running event of its kind in Louisiana. Historically, this event has featured some of the biggest names in fly fishing such as Gary Borger, Jason Borger, Ed Jaworoski, Chrystal Murray, Nick Curcione and others. In recent years, it’s featured several rising experts in our sport, such as Zach Matthews, Bill Laminack, Ed Lash and Ben Roussel.

Red Stick Day also routinely features some of the top fly tiers in the region – even the country – demonstrating their skills at the vise.

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