November's meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers

This evening the Walla² Fly Fishers came together for our fifth club meeting. Prior to our business meeting we had 12 members and guest share their Dutch Treat evening meal together at the China Buffet. During this time we had the opportunity to share fishing experiences and a further chance to get to know one another. These pre-meeting dinners are a great time of coming together to just talk fly fishing without a business agenda to deal with.

It was about
7 o'clock that President Scott Peters, showed up to greet everyone, put the evening fly boxes together, and call our meeting to order. The fly box door prize tickets were passed out to everyone, Co-Pres. Skip Pritchard put together the Orvis Clearwater II 8 1/2' 5wt. (Mid-flex) rod, and the reel to go with it is an Orvis Battenkill Barstock III spooled with 5wt line + backing, This combo is begin raffled off during our November and December club meetings. The raffle is limited to 100 tickets to be sold at $5 apiece.

Scott, started the club business proceedings by announcing that we were looking for a club Treasurer, and no one at that point in time had stepped forward to seek that position, even after a few email nominations had been made. After some discussion and consideration Barry Gould, quietly mentioned to Dan Grinstead that he might consider the job, this mention was overheard... he was then nominated, it was seconded and Barry was elected to the position of club Treasurer. Thank you Barry.

Next point that Scott addressed was the email survey that Secretary Dale McKain had sent to all members' email concerning club organizations, functions, and activities. From this survey there were some concerns about our membership dues requirement, local and Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF). Scott went on to explain that the club needed funding for local concerns/activities and we as a public organization needed the umbrella of the FFF for organizational guidance, the opportunity for our membership to participate in the fly fishing functions of the big FFF picture (state - Washington/Oregon and national/international), and legal liability protection.
A SIDEBAR NOTE: So this is why there are dues to pay... In the past few days Dale has received from the FFF a letter of concern dealing with club liability insurance. The quote for this group insurance coverage through the FFF is $197/ year, this is an example why we need membership dues, meeting fly raffle ticket sales, and by Skip's generosity the new Orvis rod and reel combo that he donated to the club. We will also be getting into some fun stuff with the money raised, but for right now we are trying to get the club heading in the right direction, and taking care of organizational needs, and expenses. After all $15 annual local club membership dues is less than some people will spend in a week for a well brewed cup of coffee each day.
Our club members might also consider, that if you win just one of our evenings’ fly box raffle or receive one of the door prizes, you will recover much more in the value of one of the fly boxes w/flies, than the annual $15 membership dues. There are some nice flies going into each of the boxes.

After the short business discussion, we had the drawing for the door prize – fly box w/flies – this was won by Barry Gould.
Thank you everyone for your fly donation.

Our meeting this evening had 24 club members and guest in attendance.

After the fly box give away, and the Orvis rod and reel was passed around, the evening's program was a Round Table discussion with Q&A concerning how to catch a steelhead. Our planned evening speaker was unable to attend this meeting, so we brought forth the question that Diane raised by email this past week...

How do I catch a steelhead?

This evening we had a number of steelheaders present, so there was a good volley of points made as most of the successful steelheaders spilled their guts on how they went about finding, hooking, catching, sea run steelhead, in the local waters of southeast WA and northeast OR.
There was pointed out some steelheader's how to's:
read steelhead holding waters, make different types of rod, line, fly presentations, realize the strike, set the hook, play the fish. Some of the winter steelhead flies patterns mentioned were Purple and Black Egg Sucking Leech, Bitch Creek, Rubber leg Copper John. The general Rule of Thumb for steelhead flies is -- cloudy days use a dark fly, sunny days use a colorful/flashy fly. This writer thinks that Diane had most of her questions answered, hopefully we did not overload her with too much info to help her catch her first steelhead, on the fly. Thank you everyone that made comments and offered tips concerning their experience with steelhead fishing.

The above steelhead pictures furnished by club members
Tom and Doug
from their Thursday 11/12 morning outing.

As this discussion came to an end, Scott made a final call for ticket sales for the fly box w/flies that was being raffled off for the evening, and Skip made a final call for the Orvis rod / reel combo being raffled. Ed Chesnut won the fly box raffle this evening, and Skip announced that 55 tickets of the only 100 tickets available for the rod / reel combo had been sold this evening.

A little before 9 o'clock p.m. this meeting was adjourned, and we are talking steelheading for the rest of the year, as we went out the door.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Scott Peters - President
Skip Pritchard - Co-President
Barry Gould - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary /Blog Master