This evening President Tom called our meeting to order at
7:30.
We had 16 club members and guest in attendance.
Tom announced that he had attended the Walla Walla 2015 4-H
Achievement / Awards Program
Tom brought to our attention that the Tri-States Steelheaders had made a public request via their Fall Newsletter (PDF) to help in their effort to recondition Lion’s Park in College Place which provides many community amenities, including a youth fishing pond.
Tom also announced that with the club taking our annual Fall/Winter Holiday Fishing Break, the next meeting would be in January 2016, and Grant Richie would be making a 2015 recap fly fishing presentation to us from the Minam Raft Rentals and Guide Service.
Tom also announced that with the club taking our annual Fall/Winter Holiday Fishing Break, the next meeting would be in January 2016, and Grant Richie would be making a 2015 recap fly fishing presentation to us from the Minam Raft Rentals and Guide Service.
Club blog-master Dale gave a brief report of the 2015 Walla²
Fly Fishers blog hits stats. He reported that the blog hit count was currently
at 33,157.
Blog Hits from around the world
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Counts
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USA
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23,720
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Russia
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1353
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France
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1066
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Germany
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890
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Ukraine
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611
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United Kingdom
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308
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Some of the other countries visiting our blog site are – Canada,
Poland, Netherlands, China, etc.
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The most hit upon blog page – A Blue Mountain Fly Hatch Chart with
4258 hits
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The second most hit upon blog page – Steelhead fishing on the John Day River with 473 hits
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This evening we had the pleasure to meet a rather new
resident to Walla Walla, and enjoyed the program presentation of Daniel Biggs.
Daniel moved to the Walla Walla area about a year ago from Bend, OR, and
currently works for a local real estate company. While in Bend, Daniel tells us
that he was inspired by our friend Brian O’Keefe to get into fly fishing
photography. On an amateur / semi-professional level he begin to filming his
fly fishing outings of the Central Oregon high lakes. Some of his “work” has
been shown on local TV stations -sportsmen’s shows- around Oregon. This evening's program was a fly fishers’ treat to see some of the success that Daniel and company
has had fishing the stillwaters of Central Oregon.
Some of the lakes fished being shown in this presentation were, Crane Prairie Reservoir, Hosmer Lake, Paulina Lake, Wickiup Reservoir, Mann Lake and more.
Some of the lakes fished being shown in this presentation were, Crane Prairie Reservoir, Hosmer Lake, Paulina Lake, Wickiup Reservoir, Mann Lake and more.
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| High lakes of Central Oregon |
Also discussed was the fly fishing gear needed to
successfully catch some of the trophy size fish in these lakes. A good floatation
craft (float tube, pontoon boat, canoe, John boat, etc. – no motors allowed on
most lakes) is the best first line of attack.
Daniel suggested that one uses a
5 weight rod system preferably 9’ in length. For fly line, he noted that
floating line with a strike indicator would work well, but for better catching results
one should use a sinking line – intermediate sink or full sinking. He said that
he had found that a fast full-sinking-line worked best in the deep lakes as the
fish are usually close to the bottom, particularly during mid-day, and bright light conditions.
Flies to use are mostly subsurface flies as 90% of all trout’s diet is aquatic insects, smaller fish, leeches and crustaceans.
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| Floating |
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| Fast sinking |
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| Intermediate sinking |
Flies to use are mostly subsurface flies as 90% of all trout’s diet is aquatic insects, smaller fish, leeches and crustaceans.
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| Green Callibaetis |
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| chironomid larvae - blood worms |
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| Rufus Blood Leech |
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| 90 - 95% of a trout's diet is sub-surface animal and plant life |
Since a picture is worth-a-thousand-words, this blog posting
will feature pictures from the screen of Daniel’s video presentation. Many of the fish that Daniel caught on-the-fly were of trophy size 16"-20"+. Stillwater fish do get large and fat as they do not have to spend their energy to swim into or against current to gather food as do river and stream habitat trout. Hooking and setting the hook on stillwater trout is also much differently done than on moving water fish. Because of the large number of fish that can be caught in a day of stillwater fly fishing (50-100-200), it is suggested that one uses barbless hooks for quick and easy catch & releases.
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| a steelhead size -"trophy"- stillwater rainbow trout - aka. a lunker or a hog |
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| Yep, that is a left ear hookup - OUCH! %^$#% |
Another interesting point discussed this evening, a very interesting point in stillwater fly fishing is that most women fishing partners always catch more fish. It has been discovered that the simple fact is - pheromone; so guys don't bet with a woman as to who might have the better day of catching, particularly if fishing in stillwaters - lakes.
The fly boxes of the evening were won by:
Dick - the door prize
Robert - the raffle drawing
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| Tis steelhead season in the Pacific Northwest as our fly boxes would indicate tonight |
Our meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm
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Our next monthly meeting will be held Wednesday. 20 January 2016 at...
Smith's Family Restaurant
1425 Pine Street
Walla Wallahttp://www.
Dinner and social at 6:00 pm with meeting following at 7:00
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Respectfully submitted
Dale McKain
Club Secretary ~ Blog-master
Tight lines and Good Fishing
Tom Craig – President
Dave Stemmer – Vice President
Doug Coe – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster
Gerald Newell - PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator
