09/01/2016, first Branson meeting report

By Bob Randall on Friday, September 2nd, 2016 in Uncategorized, No Comments

Last night, September 1, 2016, the MTFA-Springfield chapter held its first meeting in Branson. As far as I’m concerned, it was a successful event. We were at the Branson/Hollister Lions Club on East 76 Highway. Seventeen of our regular members from Springfield showed up to host, tie flies, demonstrate rod building, visit, and have a good time. Sixteen new folks from Branson were there to see what was happening. This morning I count twelve new applications for membership. The breakdown is three individual memberships and nine family memberships for a total of 24 new members. Not bad. I overheard one new member talking about how he thought several of his neighbors would probably come to the next meeting.

We are attempting to expand into the Branson/Hollister area to help other Taneycomo trout fishers share the camaraderie that we enjoy in our Springfield activities. We have committed to holding meetings and activities in that area. The ultimate goal is to organize this extension of our club into a successful branch that will apply to the State Council of MTFA for provisional chapter status.

Our fist hour was the social hour where we tied flies, talked about tying flies, talked about fishing (some of which might have been true), talked about rod building, and talked about the club. We were prepared to instruct new comers on fly casting but didn’t have any takers. Just as well. Maybe next time. Then we had an introductory meeting to discuss what we were about and what we want to do. Following that we watched a video about the underwater world of trout. Finally, we held a free raffle where everybody left with something.

The youngest participant was a little girl named Becca about 5 or 6 years old. Her dad showed me a fly she had tied at home. We showed her to a fly tying vice and she worked with tying instructor, Sam Stewart, and came up with a fine fly. No one seemed to be disappointed with the effort. The next meeting will be on October 4th, again at the Lions Club building. We hope to have a speaker to talk about trout issues in Taneycomo.

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