When most fishermen think of fly fishing, they immediately think “trout”. That’s because fly fishing and trout are deeply intertwined. However, the Tri-Lakes Fly Fishers is doing its best to convince anglers that isn’t necessarily the case.
The club is the organization putting together the 2023 Fly Fishing Expo in the Benson Center next Saturday, March 11. Attendance is free, and the Expo is open from 9am to 4pm.
While the Expo is the club’s headline event, last Saturday the Tri-Lakes Fly Fishers held a white-bass fly tying workshop at the Fairview United Methodist Church northeast of Bolivar. At the event, open to the public, over 25 anglers were tying flies intended for white bass and offering advice on rods, reels and lines necessary to catch them.
While many of the techniques used to tie flies for white bass are similar to those used for trout flies, the flies, generally are different—larger, brighter and intended to imitate the minnows upon which white bass feed rather than the aquatic insects that are big on the trout’s dinner menu.
The tyers produced a host of patterns—Clouser Minnows, the Cypert Minnow, various streamers (minnow imitators) as well as fly patterns of their own invention.
The Tri-Lakes Fly Fishers has a region-wide membership with folks from Springfield, including the vice president Deb Hall. Kimberling City is where Wayne Essary, the lead on white-bass fly patterns at the workshop, hangs his rods. The Diggons couple live in Nixa. Branson has its share of members, and there are five members from Clinton, Nathan Bettencourt, Scott and Sherri DeHart, Larry Davison and Andrew Englehart.
Overall, the club boats 45 family memberships with “probably 75 members in total” says club president Sandy Halteman.
Its name comes from the members’ interest in fishing Stockton, Pomme de Terre and Truman lakes.
The folks at the white-bass tying workshop brought out another point: membership fees ($15 per year) are for the family. And with more and more women starting to fly fish, the club has a large feminine membership. Fully one third of the active club members are women, as are the top three officers of the club.
The club is a group of fishermen who welcome new members, and if someone is new to fly fishing or is curious about the sport, that is even better. “We will do anything we can to help someone who wants to learn to fly fish or to tie flies,” says Halteman. “All our events—we have 12 or so a year-- are all open to the public.”
Club members also do a lot of outreach. In last week’s issue of the Daily Democrat, Clinton resident Nathan Bettencourt was pictured helping a beginner in a fly-tying class he taught for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Members also have worked with Boy Scouts on merit badges as far away as Raymore as well as The Good Samaritan Boys Ranch and Project Healing Waters. New outreach is working with The May Fly Project for youth in foster care.
The club meets the first Monday of every month in Bolivar, a central location for the geographically scattered members.
With the club having such a diverse membership, why hold the Expo in Clinton?
“There are two reasons,” says club president, Sandy Halteman. “First, the Benson Center has the space we need, but also, the people and businesses in Clinton have been very supportive.” Fortunately, with the financial help, the Expo is free for vendors as well as for those who attend.
Hawthorn Bank and Mike Keith Insurance paid for the rental of the Benson Center, which is a huge cost. Also, area businesses stepped up as well.
“We have auction items donated by folks in Clinton: Mallard’s Roadhouse, Ben Franklin and El Camino Real have contributed auction items, and Furniture City added a “really cool lamp” to the list of items up for auction. And wait—there’s more! Everharts, Simple Pleasures and Bread of Life also provided auction items.
“I have a whole garage full of items for the auction,” says Nick Halteman, the president’s second-in-command. “We have at least 150 items. And while a lot of them are fishing related, we also have home décor, a quilt and target baskets full of things that don’t have scales or are related to fish.” Of course, there are guided fishing trips on offer, rods, and well, other fishing-related items in the Halteman’s garage.
There are two types of auctions that will be held on Saturday, a live auction and a silent auction.
The TLFF club started holding expos in 1997; although, this is the only the second year at the Benson Center. Previously, it was held in a church, at a hospital, at an airport—wherever the club could find space. Now, with over 45 fly tyers actively tying flies, 30 vendors selling their wares and guest speaker Brian Wise doing two seminars, the exhibition room has enough space.
Wise is an internet personality with at least 51 videos on fly tying subjects on youtube.com.
Breakfast and lunch will be available, prepared by the former managers of Gunflint Lodge in Minnesota. Biscuits and gravy, breakfast sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, dogs and other show fare is available.
For more information on the Tri-Lake Fly Fishers, the club has a Facebook page and is working on a website, which should be up and running in April.
