The Tightline


	Club Meetings : 2nd Wednesday of every month @ South County Senior Center 220 Railroad Ave. Edmonds, WA Social Hour 6:00PM Dinner 7:00 PM REMINDER - CLUB DUES Annual dues of $30.00 are due. Please pay Norm at the January meeting.


	January 14th Meeting Guest Speaker: Jim Kerr is full time guide from Port Townsend who is also a innovative fly tier and former owner of the Port Townsend Fly Shop. Jim also spent seven years fishing and guiding in the Florida Keys before returning to the Northwest to become a full time guide. His season starts in early June in Hoods Canal where Jim will be fishing the many wonderful gravel beaches for sea-run cutthroat and resident silvers. Most all of these beaches are only accessible from the water. Later in the summer and early fall Jim will fish a couple different runs of silvers returning to the upper Hoods Canal. The great thing about this fishery is being able to stand and cast the shoreline for these fish. The water is very clear in the Canal at this time of year and you can often see the fish coming after the fly. In September Jim moves to the Forks area to fish for salmon in the many rivers be it the Hoh, SolDuc, Bogachiel or the Calawah River. This is both for Silvers and Kings on a fly. In January Jim starts fishing for winter steelhead in these rivers and this goes into April. For more information give Jim a call at (360) 301 455


	Club Board Meetings : 4th Wednesday of every month @ Alfi's 196th Avenue Lynwood, WA Dinner 7:00 PM

OFF Club Website

There have been a few changes to the web site. You can access the monthly Club meeting schedule and the 2004 Outing Schedule on the Background and Events page. I have removed the Items For Sale page and replaced it with Topics of Interest. The page is a listing of various articles and web sites that you might find of interest. There are links to a number of different sites with useful information. If you know of a site that may have interest to other Club members, please let me know and I can add it to the page. The link to the site again is www.olympicflyfish.com


	Club's Christmas Auction The December Auction was again a huge success. In talking with Norm, this was the Club's most successful auction ever. Thanks to all the friends and members who attended and participated in the event; it was a great time and there were some fantastic items available. A special thanks goes to Norm and his wife Carolyn who devoted so much time and energy toward making this event a huge success. Also, a special thanks to Don Bayes, our Auctioneer. Don, as always, did a fantastic job auctioning off the numerous items donated by our members local retailers , and guides. Mentioned below. The Board would like to thank the following members and organizations for their wonderful donations, without of which, we could not have pulled off this fantastic event. Members: Perry Barth Wally Berning Buzz Burgett Jack Byrd Bud Camandona David Claude Wendell Carlson Joe Conner Walt Furler Jim Gauntt Dick Hedges Ken Martin Steve Murray Eli Perlman Norm Primc Dan Reynolds Eric Sauer Ron Sather Randy Sobczak Randy Patterson Dan Holman Blair Scarth Retailers / Guides Ted's Sport Shop Swed's Avid Angler G.I.Joes Outdoor Emporium Trophy Lake Hills Discount Flies Northwest Fly Angler Lyle Hand


	2004 Meeting Schedule & Guest Speaker


	2 0 0 4 O U T I N G S

10 o'clock to 2 o'clock? - NO! Watch the Loops

Although the 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock casting arc generalization will produce a useable loop with just about any rod using about 30 feet of line, it almost never produces the best loop.
To cast a tight loop, the tip of your rod needs to travel in a straight path from where it starts, as it bends through the cast, to where it stops. A straight path will cause the tip of the rod to turn over very quickly at the end of the cast and throw a nice tight loop. If the tip of the rod travels in a semi-circular path (a small rounded hill) instead of a straight path, you get a wide open loop, or in a worst case scenario, a non-loop. With a small amount of line out, the rod will only bend a little and the casting arc will need to be much smaller to draw that straight line, perhaps 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. As you extend line, the additional weight of the line will make the rod flex farther down the blank and require a wider casting arc to keep the rod tip traveling in a straight line. With long distance casts the casting arc is well past the 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock position because you are flexing almost the entire rod and need to use a much wider arc to keep the tip of the rod traveling in that straight path. To further complicate matters, full-flex (softer action) rods bend more readily, more quickly, than tip-flex or faster action rods and require wider casting arcs for the same amount of line being cast. So each rod can be different.
It's really not as scary as it sounds. You don't have to memorize the casting arc for every rod or different length of line you might cast. Just watch your loops to see what's happening. If you are getting tall, open loops, your casting arc is too wide. Stop the rod sooner to shorten the arc. If the line runs into itself or the rod, the arc is too small. Open it up by stopping the rod later in each direction. With practice, you will be able to modify the arc automatically to the amount of line on the rod you're using. It becomes something you feel. Until then, watch the loops.


	P.O. Box 148, Edmonds, WA 98020