Fishing Kelly Creek, ID with Tyson Kopfer

President Tyson called this evening’s meeting to order at 7:05 pm.  There were 21 members and guest in attendance tonight. The first “door prize” fly box of the evening was won by Audra K. a first time attendee. 

Tyson opened club business by announcing that he wished to hold an election of club officers at our January 2013 meeting. No other business was discussed, except that Secretary Dale announced that he was re-connected via satellite to the www and had posted April, May, and June’s meeting minutes to the club’s blogsite.

This evening’s program was presented by our own President Tyson and was a very good slide presentation of his (and friends) fishing adventures on Kelly Creek in Idaho. 

He told us it was about a 200 mile trip out of Walla Walla taking about 5 hours to drive with the last 25 miles being gravel. The campground there has about 20 tent sites and a few cabins; that should be reserved before heading that way. 

Campground and cabin reservations: http://www.fs.usda.gov/activity/nezperce/recreation/camping-cabins/?recid=16470&actid=33

A point strongly made is that in the state of Idaho – felt sole fishing/wading boots are illegal. Don’t get caught with them on.

Some of the fish Tyson caught on Kelly Creek were Westslope Cutthroats, Cuttbows, Rainbows, Whitefish and Bull Trout. He also inform us that many of the fish in Kelly Creek are well educated by fly fishers and some days are much better than other, but in casting flies, a fisher tends to anticipate a hookup with each cast. For several years Tyson planned his trips to Kelly Creek in August. He told us that eventhough there is no gauging station on Kelly Creek, to check the gaugeing station on the No. Fork of the Clearwater and find it flowing at 2000 cfs, makes for ideal fishing condition on Kelly Creek.
Water gauge for NF Clearwater:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/uv?site_no=13340600

 

Tyson tells us that there is an abundance of Caddisflies in August that keep the fish busy feeding. Tyson goes equipped this time of year with 3wt  and 5wt fly rods to fish the different waters and wind conditions he has found there. Most of the time he uses a 9’ to12’ leader with a 4x to 6x tippet. Average length of fish he finds is 8” to14” long.  

Tyson’s flies of choice – numero uno being the Elkhair Caddis, thereafter are Stimulators (yellow and green), BWOs, PMDs, Klickhammer emerger, Royal Trude and Wulff Trude, ants, beetles, and hoppers. 
 As the meeting came to a close Diane asked if the club would consider allocating some funds for her to purchase hooks and tying materials for “Casting For Recovery” a breast cancer recovery organization, to help survivors to rehabilitate themselves through fly fishing. She mostly needs hooks size 6-14. A vote for fund allocation will conducted at our January 9, 2013 meeting.
Meeting and program was adjourned at 8:00 pm.

Please NOTE:
If any club member would like to "throw their hat into the ring"

all club officer positions are open for nominations.
Please contact President Tyson Kopfer if you are interested in filling one of these positions.
Thank You

 

PS. In email communications the club Secretary has received:

Treasurers Report 2012:
We started the year with $1,170+ in the account and through Dec. 20, 2012 we have $1000+ in the bank and $49 in cash (not yet deposited).
Over the year we have mainly spent money on Jacobi's ($15/meeting), and our speakers + dinners, and we made a major acquisition of a computer projector which cost $385. We also bought a few fly boxes for the raffles for $80. 
Anyway, we are solvent. And for a small club, I think we are doing well and having a good time.
Doug

~also~

Doug, are YOU willing to stay on at club treasurer??
Dale,
I think that I have another year in me; so yes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Vice President Tom this email…

Dale,
I am willing to run for Vice President of the club. I hope Tyson will continue as president, he has been doing an excellent job. Hopefully some other club members would consider running and I would step aside and be a gofer for anyone that needed assistance etc.
Tom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Secretary Dale this email…
To: Tyson, Tom, Doug,
I was going to back off the club’s Secretary’s job, since I had no ISP for seven months, but that has changed, so I will reconsider. Tom like you if someone else would like to take the "job" I too will be glad to run as a gopher to help in club matters.
Thanks,
Dale

  

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tyson Kopfer - President
Tom Craig - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

A Gap in our Records

Our club Secretary Dale McKain upon moving in April 2012 to the South Fork of the Walla Walla River, moved outside the reach of five (5) area Internet Service Providers for seven months. With his other engagements during the months of September, October and November he was unable to secure the information to post meeting minutes for these past three months. If anyone has questions concerning club business of these months please contact our club President Tyson Kopfer.

Thank you

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tyson Kopfer - President
Tom Craig - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

2012 Fly Fishing Fair

Waterbrook Winery's patio

This year our Pacific Northwest late spring weather was wet. Rivers were running too high / fast to be fished with any confidence. This morning was cool and overcast with a threat of rain in the forecast for the day. It would be a perfect day for fly fishing if the rivers were in good fishable shape.

Around 9:30 our group started showing up at the Waterbrook Winery, to get everything in place for this day’s activities. There was President Tyson, Robert, Dale, Diane, Scott setting up tables and chair for our fly tying demo stations.

After setting up the show, some of us went out to exercise our elbow with a fly rod over the Waterbrook Winery casting pond.

 After the warmup practice, we started getting serious about teaching folks how to cast a fly to a fish.

 

Robert helps this young man make casting look as easy as 1,2,3...

 

  From the Seattle area we had Rory Seiter helping us with our fly rod casting clinics throughout the morning.

 Rory also is a fly fishing representative for Orvis and furnished our door prize for this day’s event.

As the morning progressed, everyone went about with their joy of fly fishing activities, and the telling of fishing tales. For a while the skies brightened and the day got warmer, making this a very pleasant outdoor event.

This year we were again lucky to have John Spain and his Dutch ovens, and chef crew to prepare a most delicious lunch for one and all attending our day’s event.

  Shortly after noon the lunch triangle rang out and the chow line began to form.

This writer found our table guest to be a very friendly group, with good conversation and very nice bottles of vino to share.

The morning’s turnout was rather light, with a nice size group of about 20+ folks showing up by the time lunch was to be served. An attendance sheet was not kept for this event, but as in the past… there is not a drawing card in this world, than putting out good food, good fellowship, for some good wet weather fly fishers.

We did have a door prize drawing this day, and this young man won the Orvis fly tying kit that Rory had donated to this day's Fly Fishing Fair.

As the Dutch ovens were being cleaned of the last morsels of fruit cobblers, the rain began, so all activities were moved under roof and the rest of our early afternoon was mostly spent in small chat sessions. Again this was a good Walla² Fly Fishing Fair, and we saw a few new faces interested in our club and activities.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tyson Kopfer - President
Tom Craig - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Fishing New Zealand with Tom Craig

 
President Tyson called this month’s meeting to order at 7:15 pm.

We had 18 members and guest in attendance for this evening’s meeting.

It was announced that Tyson had purchased a DVD projector for our club meeting use. It is hoped that there are enough laptops in the club’s membership to always have one available for any/all club presentations, without having to purchase one.

Secretary Dale, unable to post to the club’s blog site (having moved out of the reach of an ISP) passed around copies of the April 11^th meeting minutes, to each table for all to review.

There was a short report concerning our June 9^th Fly Fishing Fair being held at Waterbrook Winery, west of Walla Walla on Old Hwy 12. This will be our fourth annual affair there, FREE to the public and all who are interested in the art and science of fly fishing. 

This evening we had the privilege to have our own VP Tom Craig to make the evening’s program presentation of the trip that he and wife, Annette made to New Zealand’s South Island this past winter in February and March. 
 In Tom’s presentation he had lots of beautiful landscape pictures of NZ. He reported that during the NW fishing season there was a rainy season and a fishable season. During the rainy season many of the rivers and stream were swollen with runoff, and the country he was in would be full of waterfalls. 

During the dry season all the streams and rivers would be very fishable and the waters were gin clear. Tom also reported that the fish of NZ were very fly wise and leader shy. He told us that there is a saying in NZ, that if you are not catching fish in NZ, you should work on you fishing skills… reporting that a lot of trout can be spotted, but not so many can be hooked… very wild fish. Tom also had pictures to show that his skills with a fly and rod in hand could take-on and catch the wildly NZ trout. Tom said that he hooked into some rainbows, but most of his catches were brown trout and sea-run trout.

 He reported that some of the most productive flies he used were Copper Johns, Prince Nymphs, and a NZ fly called a Bottle Brush. 

 


Tom also reported that the price of gasoline in NZ while he and Annette were there was $8.50/gal and fortunately they did not have to do a lot of long run road trip to get to some prime fishing waters. Tom brought in a bundle of literature concerning the island with places to go and things to do. A fly fisher's paradise.

This evening’s meeting was adjourned at 8:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tyson Kopfer - President
Tom Craig - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters