Welcome!

Welcome to Suncoast Fly Fishers' Web Site. We invite you to check out our newsletter and Web site to get a feel for our programs, outings, and events. Visit a meeting to let us get to know each other better. Guests are always welcome to our meetings and outings. Please take a moment to give us your feedback about yourself and our club by completing our online survey.

BREAKING NEWS

Vision

To be Florida's leading fly-fishing club, helping members have more fun fly-casting, fly-fishing, and fly-tying. We strive to gain new knowledge and/or skill at every meeting and event.

Values

Meeting Member Needs: Suncoast Fly Fishers, Inc. will continuously seek to understand and meet the personal and practical needs of members. A key to attracting and retaining members is to meet or exceed their needs.

Constant Improvement: We believe we can always improve the way we tie, cast, fish, and educate. We are committed to continually improving how we function as we benchmark with other groups. We solicit improvement ideas for our processes, services, and ourselves. We are committed to preserving our waters and marine resources. We keep searching for more productive ways to enjoy our sport.

Friendliness: SFF strives to be a friendly, inclusive, and unpretentious group of fly-fishers who have fun learning and fishing together. New members will find themselves welcomed, respected, invited, and needed.

Monthly outings alternate between salt and fresh water. Monthly programs feature a wide range of topics that help us fish, tie, and cast better. Casting clinics, fly-tying workshops, and rod building classes build member skills. “Booster Shots” for casting and tying are offered from 6:30-7:00 before the meetings.

As a Federation of Fly Fishers charter club, we fish with and learn from other FFF clubs. Education and conservation of marine resources are priorities for us.

Feel free to contact us with your questions, comments, or concerns.

Tom Gadacz

President, Suncoast Fly Fishers

The following is a brief overview of the clubs activities for the year ending 12/31/09:

Meetings and Outings

The club has three events per month:

The first event is a Board of Directors meeting every first Thursday of the month.  The President chairs this meeting.  The goals and mission are stated at the beginning of each meeting.  Reports are given from each committee including a financial report, comments from the editor of the newsletter, updates from the chair of the outing, and a board review of past and future activities.   The committees include casting skills, FFF (Federation of Fly Fishers) liaison, fly tying, membership, newsletter, outings, publicity, programs, Project Healing Waters, raffles and webmaster.

The second event each month is the monthly meeting for all members and invited guests on the third Thursday.  This consists of three activities.  The first half hour is devoted to fly tying demonstrations or a casting clinic.  The second part is the business meeting chaired by the president.  Activities of the club are discussed along with committee reports.  The third part of the meeting is a presentation by an invited speaker.  We have been fortunate in having many regional celebrities present programs on fly fishing, fly tying, conservation, and education.

The third event of the month is an outing.  This occurs the Saturday following each monthly meeting and is an organized trip to a local or regional fishing spot.  We are fortunate to have the opportunity to fish fresh water lakes as well as salt water flats.  One of our favorite outings is to the Everglades.  We have two annual outings which include a fly fishing tournament, the Carl Hanson Memorial Hillsborough River outing, with the Tampa fly fishing club and the Don Coleman outing at Fort DeSoto with a chili lunch (a member’s special recipe).  The outings usually start at sunrise and end at noon at which time we have lunch and discuss our catches.  This year three other FFF clubs (Tampa club, the Mangrove Coast club, and the Tarpon Coast club) joined us in celebrating our December outing, the Don Coleman outing.  The fishing was fair but the friendship and chili were great.

There are two formal casting clinics twice a year conducted by certified master fly casting instructor.  The casting clinics are open to all FFF members.  This is in addition to the other monthly outings.

Newsletter

The club has a superb newsletter, On the Fly, which provides the members with information about the club, its activities, fly tying instructions, reports on events and plans for future meetings.  There is a section for invited topics.   

Web Site

Last year we made a major investment on our web site.  It contains very valuable information about the club and its associated organizations.  The site lists information on our goals, club activities and events, and announcements.  Back issues of the newsletter, On the Fly are archived along with a list of fly tying instructions.  Pertinent club information is listed as well as membership forms and contacts for officers.  The web site is http://www.suncoastflyfishers.com.  Check it out.  This year the leadership of the web site changed to Woody Miller.

Annual Pig Roast Event

Each year the club sponsors the Annual Pig Roast which consists of a delicious porker roasted by several club members.  Many side dishes are also available.  The event is open to all club members and speakers at our monthly meeting.  We have a superb local fly fishing musician who provides the entertainment.  Club members donate various items which are sold at a silent auction.  In addition a major item (kayak) is purchased and raffled off.  Several other items are auctioned.  This event occurred in March.

Shows

Suncoast Fly Fishers members participated in four major events in 2009.

On April 25 SFF (Suncoast Fly Fishers) participated in Marine Quest which was sponsored by The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in St. Petersburg, FL.  This gave us the opportunity to interact with many young fishing enthusiasts and we had the opportunity to give casting instructions to many youths.  Six SFF volunteers provided 36 hours of time.

On September 26-27, 2009 members staffed a booth at the Florida Sportsman’s Show at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida.  Approximately 10 members donated 96 hours in attendance to provide information to attendees at the show.  Brochures were distributed, fly tying was demonstrated and fly casting was demonstrated during this show.  The members provided information about the club’s activities and invitations were extended to attend one of our meetings without obligation.

The Andy Thornal Art of Fly Fishing Show was on October 3 in Winter Haven.  SFF participated on behalf of FFF and Project Healing Waters.

SFF participated in the Florida Council of FFF in Celebration FL on October 23-24.  We assisted with the raffles and auctions as well as sponsored the Project Healing Waters booth with a display poster of the contributions that SFF made at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center.

Project Healing Waters

In August of 2008, the Board of Directors initiated activities Project Healing Water with the Bay Pines Veteran Administration Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL.  We have four major interactions per week with the veterans:  Tuesday evening for three hours and Wednesday morning for three hours.  During those two days every week four to seven club members provide instructions on fly fishing and conservation.  Activities include instructions on fly fishing, fly tying and conservation.  The veterans are now tying their own flies and are fishing in ponds in the area.  Project Healing Waters provided financial support to make a poster which illustrates the relationship between SFF and the Bay Pines VA Medical Center.  Some 13 SFF volunteers have contributed 875 hours to 411 veterans.

Boy Scouts

This year we initiated a program for Boy Scouts in the area.  Ten SFF club members served as sponsors for 19 scouts to qualify for a Merit Badge in Fly Fishing.  Activities included knot tying, fly tying, fly casting, fishing, and first aid related to fly fishing.