Portland, Maine - June 30, 2003 - FFIM held its Spring Conclave event June 20-22 at Casey's Spencer Bay Camps on Moosehead Lake. The event raised over $1500.00 which is being donated to the Saco River Salmon Club and Trout Unlimited's Youth Program in Maine. The event was attended by nearly 100 fly fishing enthusiasts hailing from Maine to as far away as Maryland and Montana. Over 600 tickets were sold for the general raffle, in which fly rods, wading jackets, autographed books, and fishing trips were among the over 60 items that were raffled off. Additionally, lucky angler Aaron Walden of Brewer, ME took home a brand new Old Town Predator Kayak, while Nick Chandler of Topsfield, MA won an authentic Carrie Stevens Gray Ghost.
The event kicked off on Saturday morning, with a wonderful slideshow presentation on area fishing opportunities by Danny Legere of the Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville. Danny talked about the area rivers, hatches, and the techniques that can be used to achieve success there. Following the presentation, R.W. Brown of Livingston, MT held a fly tying class, in which he shared many useful tips and techniques for tying flies in a wide variety of sizes and styles. Mr. Brown, a renowned national fly tier, has the distinction of having his flies appear in the popular 1990's movie "A River Runs Through It". Matt Lambert, a class participant, has this to say about the instruction, "I've been tying flies all my life and thought I knew just about everything, but Ron really showed me some tips and tricks that have improved my tying immensely!".
In the afternoon, there were casting demos available for folks to try out rods from Orvis, Sage, Temple Fork Outfitters and Thomas and Thomas. Orvis representative, John Shaner, was on hand with a full selection of fly rods and worked with many folks to improve their casting techniques. Following the tying class and casting demos, many folks headed off to fish for the evening, while others stayed behind to enjoy the large pot of baked beans provided compliments of the campground. The evening brought two very exciting activities, the raffle drawings, followed by a intimate lakeside book reading by Maine author Jim Babb.
Events wrapped up on Sunday with R.W. Brown conducting a streamside fishing class on the East Outlet of the Kennebec River. Mr. Brown taught participants how to improve their casting and presentation, how to read the water, fly selection and many other useful skills. Dan Tarkinson, publisher of FlyFishingInMaine.com, says "We are very pleased with the success of our first event. Everyone I talked with had a wonderful time, learned a lot, and met some great fellow fly fishers. We are really looking forward to making next year's event bigger and better".
A special thanks to all those companies and individuals who donated Raffle Items contributing to the events success! Also thanks to all those whose hard work made this event possible...including, but not limited to: tim_s, brookie, fly tier, maineguide and oldguide. Thanks!!!
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"Homebase"
Danny's slideshow
OldGuide teaching away
Casting, casting, casting...
Casey and Sarah w/ dinner!
Raffle prizes
More Photos:
Homebase - the other side
Homebase - the inside
Attentive class
Checking out the craft
Cap trying to figure his luck
John Shaner (Orvis) and Jim Babb
Next item is....
The revered Gray Ghost
Matt, the Allard rod winner
Saco Salmon Club w/ Dan
A lakeside book reading
Lucky winner!
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Spring 2003 - Conclave Recap
