8/20/18.. Things have started to get moving a bit more this past week and after this Thursday it should hopefully bring me to the point where I can book a flight to Jersey to go and get the Motor Home and pull the Show trailer back down here to Florida to do some needed repairs on it and to unload a ton of equipment and the last load of household goods for here that I have packed in it from the house sale in Jersey.
Locally I have been busy speaking with some Show promoters about the 2019 season. Looks like we will be adding at least one more major Show to our Event Calendar in New England and possibly two. Plus we confirmed with Rick Rosalina, President of OSG. for having the AFFS Trailer at the Garden State Outdoors Show again this January 10 - 13th.  We will be exhibiting at a lot more Events such as Boat Shows, Art Festivals and Fishing Tournaments in Florida during 2019 now that Bill and Barb Haldaman are located here. Our "New" old  Motorhome will be the AFFS mobile office for many of our future events once we have completed rigging it up inside with all the fly fishing and video tech equipment,  We also plan on giving it a new graphics facelift to compliment the A.F.F.S. Show trailer it will be towing. This is how it looks at present waiting for the new graphics to be applied.

           

Bill Haldaman is selling his 5th wheel camper that is a really nice unit for someone to enjoy. I have it listed on Craig's list and Let Go here in Florida and posted on all the major online sites for selling RV's nationwide, Through our association with a marketing network for RV's, Boats, Campers and Trucks. As part of our operations here in Florida A.F.F.S. has now launched its full service brokerage/ sales operations. We have located this new component of our operations at a private 24 hour gated storage facility in N. Fort Myers where my good friend Mike the "Mechanic" CiCi has his service shop onsite. This allows us to offer complete mechanical service including welding, painting, electrical, cabinetry, A/C, custom canvas and carpeting installations in addition to professional general mechanical repair work for our clients. We now have full access to realistic financing for prospective buyers and transport shipping to all 48 States and most of North America if required. 

Bill Haldaman's 5th wheel Camper   $29,000 or make an offer 

https://fortmyers.craigslist.org/lee/rvs/d/open-range-2014-light-5th/6666386686.html

Beautiful condition OPEN RANGE 2014 5th wheel camper with many options including 2 motorized bump outs, A.C. - Heat, furniture, upgraded beds and much more. Call or text me for an appointment to see it. You will not be disappointed with this EZ tow "lightweight model" with lots of heavy-duty features. Price has some room for negotiation so come take a look and talk about it. You will need a pickup, 150 series or higher, with a 5th wheel hitch. Short beds are O.K. for hauling this unit. 150 / 2500 series or greater are recommended for towing this unit. Installation of a new 5th wheel system on your truck is available with our onsite mechanic for a very reasonable charge if you need that service to get set up to haul it. Full financing is available with Extended Warranty availability. Nationwide Shipping from Florida is available. Call Capt. Mike for full information on these services. 

If you have an RV, Pick-Up, SUV, Boats, Camper, Utility Trailer, Motorcycle, Snow Mobile, ATV, Custom Golf Cart, Kayaks, Fly Fishing Equipment or whatever and wherever and you want some help to sell it. We are available at the lowest possible costs to get it done. Phone or Text us any time at 732-267-0058

8/7/18.. After a week into this month, I finally have gotten around to posting again. The fly fishing scene is not all we hoped it would be this midsummer.  Here in S.W. Florida we have been hit with a double "whammy" of Green Algae and Red Tide "blooms".  The word from the Executive Industry Committee to the Florida incumbent Governor in office last year at ICAST was "You fix this Okeechobbe / Everglades water problem or start looking for a different line of occupation than a politician, as you will not be elected even as dog catcher any place in this State. Well, a year has come and gone and the situation is worse than last year.  I understand that no Governor can make federal authorities do anything by ordering them to do so. ie: Army Corp of Engineers running water releases from the dam at Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River but he can publically use his office to protest federal actions concerning these activities through the Media which he has ready access to and he can also refuse political contributions made to his fundraising. neither of which he has done except for recent press statements since the problem has been headlining on the News outlets. Quite frankly I normally prefer Republican politicians and their policies to those of tax and spend socialist programs that most Democrats prefer. In this case, however, it is so basic a need for correction that I would support a Democrat, Liberal, Socialist, Monarchist or any other political party affiliate that will actually fix this mess, because if it is not fixed "fairly" soon then everything here in the American tropics will eventually collapse.  The State Governors do have the power to remove residents from areas that are directly negatively impacting the welfare and economy of their States and the overall health of the economy of their States. People living in "shabby" trailer parks or farms close by Lake O's southern perimeter will have to be removed and resettled into other areas (like it or not) so that water releases from Lake O can be fed more directly into the Everglades after water treatment has been performed on this Lake water, which is too high in chemical composition from farming and ranching in areas north of Lake O which are feeding the excessive harmful "nutrients", pesticides, etc. into the watercourse that leads naturally south through Lake O then on to the Glades and eventually out into the Gulf.  Miners, Farmers, Citrus Growers, Ranchers, Communities and their residents located north of Lake O will have to comply with all regulations imposed for clean water release in this area. As for the Red Tide blooms and the massive fish and wildlife kills they bring along the coastline, there is less that can be done about this, other than the speedy removal of its casualties until science perfects an antidote to this bacteria that removes oxygen from seawater. Some years due to tides, currents, wind and inner ocean forces we receive less or more Red Tide along our beaches.  This year has been worse than other years and coupled with the unrelated Algae problem it has simply compounded and worsened the entire sad situation.  A fellow resident of the "Village" that I live in posted his comments about this problem on the O.B.Village F.B. Page yesterday and put it very well into historic context that is worth reading to better understand the situation at hand and how it got this way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

6/6/18.. Well "Cowboy" Bill Haldaman arrived safe but not so "sound" from Montana with Barbara. They are now happily ensconced in their 5th wheel trailer with their 2 Labrador retrievers Brook and Brown at one of our nice local RV Parks, to wait for the closing on their new house at the end of the month. My "Not So Sound" comment is because Bill, who wears a pair of mini hearing aids and he thought he lost one of them in Montana before they left there. Turns out that was not quite the case.  Bill decided to put his earlier older larger aid in his ear to replace the missing newer device. All the way driving down the 3,000 miles from Montana he could not hear correctly with the older device in that ear. Then he started getting a pain in his head and his neck swelled up a bit. At one point he blacked out while towing the 5th wheel down the highway but somehow managed to coast harmlessly to the shoulder and woke back up again. Thinking he was just getting drowsy from driving, they soon found a parking spot at a truck stop and went to sleep. The first full day they were down here I had to go to the VA. for a cardiogram on my ticker (which turned out O.K.) and Bill needed to transfer his records here from the Montana VA., so we both went over there together. Bill told the on-duty Doc about his hearing problem and they gave him an exam right away. They discovered the mini aid was lodged in his eardrum and that by inserting the older aid in on top of it he had gotten it stuck deep inside. So when he turned it on the 2 aids in 1 ear were sending crazy signals to his brain. With quite a painful emergency extraction performed, they finally dug the little one out and he is O.K. except for a slightly bleeding eardrum for a couple of days. They are going to fit him with a new "improved" one next week. So 3 cheers and a salute for the good Docs on duty at the Cape Coral Pines VA. Clinic.  They say Bill will be fine and Good to Go on our Road trip up to S.C. later next week to pick up my flats boat and drop off my BATTLEWAGON trailer and do some bream fly fishing and maybe some redfish as well. We will be out looking at a few boats today that I have lined up for Bill and Barb to take a look at, as they want to get out on the water after our local fish population as soon as they can.

6/19/18 A.F.F.S. NEWS in the NET... 6/19/18  Good Morning with the latest fly report NEWS (unfortunate one this time) PA. Guide Paul Healy text me to report that he has to shut down his Pine Creek Camp operation until Fall hopefully brings some cooler weather and water to that area. In Paul's words here's the story in case you were thinking about heading to the Pine, Genesse or other nearby streams in North Central PA.

Sunday 6/17 P.M. ”Waters too warm now for fishing It's 69.8 It will go to 80 degrees air temp again tomorrow.  It may be too hot now for most of the trout to make it through to September except for those that can find a lie near a cold spring. It’s a damn shame because we have tons of trout left in the Creek from the earlier Upper Pine Club stockings". 
Monday 6/18 P.M... "Water now is 77.8 degrees It's officially over! Likely to see a die-off of trout now.  Going back to my house in the Poconos tomorrow”.  

Paul’s next reports will be from the Lehigh River area streams to let us know what he finds there on his return to his Home waters. Check back here later this week for the latest Pocono stream conditions.

Sent from my iPhone

Click here to Reply or Forward

Good Morning and a HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all our Member Friends, Students, Clients, Readers and even you Fly Spies, as the late great, Butch Colvin referred to you.  It has been a pretty busy week here for me in S.W. Florida. The Gheenoe demo boat sold to a new customer Jon, that I suspect will also become a student and hopefully a long time client of A.F.F.S.  Jon is an Operations Mgr. at the big regional Wal-Mart distribution center in Punta Gorda. Jon is an avid flats fisherman that has already ordered a brand new Custom Gheenoe Lo-Tide 17' from the factory in Titusville. He just does not want to wait for the 5 to 6 months, until his new skiff is completed to go fishing, so he came and bought my demo boat to get him out on the water until his Lo-Tide 25 is ready to go. I have always been a bit perplexed by the size of my 15' Gheenoe NMZ, but it was titled that way by the factory and though I came up with a stem to stern tape measurement of 13'6" I figured Pughar was simply selling them as a 15' model for some reason? When Jon showed up to look at it for the first time, he noticed that shorter length right off and asked me if I had a tape measure to check it out length and beam plus the lower leg engine height with my 15 H.P. on the fixed factory jack plate.  As he was going to use a similar older Merc tiller engine he already owns. Low and behold, it confirmed both our suspicions that the skiff is a 13' NMZ not a 15' NMZ no matter what the paperwork says. The serial hull #  matches the documents but to get it registered as a 13' NMZ would require the manufacturer to do that paperwork correction for the DMV to be able to register it as a 13', not a 15' model. As it turns out this 13' NMZ will be a lot rarer than a 15' model and since the factory is now concentrating on their Lo-Tide 10 and 25 models. I'm sure the molds are at the factory for a 13 NMZ and one could be built on special order but what the lead time on that would be, I don't know? With the regular custom production boats currently at 6 months lead time. Anyway, Jon is very happy with his purchase and deal price and happily towed it home where he thinks he will now be a 2 model Custom Gheenoe boat owner.
I have a serious possible buyer for my Merc outboard from Florida that has been working in Alabama and is coming home this Tuesday and wants the motor, but who knows what will happen with that deal. There are other guys also interested as well, One just text me to say he will be here later today to look it over, so first here with the cash will take it home.
I have decided to keep the trailer and the kayak / SUP rack for my new little BATTLEWAGON skiff.
With the motor sales cash, I will hook up my empty trailer and head north to S.C. before the end of this month. I will drop off the trailer at Guide Steve English's storage yard. Pick up my 18' Pro Skiff flats boat on its trailer and bring it back here to Florida to rig it up and sell it here. I will then fly up to N.J. one way and pick up my motorhome, hook up the big A.F.F.S. Show Trailer and either take it to the BATTLEWAGON factory yard to complete its cabinet work and run some casting/fishing classes there for awhile (I hope that part of the plan works out with Christian) or I will bring it back to Florida to finish its remodel work down here. Then it is only a matter of retrieving the boat trailer from S.C. up to Jersey to load the Battlewagon skiff on it. Of course there are biz stops planned on the first road trip up and back detouring a little bit to see some potential suppliers, sponsors and of course to do some fly fishing and filming.

In related NEWS..  A.F.F.S. other founding member, Bill Haldaman is en route driving from his former ranch in Montana to his new home here in Cape Coral. I just called him on the phone and he and wife Barbara who is driving her vehicle behind their 5th wheel camper are currently in Tennessee almost down to Nashville.  They have already traveled about 2,000 miles with under another 1,000 more to go. If we can get Bill unloaded down here in a day or so, then Bill plans on taking the road trip up and back to S.C. with me to catch some big bream on the fly with me at Black's Camp on Lake Moultrie. Local Guide on Moultrie Steve English reports this week that the Bluegills are on their beds in the shallows breeding and are aggressive on small poppers. Don't worry parent fish, we will put you all back in the water after a photo or two.

In other NEWS this week I located a couple of "project" boats in the area that need various stages of completion to finish them and hopefully make some money from selling them. They range from a classic 1977 17' HEWES flats boat "basket case", A 17' MITCHELL Skiff that looks good but will need a new all glass no wood transom "transplant" and an older  27' Custom center console that just needs some TLC. All 3 boats have trailers under them in various states of repair that are included with them, which makes it a little easier on redoing them and selling them.

Do you have some fly fish reports to pass on in the NEWS ?.. Guide Paul Healy checked in by phone yesterday but the reception was not good while I was driving so here is Paul's last post from Pine Creek in PA. that he text me on Saturday. "Last few days have been better fishing. The mornings from 9 - 11:30 are good with many trout rising to my March Browns and Sulphurs. Nights it's action after 8 pm using the same flies. Last night I caught 7 fish, this morning it was 6 fish.  Way too hot at midday to fish or catch anything. Too hot for a good nap between fishing shifts, so its off to the local pub and some air conditioning for a couple of hours.". If you want to go up to the Mountains and get in on some good early or late day dry fly fishing? With a nice camper and great food included to spend the night in or you can stay at the local motel if you prefer that. Then give us a call here at the office @ 732-267-0058 and we will set it up for you right away.

If you have a report to contribute to pass on some info to your fellow fly fishers or are a Guide or Lodge and want to help boost your operation, please send it over today, so that we can also include it with any pics or video that you want to add to it.

6/8/18 6/8/18... Post from Guide Chip Jablonski in Allentown, PA. on whats going on in his area streams and creeks.
"The Sulphurs are winding down or are hatching mostly after dark. Nymphs, the usual for this time of the year and the standard "go to's" are the best, and midges have been the most productive flies over the last week. Early morning is better than evenings. Sulphur "Rises" have been starting small and as the sun comes up and warms the air the hatches get much bigger. Water levels are low and clear in the area. Shad on the fly is still good on Delaware and the Lehigh Rivers in the late afternoon or the mornings before the sun hits the water".
If you would like to learn fly fishing from an A.F.F.S. Master Guide and spend a few hours on the water with Chip around the Allentown area to improve your game Just phone or text us at the office at 7322670058 and we will arrange it for you or your small group..

AMERICAN FLY FISHING SCHOOLS REPORT CARD..: Time to start a couple of times a week blog post f...

AMERICAN FLY FISHING SCHOOLS REPORT CARD..: Time to start a couple of times a week blog post f...: Time to start a couple of times a week blog post for A.F.F.S.  I think this may be the easiest way to handle social media for what goes up o...

New Blog Activity will begin

Time to start a couple of times a week blog post for A.F.F.S.  I think this may be the easiest way to handle social media for what goes up on the various websites we operate. americanflyfishingschools.com This Google product might be pretty good for letting me post on various outlets that we use with just a mouse click and not a whole lot of copy and paste or worse yet tedious rewrites for different outlets. Since I named this Blog our "REPORT CARD" for our Schools then I should use it for that purpose. Since I get a lot of reports from our affiliated Guides like Paul Healy, (A highly valued and fish active member of this Organization) the owner/operator of the JIM THORPE FISHING COMPANY (based in the Pocono regional town of the same name in PA.) with also seasonal operations in North Central PA. on the Pine Creek and other nearby waters and some guiding in New Jersey. Not to mention his personal fishing trips to western New York Rivers and Streams. Paul will provide lots of content for this blog and valuable information to fly fishers that want to fish the same waters as he does. Paul is so busy fishing and guiding he rarely has time to update and maintain his own blog let alone https://www.facebook.com/AmericanFlyFishingSchools/, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, etc. and all the other social platforms. I hope this helps him develop even more clients by reading his reports.  We have several other Guides, Instructors, and Associates of A.F.F.S. in several other areas of the Country that are active on the water all the time whether they write about it frequently or not, they contact me about their activities so I will pass it along to our readers here as well. Now that I have Bill and Barb Haldaman moving down to our area of SW Florida and Bill's intention to become more active again in A.F.F.S. in his retirement.  I think we will be able to handle the updates of all our activities a lot better starting right now. The bookings of trips with the affiliated A.F.F.S. Guides should be handled through our office as you will not get lower pricing by contacting the Guides directly,  but you will lose out on the valuable fly fishing gifts and perks you will receive by handling our new way.  We are now switching to handling the guided trip bookings in North America the same way we have been doing it with our International partner Lodges and Independent Guides for several years.  YES, this is the same way that ORVIS, YELLOW DOG, FRONTIERS, LL. BEAN, BASS PRO and the rest of them do it this way,  quite successfully, so we will now also do that at A.F.F.S. but will save our Members and Affiliates big Bucks with our commision structure. I tried to change this system of bookings but the old axiom "There are NO FREE LUNCHES" certainly applies to this matter. I tried to handle all our bookings of trips and casting classes, fly tying lessons on the "honor" system of having our affiliates reimburse A.F.F.S. a small 10% commission fee for clients we have sent to them which were acquired through our extensive methods of advertising our member services. In fact, we hand out more brochures for our members than any other Company does at Sportsmen Events around the U.S. and have for more years then I care to remember. YES, this is a relatively "small world" of fly fishers and reports come back to me from a multitude of sources that our readers and exhibit visitors have had a great experience at such and such a location but not a dime of proper reimbursement came back to A.F.F.S. from the clients trips there that we were the catalyst for it occurring. Booking amnesia I guess? Funny how clients inquire and then book trips with some Guides because of their literature that somehow? ends up in Chicago or Kentucky or Wisconsin at a Sportsmen's Event that the Guide from Florida or Massachusetts or New Jersey, etc., has never directly advertised at or participated at, Mmmmm? Oh YES, I'm sure they must have found you by going to the 10 or 12th page on GOOGLE where your website is listed because every client does that much research on the internet?  How far do you look in the search results of BING or GOOGLE or other search engines for anything? This now said, it will now be our policy moving forward at A.F.F.S. All annual dues by Affiliated Guides, Lodges, Instructors, Manufacturers, Artists, Commercial Tiers and all others that wish to increase their fly fishing businesses that can benefit from our extensive advertising methods including our participation  at many Sportsmen Events nationwide will pay a low $100 annual membership fee that is due now or before the First of January each year and 15% of the total booking fees for their services to A.F.F.S.  Artists, Fly Tiers and Product Manufacturesrs will also reimburse A.F.F.S. this 15% reduced fee from their normal MSRP's for their goods sold through our Show exhibits, websites and all other A.F.F.S. Events and Appearances. I invite any of our current Membership and qualified Individuals and Companies that wish to promote and increase their business to join A.F.F.S. membership. We welcome you into our ranks with the lowest priced and most effective advertising and promotion program in the Industry and Sport "BAR NONE" Shop it and you will quickly see that it is the best advertising bang for your buck that exists in this business. 

We welcome all our Students, Clients and Fly Fishing Friends to send us info and reports on your trips and fly fishing adventures, your product reviews, pictures and videos and we will post them here and through some of our other channels and platforms to pass them along for our readers to enjoy and to help educate all of us about our favorite sport or pastime.  Here is the first one from Paul Healy this week from his Camp on the Pine Creek..

Monday 6/4... "Beautiful morning but no bugs appearing up on the flat water above camp where I wanted to find em but no, I just saw a boatman bug and that was it. It could be the ice this year was so heavy and thick it rolled the bottom of the stones which are now all different and there's a lot of sediment down in the campground pools.  You know that right there above that spot it will blow it into the run, and swirled it around eddied up and I got a few tons of new gravel and settlement and it seems to come out of these rocks.  By the way, we did not get the rain they were forecasting, so I'm calling the whole big storm to hit here horseshit. Was more like half to 11/2 inches.  The creek is pretty clear and down about where it was before the storm broke up. And went around us. Thank God. Today I got 4 trout this morning, Not much in numbers but lots of little stuff is coming off now for them to be really choosy about what they eat".

It's past time to to get serious about Social Media

I have taken a pretty much little to no interest attitude concerning social media and its various outlets like this Blog, even though I am aware every day that they can be an extremely effective way to reach new and existing customers in today's business environment for our fly fishing businesses. The main reasons for my lack of participation to date are that I really dislike the way, any Tom, Dick or Harry, as they say, can come along and write just about anything they like on a page whether it is accurate or inaccurate to any degree possible or simply put, full of S---. The truth in most stories that people tell are usually someplace in the middle of what actually happened and what they think happened. Particularly when two people are at odds over what was said or agreed to between them at some time in the past. One person believes it is his or her way and the other party believes it is something the opposite of that. Again the real truth usually rests someplace in between. That said, there are also a lot of people that never miss a day or it seems even an hour or less to check their social sites to make sure that nothing ever takes place in their cyber worlds without them knowing about it right away. These are often people that auto-react to anything they find in their "cyberspace" that displeases them. They immediately without considering or even caring about what harm their remarks will cause someone,  just fire away at their keyboards with whatever pops into their minds at that exact moment. It is true that some of the social media sites have back channel mechanisms built into them where a thinking person can go to open up a private dialogue with the party they think has cheated, lied or has caused them some other form of disrespect through their activities. However that many individuals first react in public then see what type of feedback is posted, is far too common and classless in my opinion. The other lack of participation on my part is caused by the lack of editing features in some of these type of platforms. You either type it all correctly on the first shot or you live with the grammatical mistakes you make in the writing process.  Primary example I find of this is in texting. Too many people just accept misspelling as part of everyday communications. Last but not least, the more outlets you subscribe to, the more work you incur daily in just keeping up with them all. Time is money and even for a guy who only sleeps 4 or 5 hours a day the time required to tend to this "cyber garden" is considerable. I will make more of an effort at it as since I retired from the Trucking Business I do have some more time but I think what I really need is someone to correlate and manage all of this type of internet business for me. A good person that is a specialist in navigating all of this would probably more than pay for their salary cost by keeping our online business on track and growing it more effectively than I am doing with my infrequent use of these platforms of opportunities. Anyone know a good College student or another person with the requisite skills that is looking for this kind of situation in the North Fort Myers area? Of course after watching the 60 minutes piece last night on the monopoly power of GOOGLE as to what Internet businesses they can either help succeed or virtually destroy through their "algorithms" by placing any Companies rankings either on the first page or two of their search results or back past page 4 where most people will never go to look for what service or product they are interested in. Can we say GOOGLE ADS boys and girls? Some of our deep pocket but know next to nothing competitors have proved that to my observational satisfaction. It reminds this Jersey Boy of the power the Mafia used to have in this Country when it came to whether some guys candy store or pizza parlor would do well or disappear in certain neighborhoods. Certainly not by the same methodology, but gone is gone just the same. These new benefactors of the "people" can be far more dangerous to a small struggling business then Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel or John Gotti ever were. In any regard, we will press on with this for as long as we can to see where it ultimately takes us. If you have something good to share then please send it to me for a posting here. GOOGLE claims that fresh content is the real key deciding factor in its site rankings. mmmm...