President's Message - March 2008: "Marching On"

by Joe Filer, AFF President

One of the special privileges that comes with being named President of the Alamo Fly Fishers is the “right to write” 12 articles for our Newsletter. Now, that might sound easy on the surface but when time comes around every month it can be more difficult than one would expect.

Several months are pretty easy. January represents a new year with lots to talk about in your first effort. February uses the momentum of the month before it to some degree…. But, March. Ah yes, March. March brings us blue bonnets, spring training, important birthdays, “mad” basketball tournaments, and all sorts of great reasons to be outside.

March – the month for catching those last few rainbows. And, it’s the month for really slamming a bunch of white bass. I missed our annual white bass trip last year for business reasons. If you have not been involved with this club outing, I definitely recommend you ask someone in the club about the fish fry and Bruce Young’s Dutch oven dessert cook off. There are lots of members who have great stories about this trip. It is clearly one of the highlights of our year. When Todd starts showing some of his pictures, notice the smiles on the faces of the folks from the white bass trip….

Since white bass is such a key part of this month, Ron McAlpin is going to come in and give us a look into how he chases this fish (we might even hear about one of his bamboo rods). Ron is a great guy and I look forward to spending some time with him this month on the 18th of March.

As February slips away, let’s all give Tosh Brown a big hand for his awesome presentation this month. All those pictures of Alaska made me start shaking like it was June already. (Note: Shakes are due to salmon withdrawal that occurs in conjunction with the arrival of the first salmon runs during years when you cannot go to Alaska.)

As I mentioned during the meeting in February, one of our collective missions this year is to resurrect some awareness of our Federation of Fly Fishers heritage. I am going to rely on several of our members who have direct involvement to bring our general membership some additional visibility on our connection to this organization. There is definitely room for added value now that the Gulf Coast Council of FFF has been formed. Several Alamo Fly Fisher members were very much involved in that success story and I applaud their efforts. For more info, please visit the website at: http://www.gulfcoastfff.org/ . We are going to try to send a nice contingent up to the conclave in Lake Charles, LA in May 2008. Let us know if anyone is interested in going.

Enjoy the great fishing ahead and find a way to introduce someone new (especially a kid) to our great sport and the special opportunities reflected in our organization’s mission and the things we do together. As always, each of the club’s officers is available to listen to any ideas you may have for improving how we can serve you. You know where to find us and when.

Stay safe and healthy.

Joe