The inaugural Gulf Coast Classic was held May 4-6, 2023 at the Learning Campus of Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. The successful event was orchestrated and hosted by the Gulf Coast Council of Fly Fishers International. Chairperson for this FFI region council is AJ Rosenbohm.

There were over 200 attendees. The event kicked off with a sunrise mixed-bag fishing tournament. From there the conclave offered a wide range of activities ranging from instructional fly tying to fly casting. The FFI Board of Directors was strongly represented conducting business and interacting with participants.

Renown regional and national fly tyers provided demonstrations and participant hands-on opportunities. Tyers included Dr. Ed Lash, Jerry Coviello, Tom Logan, and Fred Hannie.

Over the two-day conclave more than six hours of personalized fly-casting instruction was given by four FFI certified instructors. These talented teachers provided instruction for beginner to advanced casters.

Workshops were presented including fly fishing from a skiff and targeting specific salt water species. An introduction to the FFI fly casting instructor certification program was given by Dr. Jonathan Walter, retired physician and Chair of the Casting Board of Governors.

Exhibitors from volunteer programs Project Healing Waters and Cast for Recovery were present to answer questions and promote awareness to their valuable resources.

A large number of fly-fishing manufacturers donated merchandise for raffles and auctions with proceeds benefiting charities. With so many donors to list please refer to the Gulf Council’s website and show them your support.

The conclave finale was the showing of the FT3 Fly Fishing Film Tour. The film has been described as “a traveling roadshow of the best fly-fishing films in the world”.

Make your plans now to attend next year’s event in Gulf Shores, AL from May 31-June 2, 2024.

Doc Frangos
FFI Master Certified Casting Instructor

For all you guys who are looking for another ride in the spring try float tube.  You will be surprised to see how economical, practical and adventuresome fishing from a float tube can be.  One of the great things about using a float tube is the ability to access areas that are impossible to hit from the bank.  In environments where there are trees and vegetation that grow right down to the water, it is very difficult to fish without hanging up in the trees.  With a float tube you can stay away from the bank and away from the canopy of the trees and you can cover the whole lake or pond.

Float tubes range from $100-$300.  Throw in a set of flippers and that’s really all you need.  Nowadays the tubes are made with a seat that lets you sit upright instead of stepping through a seat that keeps you lower in the water and is harder to get in and out of.  Zippers on each side give access to compartments where you can store your gear and the front also has an opening where you can put additional fishing items.

When I announce I’m going out in my float tube, oftentimes I hear “what about the snakes and the gators?” Truthfully, I don’t worry about them.  I see snakes and gators whether I am fishing from the bank or from the water.  I don’t know of a single case where a fisherman in a float tube has been bitten by a snake or attacked by an alligator.

So, if you are looking for something a little bit different, get yourself a float tube and hit some of these ponds and little streams that have been looked at from afar but not fished because of the structure around them.

Article By Thomas R. Dempsey, M.D. CCI

The mere mentioning of the casting with both hands sends chill bumps up and down the spine of most anglers.  The initial response is “I can’t do that.”  My answer to that question is “Yes, you can if you try.”

For the last several years, Gulf Coast Fly Fishing School has worked with all of their students to learn to cast with the non-dominant hand.  It sounds like a monumental task, after all how would we react if someone told us we would have to learn to write with our non-dominant hand or, as a surgeon, operate with our non-dominant hand.

Actually, casting with the non-dominant hand makes practical sense to the dedicated angler.  For example, if the wind is blowing into your right side, and you are a right-handed caster, then the challenge is keeping the fly away from our head.  This can be accomplished by changing our rod plane to a more horizontal cast, casting over the opposite shoulder in a cross-body cast, or casting back-handed on the opposite side.  All of these casts have significant limitations.

The horizontal cast is prone to tick and is not extremely accurate. The off shoulder cast across body limits the amount of translation we can make therefore it limits the distance we can cast.  And practically most students do not execute it correctly.  The body serves as a body block on our back cast limiting significantly the length of our casting stroke.  Casting backhanded is unreliable and inaccurate in the hands of most anglers.  So, it makes perfect sense to use the other hand.

It’s a question of training and muscle memory.  The same muscles are present in the non-dominant as in the dominant extremity…the same number of nerves and blood vessels…all basically mirror the dominant side.  All we have to do now is train our brain to perform the same actions with the fly rod that we are able to accomplish with our dominant side.

This can be done simply by beginning at the beginning but changing everything 180 degrees to the opposite side.  That means if we are right-handed, our left foot is going to be back now and our right foot is going to be pointing towards our target.  Our grip is going to be exactly the same with the thumb on top and the casting stroke is going to be the same…watching the back cast, watching the forward cast, maintaining your trajectory and maintaining your casting arc and the amount of translation.

I would advise and encourage all of you fly fishermen to explore the concept of casting with your non-dominant side.

Capt. Joe is an excellent resource for shallow water fishing around Beaufort and Morehead City N.C. His bio is below.

Captain Joe has been fishing the waters of coastal North Carolina his entire life, a Crystal Coast native with over 30 years experience he has traveled the Eastern seaboard as a professional waterman and USCG licensed master working in commercial and recreational fishing most of his life. His knowledge for the species he pursues is never quenched. Always striving for the higher mark and increasing his skill set, in search of the wildest and most alive moments that can be sought after.

Whether it be light tackle or fly, near coastal or in the marsh, from the boat or wade fishing the beach or pristine grass flats, he’ll put you on the fish and an experience of a lifetime. The sizzling heat of your fly reel being peeled to the backing by a Fall False Albacore near Cape Lookout. Perhaps a freight train run of Trophy Redfish in the Pamlico Sound. With two boats to meet your needs, a 23′ C-Hawk and a 16′ Hewes Flats Skiff, from the backwaters and bays to the Cape Lookout Shoals and near shore reefs. Whatever your choice of quarry, Capt. Joe will hook you up.

Captain Joe’s family has been in the tidewater region since the beginning of the Virginia Colony, his great Grandfather was a registered guide on the Pamlico River guiding thrill seeking anglers to their challenge of the world class Red Drum fishery in the early 1900’s . Captain Joe carries on his family heritage and a lifetime of vast local knowledge steeped in his knowledge of coastal folk lore and incorporates that into your customized fishing experience you’ll want again and again for years to come.

https://www.ctguideco.com/ 

I have sissy bars on my boat and I never considered myself a “sissy.”  The word as a noun is defined as a “coward, a weakling, a cry baby” and Lord forbid “effeminate”.  Well let’s see how this term has settled on us  flat boat owners who have chosen to pimp our rides with these constructed devices.  Do they make us look weak?  I don’t think so.  How about “cowardly?” Cowardly against what? Effeminate, really?  Crybaby?  Well maybe we have something here but not what you were expecting.

As an orthopedic surgeon and fly fisherman I have witnessed first-hand “crybabies” or maybe “crying like a baby” from the mouths of the unfortunate angler who just lost his balance and fell from the poling platform onto the razor-sharp outboard propeller blades.  Make sure you visit the photos accompanying this article.

When I first started tarpon fishing, I marveled at the way my guide could stand on a poling platform with all his agility and balance even though the rolling waves bounced him up and down.  How did he do that?  I still don’t know.

Then my soon to become a best friend and fishing partner showed up at my office with ruptured Achilles tendons on each side, no insurance, and told me the story of him losing his balance on the polling platform and taking a nose-dive into the cockpit of his Hell’s Bay skiff.  Surgery for my friend resulted in a bartering process where he presented me a brand-new Abel reel on his first post-op visit, the beginning of a great relationship.

I then got another patient who fell on the prop blades from the poling platform.  You can dull a good prop blade with a muscular thigh, nasty wounds and they get infected.

My first introduction to sissy bars was a trip to Montok, NY for striper fishing.  You absolutely had to have a sissy bar to stand up on the front of the Jones’ brothers’ boat with one arm and hand with a death grip around a sissy bar and the other trying to cast in 2-4’ swells.  Everyone in NY has sissy bars and cages.  After that I never looked back.  So, when I got my Maverick Mirage II the first addition was a cage aka sissy bar for me up top with the pole and one for the guy on the front with the fishing rod.  Over the years I have seen a number of grotesque injuries from the poling platform to the prop blades.  Why don’t anglers get smart?  I guess it’s a macho thing like having drive on posts on your trailer.  It’s a no-brainer.

Anyhow, I have tweaked my sissy bars many times over the years.  So now the one up top fits my butt cheek perfectly so I can pole with one leg in the cage and one leg out and sit back on the sissy bar which now has a pad on it.  Much more comfortable and much safer.

The opening in the front of my cage on the poling platform is just large enough to allow me up and down access to the deck and to the platform but small enough so that I am not going to fall out of it.

I’ve had my share of close calls on the water and before I put sissy bars on my boat there was always a little bit of apprehension when I took a wave or an unexpected bump.  I now have cages on both my flat boats so if you want to call me a “sissy” have at it.  But I’m a safe “sissy.”

Thomas R. Dempsey
Certified Casting Instructor and founder of Gulf Coast Fly Fishing School, Mobile, Alabama