By Larry Forte
I hope everyone had a great Summer. I certainly did. However, given all of the rain, fishing has been a challenge this Summer.
For this month’s column, here’s a recap since June and a look at what’s coming up this Fall.
Since the last Club gathering at the June picnic, the Club has been very busy. The big news is that we are going to start a Project Healing Waters Program (PHW), at Ft. Detrick! I am very excited about this. It is awesome that we can do this for the servicemen and servicewomen at Ft. Detrick. We have assembled a great team of volunteers; led by Dave Wooster as the Program Lead and Jim Lowell as the Assistant Lead. Plus, David Folkerts, National Programs Officer for PHW has been an incredible help getting this started and will be a big part of our team. A big “Thank You!” goes to these three gentlemen for making this happen. Going forward, there is a lot of work to do and we could not do it without other members helping out. This includes Colin Flournoy, Lynn Ashe, Andrew Frutiger, Maria Wilson, Patrick Swarsz and Pat Dorsz.
Our first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 23rd and we are looking for more help. If you would like to get involved and help, you can contact me (lbforte@verizon.net) or Dave Wooster (dwooster2@gmail.com).
Coming up on Tuesday, September 11th, is our next Monthly Meeting and we have some great programs this Fall starting with Mike Klimkos. I am looking forward to Mike’s presentation. I have never fished the Letort Spring Run but am aware of its reputation for being a very challenging stream.
In October, we will learn about Beaver Creek. John Mullican is the Field Operations Manager for the Maryland DNR Freshwater Fisheries Program. He has been studying Beaver Creek for several years and he will share with us his study.
We do have a couple of outings to look forward to this Fall. On Sunday, September 23rd, we will have an outing to Big Run State Park in Garret County. Our goal is to fish for Brookies in the small streams in the park.
From October 12th – 14th, Dan Neuland will lead our Annual Trip to the Salmon River in Pulaski, New York to fish for Salmon. This is always a great trip and an opportunity to catch some big fish.
If the rain ever stops and the water levels get back to normal, we will try to add an outing to the Monocacy or Conococheague Rivers.
At the end of this month, we will help at the Women’s Fly Fishing Event at the Beaver Creek Fly Shop. This event will be held on Saturday, September 29th, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The day will focus entirely on women and fly-fishing. The Club will have a table there to provide information about the Club. In addition, there will be many vendors available with gear designed specifically for women. Beaver Creek will provide food. I hope you can join us. It promises to be a fun day.
On Wednesday evening, October 10th, Don Fine will help induct Lefty Kreh into Frederick High School’s Distinguished Alumni Association. Don put together the application and played a big part in making this happen. Thank you Don!
We have also been busy planning our big 51st Birthday Party and Annual Banquet at the end of October. Actually, Jon Thames and Andy Mekelburg have been doing most of the work. They are putting together some amazing Bucket and Silent Auction items. Plus, the winner of the beautiful Winston rod & reel will be drawn. There is still plenty of time to buy your tickets.
You can also enter to win the “Traveling Rod,” which entitles the winner to use a brand new Scott 6 weight fly rod and reel for 2019. Lynn Ashe won it last year.
It will include a journal for you to document your fishing adventures with the fly rod during the year.
It is exciting times for the PVFF given the amount of events the Club will be doing this Fall. All of this would not be possible without volunteers. Would you like to get involved with PVFF? This is a great opportunity and we are always looking for help. No experience required. Just let me know.
Finally, if there is anything you would like to see improved with our Club or if you are interested in getting more involved with the PVFF, please don’t hesitate to contact me. You are always welcome to join us at our monthly Board of Director’s meeting.
Thank you for being part of this Club. See you at the next meeting!
Larry Forte
Club President
P.S. We recently learned that long time PVFF members Bill Kulp and Carl Miller have been having some health issues. Please keep Bill and Carl in your thoughts and prayers. It sounds like the worst is behind for both and they now are on the road to recovery. We wish them a speedy recovery and hope to see them soon!