Warm Water Fly Fishing Clinic @ NCWRC Pechmann Center 6-11-11

Saturday, June 11, 2011 was another hot day at the NCWRC John E. Pechmann Fishing Education Center but that did not deter over 20 enthusiastic fly fishermen from as far away as Charlotte and Southport from participating in our annual Warm Water Fly Fishing Clinic. We kept everyone hydrated and other then a couple cases of light sunburn we did just fine.


After an introduction and overview we broke them down into two groups. One went to "Healthy Habitat and Fishing Ethics"


While the other learned about rod assembly



and essential knots.


They then rotated to a fly tying demonstration by Anthony Hipps who never ceases to amaze us with his talent for creating realistic bugs while making fly tying look easy and so much fun.



Time to move outside where everyone is treated to a talk and demonstration by one of our talented casting instructors.


Now for some hands-on casting instruction under the watchful eye of experienced casting instructors.


It doesn't count unless you can put it all together and catch a fish. For the Warm Water Clinic we have bream, bass, hy-bred stripers and catfish available. No one caught a "grand slam" but everyone had a good time trying.


This young man and his dad had a ball on the catfish ponds. "I don't need any help thank you!" - and he didn't either. I am pretty sure we have a fly fisherman in the making.


Bream aren't real big but they sure are fun to catch on a fly rod.


Cat fish to fisherwoman - "Quick put me back in before my skin gets a burn like yours". Fisherwoman to husband - "Don't touch me!"


The family of one of our volunteers came out toward the end of the day and after watching the Mrs. handle a fly rod it looks like the whole family are into fly fishing. Lots of smiles today. Hot as heck but we just drank a lot of Gatorade and rolled with it . Everyone caught fish and had a good time. Probably a few "don't touch me's" this evening but we made some good memories.

This was the last of our fly fishing clinics for 2011. The Good Lord willing we will be back at it in January 2012 when we start all over again with our popular trout fishing clinics. This is probably a good time to say thank you to all of our dedicated cadre of volunteers. They give up many Saturdays so that others can learn the basics of fly fishing. I'm a volunteer myself but I know I speak for the Pechmann Center staff and the entire NCWRC when I say "thank you very much for your generous contribution of time and talent. We could not put these programs on without you".

We are not going to take the summer off completely. We will continue our Wounded Warrior / Military Appreciation Days on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. School will be out so we expect more families which is fine with us. We specialize in fly fishing but have over 200 spin casting outfits for those who want to dunk a worm or try some "stink bait" on the catfish. Our next Wounded Warrior / Military Appreciation Day will be July 13, 2011 from 1-5 pm