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

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Tyson Kopfer - President
Tom Craig - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters