Walla² Fly Fishers

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Fly Fishing NE Oregon with Bob Wolfe

This evening was our first gathering at the Smith's Family Restaurant banquet room. We had a good turnout for dinner, and it was again nice to have a common table to sit around and share good conversations, good food.

Tonight we had 22 members and guest in attendance of our monthly meeting. After dinner President Tom brought the meeting to order at 7:10.

The business portion of our meeting concerned the development of our 2013 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery.

It had been proposed that this year we hold this event the first Saturday of June, but due to individual’s schedules we are now looking most seriously at Saturday May 18^th. Regardless we just hope to have plenty of sunshine and no wind, the day of. This year's Fly Fishing Fair will be our 5th Annual event.

This year we are again hoping to have John Spain perform his fabulous dutch oven cookout for our lunch, and there is the possibility that Waterbrook Winery will stock trout in their pond for this affair. This appears to be coming together well, so please be in tune to the club’s email, facebook and blog messaging for further development / announcements.
Also discussed was the idea of working with WDFW on some area -SE Washington- fishery projects. More about this will be discussed at our April meeting.
Dale McKain also mentioned that he was continuing to try to make contact with John Shewey (fly fisher extraordinaire, author, and editor of Northwest Fly Fishing mag) and ask him about the possibility of setting a date for a club banquet.

This evening the door prize fly box was won by Doug Coe.

Our program this evening was a presentation made by Pendleton’s fly fisher Bob Wolfe.

His presentation was “Northeast Oregon Fly Fishing” a PPP slide show. Bob now retired was the law enforcement officer for the Umatilla National Forest for many years. He has knowledge beyond any other as to where to go, when to be on different waters, at the right time, to hook trout on the fly in this corner of our fly fishing world. Bob again provided us with much more information than this writer can put into an honest recap of his presentation. In his presentation he pointed out many trout and steelhead fishing opportunities, stillwaters and river hot spots in NE Oregon and SE Washington. Bob presentation basically divided the National Forest and surrounding areas into sections and gave a layout of each section using maps and pictures of many of the fishable waters in Northeast Oregon and Southern Washington. Because these waters are too numerous to mention here, please use the following links to find many of the waters that Bob mentioned in his presentation.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/RR/northeast/

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2012/November/113012.asp

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/fishing/docs/trout_fishing_guide_to_ne_oregon.pdf

Please check the current ODFW Northeast Zone fishing regulations before you wet a fly here. There are not enough days in a fishing season to discover all of these locations, so enjoy all day Catch & Release and wait until the end of the day to take your 5-fish creel.

Bob also discussed many of his self-tyed flies that he uses in his pursuit of hooking trout. He has recently developed a fly that he calls a DB (double beaded) chironomid, using a pearl white bead instead of a stranded material for gills.

If you would like to contact Bob Wolfe for more information please email him at...
rfwolfe_4@msn.com
If you missed his program, we're sorry, wish you you could have been there.

Our second fly box of the evening was won in raffle by Jerry Makus. Congratulation Jerry and Doug, hope you enjoy the wonderful flies and those nice boxes.

Our meeting was was adjourned at 8:50 and a few folks continued to stick around to compare meeting notes and socialize.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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Tom Craig – President
Dave Stemmer – Vice President
Doug Cole – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary

Past Presidents
Tyson Kopfer
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

February 2013 the business at hand

This evening President Tom Craig called our meeting to order at 7:15, 12 members and guest were in attendance. Our first order of business was the announcement that club membership due were due. With the absence of Treasurer Doug Coe this evening, President Tom was collecting dues.

Next order of business was the proposal of a 2013 Fly Fishing Fair. The consensus of the group was to again conduct another one and it was proposed for the first Saturday in June, that being June 1^st.

Tom told the group that if we wished to have the fair, that Scott will try to arrange the date with Waterbrook Winery. It was announced that Skip (FFF Master Caster / Instructor) will try to make plans to conduct the fly casting clinic for our club this year.
We hope to have John Spain to do his dutch oven cooking for our lunch once again. Tom will ask Scott to try to make arrangements with John.
Discussed was the creation of a club's fly fishing / fly tying library. Tyson brought a collection of his books to begin the library and he will take the position of Club Librarian.

Anyone, everyone who might have some well read books, any multi-watched videos (VHS-DVD) are ask to consider adding to this library. Please label donations with your name / telephone number.

The next major order of business was the discussion of making a meeting location change -effective Wednesday, 13 March 2013-. The committee for making the move contacted and confirmed that our NEW meeting location will be Smith Family Restaurant at 1425 W. Pine Street, Walla Walla which is right off Hwy 12 Bypass using the Myra Road exit.

Our monthly meeting schedule will remain the same,
second Wednesday of the month - September-May

~ 7:00 p.m. club meeting ~
~ 6:00 p.m. Dutch treat dinner / social hour ~

Tom then opened the discussion concerning area fishing opportunities and some helpful websites he had visited for near-local fishing opportunities; Troutwater, www.clearcreek, and others publications with featured articles of Northwest fly fishing hot spots.

Club fishing outings were brought up – Tyson had talked with Bob Wolfe in Pendleton about our club joining the Blue Mtn Flycasters on some of their outings. Calendar of events will be forthcoming.

Tucannon River lakes will open for fishing on March 1^st.Walla² Fly Fishers may try to make an outing to Big 4 on March 2^nd waterflow permitting.
Vice President Dave Stemmer said he had been in contact with the La Grande, OR fishing club and thinking about visiting their March meeting, with maybe some pm fishing included. Info to be announced.

Herb won this evening's door prize fly box.

Business meeting was closed at 7:35 with fly tying and notes sharing following.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tom Craig – President
Dave Stemmer – Vice President
Doug Cole – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary

Past Presidents
Tyson Kopfer
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Walla² Fly Fishers' meetings

The Walla² Fly Fishers' 5th Annual Fly Fishing Fair will again be held at Waterbrook Winery on Old Hwy. 12 west of Walla Walla on Saturday 18 May between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm.
FREE to the interested public, we will be giving fly rod casting instructions, fly tying demos, and Catch & Release instruction with a pond full of trout.
Come one, Come all, if you are interest in learning more about the art and science of fly fishing.

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Our next regularly scheduled monthly meeting will be Wednesday, 11 September 2013 at

Smith's Family Restaurant

1425 West Pine Street in Walla Walla
(509) 529-3800

-Google Map directions-
Please use +/- zoom to find your current location

Time: ~ 7:00 p.m. club meeting ~
6:00 p.m. Dutch treat dinner / social hour

Come one, come all, come as you are. Our meetings are open to the interested (or wannabe) fly fishing public.
Please leave wet - studded wading boots outside the doors. Thanks
NOTE: We do give and raffle away boxes of trout/steelhead flies at most monthly meeting. Hope to see you winning one soon.
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About Us

The purpose and goals of the Walla² Fly Fishers are:

1) Promoting the art and science of fly fishing as prescribed by the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF), and our club's by-laws.
2) To bring together our local fly fishing community; to share the camaraderie of fishing experiences, and to help each other develop our fly fishing skills and knowledge.
3) To be a family oriented group of fishers, welcoming spouse, children, family unit members into sharing our activities.
4) To help those who have physical, emotional, any handicap needs; where learning to fly fish may aid in their therapy and well being.
5) To adopt and maintain local waters, to share, to fish and be caretakers of that eco-system
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To be a member in good standing with the Walla² Fly Fishers one shall be vested in the FFF (annual dues $35) and vested in the Walla² Fly Fishers (annual dues $15); be willing to learn, and share with others the arts and science of
fly fishing.

Contact Us: WallaWalla.Flyfishing@gmail.com

Our Club President

President Tom Craig aka. Walla Walla Fly Fishing Realtor. Tom moved from Alaska to Walla Walla in 2002 to go to work with Coldwell Banker First Realtors and be closer to his children and grandchildren. While in Alaska he fished commercially and sport guiding, in the Bering Sea. Tom had his own salmon seiner, fished Bristol Bay 2 years, worked construction one year, and graduated from University of Alaska with a degree in Aviation Technology (worked as an airplane mechanic). He later went into health care as a Support Services Director for South Peninsula Hospital. After 27 years of service, he and his wife Annette moved to Walla Walla. “Look forward to helping Walla Walla Fly Fishers take the next steps forward as an active growing club.”