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What a fantastic weekend this was!
Capturing and studying bugs, fishing a beautiful spring creek, viewing an
evening slide show deep in the woods, staying in rustic cabins with bunk beds,
seeing the incredible ‘Fish House’ in action, and eating lots of great camp
cookin’! This event at the
U.C. Sagehen Field Station near Truckee is destined to
become an annual club favorite!
"Kudos!" to Mike Laing for coordinating the whole affair – and realizing Gary
Flanagan’s original idea for the club to have a professional-quality,
on-stream entomology workshop that would combine some of the art and science of
fly fishing. Planned to perfection,
the workshop was an unequivocal success by every measure!
Special thanks to our resident (club) biologist, Ken Davis, and Fishmaster, Bill
Carnazzo, for putting on an amazing evening PowerPoint presentation covering
various local bugs and their imitations. Seeing
Ken’s incredible close-up photos of the natural insects alongside images of
Bill’s often-eerily-similar imitations was really cool.
Saturday’s insect-gathering and field study was productive and informative.
Ken supplied the seines, specimen vials, and collection trays – and
shared his techniques for capturing and interpreting stream inhabitants.
Participants had the opportunity to get wet and get bugs – and a surprising variety of invertebrates was
discovered in the tiny creek.
The field station’s famous Fish House was a huge thrill.
Cut deep into the creek bank and constructed to allow underwater viewing
of a 30-foot long pool, the structure allowed an intimate angle on trout feeding
habits as Gary Flanagan and Bill ‘n Amy Carnazzo alternately launched natural
and artificial offerings into the slow-moving water. Seeing the fish track
and attack the 'baits' at eye level - and just a few feet away - was
awesome!
If all that weren’t enough, the camp kitchen was hummin’ all weekend with
the considerable efforts of chefs Mike Howes, Kathy and John Long, and John
Peterson, who worked hard to supply hearty meals throughout our stay.
Mike exceeded expectations with two fresh-caught salmon fillets he
brought especially for Saturday’s dinner.
Keep
your eyes peeled for this outing in ’05 – you definitely want to be
there! For now, check out the photos below for just a sample of what this
event was like...
Double click a thumbnail photo to see a larger,
more detailed blow-up... |
