Early Autumn Stillwater fishing

Heading for Jubilee Lake - on Weston Mountain overlooking the Walla Walla River Valley

At Wednesday's meeting, Dale suggested we make a club outing to Jubilee Lake on Saturday. Several people said they would like to do that, some said they would try to join us. A group of women said they would be heading for the lake early, a few other were heading that way later in the morning.

Most of the past week the Walla Walla River Valley had a nice freshet of rain, the Blue Mountains had snow... so Fall is in the air in the PNW.

Arriving at the lake around noon Saturday, Dale found that Barbara, Heidi, and Debbie had been fishing most of the morning and were about to take a lunch break. Barbara reported that she had caught a few fish and so far kept one; Heidi reported she had caught her FIRST two stillwater trout on a fly that she had tied (much like a sparsely tied BS Special), and Debbie reported no hookups. Heidi was a very happy fly fisher today. The ladies reported that Robin and Harold had just got to the lake, and were fishing on the other side. Early afternoon, these three lady fishers started packing up their gear to head home, for their evening engagements.

The day was mostly cloudy, with scatter showers and cool. Much like Brian had told Dale the last time we were on Jubilee Lake "this reminds me of my days growing up in Alaska".

Dale got his Buddy settled in, next to the lake, got his boat and gear together and shoved off.

With a light rain falling Dale checked the air temperature at found it to be 47°F, and checking the water surface temperature found it to be 54°F. Perfect conditions for finding fish to be putting on the Fall feedbag. By the time Dale saw Barbara and Heidi leaving the lakeside parking lot, he had caught two trout. Dale was using a full sink line and his favorite go-to-fly... the BS Special.

As the rain came and went during the afternoon, Dale kept catching trout; most were 10"-12" in size and a few were 5". After a couple of hours of catching; Robin, Harold, and Dale got close enough on the lake to talk with each other and Dale asked, how their catching was going. They reported that it was not. At this point in time Dale had caught 25-30 trout, so he inquired what Robin and Harold were fishing with and what kind of presentation they were making with their fly? We came along side each other, Dale told them how he was presenting his fly and gave them two BS Specials, and the five trout he had creeled. As Dale pulled away, he caught another fish. Catching today was fun.

Shortly thereafter Dale noticed that Robin had a fish-on, and shortly after that Harold had a fish-on. Catching today was fun.
We continued catching fish as the clouds began to breakup and the sun appeared. The sun really felt warm after an afternoon of clouds and drizzle.

With the ease and number of trout being caught, Dale reports that he changed his presentation to see if there would be a difference in hookups.

Elk Horn Lake Special

He changed his rigging from a full fast sink line with the
BS Special; to using a stillwater intermediate sink line using a BS Special and a Elk Horn Lakes Special for a dropper.
After about 30 minutes of fishing with the intermediate sink line and rigging, he went back to the fast sink and just the BS Special.

Elk Horn Lake Special ~ BS Special

As the sun sank slowly in the west, behind the shoreline trees we tallied up our catch for the afternoon. Robin and Harold now had 10 creeled and Dale had 2.

We had a lot of fun with Catch & Releasing many more fish.

Dale said he had probably caught 45-50 trout, again most being 10"-12". He did find that fishing a full sink line with a BS Special caught larger fish, than when he switched to a stillwater intermediate sink line using a BS Special.

This made for another wonderful day of fishing / catching in the stillwaters of the Blue Mountains.

As Dale was packing up his gear, an elk hunter drove up to the boat launch to see what this lake looked like. He had been in elk-camp the past 20-days, a couple of miles from the lake and proceeded to tell Dale there had been a lot of snow this past week on his camp. Said he woke up one morning to find his camp's kitchen tarp covering the ground with 8" of snow covering it.
Winter is heading this way.

October can be, usually is, the best time of the year for catching; as fish are putting on the feedbag in prep for the onset of winter.

Hope you will be able to make it out with us on our next catching trip.

Tight lines and good fishing,
a report by Dale McKain

Walla² Fly Fishers

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The end of Summer - a fly fishing Recap

    

   

Returning from our summer break - President Dave brought our first of this season's meeting to order at 7:05 this evening .

Tonight we had 11 members and guest in attendance.

There was no new news, or upcoming event to be reported, except that Dave and Dale  on behalf of our local Project Healing Waters chapter would be attending the Walla Walla VETERANS Welcome Home Event at the VA hospital on Friday.

Treasurer Doug gave a report that we have a little over $1350.00 in our club’s checking account. There are currently no major expenses to be paid for.

We then went around the room sharing recaps for our summer fishing adventures.

Diane had spent time exploring and catching fish on the North Platte River near Casper, WY.  

Dave told us about some of his trips on the Snake River fishing the Hells Canyon area.

Tom reported that he had recently been fishing theBig Wood and Big Lost rivers in the Copper Basin of Idaho. 

Dale and Steven gave accounts of multiple trips made to Oregon’s high lakes with Brian. There were a number of trip to Jubilee, Grand Ronde and Anthony lakes. 

Dale reported that he and Steven had spent the morning of 21 August fishing under the full solar eclipse, which was like a once in a lifetime experience of jumping into a lake at 7100’, with the lights -sun- going out. 

Video - After the eclipse there, were some nice fish fights - Video
FULL SCREEN VIEWING - click on box in bottom corner 

Dale also reported that he and Barbara had spent many after work evenings fishing Bennington Lake in late May and all of June, with much success catching trout, later catching crappie, and as summer approached there were catfish on the fly.

NOTE: You can find many of these 2017 fishing trip reports  posted on this blogsite.

On this evening’s Attendance Sign-In sheet, Dale flagged it with a weather forecast for this coming Saturday the 23rd, and suggested that all that could make a run for Jubilee Lake for a day of fishing.

Since most of us have become a year older since last September and not as adept at climbing over mountain terrain, slip-sliding over slick river rocks, and braving the high waters / fast currents of early summer river flows… it was suggested that tonight we look at stillwater fly fishing more in depth. Tonight’s program was a video made by Denny Rickards on what it take to catch trophy trout in lakes and pond of the Pacific Northwest. 

The video description...

Denny has included in this fast paced, fact filled video information from 25 years of fly fishing for trophy trout in over 300 lakes, ponds and reservoirs. You will see how his system for catching big trout is put to the test on southern Oregon’s Upper Klamath Lake. Learn in detail his six keys to success, information never before shown on video. Most importantly, you will come away with a better understanding of lakes, the insects and fish that live there, the fly patterns that attract big trout, the best forms of presentation along with those factors that influence the behavior of all that lives within the stillwater environment. You will learn his secrets for stalking and landing huge trout derived from fishing and guiding anglers the past 30 years. No more wondering what rod, line, fly or retrieve to use.

After viewing this video this evening's group gave rave reviews, said they really enjoyed it, learned from it and wanted more.

NOTE: This video is now available in our club's library for you to check out and learn more.

Our 18 October meeting we will present the sequel to this evening’s program… 

Our meeting was adjourned at 8:10.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

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Dave Stemmer – President
Tom Craig – Vice President
Doug Coe – Treasurer
Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster 
Dave Stemmer – PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator