In the summer of 1977, Don Beaver attended a meeting of Miami Valley Fly Fishers in Dayton, and was approached by Lee Wahl about starting a Cincinnati club. Lee was an officer in FFF and said they had been interested in starting a Cincinnati club for some time. Don agreed to be the point of contact for the first meeting, but declined to be an officer. Lee drafted a letter inviting perspective members to a dinner meeting and FFF distributed it to their Cincinnati members. The meeting, as well as the first several club meetings, was held at the Flaming Pit Restaurant across from the Tri-County Shopping Center north of Cincinnati (current location of Border’s books and videos) in the winter of 1977. Approx 15 people showed up and 10 of them joined the club. The original members were Don Beaver, Paul Feldman, John Hughey, Pete Dirr, Joel Stansbury, Ike Hayes, Ed Hood, Tony Joering, Steve Thrasher, and Ron Smith. Andy Stovall and Joe Marble joined a couple of months later.

Early club meetings were held at the Flaming Pit restaurant, at Ron Smith’s bank in Forest Park, at John Hughey’s business (Paquin Co. on Grooms road in Blue Ash), and at the Greenhills Country Club bar. Our first outing was held in the spring of 1978 on the Little Miami at Fosters, and our first out of town trip was to the Tellico River and other rivers in North Carolina in April 1978. Andy Stovall, Joe Marble and Paul Feldman, along with several members of MVFF went on these trips. On Memorial Day of 1978 we made our first trip to the North Branch of the Au Sable River in Michigan, a destination we would return to year after year (and some of us still do). As many as 6 or 7 of our members (out of a membership of 12-15) along with their wives and kids would attend these outings, so we were quite a close knit group.

In spite of his attempt to avoid being an officer, Don was the president for the first two years. Andy Stovall was the second president and held the job for 3 or 4 years. Andy was the real impetus that made the club successful. In the early 80’s Andy was able to get BUFF a permanent booth at the annual Bob Hart’s Sports Show in downtown Cincinnati. This really put us on the map and added lots of new members. I worked with Andy at GE at the time and can vouch for the tireless effort he spent (on the phone) promoting the club in those days. He pulled off the incredible coup of arranging to have Lee and Joan Wulff as the guest speakers at our annual fund raising dinner in 1982. In fact, one of the high points in my fly fishing life was having them as well as several club officers as dinner guests at my

In the 80’s the club grew in size to the point that I no longer knew all of the members, let alone the names of their wife and kids. In the late 80’s, NKFF was spun off by some of our Kentucky members just as BUFF was an offshoot of Miami Valley Fly Fishers. In case you were wondering where the name BUFF (United???) came from, one of our members (Joel Stansbury, I think) thought it would be cute to have the slogan “Do It In The BUFF”.  I can’t imagine why I didn’t vote against this, but Andy Stovall thought it was so cute he had T-shirts printed with the slogan. I donated the last remaining mint copy to last winter’s (2004) banquet raffle ----ask Mike Bryant to show it to you sometime.

Other Events of Interest in the History of BUFF
   Lou Haynes -August 2004

• Tom Mench organized the first BUFF Fly Fishing Sports Show in the mid-90’s. The first two were held at the Kings Island Inn, the next two at the Oasis in Milford, then three at the Holiday Inn in Eastgate, one at the Clarion in Blue Ash and the last two at the current site – the Receptions in Fairfield.

• Buff became a charitable, non-profit organization under section 501-(c)-3 of the Internal Revenue Code and incorporated in the State of Ohio May 15, 1996 (Charter #941226).

• The BUFFer, the club’s primary newsletter, was started in 1978 by Joel Stansbury. The initial BUFFer (Issue 1/Volume 1) consisted of a hand-printed, two-page article including recent trip reports, up-coming trip information, club needs and humorous comments about fellow members. The current BUFFer is an eight page, professionally printed newsletter distributed to our membership by mail and the website.

• Joe Panfalone initiated the BUFF website (www.buckeyeflyfishers.com ) in 1997. This website has been a great addition to the club for both internal and external communications. Over the past year the website has averaged about 8,000 logons per month.

• As of July 2004 the club membership totals 237, about 15% being women.
Buff is a member of the Great Lakes Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. The club is one of the seven charter members of the new Ohio Sub-Council of the GLC, formed in December 2003.