General Meeting Schedule
All meetings are held at the Lakeside Pavilion - 2565 California Park Dr. Chico, CA 95928 at 6:30pm on the second Wednesday of each month October through May. The other months are for fishing! The first hour is fly tying with the guest speaker at 7:30pm.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024: Lance Gray of Lance Gray and Company Fly Fishing is our featured presenter. Being the last guest speaker of our annual speaking cycle, Lance will present on "The Hex Hatch at Lake Almanor". He will have information on all the latest tactics and flies to use. Lance started fly fishing with his father and brother Lincoln at age 7. In his teens, he began tying flies commercially for shops all around Northern California. At 17, he went to work at Powell's Fly Shop in Chico, working in the fly shop and building rods. He guided for Powell’s, conducted fly-tying and fly-fishing schools, and traveled. In 1993, Lance and Kirsten started Saltwater Innovations, a company that manufactured and distributed products for saltwater fly fishing. Lance’s Crystal Popper, Gray’s Billfish Fly, the KO Charlie line and the Raghead Crabs are all Saltwater Innovations products. Kirsten worked behind the scenes, handling the day-to-day operation and running the manufacturing floor of the company. In 2003 they launched Lance Gray & Company, a full-service outfitter offering guided trips, fly-fishing tours, workshops, and a travel agency. Lance conducts presentations at fly clubs and fly-fishing shows. Kirsten and Lance support local groups like Cub Scouts and 4H while volunteering with veterans. He's a signature tier for Aqua Flies, pro staff member for Sage, RIO, Simms, Fishpond, and Umpqua Feather Merchants; and is a featured writer, with articles published in Angling Trade Magazine, California Fly Fisher, Fly Fishermen and American Fly Fishing. Lance is a columnist. His column “The Foraging Angler” is published bi-monthly in the California Fly Fisher Magazine.
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Wednesday, October 9, 2024: For our first meeting back after a summer break, CAF welcomes Clay Hash, President of the Northern California Council of Fly Fishing International and Fly Fishing Guide and educator. Since CAF has recently joined Fly Fishing International (FFI), we have asked Clay to share some of the benefits that FFI has to offer members of CAF. In addition, Clay is an expert with the ins and outs of the Yuba River, the notoriously technical river of our area. So, he will also be sharing about how to fish the Yuba River. He has a wonderful website "Fly Fishing Traditions" that is worth checking out!
Wednesday, November 13, 2024: Allen Harthorn of Friends of Butte Creek, along with Gayland Taylor will be sharing the major restoration project going on on Butte Creek from the Skyway and upriver. Allen has attended several CAF meetings. He founded Friends of Butte Creek in 1999 to document the salmonid runs up Butte Creek and to fight for the rights of the fish. The current restoration project will revitalize and enable even more fish to spawn up past an area that was scoured in a not too distant past mining operation. Gayland Taylor is a retired game warden who is active on a number of conservation fronts. He last spoke to our club in a joint presentation (May 10, 2023) with Holly Swan of California Trout on the Iron Canyon restoration project current in progress on Big Chico Creek.