Traditionally, the January meeting has been a slideshow that allows us to see where members have been fishing. Nowadays, we can see pictures of our friends posted while they are still in the water! So this year we are going to have 5 of our club members, Skip Montello, Jeff Slaboden, Kathy Power, Bill Seaman and Dar Naghshineh tell us about a special fishing moment from 2022. If this is popular, maybe we can have a member talk at our monthly meetings in 2023.
For those of you who miss the slideshow and want to see where people fished in 2022, please spend time looking at the pictures and captions on the club’s website: www.santacruzflyfishing.org . Viewing is best done on a full screen computer and when you click on the picture, you get a larger image and the full description. Images are sorted chronologically and hitting the ‘Load More’ button at the bottom of the page will show pictures from earlier in the year. Also, please share your pictures with others by sending them to Jerry at metropolitantrout@gmail.com.
Just spent a few minutes looking at old emails when I became the SCFF Newsletter editor back in April 2020. Covid19 was closing the world down and the SCFF board was trying to figure out if we would have an April meeting. The club had recently started working with a tech consultant, Vicki Winters, who was creating a new website for SCFF and we were wondering if our club members would be able to read the newsletter online and use something new called Google Groups.
It is amazing where we have all come in less than three years. Our newsletter is only available online, Google Groups lets us share information with each other all year, and the website has beautiful pictures due to your submissions to Jerry McKeon for our Instagram account.
As of now, the Newsletter Editor position is unfilled and Vicki Winters is stepping in as a consultant to make sure that we do not miss a month. In February, I will become the new President for SCFF and am excited to see how we can work together to improve our fishing club no matter what the future brings.
All of us have wonderful stories about John, the times we spent with him and the gifts he shared with us. I too have a rod that he built, Fly tying tools he crafted, works of art he created, flies that he tied. I will think of him warmly whenever I use or see something he’s created.
There is one gift, above all else, that I think John should be remembered by. John constantly exemplified, by thought, word, and deed what it truly means to be a gentleman. He was truly a gentle man.
There was no place in his world for the toxic masculinity that has become so pervasive in today’s world. John didn’t trade in gossip. He spoke ill of no one. He encouraged always. He offered advice when it was sought, not just to hear his own voice being brilliant.
John lived a life of service, from his younger days as a pharmacist, to his later years as a sportsman extraordinaire. John served on our board as a president. For years he and Pat opened up their home to us to use as a meeting place for our board of directors. He spent countless hours searching for deals on fishing tackle for our annual raffle. Day after day he worked to create works of art for our silent auction. How many of us are better anglers because he worked with us on our double haul or steeple cast. His flies, which we enthusiastically threw at fish, were themselves works of art. I know I have some of them framed, but I’m pretty sure John would say “fish em” if he could.
I mentioned that he was a gifted sportsman. He was skilled in all aspects of pursuing whatever game he was after, and yet I never heard him boast or exaggerate. If he said he caught a five pound trout, you were sure it was within ounces of 5 pounds. If he said he caught it on 7x tippet and a size 20 baetis, and cast 40 feet into a strong headwind, you could take that to the bank. He was self-deprecating, and preferred to let others laud his exploits.
In an age when many think it comical to commiserate about how unreasonable a spouse or significant other could be, John never disrespected his Pat. It was obvious she was his highest priority, and he always treated her thusly.
I can’t speak for our whole assembly, but for myself, I never saw John lose his temper. I don’t think I ever even saw him angry. Or intoxicated. Calm, composed, compassionate. That’s how I remember John.
What a balm, in this era of self-aggrandation, to spend time with someone to whom character meant so much. Not the kind of character that makes excuses to justify whatever selfish motives a person might have, but the kind of character that it takes to always be kind, to excuse others their faults, to stand up for those weaker, and always place others before themselves.
I count myself lucky, to be a member of this club, to have been able to associate myself with men and women like John & Pat. There is, after all, a reason we renamed the Dame Julianna award after John. He has impacted each and every one of us, in a positive way.
That was John’s greatest gift. To make us want to be more like him.
Kevin Murdock’s tribute to John Steel at John’s Celebration of Life.
We are looking for six people who want to share their 2022 fishing story with the club at the January 2023 meeting. Here are some details:
Story should be about six minutes long with pictures or video.
The story can be told live or can be pre-recorded .
The audience will be encouraged to ask questions.
With the success of the club’s Instagram account, we get a chance to see lots and lots of fish pictures during the year. So we are changing the traditional slideshow to a show-and-tell type format. This will be a fun way for us to get to hear some great stories and learn more about a place visited by a fellow member in ‘22. If you know of a member who has a great story, please encourage them to sign up and share it with the rest of the club.
To sign up, send an email to scottkitayama@gmail.com.
I have been enjoying the banter on Santa Cruz fly Fishing’s Google Groups especially when new members ask questions. So I was surprised when I heard a member say that there are too many Google Groups emails or the subject line doesn’t make sense. I’m guessing this person’s emails all go to a single inbox and is messy, so this is a tip to manage your inbox.
Think of your inbox like a fly box, if you only have a few flies, they can all go into one box. After a while, you have dry flies, wet flies, streamers, poppers and your one fly box turns into a big ol’ mess. Just like having separate boxes for different flies, you can have separate email folders for different subjects.
Gmail :
For me, Google Groups emails go into a separate tab called Forums so I don’t have to look at them until I am ready. Here is a link to a video on how to set up Forums: https://youtu.be/dRCOX-4nE7c
Other email viewers like Apple Mail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL:
Since I haven’t used any other email reader in over a decade, I am not brave enough to provide instructions. I suggest you search google to find info on “moving new emails to folders using filters”.
Another solution:
Send an email to Bob Peterson robert6367@gmail.com or Scott Kitayama scottkitayama@gmail.com and request changing the way you are receiving the Google Groups emails:
Don’t send email updates: you won’t receive emails but you can still access the group messages, by double clicking on the group, then open and respond to any message within the list.
Send daily summaries: you will receive one daily message if any message(s) are posted.
Combined updates: One message with 25 responses in that message.
Every new message: (default) You will receive an email message for every new message or response is posted.
Arrived with Brother Terry around noon on Thursday. Found that Elain and John had arrived the day before, and had selected a perfect waterfront campsite. That evening, they met up with Bill Seaman and had a fantastic evening on the water near the old boat launch. Lots of good sized fish.
Whilst Terry & I went about setting up camp, other members dribbled in off of the water with varying degrees of success. Scott Kitayama caught fish on both his first and last cast. He reported that Bob Garbarino had landed a very nice fish. Gil Santos showed up and quickly launched his pram. David Marks came into camp to visit & swap stories. Rumor had it that Yog was out on the water catching fish. Mike Diciano was camped nearby with his motorhome, and launched his inflatable shortly after we arrived. The weather was perfect, with gentle to no wind and comfortably warm temperatures. We watched as Mike rowed into the fray, and we wondered why the stern of his little floatie was under water. Turns out float tubes inflated in the heat of the day tend to loose air pressure when immersed in cold water…
I would point out that setting up camp to host a crowd is thirsty business, so Terry and I paused our efforts frequently to hydrate. During one of those pauses, I noted that my pop-up camper had been invaded by giant hornets. While they were not particularly aggressive, Terry is allergic to bee stings, so I spent the next hour chasing a couple dozen of the buggers out of the camper. Time to re-hydrate again.
With camp established (complete with full wind screen) we enjoyed a light meal. I intended to head out in my float tube afterwards. It was then that I discovered I didn’t have my license with me. I recalled it was on my entryway table, placed there so I wouldn’t forget it. Oh well, Los Banos was just a hop, skip, and jump away so I left for Walmart while Terry took his boat to be inspected.
We arrived back in camp just as everyone was coming off the water. It seemed that most everyone had caught fish, with the consensus being that this year’s graduating class of fish were considerably larger than the previous year’s. Armed with that knowledge, Terry & I weren’t too dismayed to not have fished that day; there is always tomorrow, and we had great expectations. Snacks, cocktails, a fire, and great conversations ensued.
The following morning dawned about ten degrees cooler than the previous day. Terry & I were on the water by 6:30. We fished the islands where Gil had measured some success the evening before. We marked a few sporadic fish on the finder in around 20 ft. of water, but they seemed to have developed lockjaw. We moved on to where the group was concentrated on the South west corner of the Fore bay. Slim pickens there too. Many had caught a fish or two, but certainly not at the rate of the previous two days.
Having been totally skunked, we decided to head to camp and enjoy a nice lunch. Which led to a Bloody Mary. Or two. Which led to a nap. I awoke greatly refreshed around 3:00. Time to head out for the afternoon bite, but we found that the mighty wind had risen and chased everyone off of the water. We thought it best to cut our losses and head on in. There were white caps and good swells so it took almost an hour to get to the dock area. We were thoroughly soaked, but the warm wind quickly dried us off. We noticed that there was about a 300 yard stretch of water out to 50 yards off shore that was in a ‘wind shadow’ from the hills behind the launch ramps. It was still breezy, so one of us had to helm the boat while the other fished. Terry piloted as I landed two schoolies of around18”. Terry’s turn. I handed him my rod and took over the helm. I like to believe it was my superior boat piloting that led to Terry landing a 25” chromer.
Getting the skunk off the boat took till the last 30 minutes of fishing time. Whew, that was close. Arrived back at camp to find JT and our newest member, Rich, had joined our group. Lance snuck in and set up his tent and joined in. Rich shared a fine bottle of Scotch with us, which instantly endeared him to the gang. We sat up till late sharing scotch and stories.
The wind grew in intensity.
Everyone slept fitfully Friday night, with the wind buffeting tents, campers, and trailers. Saturday morning found the red light blinking at the cottonwood creek entrance, meaning watercraft was forbidden from launching. I estimated a steady 30mph wind with occasional stronger gusts. Hoping against hope that the wind wouldn’t last, Terry & I hunkered down and made a nice breakfast. The sunrise was spectacular. The more experienced among us checked out the weather forecast to find that strong winds were expected through Sunday. Most folks began packing up to go. Around noon, we began to slowly break camp. The rest of the crew had left by one-o-clock. Around 3:00, I gave one last cruise by the North side of the Fore bay to see if the ‘wind shadow’ still held. There was still a small calm area, but I decided better than to launch my float tube when there wasn’t another vessel on the water anywhere.
Sadly, we had to cut the O’Neill Fore bay trip short. We missed out on several members who had planned on coming out on Sunday, but you just can’t ignore the weather. The moral of the story: The best time to fish is right now! (If you can).
This cartoon by Elaine Cook first ran in February 1922 which was also the first year that John Steele was president of the Santa Cruz Fly Fishing club.
Attendees l-r: Bob Garbarino, Dennis Robbins, Tommy Polito, Lance Boling, Adam Althoff Others not shown: Elaine Cook, Mike Lovejoy, Kreig Williams, John Ivancovich, Scott Kitayama, Robert Eberly
We had over 10 members show up early at Manresa beach for the August fishout. I believe four of them had not been out with us before and a couple had never surf fished. There wasn’t much structure on the beach, however most of the attendees were able to catch fish. According to Elaine, a new member, Mike Lovejoy, caught 10+ in a short amoutn of time down by the trestle and John Ivancovich caught his first surf perch on a fly!
John’s first perch on a flyCutie in a basket
Along with the fishing, we were treated to sightings of pelicans, seals, and dolphins in the bay.
No rods, no reels, no bottles of questionable booze; this month’s raffle is all fly tying materials. Our queen of fly tying, Elaine Cook, waded through thousands of dollars worth of new donated materials to come up with eight different treasure bags stuffed with hundreds of dollars worth of quality tying materials as follows:
Bag 1 Nymphs
Bag 2 Drys
Bag 3 Terrestrials
Bag 4 Buggers/Streamers
Bag 5 Small flies
Bag 6 Ocean/Surf
Bag 7 Stripers
Bag 8 Beginners
Ticket purchasers should designate which Bag they wish to have their tickets applied toward. The more tickets purchased, the better your chances are to win. I really gotta’ say, this is some nice stuff!
Raffle tickets go for a dollar each, $20 bucks gets you 25. Ticket office is open and closes at noon on the day of the meeting
(Wednesday 8/3). Tickets will also be available at the door the night of the meeting/BBQ/swap meet. Need not be a member to participate or be present to win.
Questions? Call or text Jeff at 831-234-0033
BTW!
Great door prize/everybody attending gets a free ticket: $50 gift card from the The Fly Shop in Redding.
Do you want to spend a day celebrating fly fishing, our great California rivers, and spend time with friends and fellow advocates for our fisheries? This will be what YubaFest is all about. The Northern California Council, Fly Fishers International and our partners are organizing fun days of family focused education, learning, good food and music, and bringing our fishing community together to enjoy this wonderful River.
The event is Dedicated to the late Jon Baiocchi, our friend, fishing guide, and Yuba River advocate. Please come to celebrate Jon’s life and what he stood for. It will be a day of joy, music and fun.
The event will include:
Partner booths – NCCFFI, Cal Trout, TU, Gold Country Fly Fishers, and many other partners who advocate for fisheries & watersheds and enjoy fishing.
Learning opportunities –
Fly Fishing 101 – how to fly fish
How to fly cast – presenting the fly to fish
Participate in the FFI fly casting challenge – a skills test – bronze, silver levels
Entomology – what fish eat
How to create flies that catch fish – fly tying starter
Women in fly fishing (Women Connect)
Fishing the Yuba – how to catch the wild rainbows of the Yuba
Restoration work on the Yuba – SYRCL program to restore this great river
Water safety – rivers are dangerous – how to stay safe
Food & drinks available throughout the day, including a BBQ dinner on Saturday
Music – Afternoon fun music, and Karrie O’Neill, singer/song writer for the evening
Story teller to bring the history & glory of the region to a personal level
Special women’s programs for learning and taking fishing trips together
Sunday special on-the-water teaching and fishing opportunities with possible casting classes too
Raffle & auction of fly fishing “stuff” as well as other non-fishing items.
Times for the event are: Saturday 10 – 5:30 for learning and river activities, 6 – 9 for dinner, story telling, and music around the camp fire (if we can have it).
Location: Sycamore Ranch Park, 5390 State Hwy. 20, Browns Valley, CA. 95918,
