Mid-South Fly Fishers
Education - Conservation - Fellowship
We are excited to announce that our speakers for December 7 club meeting are John Berry and Lori Sloas. They bring extensive experience in fly fishing Arkansas waters. They are going to speak on fly fishing the White and Norfork Rivers, wade fishing and keeping track of generation. We may also ask Lori to give a lesson on casting at 4:30. Read on for deep details!
John Berry has been a fly fishing guide in the Ozarks for over 25 years. He guides on Arkansas’ White, Norfork, Spring and Little Red Rivers for trout and Crooked Creek for smallmouth bass.
He is the past president of the MSFF (2 terms) and in 1996 while he served as MSFF president the club received the McKenzie Cup from the FFF as Club of the Year!
John served as the Conservation Director for the FFF Southern Council. He is a life member of the Federation of Fly Fishers and the Mid-South Fly Fishers from whom he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
He teaches fly fishing and fly casting for Arkansas SU and has taught in Tennessee and Mississippi also. He has also worked with Casting for Recovery and Becoming an Outdoors Woman.
John is a member of the Federation of Fly Fishers Speakers Bureau and has presented seminars and tied flys at the FFF National Conclave and Southern Conclave, the Sow Bug Round Up, DU Great Outdoors Festival and the Home Waters Expo.
Lori Sloas is one of a handful of female fly-fishing guides in the United States. A natural caster, Lori brings intensity to the stream that produces fish for clients in the most adverse conditions. As a lifelong angler she now devotes her efforts to fly fishing, teaching and designing fly-fishing programs. She has had the opportunity to present seminars for the FFF, DU Great Outdoors Festival, the Sowbug Round Up, Becoming an Outdoors Woman, Casting for Recovery, and other clubs and corporate groups throughout the region.
Lori is a life member of the MSFF and the FFF as well as the Damsel Fly Fishers and North Arkansas Fly Fishers. She was the FFF Southern Council Woman of the Year in 2006 and FFF Southern Council’s Outreach speaker in 2013 and was IFF Southern Council’s Woman of the Year in 2015.
She has been featured on the TV show, Adventure Guides, on the Versus network; was the cover story in Living Well Magazine and featured in Garden and Gun magazine in the Dec./Jan. 2015 issue as one of the top ten guides in the south. She has also received recognition as a fly fishing guide in the March 2018 edition of Arkansas Life magazine and a featured writer in the Feb./Mar. edition of Marvelous Magazine.