Last Updated: 01 January 2019 01 January 2019

BEGINNERS AND BEYOND

Ken's King Salmon

Ken Bowyer provides one on one stream side fly fishing instruction to PPTU members. Participants must show commitment by having waders or hippers, a rod and reel outfit, and leader. Discussions will include equipment, knots, casting, flies, dry fly and nymphing techniques, entomology, reading water, conservation, etc. at nearby streams. Instruction will be tailored to individual needs. Members who have not made an Annual Supporting Contribution will be asked to contribute $20.

Contact Ken at 301-627-7154 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

2018 Mentor Program Report

In 2018, 7 members listed in the table below were tutored at Morgan Run, Big Hunting Creek, and/or the Gunpowder. Dongbo humbled me on the Gunpowder catching 14 fish while I was skunked! You can read that report on the PPCTU Forum. In the case of Carnell May, we were not able to fish as Big Hunting Creek was high and muddy from a storm that moved through during the night (I had never seen BHC this high and muddy before). First timers received a copy of the Maryland section of the now defunct Mid Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide and a 4 page summary on entomology. This introductory material provided the newcomer with an idea of what flies to use at any given time and general information on identifying insect types. Knot tying was discussed showing two basic knots; the surgeons knot (and surgeons loop) for tying or connecting tippet to leader and leader to line and the improved clinch knot for tying flies to tippet. Different types of leader (the standard 7.5´ 3x nylon tapered leader as described by Jay Sheppard in A Simple Trout Leader System, the Orvis braided leader, the Furled Leader, and the Airflo PolyLeader) were discussed to show them alternative setups. For those with their leader connected to the fly line with a nail knot or to a nylon butt section with a loop, the Cortland braided loop was shown as an alternative for line to leader loop to loop connections. Tippet size was also briefly discussed using the general rule of hook size divided by 3. Thus, 4x tippet is used with size 12 flies while 6x tippet is used with size 18 flies. A brief time was spent on the stream turning over rocks to show some insect life in its early stages. For those with no casting experience, basic casting techniques were shown. On the stream, casting variations including the sidearm cast and the roll cast were demonstrated to avoid overhanging trees and brush behind you. Basic short line nymphing techniques with a strike indicator and/or dry fly fishing techniques were demonstrated. Line mending was demonstrated to insure drag free fly presentation. A combination rig was also demonstrated and/or discussed using a dry fly such as an elk hair caddis or royal wulff along with a bead head nymph. The bead head nymph is attached as a dropper fly on about an 18" to 24" piece of tippet tied to the bend of the dry fly hook using the improved clinch knot. With this setup, the dry fly acts as a strike indicator to detect when a fish takes the bead head nymph. Two dry flies, two nymphs, and a streamer with a dropper nymph combination were also mentioned along with the advantages and disadvantages of these combination rigs.

Mentor Program Photo Album

The following photos were taken over the past few years during some of the mentoring sessions.

Joe Taylor at Morgan Run	Dongbo Wang at the Gunpowder	Lyle Hunger and Ken Bowyer at Morgan Run
Mike Degnan's first trout at the Gunpowder	Motti Tadmor & Ken Bowyer at the Gunpowder	Motti Tadmor at Morgan Run
Jill Dorosz at Morgan Run	George Opryszko at Morgan Run	Shawn Thomas at the Little Patuxent
David Bernstein at Morgan Run	Josh Loh at Morgan Run	Ian Gifford at Big Hunting Creek
Len Carey at Morgan Run	Walt Daku at Morgan Run	Randy Dwyer at Morgan Run
Chuq Yang at Morgan Run	Dave Simms at Morgan Run	Barry Veret at Morgan Run
Nicole LeBoeuf at Big Hunting Creek	Sonny Bell at Big Hunting Creek	Karli Lawrence at Morgan Run
Tom Crabill at Morgan Run	Adam Rice at Morgan Run	Cliff Rice at Morgan Run
Large Stonefly at Big Hunting Creek	Yellow Stonefly at Big Hunting Creek	Lou Reichel at Morgan Run
Ron Beloff at Morgan Run	Henderickson? at Morgan Run	Black Caddis at Morgan Run
Rodger Johnson at Morgan Run	Desmond Butler at Morgan Run	Marshal Cowan at Morgan Run
Bernie Werwinski at Morgan Run	Wayne van Rooyen at the Gunpowder	Angelo Rivera at Big Hunting Creek
Barry Hedden at Big Hunting Creek	Alan Burrows at Morgan Run	Bob Kaiser at the Middle Patuxent
Gerald Elgert at Morgan Run	Steve Graves at the PhD Pool on the Savage River	Steve Fletcher at Big Hunting Creek
Steve Shauer at Morgan Run	Mike Doyle at Morgan Run	Charlie Moseley at Morgan Run
Sandy Serafin at Morgan Run	Todd Carver at Morgan Run	Patrick Masler at the Casselman
Jewel Barlow at the Gunpowder	Nick Weber at the Gunpowder	Jerry Gessner at the Gunpowder