A History of Suncoast Fly Fishers
Beginning – 1991-March, 1996
According to Layne “Smitty” Smith, the origin began in 1988 or 1989 when a group of guys who belonged to the CCC fishing club, the Costal Conservation Association (aka FCA, Florida Conservation Association), became interested in fly fishing. Robert Fischer was first contacted by Rick Redd who said that a guy was trying to start a fly fishing club in the bay area. That guy was a retired architect named Jim Stewart who was a member of the FFF. Jim is the creator of the Snook- A -Roo fly used for snook, tarpon and freshwater bass. Jim has several patented designs of flies made by Umpqua.
Robert recalled meeting at Jim’s house in south Tampa several times while trying to figure out a name and location for the club. There were also meetings at Carl Hansen’s house but Carl expressed some reservation about a separate club and elitism. Further meetings were held at Jack O’Connell’s house and it was decided to form a fly fishing club in 1990. Members of this group included Jack O’Connell, Jim McPhail, Rick Redd, Hank Hauser, Jim Stewart, Tom Theus, Tom Conway and three of our current active members, Layne “Smitty” Smith, Alan Sewell, and Robert Fischer. In 1991, this group drew up by-laws and officially became a fly fishing club with O’Connell as its first president (1991-1992). It was decided to name it Suncoast Fly Fishers (SFF) so that people from Tampa and St. Pete could feel equally at home in the club. The Tampa Bay Fly Fishers formed about three years later after Tom Theus asked us if we would mind if they contacted our membership. We didn’t mind. They started meeting in Tampa so that people wouldn’t have to cross the bay for meetings. Jack O’Connell, Tom Theus, and Tom Conway were some of those original guys.
The Suncoast Fly Fishers needed a regular place to meet and somebody suggested the Wyoming Antelope Club and after a visit it became the official meeting place. They had regular meetings, invited outside speakers, and collected dues to support these speakers. Carl Hansen became an enthusiastic member and contributor to this club. The meetings at the Wyoming Antelope Club were described as interesting. There was not a separate meeting area so the members of the Antelope Club and the Suncoast Fly Fishers were together. One had to walk in front of the guest speakers to access the bathroom. There were also side conversations of members of the Antelope Club who were not particularly interested in fly fishing. Oh, yes. The Antelope Club is on the fly way of the St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport so if someone wasn’t talking or walking, the planes would zoom overhead drowning out the speaker. When the talking, walking, and planes were quiet, someone on the shooting range would start practicing. I think they were practicing with canons in those days. Boy, did that seem loud! Nevertheless, all had a great time!
Some of the goals of SFF included a club open to anyone with an interest in fly fishing, regular meetings with a program, affordable dues and outings. The members also wanted to promote fly fishing and include youngsters. They also began to have group trips. For a while there were two outings per month. One outing was for several days and included Alaska, Bahamas, Belize, and western trout fishing. The other was a local trip to either a fresh water lake or river or the salt water flats. The local outings included Ft. DeSoto, Lake Tarpon, Manatee River, Hillsborough River, Alligator Lake, Myakka River, and Caladesi Island in Clearwater. The purpose of the fresh water trips was to welcome those who relocated from the north and were familiar with fresh water fishing. The salt water trips were for the full time Florida members and to introduce the northern part-time members to the abundant salt water fishing adventures. Eventually the trips outside our area were discontinued and local trips focused on convenient and affordable places. Following the trips, lunches varied from bring your own to shared cooking duties and Alan Sewell cooking hot dogs. Guests were asked to pay a nominal fee if they stayed for lunch. The club leadership emphasized inclusiveness and a friendly environment to anyone interested in fly fishing. Sharing fly fishing tactics became a trait of the cub which continues today.
Some interesting stories and achievements occurred during those early years. Robert Fischer recalled one of the early trips to the Port of the Islands resort south of Naples. On Saturday night a small group of SFF members went to the Naples Fly Club banquet and Robert won an embarrassing number of things in the raffle. “They gave us a hard time about all the booty we were hauling back to Tampa, but it was all in good fun.”
Suncoast Fly Fishers won two awards from the Federation of Fly Fishers. One was for conservation. This involved a club project to plant trees in Walsingham Park. This was a group effort and as a reward the city allowed club members to have a fishing day at the Walsingham Reservoir. Fishing was prohibited in the Reservoir and several passersby (jealous fisher men) rebuked, “actually cursed us out” for trespassing and fishing in the reservoir. The responses from the fishermen are not printable. We left the reservoir before they threw stones. Another award was the Federation of Fly Fishers youth fly tying event. This was a sponsored Federation of Fly Fishers activity and Jake Stowers’ son was a winner of the fly tying youth competition.
After Jack O’Connell, Rick Redd served as president from 1992 to 1994 and he was succeeded by Cliff Nigh from 1994-1996. During the first 5 years those who served as officers and directors include Jack O’Connell, Rick Redd, Cliff Nigh, Mike LaChance, Alan Sewell, Jim McPhail, Hank Hauser, Jim Stewart, Layne Smith, Jake Stowers, Tom Cawthon, David McKay, and Russ Shirley.
I wish to thank Layne “Smitty” Smith for the incredible amount of help and photos and to Robert Fischer, Cliff Nigh and Alan Sewell for their contributions. Thanks to Paul Sequira for helping with this article.