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.

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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".