Walla² Fly Fishers

Hooking, chasing and landing big fish

2012-01-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

There are 8 RULES listed in the article below that will help you understand a little more about hooking into, and landing a BIG fish, which equate to PNW steelhead and salmon fishing. A lot of fun when you get into the hang of it.

Steelhead don't like to swim in hard fast current - search for them near the bank of a river (5' to15') from water's edge depending on size/depth of water and cubic feet per second water flow (cfs). Salmon are strong swimmers and can be found anywhere in the river but will hold behind structure resting before making their next run upstream.
Steelhead because they are trout by nature wish to hide in water at least 2' to 4' feet deep.
Because steelhead don't like to swim in strong current, search for them behind or in front of rocks, boulders, debris and in the current seam between fast water and swirling back eddies.
On clear bright days use a flash fly, on overcast / rainy days use a dark fly. In cold winter weather black and purple are good color flies to use and an egg-sucking leech will usually work wonders. It is much easier to throw a weighted fly than to attach split-shot. Consider using a sink-tip line in cold weather and use no more than a 4' leader.
WATER TEMPERATURE (carry a thermometer) it will help determine the amount of action you might see on the river. In winter steelhead fishing (38* or less water temperature) you might find a need to tap the fish on the nose to get its attention. Usually in very cold water the take is slow and the fight/ runs are slow and short.
Check the CFS water flow rate of the river you plan to fish before you start your vehicle.
- http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
- http://www.usbr.gov/projects
No need to go fly fishing if you can't get in the water. see some PNW flow links below
NEVER JERK on a steelhead's head... until it has made its take and is into its first run. Set the hook by pulling your rod towards the bank, not towards the sky.

One thing this writer has learned in steelhead fishing is that fish caught July - December 31 are good table-fare (firm meat), thereafter fish caught upriver of the John Day Dam until April 15 the meat is generally of poor table-fare quality, mushy soft meat fit for a spoon. After December smoke the fish to a firm dryness if you feel a need for a fish dinner. Consider C&R after January 1st.

You can follow this link for a heads-up guide on where is best to find steelhead in our local Oregon waters...
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/RR/steelhead_guide/central_northeast.asp

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How to Avoid Eight Fatal Mistakes That Will Cost You the Big One.

By Don Bryant
www.Nymph-Fishing.com.

Every fisherman dreams of the day when he will hook "the Big One." I know I love the prospect of hooking into large fish. How about you? But do you know how to control and land a large fish when you hook one?

What should you do once you hook a fish to raise the odds that you also land him? How do you do battle with the fish? The answer here depends on how large the fish is. It also depends on which kind of rig you are using.

Let me give you Eight Battle Rules which will help you land large fish, even very large fish, and successfully release them as well.

BATTLE RULE #1: Expect the fish to run.
A hooked fish will try to run. And what is a "run?"

Generally, a fish smaller than 12" will not tug so hard that he will pull line away from you. When a fish does pull so hard that you are forced to let him pull out line as he tries to escape, that is called a "run." The bigger the fish, the stronger the run. The bigger the fish, the longer the run. The bigger the fish, the more times the fish will run. Large fish will make more than just one run.

Here is the way it works. When you first strike the fish, the fish spooks at the moment he feels the hook and makes a run in a panicked attempt to escape. Then he tires as he pulls against the reel drag. So he stops running. But as you wind in line to land the fish, he will spook again when he sees you and make another run. A large fish can do this several times before wearing down. Normally, each run is a little less energetic than the previous one. So Battle Rule #1 for fighting a fish is, "Expect the fish to run."

But you usually don't know how large the fish is at the moment you hook him. So, at the moment you hook ANY fish, EXPECT the fish to break into a run.

So Battle Rule #1 for fighting any fish actually is, "Expect EVERY fish to run."

FOUR STEPS TO TAKE WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING A FISH TO RUN.

Expecting the fish to run means you have already tended to, or immediately tend to, four important matters.

A. Pre-set the reel's drag.
You set the drag to match the strength of your line on a spinning reel or the strength of your tippet on a flyreel, and you do this before you ever start fishing for the day.

If you are a flyfisherman, this also means that you take time during the fishing day to reset the drag when you change to a tippet with a different breaking strength. For example, you will need to loosen the drag if you replace a 5X (4-lb.) tippet with a 6X (3-lb.) tippet.

For spinning reels, the general rule is to set the drag to slightly less than the breakpoint of the line. I follow that rule when I use a spinning reel.

But for flyreels, I do NOT follow the general rule, which says I should set my drag to slightly less than the breakpoint of the tippet. Contrary to most flyfishermen, I prefer to set my drag only tight enough to stop overspin and backlash of the flyline. Usually, that is well below the breaking point of even the thinnest tippet. I will explain why in Battle Rule #6.

The Correct Way to Set the Drag's Release Point:
When you set reel drag according to line or tippet strength, you should take rod guide friction into account. The guides on a rod add their own resistance when line is pulled from the reel spool with the rod heavily bent (bent like a heavy fish would bend a rod). So, do not set your reel drag by just pulling line directly from the reel spool. Instead, set the drag so that it yields line when you pull line from the end of the rod with the rod bent back hard. Do this before you tie on any fly or lure, to avoid injury. And the best way to do this is to enlist the help of your fishing buddy. Have him hold the end of your line (remember, no hooks) while you jerk back suddenly and hard on your rod several times.

B. Throw the anti-reverse lever to the "ON" position.
This applies to spin fishermen.
If you are using a spinning reel, move the lever for the reel's anti-reverse to the "ON" position as soon as you hook the fish. If you don't, the first lunge of a larger fish to escape will send the reel handle spinning backward, unwinding multiple coils of loose monofilament. That almost guarantees you will lose the fish due to the tangles.

C. Get the fish "on the reel" as soon as possible.
This applies to flyfishermen.
Most flyfishing retrieves involve stripping line in and dropping it at your feet or in the water, if you are wading. So, as soon as you hook a fish, wind onto the reel any loose coils of line lying at your feet. This is called "getting the fish on the reel." Don't try to fight the fish from that supply of loose coils of line. They inevitably tangle.

And if you do leave them lying there in the water, there is one final "gotcha." Fish instinctively seem to know one last escape trick: Make a mad dash right through all those coils just as the fisherman's net appears. At least, a lot of my fish all knew that, until I got smart and began fighting my fish "from the reel."

When the fish is "on the reel," that means the flyline passes from the reel spool, under the index finger of your rod hand, up the guides and out the rod tip to the fish. And once the fish is "on the reel," you are ready to begin battling the fish as described in the remaining Battle Rules.

You may have to wait to get the fish "on the reel" until after the first, explosive run. That brings us to the final Step in expecting a fish to run.

D. Turn the reel handle "down" slightly.
This applies to flyfishermen.

If you are using a flyreel, turn your wrist slightly to aim the protruding reel handle slightly down toward the water. You don't want the handle and spool to face sideways or, worse yet, slightly up. It takes only one "hot" fish on its first, explosive run to teach you why. Most likely, just before you hooked the fish, you were stripping in line and letting it accumulate at your feet or on the water directly below the reel. This is an accident waiting to happen if you don't turn your wrist slightly. Hopefully, it will happen to you only once for you to learn the lesson permanently.

If the fish makes a super-fast, explosive, first run, before you can get him "on the reel," the fish can pull that accumulated line out so fast that the line coils leap upward off the water high enough to wrap around the flyreel hand. The next thing you know, the tippet pops when the line comes tight to the reel handle and the spool won't turn because the line is wrapped around the handle. You are left with a limp line. But, if you turn your wrist slightly, so the reel handle points slightly down, the leaping line will fall off and away from it.

BATTLE RULE #2: Fight the fish from the reel.
To fight the fish from the reel, you use the reel's drag to wear out the fish.

HOW TO USE THE DRAG TO FIGHT THE FISH.
At this point, I need to tell you how to use the drag on your reel to control a running fish. The drag forces the fish to use up its strength by pulling against the resistance of the drag, while drag protects against the line or tippet breaking.
If you are using a spinning reel, you need to do nothing yourself. The reel's drag, properly set, will fully protect against the line breaking when a fish runs. Let the drag were out the fish as it runs.

But if you are using a flyreel, you, the fisherman, become "the drag," as I will describe in the next paragraph. I am convinced that flyreels do not need an expensive drag (except for saltwater flyfishing or salmon flyfishing or steelhead flyfishing). Drags on flyreels, in my opinion, only need to keep the spool on the flyreel from overspinning and backlashing when a fish runs hard. That means that the drag on a flyreel can be set very, very light, with only slight resistance. See Battle Rule #6 below for the reason for the light setting.

Now on a spinning reel, the drag does all the work. But on a flyreel, the lightly-set drag does almost none of the work to slow down a running fish. You, the fisherman, do most of the dragging. Here's how. First, keep your knuckles away from the spinning handle, unless you would rather brag to your buddies about your bruises and the large fish you lost. Second, as the fish is running, place one or two of your fingers against the line on the reel as the spool spins. This is best done by contacting the line on the backside of the reel, opposite to where it comes off the reel and goes to the butt guide on the rod. If you have a "palming reel," use the palm of your hand rather than your fingers to apply pressure to the palming rim of the spool.

Either way, use increasing pressure on the line and rotating spool to slow the fish. Just don't press so hard that you cause the tippet to snap.

And how do you learn to do that? By losing several fish! Or from practicing on lots of large fish first. See "A WORLD-RECORD CARP?" near the end of this article for a tip on how to get good at controlling large fish, even very large fish.

Caution for Flyfishermen:

If you are using a flyreel with the light tippets normally used with dries or nymph, never try to control the fish by alternately stripping in line to gain on the fish and then letting line slip back out through your finger tips when he runs. Such an approach will nearly always end with a tangle that snaps the tippet. Instead, you want to be able to use the reel drag (as described above) to restrain the fish when he runs. Once the fish is "on the reel," let the reel (plus finger or palm pressure) do the dragging as the fish runs out, while you do the winding as you have opportunity to bring the fish in.

Caution for Spin Fishermen:

If you are using a spinning reel, here is a word of caution about winding in line with a spinning reel. I call it "noisy winding."

The spool on a spinning reel will "give" or turn to release line without very much pull. That is how it should be. The spool needs to yield line just before the line would break. And all spools make a clicking sound when they are releasing line under drag, to alert you to that when it happens.

What I call "noisy winding" occurs when you and the fish get into a tug of war where neither one of you is winning. For example, the fish may be holding in the current and pulling hard enough that you can't budge him. Now suppose you try to "winch" him in by just turning and turning the handle of the spinning reel. If he does not come your way, what do you think the spinning reel does? For each turn of the reel head, the spool will turn once. The spool turns in lockstep with the rotating head, never gaining an inch of line against the stubborn fish.

When this happens, the spool clicks loudly as you crank the handle, warning you that this is happening. The reel complains with what I call "noisy winding." This will twist your monofilament line TERRIBLY! Stop as soon as you hear that sound. Instead, bring the trout toward you by pumping with the rod. Do not "winch" him in with the reel. This brings us to the next Battle Rule, pumping.

BATTLE RULE #3: Pump your rod to draw stubborn fish toward you.

Pumping is a two-step action. First, lower the rod most of the way down to the water, until the rod is nearly pointed at the fish. Wind in line as you are lowering the rod tip. This is step one. Second, begin a lifting motion against the fish and raise the rod all the way up to vertical.

If you are using a spinning reel, stop lifting if the spinning reel drag senses the break-point of the line and begins releasing line.

If you are using a flyreel, only an educated index finger on your rod hand can tell you that your tippet will break if you pull any harder.

Except for a very stubborn fish, the lifting motion will pull the fish closer to you by several feet. Now you want to recover that amount of line. So, once the rod is vertical, simultaneously lower the rod and wind in the line which you just gained.

Repeat the two-step process, moving the fish ever closer to you: Lift to pull the fish toward you. Lower your rod to wind in the line you gained. Lift again. Lower and wind again.

Stop the pumping when:

(1) Your educated index finger warns you that the tippet breakpoint is near (fly fishers) or the reel drag starts giving line (spin fishers).

(2) The fish breaks into another run, stripping out line.

(3) The fish is close enough to you to land him.

When is the best time to pump? At the end of a run when the fish is momentarily tired out. A tired fish will allow pumping. Don't attempt to pump an energetic fish.

By the way, you can also "pump" a fish by making the "lifting" motion sideways in a horizontal plane. This kind of horizontal pumping brings us to the next Battle Rule.

BATTLE RULE #4: Keep the fish off balance.

The most common advice given to battle a fish is, "Keep your rod tip up! You have to keep the fish's head up."

To that, I say, "NO!" And again I say, emphatically, "NO!"

The only time I have my rod tip up is when I am pumping the fish. Otherwise, I am constantly doing everything I can to keep the fish off balance. The fish will tire more quickly when he must fight you off balance. And that means I pull on the fish from constantly changing angles. Only some of them are from the vertical with my rod tip up.

Before you can understand what I mean by "off balance," we need to understand how a fish battles you. Unless you are fishing in a lake, the fish will use the current to help him escape. He will also use the current to hold against the pressure of your bent rod. The fish does not just face nose-first into the current. Instead, the fish turns at an angle to the current so the current deflects off his body to shove him sideways away from you. At the same time, he angles his fins so they catch the current to drive him deeper. This is an easy maneuver for the fish that does not take much energy. If you fight the fish only by lifting up on your rod, you are not fighting the fish. Instead, you are fighting the current. And that gives the fish the advantage. The downward pressure of the current on the fish offsets all of your upward pull.

What you must do is constantly force the fish to change his angle in the current to offset the pull of the rod. Fight the fish with your rod horizontal, not vertical. I say, "Keep your rod tip sideways!" That means that you will pull on the fish from the side, not just from above. That forces him to strain to keep his angle. Suddenly, very briefly, relax the pressure on the fish so he straightens himself out in the current. Then begin pulling sideways again.

If the fish is opposite you in the stream, keep relaxing the pressure, then reasserting it. Then suddenly swing the rod tip up through vertical and down to fight him from your other side. Go back through vertical and down to horizontal on your other side. Keep changing the angle of the line on the fish to force him to constantly re-angle in the current.

If the fish is either directly upstream or downstream from you, it is even better. Then when you flip your rod from low on your left side to low on your right side, the fish must completely switch his body angle in the current to resist the new pull of the line.

This tactic is even more effective in a lake, where the fish has no current to assist him and he must do all the resisting himself.

I once watched a novice fisherman battling a trout in the quiet sidewater below a dam in northwest New Mexico. As soon as he hooked the fish, he followed the advice, "Keep your rod tip up." He stuck the butt of his rod into his stomach at his belt line, leaned the rod back to vertical on the fish and proceeded to follow the fish around and around in the slow current. Everywhere the fish went, the angler went. With that rod angle, the fish was the boss. The fisherman never once varied the angle of his rod. He kept it straight up in the air. The fisherman was only able to land the fish after the fish reached the point of total exhaustion. The battle lasted 22 minutes, and that was after I began timing it, when I couldn't believe how long he had already been fighting the fish. This was no monster trout. The poor fish was only 14" long.

That battle lasted 30 or 35 minutes. Properly managed, that battle between the angler and the trout could have lasted only a minute or two.

If you keep a fish off balance during the battle, you should be able to land him in less than three minutes, even a 20" fish. And that is with a 6X (3-lb.) tippet on your fly leader. It should take you even less time with a spinning outfit and 4-lb. monofilament. More about this in the next Battle Rule.

And if you really want to become skilled at handling large fish, go after carp in any pond near your home with either dough balls or nymphs. There you will find dozens of 5 to 15 pound fish. They will teach you all you ever need to know about fish battles! They will most certainly teach you what not to do when you hook a large fish. See the Section titled "A World-record Carp?" near the end of this report.
BATTLE RULE #5: Do not be afraid to apply pressure to the fish.

Now I know what I am about to recommend will raise more than a few objections. When I battle any fish big enough to make a run, I haul back on my rod like you can't believe. My fishing buddy tells me my rod is bent into a full "C" shape. When I fight a fish, the butt end of my rod points at the fish, just like the tip. I fight the fish this way whether my rod is vertical or horizontal, whether I am pumping the fish or throwing him off balance.

If you are using a spinning rod and reel, you should be able to do this without any fear whatsoever, provided your drag is set correctly. And besides the drag on the spinning reel, the nylon monofilament has enormous stretch to it. So put the pressure to the fish.

Now you will NOT be able to do this safely with a fly rig assembled the way most flyfishermen ordinarily do it. Most flyfishermen typically use a stiff, fast-action graphite rod and a stubby 7.5' to 9' commercial, tapered leader with 12" to 18" of tippet at the end. A broomstick has more bend to it than most graphite rods. The popular "fast action" of such rods translates into just plain "stiff action," in my opinion, when you battle a fish. To the contrary, the graphite flyrod I use is soft to medium action, and it bends clear down to the handle. It is soft enough to bend into a "C" when I lean back on a big fish and consequently offers substantial shock-absorbing qualities needed to handle large fish.

Besides the flyrod, there is another reason I can put such pressure on the fish: the leader I use. I prefer much longer tippets. And they provide significant additional stretch. Nylon tippet tretches and stretches and stretches under tension and impact. But standard, commercial tapered leaders typically are mostly thick butt section. Usually one half to two thirds of the length of such leaders is untapered butt material. Only the last two or three feet actually provide the taper and tippet. And, if you're lucky, you may even have as much as a whopping 15" of level tippet at the end, which a lot of flyfishers use up tying on their flies. (TIP: Add your own section of tippet to the main leader. Use it up, instead, tying on your flies.) That kind of leader design is a breakoff waiting to happen when a large fish strikes. The leader does little to absorb the shock of a large fish jumping or thrashing.

But with the aid of a flexible rod, a good drag and an educated index finger (which knows when to let the fish run, from lessons learned battling carp, remember), you can apply extraordinary amounts of pressure on the fish, even with 6X or 7X tippet, provided you have adequate tippet length. This means that you land the fish more quickly. And that means he has a better chance of reviving than he would if you have to play him to exhaustion in order to land him.

By the way, that longer (nymphing/dry fly) leader I referred to is 13.5 feet long. It has five feet of butt which uniformly tapers down from 0.020 inches to 0.011 inches (0X). Then it takes another 8.5 feet to taper from 0X to 6X. If I am running two nymphs, I add another 18 inches for the second fly, for a total of 15 feet. That leader is longer in just its final taper beyond 0X (8.5 to 10 feet) than the total length of most commercial leaders. But that additional length gives both superior speed to reach bottom nymphing currents and substantial, added elasticity to buffer against breakoffs when I need to apply pressure to the fish. And I have fished that leader using my medium-action, 7.5-foot rod for twenty-five years. Together, they have proven to be formidable weapons in battles with large fish.

To build that leader, see the very end of this article for the leader's formula.

BATTLE RULE #6: Bow to your opponent when he presents himself.

If you wish to land any fish capable of explosive runs, you must learn to bow to your opponent when he displays himself. I am talking about the jump, that exhilarating moment when a trout or bass or pike bursts from the water in aerial acrobatics. When smaller fish jump, they do not train the fly tippet or the spinning line to the breakpoint, but large fish, those able to surge off in long runs, have mass and muscle to match their energy.

Even a three-pound fish, nearly weightless in water, will easily snap a 3-pound tippet or a 4-pound line when airborne. Imprint this in your mind: YOU MUST DROP ALL ROD PRESSURE ON THE FISH WHEN HE JUMPS. However you happen to be holding the rod at the moment the fish jumps, INSTANTLY swing your rod tip to point your rod straight at the jumping fish. In a single, swift move of your rod tip, give the jumping fish every possible inch of slack line you can. On a giant leap, be prepared even to lean and reach far forward toward the fish to create more slack.

In effect, when your opponent leaps clear of the water to display his prowess, honor him. Bow both your rod and yourself to him in deference.

If there is still not enough slack and the fish comes tight to your reel during the jump, you have one more level of protection against breakoff.

If you are using a spinning reel, the long length of monofilament line will stretch to a surprising extent to protect against breakoff. If that is still not sufficient, a high quality, properly set drag will yield in time.

If you are using a flyreel, the very light drag setting I recommended above (just enough to prevent backlash) will immediately yield line to the jumper. (Be sure to release the pressure on the flyline from your educated index finger during a jump, so the flyline can slip, if needed.)

BATTLE RULE #7: Suckered or tuckered - know the difference to know when to land him.

So how will you know when the fish is ready to call it quits? How can you tell the fish is ready to let you land him?

He will lie over on his side in the water near the surface. Many times, that is so obvious that you can literally skitter the fish on his side across the surface the last few feet to your net or hand. Just lift your rod up and back toward you. When he still has any fight left in him, he will come at you nose-down as you pump him. "Nose-down" means he is still intent on getting back to the bottom. But when he tires, he will turn over on his side. Don't be suckered into trying to land a hot fish. Wait until he shows you when he is tuckered out. Watch for him to turn on his side in concession.

BATTLE RULE #8: Treat your quarry with care and consideration.

Here are tips for handling a fish when you land him.

- Use a net on fish larger than 14". The net will reduce struggling. This may not apply to certain fish which you can lip-land such as bass or tail-land such as salmon.

- Wet your hand before touching the fish. Never grab him with a dry hand. The slippery slim on fish is actually a protective coating of mucus. If it gets wiped off by your dry hand, the fish becomes vulnerable to infection.

- Never grip the fish harshly. That can rupture internal organs. Be ready to drop the fish back into the water or net rather than injure him by squeezing him.

- Support a fish of any size with your hand under his belly. Don't ever hold him by inserting your fingers into his gill covers and lifting him. The gills are too delicate for finger contact.

- Remove the hook, doing as little tissue damage as possible. (Barbless hooks, please, where possible!) If the hook is too deep to reach (extremely rare with artificials like flies or lures), clip off the leader as short as possible. And never, ever, tear a hook free. Whether the hook is barbed or barbless, back the hook out the way it went in. Apply the same measure of consideration you would want if you had the hook impaled in your lip.

Note: Some recent research suggests that there is a better way to clip the leader if you must leave a hook in the throat of a fish. Instead of cutting the leader as short as possible by reaching way down the fish's throat, leave the leader protruding from the fish's mouth by an inch or less. Some biologists now believe that a short-cut, stubby leader waving in the fish's throat prevents food from passing freely when the fish swallows. The longer leader protruding beyond the fish's mouth offers no "pointed end" as an obstacle to the swallowed food.

- Get the fish back in the water quickly. Remember: the fish has just run a "400-yard dash," and now you are forcing him to hold his breath when he is already panting hard. If you wish to take a picture, place the fish in your net and suspend the fish in the water while you make all necessary adjustments to your camera. Please don't just lay the fish out along side your rod on the bank and then fiddle for two minutes getting the picture. The fish may be unable to recover, and, in my opinion, even if he does revive, that is just not fair to the fish.

- When you are ready to release the fish, gently release him. Don't just drop him back in the water. And, for goodness sake, don't throw him back by tossing him through the air. That is the same as your doing a belly flop of the high dive.

Instead, carefully return him to his element. Two things are essential. You must help him get his bearings, and you must make sure he is breathing adequately.

Here is how to do that. While supporting him under his belly as before, hold him nose-first into the current, if you are fishing in a stream. But don't let go. Hold onto him lightly until he regains enough vigor to force himself free of your grip. If he does not seem to be reviving, move the fish forward and back in the water to flush more water over his gills. Never relinquish the fish to the currents or lake until he shows he is ready by struggling to get free. Otherwise, you will see him just tumble head over tail in the current in a stream or go belly up in a lake.

Just as a fish will let you know when he is ready to be landed by turning on his side, he will let you know by his wiggling that he is ready to be released.

FINAL COMMENTS ON LANDING AND HANDLING A FISH:

Netting.

First, net the fish correctly. Don't try to scoop the fish up from behind. The fish will lunge forward out of the net when he feels it with his tail. Instead, lower the net until the rim is fully submerged. Then lead the fish headfirst over the net. Then lower your rod tip and then lift the net. The fish will instinctively dive down toward the bottom when you lower the rod and end up nosing right into your waiting net. A scooping, lifting motion will finish the effort.

Beaching.

Second, please refrain from beaching the fish if you can land him any other way. But if you must, then, to beach a fish, lead him into water so shallow he is forced to turn on his side. Then skitter him across the surface, letting his momentum push him up into the final shallows or onto dry land. Even here, leave him in the final shallow rather than beached high and dry. Beaching does the same damage as your dry hand. It scrapes off the protective mucus film. Again, please do not beach any fish, if at all possible.

Killing a Fish.

If you choose to keep fish for a meal, I ask that you kill them in a humane way. I have winced too many times to count as I have watched fishermen take a live fish, insert the point of a knife into the anal orifice and slit the belly of the live fish open up to the gills. I ask that you at least kill the fish first, before you gut it.

To kill a fish, either strike its head with a sharp, heavy, crushing blow, with or against a large rock. Or, better still, on a smaller fish, hold it around the belly and back with one hand and place one or more fingers in its mouth against the roof of its mouth. Then forcefully snap its head sharply backward over its back toward the tail to break its neck. Use enough force to hear the neck bones crack. Note that the neck of larger fish is usually too bulky and strong to break by snapping it.

That, in my opinion, is only fair to the fish. Please don't subject them to unnecessary pain.

A Plea for Barbless Fly Hooks.

I am convinced that both people and fish benefit from reduced injury with barbless hooks. But many people think that barbed hooks are needed when a fish jumps or the line goes slack for any reason. They believe that a barbless hook will fall out if the line goes slack.

My on-stream experience has convinced me that does not happen.

Over the twenty-five years I have fished barbless flyhooks, I can think of no situation where a fish has gotten off when the line has gone slack. It does not happen on jumps. It does not happen if I just relax pressure on the fish.

Numerous times, I have experimented with hooked fish at the point I am about to land them. Just to see what will happen, I lower my rod and watch them. They will swim about for a moment until they catch on that they appear to be free, and then they zip for deeper water. If I give them slack, they go dozen feet or so, out into deeper water where they feel safe, and there they hold in the current. They do not run or try to escape further. When the pressure from my rod is relaxed, they have nothing to excite fear in them. I wait a minute or so to see whether the barbless hook comes free, and then I tug them back in and release them. I do not recall a single time that the fish got free because I gave the fish slack. In my experience, a barbless hook is as secure as a barbed hook.

I will add one more piece of evidence, here, to convince those of you who may still be skeptical. Please be clear that I am speaking now of barbless fly hooks. Treble-hook lures are different matter. Such lures have enough weight that the fish can "throw" them, especially when jumping with a head-shaking motion. But flies, such as dries or nymphs or streamers, work well when fished barbless. To persuade you even more, I want to mention a demonstration I saw once on TV.

A certain flycasting instructor takes each class of students to his casting pond and begins the lesson with the question, "How many of you think a fish can get off a barbless hook? Let me show you otherwise." The instructor always brings one extra flyrod down to the pond. And before the students start casting practice, the instructor makes a cast or two out into the pond and hooks a trout. Then he announces he will prove that a fish hooked on a barbless fly will not get off. He lays the rod down on the casting pier, and he spends the next hour teaching the students. At the end of the class, he picks up the rod and lands the fish which has been swimming around on the end of the line for the past 60 minutes.
Need I say more?

A WORLD-RECORD CARP?

I recommended above that the best possible way to learn how to battle large fish is to go out and land a lot of large fish. There is nothing better than first-hand experience. But large fish are not all that plentiful for most species like trout, bass or pike, so that you can just go out and practice catching them. But, as I said, the exception is the common carp.
I would like to side with the minority in the opinion usually expressed about carp. For most people, carp are seen as trash fish, principally, I suspect, because they are found so often in the lakes and streams we humans have so terribly polluted. Carp must be trash, because that's where they live. But I suspect there is a contrary reason they are found in waters where all other fish species have died off. They are the final survivors. They hang on when other species die. They get the prize for endurance.

There is also the fact most fishermen are not aware of. Carp are not native to the United States. They were originally imported into the United States from Europe in the mid-nineteenth century because of their fine culinary qualities for which they were renowned in Europe. To quote the Minnesota Historical Society:

"Originating in Asia, carp were cultivated for food in rice paddies and ponds as early as 800-300 BC. Carp are also native to Eastern Europe, where they were considered a tasty and valuable food fish. After carp had been transplanted in England, Izaak Walton lauded the fish as the 'Queen of Rivers' in his classic treatise, 'The Compleat Angler.' "
But we in this country have come to despise the carp, unfairly so, in my opinion.
I myself am indebted to the lowly carp, for I would have had few other fish to catch where I grew up, were it not for the lowly carp. And I learned from the lowly carp how to battle large fish. In the Fox River which flows through Elgin, IL, outside Chicago, I had the choice between 10-inch catfish and monster carp. Some weighed forty pounds, or so said the clerk in the local tackle store.

As a teenage angler, I wanted the big action, so I set out after the carp.
I first went after them with spinning gear using 6-lb. line but then sought to refine my tackle to see just how light I could go. As time passed, I settled on a 7-foot all-white fiberglass Shakespeare Wonderod flyrod, a then USA-made Pflueger Medalist 1494 flyreel, 200 yards of 30-pound dark-green baitcasting line and six feet of 2-lb. blue fluorescent Stren monofilament as the leader. I twisted on a 1/8 ounce Rubbercor sinker 10 inches above a #8 Eagle Claw dry fly hook, model #59 with a down eye. On the hook, I would mold a single pea-size ball of fresh Wonder Bread. Then I would strip off 15 or 20 feet of line, flip the rig into the river, prop it up on a forked stick and wait.

I have to say that there was hardly a day that went by when I didn't hook at least a couple of fish. They usually ranged from two to five pounds. Pedestrians on the nearby bridge used to gather to cheer me on when I would have one of the five-pounders on. But as I said, I wanted monster fish. And once or twice a month I would hook into one of the big guys. I have no idea just how big they really were, because all I could do was hang on as they bolted down stream, ripping off half the line on my reel before snapping the two-pound Stren.

But I was prepared. I had my Langley De-Liar pocket scale ready to measure any monster I was able to land. I kept after the big guys, and they regularly treated me to defeat. But each time, I learned a little more about restraining their explosive runs. By September, 1960, when I said goodbye to the Fox River to come to Colorado to attend the University of Denver, the largest carp I had managed to land on that 2-pound leader and 7-foot flyrod weighed in at 12 pounds. All the bigger guys had won their battles with me.

Then, several years ago, before the IGFA (International Game Fish Association) began restricting access to members only to view their world records for various species of fish, I happened to be scanning their list and came to "Carp." What I saw gave me a sense of teenage accomplishment. The then world record (1990) for largest common carp ever caught on a 2-pound leader was something like 8 pounds!

Don't disdain the common carp. Learn from them. Learn to land them.

I hope you have enjoyed this Special Report. And, each time you go fishing, may you hook at least one fish so large that you must apply all Eight Battle Rules in order to land him.

Don Bryant
http://www.nymph-fishing.com

****************

Summary of the Eight Battle Rules to Land Large Fish:

BATTLE RULE #1: Expect the fish to run.
BATTLE RULE #2: Get the fish "on the reel," and fight the fish from the reel as soon as
possible.
BATTLE RULE #3: Pump your rod to draw stubborn fish toward you.
BATTLE RULE #4: Keep the fish off balance.
BATTLE RULE #5: Do not be afraid to apply pressure to the fish.
BATTLE RULE #6: Bow to your opponent when he presents himself.
BATTLE RULE #7: Suckered or tuckered - know the difference to know when to land him.
BATTLE RULE #8: Treat your quarry with care and consideration.

****************

Measured Taper on 8-foot / 6X Knotless Leader (from one of the world's premier flyline and leader manufacturers):

Level section: 0.020" = 54"
Taper section: 0.020" tapering down to 0.005" = 18"
Level section: 0.005" = 24"

Comment:
This is not really an 8' tapered leader at all. Only 18" out of the total 96" actually shows a taper. Only 19% (18/96) of this leader does the tapering. In reality, this is an 18" tapered leader, not an 8' tapered leader.
Comment:
To the contrary, what this "leader" represents is an additional 54" of stiff, transparent, level "flyline," measuring 0.020", attached to 18" of tapered leader reaching 6X, with 24" of level 6X tippet added to the end of the tapered section.
Comment:
At most, this "leader" has about 30" of stretchable nylon available to battle a large fish. From a practical standpoint, this leader provides little ability to absorb shock. And the ability to absorb shock is further reduced because very little (only 6") of the stretchable portion is stronger than 6X. Nearly all the load placed on this leader for stretching falls to the weakest 6X section.

****************

Special Nymphing Leader Formula
(Designed, in part, for battling large fish. See Battle Rule #5.)

0.020" = 12"
0.018" = 12"
0.016" = 12"
0.013" = 12"
0.011" = 12"
0.009" = 12"
0.007" = 12"
0.006" = 60" (optional up to 84" for certain nymphing situations)
0.005" = 18" (or 7X or 5X in place of the 6X, depending on conditions)
0.005" = 18" (to optional second nymph)

Total leader length: 13.5 feet or 15 feet (optional 15.5 feet to 17 feet).

Comment:
The extra long tippet sections both accelerate the speed with which a nymph is able to sink and also provide substantial shock-absorbing qualities when battling large fish.
Comment:
All sections are joined to each other with loop-to-loop connections to allow replacement of damaged or worn sections without disruption of the overall taper. On the contrary, if a blood knot is used, that will consume part of the specified length of the two adjacent sections when the two end knots are retied to the replacement section.
Comment:
A half-inch cork strike indicator is usually positioned along the 60" section of 5X or 12" section of 4X. Yarn indicators do not hold their positions very well on thin-diameter tippet strands. Yarn tends to slip on thin tippets.
-------------------------------------------------
by permission of the author Donald G. Bryant
Article copyright © 2006 by Donald G. Bryant
-------------------------------------------------
Columbia River Basin river flow rates
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/current/?type=flow

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/current/?type=flow

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/id/nwis/current/?type=flow

http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/umatilla/umatea.html

http://www.usbr.gov/pn/hydromet/owytea.html

View of a New Year

2012-01-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

This evening's meeting has been touch-and-go for about a week as our regular meeting location had over booked their meeting facility with another group and asked to move the Walla² Fly Fishers into a public dining room area. We did so and our program plans were therefore changed. We had 12 members present to discuss some New Year directions for our club.
Along with the dining group of club members, the later arrival of members sat around and began two or three discussions circles concerning fly fishing. At one end of the table came the discussion once again... of how to catch a steelhead. It was decided that some days it is tough.
More about this in a later blog posting.

President Tyson called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. Discussed was the New Year collection of membership dues -$15 for individuals and $20 for family, payable to Walla² Fly Fishers via Treasurer Doug. This can and was done at the time of each meeting or by mailing to:
Walla² Fly Fishers
c/o Dr.Doug Coe
1341 Lowell Dr
Walla Walla WA 99362
President Tyson, also asked for an election for new club officer(s) in February 2012, as he was feeling weary of being the club's chief officer. With Tyson's election call, it was then discussed the need to have an active club Vice President, which we haven't had since Tyson took his position last April. With a group discussion of the situation, Tyson said if someone would step forward and accept the nomination for VP, to help with the club's programs and activities, he would consider staying on as club President.

Also discussed was our up-and-down membership attendance since we have started having monthly meeting at Jacobi's Cafe. It was decided that we would beginning looking elsewhere for a regular meeting location with a steady available banquet room. Please watch for further notice
We also discussed the creation of a Program Committee to line up our monthly programs, which is now made up of Jim, Dave, and Diane. Suggestions for future meeting programs were:

February - Stillwater Fly Fishing Techniques and flies
March - Columbia Basin Bass Fishing on the fly
April - Fly Fishing in New Zealand
May - Fly Fishing in Alaska
June - 2012 Fly Fishing Fair
September - Steelhead fishing NE Oregon on the fly
October - Grand Ronde Steelhead Fishing on the fly

Speakers for these programs are currently being contacted for availability.

The creation of a Raffle-Fund Raising Committee was formed by Roz, Diane, and Bonnie to reactivate the monthly fly / flybox raffle, and look into a fund raising - 2012 guided fishing trip raffle with the help of Tom and his fishing guide connections in the PNW. We hope to conduct a 2012 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery this June. We hope that Scott will help with the establishing of this year's program as he has done in the past. We will again ask Skip if he will lead in our fly rod casting clinic for that day. We are hoping to set this year's event for the first of second Saturday in June, if Waterbrook Winery is again available. We are also looking for a DVD projector for club meeting programs/ presentations. When March arrives we hope to have some early stillwater club fishing trips lined up.

This is how we are viewing 2012 for the Walla² Fly Fishers, do you have any suggestions? If so please contact President Tyson or Secretary Dale by email--> WallaWalla.Flyfishing@gmail.com
The floor is now open for nominations for anyone wishing to step forward to fill the post of club Vice President.

This evening our meeting was adjourned at 8:38.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Fishing the Klickitat River with Jim Gallagher

2011-11-09T22:56:00.000-08:00

This month we had 38 FFF members and guest attending our meeting. There was a very short club business discussion. Club Treasurer Doug Coe reports that the club has over $700 in our bank account (we will not give $$ details in this public forum).

After most of the dinner tables were cleared President Tyson ask Tom Craig to introduce our guest speaker for the evening. Tom had made a couple of guided fishing trips with Jim Gallagher on the Klitckitat River, and for this meeting invited him to join us with details of his guided adventures.

Jim talked with us about the fishing opportunities on the Klickitat River showing maps and slides of a number for stretches of the river that he guides on a regular basis. Even though most of his trips target trout, he said that more and more he was becoming a big fan of steelhead fishing the Klickitat. The open fishing season for the Klickitat is June 1 through November 30. Be sure to check the WA and Yakama Indian Reservation fishing regulations before hitting the river since there are some special regs that govern parts of the river. Jim reported to us that the Klickitat is best fished when the water flow is between 500-800 cfs. He pointed out that trout fishing was best during the heat of the summer months, before fishing the river one should check to see if it might be out of shape due to glacial melt. He tells us that the best time of the year for fishing the river is September and October when water flows are pretty steady, and the cooler weather stops the glacial runoff from turning the river into a milk bath.

Jim, gave us a wonderful slide show of his guiding results on the Klickitat, and passed around several fly boxes showing us his favorite trout and steelhead flies used on the Klickitat.
After our meeting, Jim was heading for the Grande Ronde River for some steelhead fishing for awhile. If you think you might be interested in booking a guided trip on the Klickitat River next year you can contact him of availability from the info of his card.

We wish to Thank You Jim for this evening's visit, information, and presentation. Good luck with you fishing excursion on the Grande Ronde.

In past years we have not held a Walla² Fly Fishers meeting during the month of December. Club officers will discuss this option for 2011 and make an email announcement to the club membership of a decision to hold a December meeting.
Happpy Holidays.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Due to Technical Difficulties

2011-10-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

This evening the Walla² Fly Fishers had our regularly scheduled meeting at Jacobi's Café. We had six regular members and one guest from Bellevue, WA in attendance. The planned program for this evening was aquatic insect life / natural trout food, but due to technical difficulties we were unable to make all the connections with the video equipment so this program did not develop.

President Tyson, announced the chain of events that led to our program’s technical difficulties, and that club Treasurer Doug was still on holiday in Hawaii, so we did not have our planned program, or a treasurers’ report. We hope Doug will be able to join us in November to update us from our spring $$$ activities and raffle proceeds after paying for the guided fishing trip with Red’s Fly Shop on the Yakima River. It is understood that we did come out of this event with added money in the club's bank account.

Without the planned program taking place, we had a most enjoyable evening after the dinner hour with a round table discussion of individual's fishing trips. We shared past experiences, techniques of chasing various fish species with fly rod in hand, and good fishing spots we had worked through.

Tom Craig led off the discussion with his pictures of the fishing trip he and his son had Tuesday on the Klickitat River in central WA. It was a very fruitful day’s fishing for Tom and son. Tom had quite a few nice pictures (two shown here) and smiles with him this evening to show proof of their previous day's success.

Also discussed were other fishing opportunities around our area:

Steelhead and trout fishing the Walla Walla, Touchet, Tucannon, Grande Ronde, and Umatilla rivers
Carp fishing the Columbia River
American Shad fishing the Columbia River

and with high hopes from September’s presentation by Dave Karl for the future of fishing Chinook and steelhead in the entire Walla Walla River system, including City Center Walla Walla. It was mentioned this has been done in Pendleton, OR by the CTUIR, so why not Walla Walla?

We also discussed that this is a busy time of the year, polishing off warm weather activities, cleaning gun for fall hunting trips, vacationing in Hawaii, and the low turnout of membership for this evening’s meeting. We discussed… if our current meeting location carried a feeling of “obligation” to buy a meal and that meal/beverage pricing maybe thinning our attendance. Since only about half the people in attendance actually make a meal purchase, we hope no one feels the need to buy anything in order to attend our club meetings. Yes, that maybe easier said than done; but the only expense for participation in our club is membership dues. We need YOUR input into these matters. Do we need to look at revamping our club’s meeting venue?

Jerry Makus has volunteered to start a telephone tree – call line to remind everyone of our next scheduled meeting of Wednesday, 9 November. We hope you will recognize his call and be able to attend our next regularly scheduled meeting. Next month we three (3) fishing guides from Central WA making our program presentation. These guy will be stopping by Walla Walla and our Walla² Fly Fishers’ meeting on their way to fish for Grande Ronde steelies. Hope to see you then.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Don’t jerk on the steelhead.

2011-09-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

This evening we had 10 members and our guest speaker to turnout for this first scheduled autumn meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers.

After dinner without introduction our guest speaker Dave Karl, fishery biologist with WDFW, told us of his lastest fishing adventure in Montana, which got everyone casting arm ready for his evening's presentation. This evening Dave told us a little of the fishery recovery plans for Mill Creek which runs through the city center of Walla Walla. You may have read about this project in the Sunday 18 September Union-Bulletin. Dave is very involved with this program and told us of the WDFW and CTUIR hopes of seeing steelhead and salmon again running through Walla Walla's City Center in harvestable numbers.

Not only is Dave a fishery biologist, but he is also an avid steelhead chaser with flies and rod in hand. His knowledge of the small mouth bass, salmon and steelhead fishery of eastern Washington, western Idaho, and northeast Oregon makes him a most valued info source for all anglers of our area.

This evening the jest of Dave’s discussion was detailing steelhead fishing in the above mentioned areas. He discussed the timing, places and flies of his choice for fishing Idaho’s Clearwater, Lochsa, Selway, rivers; Washington’s Grande Ronde, Columbia, Klickitat, Touchet, Tucannon, Walla Walla rivers; and Oregon’s Grande Ronde, John Day, Deschutes rivers. Dave discussion gave us about 2 hours of his many years of steelhead fishing experience, which is more than can be reported here. Below is a table of highlights of this evening’s discussion…

River	Timing	Flies – size #2 hook	Gen. Location
Clearwater	Sept – Nov	Kaufmann / other's fly patterns	Nez Perce Indian Reservation
Columbia	Oct – Nov	Egg Sucking Leech	Ringold area
Klickatat	Sept - Oct	Kaufmann / other's fly patterns	through The Canyon
Grande Ronde (WA)	Oct – Nov Dec - Jan	Green Butt Skunk, Muddler Minnow, Leeches (in winter)	Boggan’s to Shumaker and Stateline / Big Bend area
Lower Walla Walla ------------ Upper Walla Walla	Sept – Dec ---------- Dec - March	Kaufmann / other's fly patterns – Leeches – egg patterns	below Stateline Rd ---------- above Stateline Rd
Lower Touchet ------------- Upper Touchet	mid-November --------------- Jan - March	Leeches – red and orange egg pattern w/skein – shrimp	Lamar to Lukenbill Rd ------------------- Upstream of Lewis and Clark Park
Grande Ronde (OR)	late Oct – Nov - Jan	Dry flies - Leeches	OR-WA stateline to Troy

Since steelhead are anadromous, the above dates are traditional, and it is best to have a fishing contact/source of info to determine the best time to be on the water in your quest for steelies.

These are some quick reference links that might help with your steelhead chasing…

http://www.flyfishusa.com/flies/stl-wet-other-f-o.html

http://www.fun4u2do.com/Fishing-ClearwaterRiver.html

http://www.flyfishusa.com/adventure-trips/klickitat/klickitat-river.htm

http://www.gofishn.com/content/columbia-river-vantage-to-tri-cities-benton-county-washington

http://www.fun4u2do.com/Fishing-GrandeRonde.html

http://www.theflyfishingplace.com/Grande_Ronde_River.html

Another very helpful information source is the US Army Corp of Engineers / DART website for adult fish passage through the Columbia River drainage / dam(s) system. If steelies are not in the stretch of water you wish to fish, you might as well keep tying flies.

http://www.cbr.washington.edu/dart/adult_species_sum.html

Also discussed this evening was tactics and techniques for finding, and hooking steelhead. Since steelhead are anadromous, one technique does not fit all. From the time these fish leave salt water, until the end of steelhead fishing season -April 15th- in most reaches of our area, the angler has to adapt to all fishing conditions along the way. Weather and light conditions can change the "playing field" rules on a daily or hourly basis. One major trick to hooking and landing a steelhead is don't jerk on the steelie. This is easier said, than done... stay calm, let the fish take the fly, do not raise your rod tip to the sky to set the hook; wait until your reel is screaming "fish on" before setting your hook.

We wish to again thank Dave for his most informative presentation of this evening. Dave is truly a most valuable individual / WDFW asset for all the fishing public of our area. Our meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm, with several individuals reaping a few more bits of fishing details from Dave thereafter.

The next scheduled meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers will be Wednesday, 12 October please mark your calendars.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook

2011-06-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Reported from notes taken, this year we had a beautiful day and a lot of fun at Waterbrook Winery and the 2011 Fly Fishing Fair. Again our group of Walla² Fly Fishers, found plenty of sunshine, fresh air, fly casting instruction, fly tying demonstrations / instructions and some really great foods.

Below is a recap of this day's events in still pictures (worth a thousand words) and a couple of live videos. Hope you will enjoy this review of our day at Waterbrook Winery.

The jest of this day's activities was to help bring our local Walla Walla Valley neighbors and families into the realm of having fun with a fly and a fly rod. The price of admission for this day of fun in the sun with a gourmet dutch oven cooked meal was FREE. The heart of our day's activity of course was helping people learn the very easy task and fine art of casting a fly to fish with a different kind of rod than most were used to.

One of our founding club members
- Skip Prictchard -
FFF Certified Casting Instructor
made casting easy for one and all interested parties.

Now, while all of this outdoor activity was going on... on the inside we had wine tasting, and fly tying demos taking place.

Again this year we were privileged to have John Spain as our chef of the day with some more of his wonderful Dutch Oven cooking to please all that joined us for lunch.

After the days major activities and lunch, there was time to sit around and compare note and tell tales of tails for the balance of the afternoon.

With all said and done we wish to say Thank You Waterbrook Winery for again allowing the Walla² Fly Fishers to share your facilities, casting pond, patio, and tasting room to have a great day sharing fly fishing with the Walla Walla Valley.

As a final note of interest, we held our club raffle for an overnight guided fishing trip for two with Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop and the winner was Kirk Upton. Congratulations Kirk, and we hope you found lots of Tight Lines and good fishing in the Yakima River with Joe and his crew. Just over $450 was netted for the club from this raffle.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Working with WDFW programs

2011-05-11T23:21:00.000-07:00

This evening we had 18 members and our guest speaker to turnout for this last scheduled spring meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers. President Tyson lead the discussion after dinner to address our 2011 Fly Fishing Fair being held on 11 June, the raffle tickets being sold between now and 11 June for an overnight fishing outing with Red's Fly Shop/Guide Service, on the Yakima River with lodging provided at Canyon River Ranch Lodge. Most members present at this meeting came away with some raffle tickets and they will be available at our 2011 Fly Fishing Fair.

In looking for activities for the club to become involved with once again Casting for Recovery was discussed. We are now looking for interested individuals that might wish to get involved with a local program.

Casting for Recovery was founded in 1996 in Manchester, Vermont, the unique brainchild of a breast cancer reconstructive surgeon and a professional fly fisher. It began as a local grassroots group with a big heart and an original national vision, and quickly received endorsements from medical and psycho-social experts for its innovative healing program model while at the same time provoking intense interest by national media.

Casting for Recovery was founded on the principles that the natural world is a healing force and that cancer survivors deserve one weekend — free of charge and free of the stresses from medical treatment, home, or workplace — to experience something new and challenging while enjoying beautiful surroundings within an intimate, safe, and nurturing structure. Anyone here wish to join this cause with your fly rod in hand?

Following our business discussions we had Glen Mende from WDFW as our guest speaker for the evening. Glen's presentation this evening was a discussion of the fishery habitat and the fish stocking programs across eastern Washington and particularly that of southeast WA. He discussed the need of some volunteer help with some of the WDFW programs for enhancement and recovery of some area fisheries.

Glen discussed Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) that has become a real problem in the southeast WA hatchery programs. This disease has caused a lot of trouble in the Tucannon River system and hatchery program there.

He also discussed the invasive aquatic species that have invaded our area waters and are currently damaging our native fish populations and causing havoc with different water and irrigation systems of the area.

Glen also talked about the possible steelhead run of 2011 saying that it is thought that this year's run will be larger than the 2010 run. He says that the propose steelhead harvest of SE Washington for 2011 will be 25,000.

Discussing some fishery and habitat project that our club could consider becoming involve with Glen suggested joining forces with the Tri-State Steelheaders, Walla Walla Conservation District, WDFW Bull trout spawning surveys, USFWS / ODFW / CTUIR brook trout projects.

Glen we wish to Thank You again for joining us this evening and giving us some ideas of how the Walla² Fly Fishers might have an impact on the fishery and habitat improvement of our area.

Our next gathering which is also open to the interested fly fishing public will be our third annual 2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery. Please mark your calendars for Saturday 11 June for this fly fishing event and a free dutch oven luncheon. Activities began at 11:00 a.m and include fly casting instructions (fly rod are provided), fly tying demonstrations, a fly fishing trip raffle, guided fishing trips opportunities, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Fishing the Wallowa Country with Mac Huff

2011-04-14T21:09:00.000-07:00

April 13th the Walla² Fly Fishers once again came together at Jacobi's Cafe in Walla Walla. This evening we had 20 members and guest in attendance. Our business meeting began at 7:00 pm with the following orders of business being discussed:

1) Reminder that the Walla² Fly Fishers 3rd Annual Fly Fishing Fair will be held this year at Waterbrook Winery off Old Hwy 12 west of Walla Walla on June 11th.

2) We’re still selling raffle tickets for the Red’s Fly Shop giveaway of a night at the lodge in the Yakima River canyon and a guided float for two down the river.

3) 2011 club membership dues are due $15/single ~~ $20/family and payable to the Walla² Fly Fishers. Please mail to our Treasurer Dr. Doug Coe at 1341 Lowell Drive Walla Walla, WA 99362
If you’re not a member of the Walla² Fly Fishers, please contact Doug Coe and he can assist you with membership and dues.

4) Dan Grinstead then gave a brief talk with a handout about the growing opposition to the construction of a permanent industrial corridor for over-sized loads headed to Alberta, Canada. The proposed route is Highway 12 through WA, OR, ID, and MT. The organization is All Against the Haul, and you can learn more at their website allagainstthehaul.org.

5) President Bob Long announced his pending re-location out of the Walla Walla area. Vice President Tyson Kopfer will now step into the position club President.
Hear, Hear, now is the time for all good Walla² Fly Fishers club members to consider stepping forward and throwing their hat into the ring for the position of club Vice President. Thank you.

After our business affairs were discussed, our guest speaker Mac Huff from Joseph, OR gave his presentation about the fishing opportunities in Wallowa County.

Mac discussed fishing from the highest fish-bearing lake in the state - Legore Lake - at 9,000 feet to the Snake River at 900 feet. Included in his presentation were the Minam, Grande Ronde, Wallowa, Lostine, Bear Cr. Sheep Cr. and Imnaha rivers and Wallowa Lake, with good trout fishing and the World Record Kokanee salmon.
He talked about talked about the fish distribution of the Wallowa, Imnaha, and Grande Ronde river drainages. The lower Grande Ronde has rainbows, small mouth bass, bull trout and steelhead, moving to higher elevation the bass disappear and bull trout become more prevalent.

Roughly above 6,000 feet bull trout are the most common species, unless they are in a water shed with brook trout, then there can be interbreeding (bad.) The Eagle Cap Wilderness lakes are "brook trout" lakes or "rainbow trout" lakes, depending on whether brook trout were planted there. If brooks were planted, then they dominate the lake.

Mac gave us an overview reminder of common invertebrates in our rivers and had pictures of stoneflies, caddis, October caddis nymphs, midges and 'hoppers.

Some of Mac's favorite ties for trout

and steelhead

He also talked about the season and confirmed that fish will bite in the rain, snow and ice - winter comes early to the Wallowa country and spring runoff is usually later in June. In you are interested in learning more about the fishing opportunities available in the Wallowa Country, please contact Mac at Eagle Cap Fishing Guides - http://www.eaglecapfishing.com/
Mac, Thank You once again for joining our group and refreshing our knowledge of the spectacular fly fishing opportunity available in your area.

NOTE: The Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) was conceived along the banks of the Grande Ronde River just north of Troy, OR when a group of fly fishers from Eugene, OR felt the sport of fly fishing should be maintained and enhanced for as long as man can fish these rivers of NE Oregon and SE Washington.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Fishing with Bob Wolfe and Chironomids

2011-03-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

March 9th the Walla² Fly Fishers came together at Jacobi's Cafee in Walla Walla. This evening we had 10 members seated for dinner. Our business meeting began at 7:00 pm with 18 members and guest in attendance. Discussed this evening was a number of upcoming events for all members to be aware of:
1) the Walla² Fly Fishers 3rd Annual Fly Fishing Fair will be again held at Waterbrook winery on June 11th.
2) the Washington FFF Council will hold its annual Fly Fishing Fair in Ellenboro, WA April 29-30.
3) 2011 club membership dues are due ($15) and payable to the Walla² Fly Fishers. Mail to Treasurer Doug Coe @ 1341 Lowell Drive Walla Walla, WA 99362
4) also there were passed out the raffle tickets for a guided fishing trip on the Yakima River with Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop, for a club fund raiser. The lucky raffle winner of this club fund raiser will receive accommodations for 4 at the lodge of Red's Fly Shop, and guided fishing trip for 2. This raffle drawing will be held during our June 11th Fly Fishing Fair. Please contact President Bob Long or Scott Peters for more details and tickets.

Following our business meeting we once again were glad to have Bob Wolfe from Pendleton, OR and the Blue Mountain Flycasters to join us and discuss fishing stillwaters with tiny flies called chironomids -- "midges". Bob's, PowerPoint presentation included a number of prime fishing spots in eastern Washington, with plenty of discussion of fishing Lake Lenice. Bob passed around a number of bottles of chironomids specimens taken from fish caught. He discussed some of his favorite flies tied to imitate the chironomids he has found around the area, including passing around his working boxes of chironomids flies. We hope Bob got back home with most of his handsomely tied flies. Also discussed was the technique for fishing chironomid flies, lines, leaders, strike indicators, depths for fishing these flies. Bob also discussed the action of lake "turnover" that occurs in the spring and fall as water temperatures change from top to bottom, pointing out that chironomids are churned in the water column during these "turnovers". The favorite flies fished that Bob discussed were his Black Magic and Red & Green Magic.

Each of these he ties using .5 mm Stretch Magic beading cord and creates segmented bodies using 7 wraps of each color. As Bob closed his presentation, he invited the club to join the Blue Mountain Flycasters for a couple of their stillwater fishing outing on Bull Prairie Saturday 30th April and Saturday 21 May to Penland Lake east of Heppener, OR. Our meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Next meeting will be held Wednesday 13 April, and President Bob ask that everyone bring a couple of flies to help fill the boxes for raffle - one is a FREE door prize. Thanks

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Bob Long - President

Tyson Kopfer - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Fishing British Columbia with Will Godfrey

2011-02-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

Due to a slight mix up in scheduling for our February meeting, the Walla² Fly Fishers had our dinner served in the dining car at Jacobi's Cafe. This month we had 13 members and guest in attendance.

Business discussed was the purchase of a guided fishing trip on the Yakima River with Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop, for a club fund raiser. The lucky raffle winner of this club fund raiser will receive accommodations for 4 at the lodge of Red's Fly Shop, and guided fishing trip for 2. Our cost for this raffle will be $405. We hope to sell 100-150 tickets at $10 apiece. Scott and Bob will be the leaders of this campaign and the drawing will be held at the end of our 2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery on Saturday 11 June.
Details are to follow.

After this topic discussion, Treasurer Doug Coe gave a report of annual membership dues collected at our January meeting. Collected at that time was $270 which brings our club treasury to over $850 in the black. More membership dues were also collected this evening.

Also discussed were club plans to continue with our winter fly tying workshop of 2011, and it is planned to be held again at Country Estates Mobile Home Park in College Place Wednesday 23 February, 7-9 p.m. Please find direction to Country Estates in the right hand column of this blog posting.

Following these topics of club business, we were privileged to have Will Godfrey as our speaker for the evening discussing his past 50 years of fly fishing the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia.

Will Godfrey is a Life Member of the FFF and has a long history of giving back to the fly fishing sport, in the 1970s he owned a fly shop in the fabled area of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in Island Park Idaho and he has been neck deep in the sport and the art of Fly Fishing ever since. Will has volunteered his time and his talent for decades to promote the sport and support both conservation and education, especially youth education about the sport. He is an accomplished Auctioneer who this year alone will be raising money for the Henry’s Fork Foundation, Federation of Fly Fishers at the annual Conclave, Snake River Cutthroats, Washington Council of the FFF and of course his home club the Kelly Creek Fly Casters where he serves on the Board and is the past president. He has for many years had a special place in his heart for Steelhead fishing and the art of tying flies for that endeavor. He is an accomplished author with 2 books published and a 3^rdin the works.

Will's presentation this night was on the Babine River steelheading and the fishing opportunities there and about the fishing in the Lewiston / Clarkston area. His presentation was based on slides of his adventures of the 1960's and 70's which had a rich flavor of the way fishing used to be.

We wish to thank Will for his time and travel to make such a generous presentation to our club this evening.

Will's presentation was over shortly before 9:00 p.m. and the meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Walla² Fly Fishers

Tight lines and good fishing.

Bob Long - President
Tyson Kopfer - Vice President
Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary

Fly Fishing Central WA with Joe Rotter

2011-01-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

This month we had a good turnout of 30 members and guest for our January meeting. Promptly following dinner we had the election of new club officers led by President Scott Peters. As was nominated at our December 2010 meeting the following slate was so elected by unanimous vote.

Bob Long - President

Tyson Kopfer - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Following the election of officers, our outgoing Treasurer Barry Gould gave his last treasurer's report and told us that ending club funds for 2010 was just over $700 in Baker Boyer Bank. It was a good year for the club, with plenty of good speakers, outdoor activities, and a fall banquet with Brian O'Keefe.

Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop of Yakima give the program of the evening. His Power Point Presentation was titled Fly Fishing All Seasons on the Yakima River. This was a very well done presentation which detailed hatches and bug matching strategies, hydrology, when to wade, when to float, trip planning, the Yakima River. Joe also discussed other nearby rivers which, included information on fishing the Naches, Klickitat, Methow, and Wenatchee Rivers for Steelhead – along with Carp fishing the Columbia River, Smallmouth Bass fishing on the Lower Yakima River, and many of the lesser known mountainous tributary streams in Eastern Washington.

We wish to thank Joe for again making a great presentation, and joining our meeting for this evening.

After the meeting Joe made the club a special offer for a guided fishing trip on the Yakima River to help us create a club fund raiser. This offer will be presented at February's meeting after being discussed by the new club officers.

The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter, with individuals socializing one-on-one.

Our next meeting will be held 9 February 2011.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Old Officers ~~~~~~~ New Officers
Scott Peters - President - Bob Long
Skip Pritchard - Vice President - Tyson Kopfer
Barry Gould - Treasurer - Doug Coe
Dale McKain - Secretary /Blog Master - Dale McKain

Club officers' meeting 1/4/2011

2011-01-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

Greeting Fellow Fly Fishers,

I wish to report that Tuesday, January 4 the outgoing officers and the officers elect of the Walla² Fly Fishers held a club business meeting at Jacobi's Cafe. Present for this meeting was Scott, Barry, Dale and the new officers elect - Bob Long - Pres., Tyson Kopfer - VP, Doug Coe - Treasurer, Dale McKain - Secretary.

During this meeting the points of concern that were discussed:

Current Baker Boyer Bank account balance
Liability insurance needs
Membership, old and new
Membership dues
Meeting location
Fly Tying workshops
Fly Fishing workshop
Meeting programs
Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery
Club Fishing Outings
Club Banquet
Club $$$$ funding
Reaching out for more club membership participation
Club participation in the Tri-Cities 2011 Sportsman Show

So as you can see we had a pretty thick agenda list to discuss. All of these matter will be brought before the full club membership at our next meeting on Wednesday January 12, 2011.

Briefly going down this list of discussion...

Baker Boyer Bank account currently has over $700 in funds

It was agreed that the club should maintain the FFF liability insurance policy to cover our need of
--- annual insurance cost around $180

We need a current roster of club members --- "old" and new --- Dale has a listing of monthly meeting attendance,
--- FFF National has a computer roster of FFF due paying members

It was decided that we would continue to meet at Jacobi's Cafe and hope that club members would not be reluctant to attend because of higher food and beverage prices at this location. Scott will check with cafe ownership and see if they could offer a $10 fly fishers' meal deal for our hungry club membership.

A winter fly tying workshop will again try to be started, hopefully at Country Estates Mobile Home Park in College Place as was last winter.

We have the opportunity to work with the Walla Walla YMCA to conduct fly fishing classes. We need a few novice fly fishers to help share their knowledge with any wannabe fly fishers in our area. We would hope this should also generate new club membership.

It was discussed the range of meeting programs we had during 2010, and how we might compliment that with fly fishing subjects of interest in 2011.

Fly Fishing Fair 2011, again Scott will be our Point Guy with this project. He has already been discussing the date and event with Waterbrook Winery and John Spain our chef of the day. Again we hope we can have Skip Prichard to join us as our FFF certified casting instructor.

Club fishing outings were discussed concerning the available to fly fish a 100-150 mile radius of Walla Walla for trout, carp, shad, bass (large and smallmouth), steelhead, salmon, etc. Everyone agreed they wanted to learn more of area fishing opportunities and get involved with more club fishing outings.

A 2011 Walla² Fly Fishers Banquet was discussed. Scott said he felt that he might be able to get John Shewy to come as our guest speaker. Date of banquet will be dependent on John's and all others 2011 schedule.

Club funding was discussed and agreed that with membership dues ($15/year-individual and $20/year-family) along with the monthly fly box raffles, and earned banquet revenues, we should be able to make it through 2011 with money in the bank.

We hope to get more of the club membership involved with club activities in 2011. Now that our club has gotten "off the ground" we hope to create more fly fishing opportunities and membership events around our area, than just the monthly club meetings.

2011 Tri-Cities Sportsman Show in Pasco this month. FFF is looking for members that would like to enter the show for FREE and spend up to three (3) hours greeting and talking fly fishing to passer-bys at the show. More to be discussed at January 12th meeting.

With all of the above in mind, we hope to have a good turn out for our first meeting of this New Year and let's discuss. Hope everyone saw the $9.00 WinterFeast Dinner Deals available at Jacobi's Cafe right now. Please leave your wet waders and studded wading boots at the door, Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walla2-Fly-Fishers/356939534505

New Club Officers Nominated

2010-11-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

This evening the Walla² Fly Fishers held our November meeting to discuss some hardcore club business and directions. Prior to the business of the evening there were 8 members that came together for dinner and social hour at Jacobi's Cafe.

We had 16 members and guest in attendance for this meeting. Because the clock on the wall kept reading 6:55 we did not start the meeting until about 7:20 p.m. Club Treasurer Barry, headed the business directions discussion for the evening in the absence of President Scott, who had a prior banquet commitment to attend.

Prior to the meeting President Scott and Treasurer Barry had submitted their resignations for their officers' positions. So this evening we had before us the task of nominating individuals to fill those post. Secretary Dale said he would be glad to continue to serve the club in his position.

This evening those nominated to fill the officers' positions becoming vacant were:

Bob Long - President
Tyson Kopfer - Vice President
Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary

The floor still remains open for the nominations of any others that might wish to be considered for helping in a club leadership role. We do have a slight hangup in the above nominees. Bob Long may be moving from the area in the near future, but he is more than willing to provide his expertise in FFF directions between now and the time that he may make a move. A valuable asset for our club.

Bob brought forth the idea, that it is the club's President's job to lead the organization and not to create projects and ventures, and try to accomplish the task on his own. Therefore we will be looking for across-the-board membership help to set up some committees to help get the fun work done.

Projects discussed:

Boy Scout Fly Fishing merit badge helpers
Walla² YMCA fly fishing seminar
2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook
Winter 2011 fly fishing workshops
Membership fly fishing outings
A 2011 Club Banquet
Stream side/pond side fishing habitat improvements working with WDFW
etc.

With that said, it was discussed the current annual projects the club has been working on and the need of Project Chairpersons to help direct the responsibility of making things happen. At this point Kris said he would like to be involved with the Boy Scouts project of helping scouts earn their fly fishing merit badge, it was suggested that we ask Scott to continue to help co-ordinate the Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery, and we will look into creating a committee to co-ordinate a fly fishing class with the Walla Walla YMCA, and re-establishing some winter 2011 fly tying classes with Pat and Lee Ainley at their College Place facility.

It was also asked to pass around the FFF Charter Clubs / Walla² Fly Fishers' By-Laws so that everyone would have a better understanding of the job description of club officers.

FFF Charter Club By-Laws in MS Word - for all to see review.

Bob Long also pointed out the idea that most folks tend to want to join a fly fishing club to become associated with fly fishers, to learn to fly fish, to learn more about fishing opportunities.
All of these things our club should consider in mapping our club activities for the future, in order to draw new club members from our community. With this point of reference, it was brought up that the club members would like to see more weekend fishing trips planned that they might attend. Our last two planned trips to the John Day River were mid-week holidays.

With that proposal... the idea of trying to form a steelhead fishing trip to the Grande Ronde River the Friday 11/26 or the Saturday 11/27 following Thanksgiving was suggested. This should be a very prime time for fishing the GR for steelies before the river's ice flow begins.
Who wants to go steelhead fishing on the Grande Ronde River???

A motion was made---> NOT to have a December club meeting (due to all other activities taking place between Thanksgivings and the New Year), that motion was seconded and carried. We will NOT have a meeting in December and will resume regular monthly meetings on 12 January 2011 to hold our club officers' election and start the New Year talking about fly fishing.
All those in favor... indicate by saying "AYE".
Those opposed, please email all by posting "NAY".

HEADS UP, look for possibly a fly tying meeting announcement coming forthwith for fly tying the evening of Wednesday 29 December.

The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter, with individuals socializing one-on-one.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walla2-Fly-Fishers/356939534505

Fishing the John Day River

2010-11-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

It was about 5:40 a.m. yesterday when we rolled out of the parking lot at Grove Elem. School in Milton-Freewater heading for the John Day River. Before leaving home Dale checked the real-time water flow at McDonald Ferry, the river was flowing at 464 cfs which is a very good fly swinging flow. When we got to the turnaround above the Boy Scouts’ Camp at Rock Creek and parked, with only one other vehicle with a pontoon boat trailer attached. Tom and Mike with great haste suited up and headed for the river. Having crossed the river above the first riffle they moved up and took their position in the lower end of the first pool. Tyson and Dale were in hot pursuit and went just above Mike and Tom and started their casting practice for the day.
After about a ½ hour of working the head of the first pool Dale move up to the second steelie hole.

This stretch of water had in the past offered many steelhead, and once Dale had two buddies land two steelies at once while fishing here. It wasn't too many cast into this pool when Dale got the slightest peck, peck, peck at his fly. On the next cast he got a hookup, which very quickly did not resemble the jerk or run of a steelhead.

He had caught a red-eyed small mouth bass, of which the John Day River is also famous for as a warm weather/water fishery. It wasn't too much later after this catch that Mike came walking across the hill and Dale motioned for him to come join him in fishing this #2 pool. Shortly thereafter Dale moved up to the #3 pool. Having fished this pool for awhile with no success and no one from below showing up, Dale moved upriver into the Power Line Hole.

While fishing the Power Line Hole, a fly fishing stranger walked up on Dale. His name was Grant and in their conversation, it was said that Grant is from Milton-Freewater, and has been hoping to get involved with the Walla² Fly Fishers.

Dale invited him to join the club at our next meeting of Wednesday 10 November. Also learned that Grant's favorite past-time is fishing and hiking and bloging his experiences in our Walla² Fly Fishers back country. You can find Grant's back country adventures posted at fishingandhiking.com which this writer found very interesting to read through.

None of the other Walla² Fly Fishers made it up to the Power Line Hole to fish it this day. Going back down river Dale caught up with Tyson in the second pool coming from the parking lot and for an instance it appeared that Tyson had a fish-on.

Maybe the hookup/jerk that Tyson had was another smallmouth bass, as he did catch one earlier in the day.
This day with the river flow at 464 cfs wading the river was very easy. In most places the water was rarely more that navel deep and gin clear so that standing in deep water you could see your feet much like standing in a bathtub full of water.

Real Time river flow at McDonald Ferry--> http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv/?site_no=14048000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060
Best fly fishing/ wading flow is >450 and <1000.

While on the river this day we had a pontoon boat of fishers go by us that had put in at Cottonwood Bridge, and they told us that with their full day of fishing and floating that they had only spotted 5-6 steelhead on the river and hooked none.

Where are the steelies???

To finish off this great day of fishing, as Dale and Grant were coming across the riffle before getting back to the parking area they found a nice about 24" steelhead resting above the run above the Boy Scout camp, first steelhead sighting of the day for this Walla² Fly Fishers' outing. Grant did say that he hooked a couple of steelies quite a ways upriver from where the rest of us got to.

So all-in-all it was another great day of fishing and exploring the John Day River. It was not a great day of catching steelies on JD River.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walla2-Fly-Fishers/356939534505

Looking at new directions

2010-10-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

This evening we held our meet at our new location – Jacobi's Cafe. We had 11 members in attendance. At this meeting we were planning to hold an election for a new club President, and Treasurer but with the light turnout of the evening it was decided to postpone such election until our next meeting of November 10th, hopefully while everyone is still in tune with voting in the national/our respective state elections.

For those of us that were in attendance of this meeting we found this new location to be very adequate in size and privacy. Maybe a bit fancy with linen table cloths for folk just getting out of their waders (please leave studded boots at the door) but the food, wine, beer and company is good. What more can we ask for?

This evening Treasurer Barry Gould made a monies report for our Banquet of September 18th.
The club’s treasury went into September with about $1100. Brian’s O’Keefe’s speaker’s fee / travel and board was $750, the cost of dinner came to $990. With the intake of funds from dinner reservations, raffle, and silent auction, the club now has a remaining balance in the bank of over $700. WE are in the black and still looking forward to having fun talking and practicing fly-fishing, among ourselves and other interested parties.

Other business discussed during the meeting was looking at the future and things to do.

1. Conducting a program with the Walla Walla Boy Scouts to help those kids earn their fly fishing merit badge. Scott has discussed this opportunity with the local Boy Scouts leaders.
2. Work with the Walla Walla YMCA to conduct fly fishing/ tying classes through their organization. Dale has discussed this opportunity with the Director at the YMCA.
3. Finding the opportunity to work with WDFW, on some of the projects brought up in September’s meeting with Glen Mendel and Dave Karl.
4. Do we want to restart a late fall / winter fly tying class on the forth Wednesday of the month as we had going last late winter?
5. More “in-house” fly fishing education for our club members who would like to learn more from the older “salty dogs” sitting around the table… e.i. rod works and terminology, rod / line systems, line and tippet knots, flies to use where and when, etc. There are a lot of things that some folks take for granted as to “how to, why do” that folks just getting their feet wet would like to have shared to diminish their learning curve of fly fishing.

Fishing reports from Diane and Tom revealed:

Diane had been fishing on the Grande Ronde on Sept. 18 and she is still looking for the first steelhead to land in her hands. She also did a fishing trip below McNary Dam, landed 11 of 13 sturgeon hookups and had picture to proof it. Nice.
Tom reported that he and Doug had spent a day on the Columbia Reach outside of the Hanford area, and they limited out their creel with fall Chinook. He also reported on a fishing trip he and his son had made lately to the Yakima River with great success. Tom also had picture of both outing to backup his tale of tails.

Thanks folks for sharing.

After these fishing reports there was some discussion of organizing more club trips to fish the John Day, Grande Ronde, Walla Walla and Wallowa rivers for steelhead as the 2010-11 season progresses. Hopefully before ice flows happen and then after the late winter thaw.

Future meeting program suggestions were to have Jim Galliger -fishing guide from Ellensburg- to come and make presentation on fishing the Yakima and Klickitat rivers, and asking our local professional bamboo rod builder –Chuck Irvine– to come and discuss the mechanics of fly rods, their construction, and the beauty of his bamboo rods.

There were no fly box raffles held this evening.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walla2-Fly-Fishers/356939534505

Deschutes River Fishing

2010-09-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

This day we pulled out of Milton-Freewater about 5:40 a.m., on our way to the Deschutes River for a day of steelhead fishing. Tom and Bob were doing the driving, while Ginny, Mike, Doug and Dale were along for the ride - that felt good. Thanks guys for pulling chauffeur duty. Having made one short stop in Biggs to fuel up and offload some coffee, we arrived at the river's west side parking lot about 8:30. Weather along the way offered a small shower here and there, but no rain to be concerned about. After gearing up for the day we hiked down to the cable crossing, Dale pointed out some of the particulars of the the river (the need for studded wading boots and a wading staff) beginning at Moody Rapids' cable crossing.

Real Time river flow at Moody Rapids--> http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv/?site_no=14103000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060
Best fly fishing flow is between 4500-5800 cfs, if wading out chest deep. The flow this day was about 5550 cfs, very comfortable wading.

From the Moody Rapids area everyone headed upriver to test the waters, their footing, fish for steelhead, and whatever. Having fished up through the Rock Garden, Tom did hook into a sucker and land it out on the basalt flats. Catching was slow this day.

This writer wasn't there to witness, but heard that Doug did practice some dancing on the rocks and found out what the next step can hold for anyone fishing the Deschutes... understand he took on some water.
Deschutes River = The Chutes River= scoured basalt river bottom.
While at the basalt flats below Rattlesnake Rapids, we had a fishing pro watching our activities from the grassy river bank. This guy gave us no directions of help or guidance... he was fishing on his own, and catching.

Most of us took a lunch / snack break after fishing the flats except for Mike and he just kept fishing and fishing...

Ginny and Bob found a soft pillow of grass along the river bank to ease back onto and have lunch.

It was about 12:30 when everyone was ready to head back downriver to fish out towards the parking lot. This morning we had had several showers pass our way, and most of the day was filled with sunbreaks, and warm temperatures. The Deschutes was slightly off colored as being knee deep in the river one could barely see the bottom of the river. Working downriver everyone stopped along the way at different river access points, and Dale pointed out some spots where he previously had taken a steelhead out for dinner.

After fishing the Outhouse Hole, most of us were getting tired of the round trip 5-mile hike upriver, and standing in the river current for most of the day, not to mention the 4:30 a.m. wake up call.
So as everyone headed back to the rigs for the return trip home, Dale and Mike did stop and fish the Cable Hole downriver to the brink of Moody Rapids. The Deschutes River Cable Hole was the spot that Dale caught his first steelhead in hand.
So all in all it was a great day to have been fishing on the Deschutes River, OR. All-in-All it was not a good day for catching steelhead. Actually it was a no show day for steelhead fly fishing, which reminds one why they call this sport "fishing" not "catching".

A great day to be on the river.

Tight lines and good fishing.

2010 Fly Fishers' Banquet

2010-09-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful evening, this evening when the Walla² Fly Fishers came together for our 2010 Fly Fishers' Banquet. This year we held our banquet at the Crossroads Restaurant in City Center Walla Walla, WA. Our very special guest speaker for this evening was world traveling fly fisher and photographer Brian O'Keefe.

We started our cocktail hour at 6:00 p.m. at which time the crowd begin to shuffle in and filling the room. We had a no host bar available to all. Scott and Dale sit up a couple of display tables for raffle and silent auction items.

This evening we had 38 Walla² Fly Fishers and guest for dinner, with a few folks coming in after dinner to enjoy Brian's presentation of Fly Fishing around the World.

Being that a picture is worth a thousand words, this reporter will let the following pictures tell the story and be the record of our evening's activities.

Mingling

Chatting

Making silent auction bids

Buying raffle tickets at a good price.
Tom did win the big prize of the evening.
He just keeps doing that.

Looking around the room things began to look like this a little after 6:00.

After everyone begin to settle in for the evening, dinner began to be served at 6:45 or so.

Our dinner was to have been a BBQ buffet, but since this was the very newly re-located Crossroads Restaurant they were unable to have their facilities setup for a buffet service, so we had their BBQ served via waiter/waitress in a rather crowded dinning room. Togetherness.

After dinner President Scott conducted the raffle drawings for goodies provided by FFF National and Skip Pritchard. Tom Craig won the big raffle prize of an Orvis fly box and a guided fishing trip on Mill Creek with Skip.
The silent auctions items were won by the following:

FFF 3 year membership --- Jan Atwater

Orvis fly box --- Jan Atwater

Grizzly hackle --- Jan Atwater

FFF T-shirt --- Ed Chesnut

fly tying kit --- Mike Garton

The raffle and silent auction items netted the club $468.
Thank you guys.

After the money works were over, our special fly fishing guest - Brian O'Keefe made his PowerPoint Presentation of his experiences of fly fishing around the world from the time he was a rather young man to his present day trips with a fly rod in one hand, and a camera in the other. You will find Brian's work in many of today's fly fishing magazines, and in his co-produced Catch Magazine. Brian broke down his presentation of this evening by discussing the different species of fish he had stalked and caught in his adventures to everywhere a fly rod could take him.

After Brian's presentation, Dale asked if he would tell the group of one of his most memorable fly fishing trips. He told us of a most hair-raising experience / trip to Africa, of which you will have to talk to him about the next time you see him. This reporter tells no tales.

All-in-all our evening together with each other and Brian was a great experience. We thank Brian for being with us and sharing his fly fishing experiences, we must thank FFF National and Skip for their donation of items to help fund this event and Thank you EVERYONE that joined us for the evening and those which help make it happen.

Brian invited everyone in attendance to contact him if they had any questions concerning his travels and advice of where to go, what to do, how and why.

To contact Brian you can follow these Internet links:
http://brianokeefephotos.com/

http://www.google.com/search?q=Brian+O'Keefe&ie

http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/brian/brian.cfm

and/or email Brian @
brian@brianokeefephotos.com

Don't forget that you can also see more of Brian's work by subscribing to Catch Magazine -- FREE.
Issue #13 is great, just sign in and enjoy.

available on the Internet at this link connection...
http://www.catchmagazine.net/

OK, now looking at the banquet's bottom lines: cost was = $1754, the banquet funds intake was = $1414. So all-in-all this leaves the club's bank balance at a bit over $700 in the black. This means we had a pretty good year with a lot of good informational speakers to share their fly fishing experiences and expertise with the Walla² Fly Fishers.

Tight line and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers' Banquet

2010-09-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday 9/18

Please mark your calendars for our first Walla² Fly Fishers' Banquet with Brian O'Keefe - our guest speaker of the evening.

When: Saturday, 18th September 2010
Where: Crossroads Steakhouse and Lounge
Location: 207 West Main Street, Walla Walla, WA*
*formerly - the 26 Brix Restaurant
Directions: *click on above address for map/directions
Time: Cocktail hour begins at 6:00 p.m. (no host bar)
BBQ Dinner Buffet to be served at 6:45
Brian O'Keefe's program at 7:30

BBQ Buffet includes:
Beef ribs
Pork ribs
Chicken
Baked beans
Cole Slaw
Corn-on-the-cob
Watermellon
Cornbread

Banquet cost: $30/singles ~~ $55/couples
$18.75 children
~includes meal + service gratuity~
Your RSVP needed

Banquet cover charge ~without dinner~
$10.00
includes no-host bar, silent auction items,
and Brian's presentation
RSVP unnecessary if you are not having dinner with Brian.

Brian O'Keefe is a world renowned fly fisher, with photography as his trade. You will find Brian's photography in many fly fishing magazines and websites on today's market. Brian is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. So come out and join us for dinner, an evening of fly fishing experiences, to be shared by all.

Brian and wife Judith at a favorite winter fishin' hole.

We must give our caterer a ONE week's notice
of our guest count for food preparation;
so we ask that you make your Banquet meal RSVP
by noon Saturday 9/11/10

RSVP to: Scott Peters - thepeters@columbiainet.com
or
Dale McKain - katdale@charter.net

Walla² Fly Fishers is an affiliated chapter of the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) and this will be our first banquet for area fly fishers and all wannabe fly fishing guest. Banquet room capacity is 65 fly fishers, and guest.

Send payment for dinner to:

Walla² Fly Fishers Banquet
PO Box 674
Milton-Freewater, OR 97862

Thank you

A silent auction for various fly fishing items and 3-years FFF memberships will be offered.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walla2-Fly-Fishers/356939534505

Working with WDFW & in SEARCH of a new club President

2010-09-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

This evening the Walla² Fly Fishers had a most important monthly meeting. This was our first meeting after coming off our summer break. We had a lot of club business on our plate to discuss right after our pre-meeting dinner. Again dinner was good and hot, everyone had all they could eat.
Thank you China Buffet.

After dinner President Scott called the meeting to order, and announced that he had to relinquish the post of club president. Scott explained that with the club's first election of officers, it was anticipated that the positions would be held for a period of 8 months as the club was getting established. At this point in time those officers have held their respective club offices for 15 months. Scott explained that with his family and work obligations, he was finding that he needed more time to attend to those matters, and was giving notice of his resignation as club president.

We now need someone to step forward and help the club to continue move along in the growth direction we have been going. Barry indicated he would remain on as Treasurer and Dale will remain as club Secretary. NOW is the time for all good fly fishers to consider your abilities to help carry our club's banner as our next President. Let's hear it for our next club President.

This evening we had 23 club members and guest in attendance.

After Scott's announcement we discussed the need to consider a new meeting location, as we have outgrown our present location at the China Buffet. The past couple of meeting before our summer break, we actually had people sitting in the doorway of the banquet room. Scott announced that he had contacted Jacobi's Cafe at 416 No. 2nd Avenue in Walla Walla and they would have a meeting room for our future meetings. A vote was taken and it was agreed that our future meetings will be at Jacobi's beginning with October 13th meeting. Please see sidebar for directions. Also it was discussed the upcoming banquet we are having on Saturday, 18 September. Dale, Scott, Barry and Jan have been working on this event and at this time all seem to be going together well for that evening's event. Barry gave a brief Treasurer's report and it seems there will be enough money in our bank account to pull this banquet off and will have a few dollars to spare. A Deschutes River steelhead fishing trip was discussed, which is to be made on Sunday 19 September.
After this business discussion we had the fly box door prize drawing, and then proceeded into our presentation of the evening.

This evening we had two guest speakers from Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: GlenMendel - WDFW Fisheries Biologist and Dave Karl - WDFW Fisheries Habitat Biologist.

Glen Mendel

Dave Karl

These guys really gave our group a lot of information concerning the present condition of southeast / central WA fisheries, and northeast OR fisheries.

Glen briefed us on the condition of the fisheries on the Walla Walla, Tucannon, Grande Ronde, Touchet and lower Snake rivers. He gave us an update on the conditions of the area hatcheries and the numbers history of steelhead and salmon returns, with prospect of future returns and fishing opportunities.

Dave told us from his experience concerning the fisheries habitats of this area and his personal fishing experiences on many of the streams and rivers of southeast WA and northeast OR.
Both of these guys gave us plenty of info on where to fish and when to be there for the best fishing opportunities. They made available to our meeting two handouts: 2010 Washington Fishing Prospects and Trout Fishing Guide to NE Oregon.
It was also discussed by Glen some of the opportunities that our club might have to work with WDFW with hands-on fisheries projects, such as working with the steelhead and salmon redds counting crews, giving some helping hands around the Tucannon River Hatchery and fishing lake area, etc.
They gave us the name of Ken Junt - WA game law officer and Tim Brown - OR game law officer for our immediate Walla Walla River fishing areas.
One point both of the gentlemen emphasised was the North of Falcon Process for Washington. They ask our group to track this process for 2011 and try to make attendance to the most local / area meetings to establish salmon fisheries catch allocations and season openings.

We wish to thank Dave and Glen for all the info they shared with us this evening, and let's hope as a club we get to use it in our near future fishing endeavors.

To polish off the meeting we had a second raffle drawing for the second fly box made available for this evening.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walla2-Fly-Fishers/356939534505

Fly Fishing Fair 2010 at Waterbrook

2010-05-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

Today we had a beautiful day and a lot of fun at Waterbrook Winery and the 2010 Fly Fishing Fair. The nice group of folks that came out with a threat of rain, found plenty of sunshine, fresh air, fly casting instruction, fly tying demonstrations / instructions and some really great foods, wines and no rain on this day. It appeared from our seat, that a good time was had by all.
Below is a recap of this day's events in still pictures (worth a thousand words) and a couple of live videos. Hope you will enjoy this review of our day at Waterbrook Winery. This writer thinks the only thing missing from this posting is the sweet aroma of the outdoor fireplace's wood smoke that occasionally circled our playing area most of the day. The same fire and smoke made a nice atmosphere enhancer for this day in our mild Pacific Northwest outdoors.

Now... Let's go fishing!

The jest of this day's activities was to help bring our local Walla Walla Valley neighbors and families into the realm of having fun with a fly and a fly rod. The price of admission for this day of fun in the sun with a gourmet dutch oven cooked meal was FREE. The heart of our day's activity of course was helping people learn the very easy task and fine art of casting a fly to fish with a different kind of rod than most were used to.

One of our founding club members
- Skip Prictchard -
FFF Certified Casting Instructor
made casting easy for one and all interested parties.
Learning to cast a fly.
(a video link)
~you can view at 480p and full screen~

This day we had two fly casting classes, which took Skip
and coaches right up to and past the lunch hour.

Now, while all of this outdoor activity was going on... on the inside we had wine tasting, and fly tying demos taking place.

Then there came the time for breaking cornbread together.

A gathering to break bread.
(a video link)
~you can view at 480p and full screen~

The luncheon prepared by John was delicious... stewed beef, BBQ pork, stewed veggies, (all cooked in a variety of Waterbrook wines), and cornbread. For dessert a dutch oven baked pear crisp, and peach cobbler.

Along with our day of activities we had the folks from
Headwaters Bamboo Rods
and Red's Fly Shop and Guide Services join us.

Right after lunch we had a door prize drawing for two fly boxes in which we gave away the flies tied during this day. We are also happy to announce that FFF club member Tom Craig won our club's FFF National rod-of- choice raffle. With this winning Tom will be able to pick from a 2 wt. through a 12 wt. rod for his fly fishing fun and pleasure via the Federation of Fly Fishers. We wish to thank all FFF club members for their support of this club fund raiser and the help it will make in bringing about our 2010 Walla² Fly Fishers' Banquet on September 18th. Information and tickets for that event with world renown fly fisher and photography - Brian O'Keefe - will be forthcoming shortly.

So with all said and done, we wish to say Thank You, Waterbrook Winery for again allowing the Walla² Fly Fishers to share your facilities and having a great day on your pond, patio. The vino as usually was very delicious.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

April's Fly Fishers' meeting = A full house

2010-04-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

A view of the south end of tonight's meeting room.

Once again it was a good evening for the Walla² Fly Fishers and guest to come together for dinner with our meeting's guest speaker Dennis Dauble. At dinner we had 12 fly fishers at the table, discussing their comings and goings to finish the 2009-2010 steelhead season in the Pacific Northwest. Matthew who joined the club this evening, brought his new iPad to dinner and shared some great pictures of he and his brother's steelhead excursions during the past week on the Wallowa and Imnaha rivers. Nice steelie photos, thanks Matthew for sharing those with us. Would you like to post some of those steelie photos to our club's Facebook page?.

Again this evening we had a nice collection of flies donated to give a good start to the winners of the two fly boxes to be distributed this evening.

After putting together the fly box for the evening's door prize and raffle President Scott went about passing out the door prize tickets as Secretary Dale gave a summery of updates on the club's Facebook page and Blogspot site, before introducing our guest speaker for this evening.

If you were not present for this meeting we would like to bring to your attention and have you mark your calendars for:

Saturday, May 22 for our 2010 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery located on Hwy 12 West of Walla Walla. Fly Fishing Fair hours will be 11 am - 4 pm. Admission is FREE
Saturday, September 18 for our 2010 Walla² Fly Fishers Banquet with Brian O'Keefe at Crossroads Restaurant in Walla Walla. Dinner and seat for this banquet will be $25 single - $40 couples. Details to be announced ASAP, we have booked Brian and Crossroads at this time.
Saturdays and Sundays, -TBA- through the Summer 2010 club fishing outings

Treasurer Barry ask to give his Treasurer's report after the evenings program/presentation.

A first time visitor Ben won the evening's door prize - fly box. He was quite pleased with the situation.

This evening our guest speaker was Dennis Dauble. Dennis retired after 35+ years as a fisheries researcher and manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wa. He is also an avid fly fisherman. His home in his youth was Athena-Weston, OR area, and his favorite fishing holes were along the Walla Walla River, particularly the So. Fork of the Walla Walla. He has just published a book entitled Fishes of the Columbia Basin. This evening Dennis had a presentation on the history of fish and fishing in the Columbia Basin from tribal times through the last two centuries which was most interesting, and this writer thinks everyone learned something new about our home waters / the Columbia Basin. Thank you Dennis for your most informative presentation this evening. Hope you enjoyed our little group, and you will come back and fish our favorite Walla Walla River with us in the near future.

After Dennis' presentation Treasurer Barry gave his updated report, which is not being published to this Blogspot posting.

In wrapping up our evening we held the drawing for the second -fly box- raffle prize and the winner of that box was Loren, another first time visitor to our club's meeting. We would also like to express our appreciation to Tyson who is now a member of the Walla² Fly Fishers, but since his first meeting attended he has won an Orvis fly rod & reel combo, a couple of fly boxes and was the first draw of tonight's door prize -fly box- but offered to let that winning pass on to another. Thank you Tyson for offering the door prize for a second round.

Tonight there were 31 (members & guest) in attendance of our meeting. With this number we just about had a full house. If we had had the 4-5 other members that are regular attender of our meeting, we would have needed to find additional space. It is to this writer's regret to point this out; but maybe the time has come that the Walla² Fly Fishers needs to look for a new location for regular monthly meetings to accommodate our growth.
Any suggestions???

A view of the north end of tonight's meeting room.

After all was said and done, the meeting was adjourned around 8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

PS. Our May meeting will NOT be held at the China Buffet. May's meeting will be included in the activities of our

2010 Fly Fishing Fair

Saturday, May 22 11am - 4pm

at Waterbrook Winery on Hwy 12 West of Walla Walla, WA.
Hope to see everyone then - lunch & activities are FREE.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Five weeks of Steelhead fishing left...

2010-03-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

It has now been just over a year that the core of the Walla² Fly Fishers came together and talked about forming a fly fishing club in the Walla Walla, WA / Milton-Freewater, OR area. That first "club" meeting was instigated by our club's Co-President Skip Pritchard and held on March 4, 2009. At that meeting we had 11 interested individuals to show up, mostly by word-of-mouth. It is good to see regular faces/new faces each month, let's keep up the good work, the good times coming. Thank you everyone for making this happen.

Again this evening we had about 11 club members and guest come together for our pre-meeting dinner. This evening's mealtime gathering was a great time for sharing our recent and long past fishing experiences, friendships.
By the time our 7:00 p.m. meeting started we had 30 interested fly fishers / club members in attendance. President Scott just prior to the evening's business discussion, passed out the door prize tickets to everyone for this evening's fly box give-away. Robert Sallee, won the door prize fly box.
Club business discussed this evening was:

FFF fly rod raffle – we are waiting to hear from FFF National concerning the option of having a greater choice of fly rods for this raffle (we are asking for a choice of a 2wt. thru 12wt. rod, since so many club members own 5 & 8wt. rods)

Fall Banquet – have not yet heard back from Brian O’Keefe to confirm a date for this event (he has been fishing in Chile)

Fly Fishing Fair – it has been confirmed that May 22, 2010 will be the date we plan to hold our 2nd Annual Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery. Please mark your calendar for this event of fly fishing, fly tying, free Dutch Oven cooked luncheon, and vino tasting. Come one, come all and enjoy.

After these discussions, our guest speaker - Mac Huff of the Eagle Cap Fishing Guides service out of Joseph, OR gave us the evening's presentation on Steelhead Fly Fishing Techniques .
His PowerPoint presentation showed how to read the water for steelhead holding lies, how to make a fly presentation to steelhead via the

Wet fly swing
Dead drifting a fly using a strike indicator
Greased line presentation

with some discussion on using a Spey rod and about skating flies for steelhead surface takes. Mac also told us of his version for tying a Turle knot for an under water broadside fly presentation. You will need to contact Mac for more details on his line-to-fly riffle hitch knot to make the fly stay on the surface.

Mac pointed out that the above methods of steelhead fishing, are much the same as those used for trout fishing, but the steelhead take is usually much lighter/softer, with a hardy hard strip-your-line off the reel run following the take and set of the fly in their hard mouth/ jaw.
With Mac's 25+ years of steelhead fishing northeast Oregon's Wallowa Country, he gave us quite a few tips for going after and catching the BIG ones. With this evening's presentation Mac did handle allot of Q&A's concerning steelhead fishing. Thanks Mac.

If you would like to reach Mac concerning some fly fishing guide service on the Grande Ronde, Wallowa, Imnaha rivers -or- general how-to fly fishing instructions while on the river, you can click on his website link above, give him a call or email from this card info...
This writer, can say from his experience of fishing with Mac that there is allot of knowledge to reap by spending a day on the water in the Wallowa Country with Mac.

Thank YOU Mac for traveling the distance and giving us a most informative program on smoothing out some possible rough edges around the science and art of fly fishing for steelhead.

After our evening's program, Scott and Barry went to selling raffle tickets for the second fly box of the evening of which Candace and Bob Pekich won that box.

This evening's meeting was adjourned shortly before 9:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Fly Fishing Northeast Oregon

2010-02-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

Before our evening's presentation and business meeting began, this writer counted 16 Walla² Fly Fishers and guest breaking bread together. Most of us were sharing our far flung "tails" and current memories of fish that had swam away having given up on a nice fight. Tom brought with him some fishy pictures of a recent fishing trip he had made across snow covered river banks in Sun Valley, ID. The food and beverages this evening at the China Buffet seemed exceptionally good. We do not eat fancy here, but we do eat well, and it is all-you-can- eat, which is what a water frothing fly fisherman needs after a good day on the river.

While eating dinner, this area's long time, and very avid fly fisherman Gale House brought out some beautiful antique Atlantic Salmon flies, that were tyed just over 100 years ago (1909) in the UK.

Gale tells us… “It was sometime around 1985 while attending the NW Flyfishing Show held in the Kingdome in Seattle, I purchased a flybox holding about 65 of these Salmon Flies. The vendor was a cheerful little fellow, Jamie Maxton Graham from Peebles, Scotland whom we visited a few years later at his home in Peebles. He had interesting tales about the flies which mostly have been forgotten, maybe somewhat made up, but at any rate it made the ownership more prideful. The flies were tied by fly tiers either at Hardy's or Farlow's and it is noted that most of the Farlow tied flies were tied in 1909 whereas those by Hardy were mostly tied in 1918. I think these large 2/0 and 3/0 flies were mostly designed to be used on those annual trips to the rivers around Trondheim, Norway holding Atlantic Salmon up to 50 plus pounds.”
Thank you Gale for sharing these beautiful antiques with us.

This evening we had a bit of technical difficulties getting the computer with program presentation to make a connection with the digital projector. President Scott had to make two trips out to retrieve some hardware and computer cables, but in the end we got it together and had a great PP Presentation from angler Bob Wolfe on the many fly fishing opportunities available in NE Oregon.

Club Secretary Dale called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m. There were 26 FFF members and guest in attendance.

 Dale, conducted the fly boxes -door prize giveaway and raffle fund raiser- during our wait for the computer hardware to arrive. This evening Jan won the door prize fly box, Tom and Mike won the two (2) raffle fly boxes, and we almost slipped in one of Bob Wolfe's chironomid fly boxes for a bonus prize, but he caught us.
 Club Treasurer Barry gave his report of the club’s bank account, telling us we now have a very nice nest egg of funds in the bank, but by no means are we rich. It was mentioned that in the very near future we will have to expend funds from this account for FFF liability insurance for club protection, when we begin our seasonal outdoor activities.
 Thereafter Dale brought up the idea once again of having a club banquet and trying to secure a date with the notable world traveler/fly fisherman/photographer Brian O’Keefe to be our keynote speaker with presentation. Dale expressed that he would make contact with Brian and FFF to put the gears in motion for a banquet, but we would need a lot of help from this Walla² club citizenry to make this happening in Walla Walla. It was discussed that we would project this banquet for September or October 2010, depending on Brian’s availability.
 Since the evening was being pressed for time by our technical difficulties it was decided to wait until next month to conduct the FFF rod-raffle for a Lefty Kreh’s TiCR X Rod. From FFF we have available a TFO 5904TX (9’ 4 pc 5 wt) -or- a TFO 08904TX (9’ 4 pc 8 wt) --- please see survey forthcoming concerning this rod raffle.

Bob Wolfe, past president of Blue Mtn. Flycasters (FFF), now retired from the USFS – Umatilla National Forest, showed us around some northeast Oregon fishing spots from his pivot point/ home in Pendleton and his former forest service bases of Ukiah, OR and Walla Walla, WA. Bob's presentation was in detail of fishing Oregon -- that part of the NE Zone as listed in the Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife fishing regulations and that governed by SE Zone regulations. Bob pointed out that part of NE Oregon is listed in the SE Zone regulations, because it is located on the Snake River drainage, and does not carry steelhead and salmon runs in those waters. In both of these zones Bob pointed out the very numerous opportunities to stillwater fish for nice rainbow and brook trout in well stocked ponds of little exposure and very little fishing pressure. In Bob’s presentation he also showed us some of the nice, steelhead, salmon, trout, and Dolly Varden we have biting fly hooks in this part of Oregon. After the presentation, Bob invited everyone of interest to join him and make plans to go fishing in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon. As Bob often does… he had a small group form around him after the meeting to discuss the flies he tyes and catches fish with. They work.
This writer having fished many days in northeast Oregon with Bob knows.... on most day, Bob is one of those guys in the 10% club of fishermen that can hook 90% of the day's catch. Bob and this writer both learned together, that in northeast Oregon a 100 -200 and sometimes 300 fish hookup day is not unusual, when you are fishing the Oregon Territory with no one else in sight.

Thank you Bob for an excellent evening's fly fishing presentation.

It was 9:00 p.m. as this evening’s meeting came to adjorn, with a number of folks discussing fly fishing until 9:20 and later.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

A winter's gathering of the Walla² Fly Fishers

2010-01-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

This evening the Walla² Fly Fishers came together with Carl Johnson, Washington State FFF Council President. Carl calls the west side of WA home, but also has a second home in Montana, so he has plenty of fly fishing experiences to talk about as he travels/fishes across the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to this month's meeting, we once again had a pleasant dinner together with about 15 fly fishers breaking bread, fish, chicken, Chinese noodles, stir fried rice, etc. together. Carl was at the China Buffet when most of us got there, so we had the entire evening to enjoy our visit with him. Our dinner socialization hour includes the sharing of fish tales, past and current, as well as just visiting with new found fly fishing/club friends.

After we move from the dining room into the banquet room of China Buffet, we proceeded to pull out the flies to decorate the evening's fly boxes to be given/raffled away.

This evening we had 25 people present for this January meeting, and as a couple of guys went around the room with a roll of raffle tickets in their hands giving away door prize tickets and peddling tickets to raffle off the other fly boxes and a FFF -gifted- fly rod.

~~~~~~~~~

Our club is to receive from the Federation a fly rod from the Lefty Kreh’s TiCR X Rod Series ---
a TFO 5904TX
(9’ 4 pc 5 wt)
-or-
a TFO 08904TX
(9’ 4 pc 8 wt)
for bringing on board 18 new FFF members. Club President Scott pointed out that since the Walla² Fly Fishers is a FFF Charter Club, (meaning all Walla² Fly Fishers members are also Federation of Fly Fishers members) that this rod raffle would be opened to card carrying FFF members only. Next month we will be drawing the ticket of the winner of the rod, and the winner of that raffle would have her/his option of picking the rod of their choice for their individual fly fishing needs.
This rod opportunity will be drawn for during our February 10th meeting, if we can sell 100 tickets by that time.

~~~~~~~~~

After all the ticket business settled down, we held the drawing for the fly box door prize and Scott Peters won that.

President Scott Peters called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. The club's business of the evening that were discussed was, thoughts for future meeting programs, the attempt to have Brian O'Keefe to come to our April meeting/ banquet, and the slight discussion of seeking new club officers. Our first year/one year of functionality with officers -- President Scott, Co-President Skip, and Secretary Dale will be wrapping up in a few months. These guys took their respective club positions with the understanding that they would work on getting the club up and running, with anticipation that in a year of so, other helping hands would step forward and offer new leadership. It was good to have Carl present at this meeting to bring out some point to help us in the continuing development of our club, its membership, and it's association with the Washington Council.
It was also discussed the survey that Dale had passed around concerning the establishing of a club membership fly tying workshop for the winter of 2010. There was 10-12 individuals that expressed interest in creating such a workshop and by a membership vote it was decided to choose the 4th Wednesday of the month for January, February, March and maybe April to conduct such a "come as you are" workshop. Our first fly tying workshop will be Wednesday, 27 January from 7 to 9 p.m., watch your email connection for details.

Thereafter Carl gave us his presentation concerning the creation, formation, and organization of the Federation of Fly Fishers. Due to technical difficulties Carl's show & tell PowerPoint program would not project, so his presentation from was from his mastery of memory of the FFF. In a nutshell, the FFF was started by the Mackenzie Fly Fishers of Eugene, OR in association with the Evergreen club of the Seattle, WA area. There first "organizational" meet was a steelhead fishing trip on the Grande Ronde River near Troy, OR. As it was first set up, the FFF was a loose knit organization of a group of fly fishing clubs around the Pacific Northwest. Over the past fifty years it has become a solid organization of international scope in developing the art and science of fly fishing and fly tying. Unlike many other fishing organizations, the FFF is an organization that embraces all fishing, in all waters, this the practice of catch and release in mind at all times.
"Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once." - Lee Wulff (a founder of the FFF)

Following Carl's presentation we had one more pass around the room with the raffle tickets for the next two fly boxes to be raffled and the Lefty Kreh’s TiCR X Fly Rods. Barry Gould and Doug Coe won the fly boxes, and the rod winner will be drawn at our February 10th meeting.

This meeting was adjourned shortly after 8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Tyson WINS-- Walla² Fly Fishers’ rod and reel

2009-12-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

Wednesday 12/9/09 we held the sixth meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers. This meeting was preceded by the camaraderie of our Dutch Treat buffet dinner with a dozen fellow fly casters sharing the meal, and their fishing stories. There is something special about sharing this time of feasting and relaxation with those of a common bond… the fly, the rod, the waters, and fishing.
... tis not all of fishing to fish - Izaak Walton (1653)

Will you join us?

As the seven o’clock hour approached, we had more and more fellow fly fishers joining us in the banquet room of the China Buffet. When President Scott Peters called the meeting to order we had 24 members and guests present. Scott made several announcements concerning the club and our progress of organization and the pending “reward” of a fly rod from the FFF for our growth in membership. In Scott’s presentation he pointed out that we had to choose between two (2) rods from the Federation at this point in time. These rods are from the Lefty Kreh’s TiCR X Rod Series – a TFO 5904TX (9’ 4 pc 5 wt) -or- a
TFO 08904TX (9’ 4 pc 8 wt). It was discussed that instead of ordering either rod from the Federation, that we would hold another rod raffle (details to be announced) for one of these rods and the winner of that raffle would have her/his option of picking the rod of their choice for their individual fly fishing needs. Scott pointed out that since the Walla² Fly Fishers is a FFF Charter Club, (meaning all Walla² Fly Fishers members are also Federation of Fly Fishers members) that this rod raffle would be opened to card carrying FFF members only. We will be selling raffle tickets for this FFF rod at our January 13th and our February meetings. The drawing will be held at our February 10th meeting.

The fly donation boxes were passed around, door prize tickets were passed out, and more raffle tickets were sold for the Orvis rod and reel combo - to be drawn for this same evening.

Before the meeting’s program of several fly tying round-tables were setup we held the door prize drawing and Diane Briggs won the fly box of her choice.

Thereafter the 24 fly fishers present sit with Diane, Max, and Scott, their fly tying vises, and went about tying flies for the evening.

We hope from that evening of hands-on fly tying and demonstrations, to organize a group of fly fishers that will be interested in forming a 2010 fly tying winter workshop. In the formation of a club's fly tying group we hope to share in the camaraderie, and learning process of our fly fishing sport, together and with interested others.

After our fly tying session the final call was made for the Orvis rod/reel raffle and all 100 tickets were sold. Thank You, everyone for your ticket(s) purchase and support of our club.

And the winner is…

Tyson Kopfer, a new Walla² Fly Fishers member with this being his first meeting attended. This made Tyson quite a happy winner.

Congratulations Tyson, you will have quite a few envious club members to sit with at our next meeting.

A very big Thank YOU goes out to our club's Co-President Skip Pritchard for his donation of this Orvis rod and reel combo. This will certainly give our club a great financial foundation to operate with.

After the evening's fly tying demo and practice, the Orvis rod/reel raffle winning; the meeting was adjourned to everyone's individual fly tying bench. In that process of moving things along, we did not have the second evening's fly box raffle. That box of flies will be raffled at our Wednesday January 13th meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

November's meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers

2009-11-11T21:41:00.000-08:00

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

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

October's meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers

2009-10-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

It was just a few minutes after 6 o'clock p.m. that about sixteen Walla² Fly Fishers sit down to have their evening meal together and share their latest and greatest fly fishing experiences. These monthly meals (for the folks that can make it) are really a great time of camaraderie and just getting to know each other. It would be nearly an hour before we would get into club business, and during this time we discussed fishing trips (current and pass), discussed flies, and the different waters of the area with some directions on how to find particular fishing spots. A most pleasant way to pass/share an evening with fellow fly fishers. Also during this time the fly boxes (see above) began to be loaded with the 2 flies (per member) that most people remembered to bring for this evening's raffles.

About 7 o'clock President Scott call the meeting to order. At that point in time we had 21 members and 2 "guest" present. The first order of business was to pass out "free" raffle tickets that would reward a box of flies (a door prize) to one of the fly fishers present this evening. Thereafter Scott began selling a number of raffle tickets (club fund raiser) for the second box of flies available this evening.

With the first drawing, Jan Atwater won the door prize - and made her choice of a box of trout and steelhead flies.

Scott then introduced our guest speaker for the evening- John McKern, retired fishery biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). John's presentation was a history of the salmon and steelhead population of the Columbia and Snake rivers, and the innovations to protect and increase their populations. John's discussion was a synopsis of these fisheries as recorded by the first European and Asian traders to visit the Pacific Northwest coastal fishery areas, through the period of commercial fishing and canneries, up through today's dam fish passage innovations.

A note here, 2009 has been a phenomenal year for salmon and steelhead returns -- recorded passage through Bonneville Dam 10/14/09:
Chinook Salmon - 693,000+
Steelhead - 596,000+
Sockeye Salmon - 177,000+

John's presentation mentioned some of the USACE errors made that had harmed the fish migrations in years pass, and the research and developments that have been made to correct and greatly improve fish passage through the Columbia and Snake rivers dams. At this point in time we will have to say... let the numbers speak for themselves (see above), concerning the success of the work John as dedicated his life to.

Thank you John for a job well done and your presentation to our club this evening.

After John's presentation, Scott made one more round of fly box raffle ticket sales, and then we had the drawing for the flies. Matt McKern (John's son) won the second box of flies for this evening. The raffle for the fly box this evening made the club about $50.
Thank you everyone that made a donation of 2 flies to the club. A nice little fund raiser to help us get the Walla² Fly Fishers' show on the road.

After this final raffle, Scott discussed the function of Walla² Fly Fishers club membership, and the need for every member to join the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) and also the need for each member to pay their 2010 annual Walla² Fly Fishers' membership dues ($15 individual/$20 family) between now and January 1, 2010.

Because we realized we needed a second color raffle ticket (not to be confused with the fly raffle tickets) it was decided to begin the raffle for the Orvis rod/reel combo -- Clearwater II 8 1/2' 5wt. (Mid-flex) rod, and the reel is a Battenkill Barstock III spooled with 5wt line + backing -- at our November 11th meeting and continue that raffle through our December 9th meeting. This will make a nice X-mas prize/present for the lucky winner. This club raffle for the Orvis combo will be limited to 100 tickets to be sold at $5 per.
Tell your wife, children, family and friends that they could win this outfit for you as a X-mas present for just $5... a ticket, that is.

Shortly after 8:30 our meeting was adjourned for this evening/ this month.

Again this month a number of us stuck around until the restaurant's closing to share club interest, and fly fishing stories to be continued...

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

September's meeting

2009-09-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Walla² Fly Fishers came together for the first of our indoor seasons' meeting tonight. About a dozen of us showed up for a Dutch treat dinner at 6:00 p.m. We stood around chatting for awhile, before we grabbed our plates. Thereafter we filled our plates with some good eats as we passed around and around the buffet bars and then were seated for our feast. During dinner fish tales were told and pictures of fish tails (for bragging rights) were passed around the table. Some nice fish showed up in those pictures.

We had an enjoyable time of getting to know new faces, breaking breaded... shrimp together, and sharing our fly fishing experiences with each other. Interesting conversations around this table.

As the 7 o’clock hour approached we had more and more folks join our dining group prior to beginning our club’s business meeting. Scott asked Co-President Skip before the meeting to introduce/pass around the Orvis tackle that Skip had brought to this meeting for club fundraisers. Skip passed around a nice Wheatley Fly Box (foam fly hanger on the lid side/ windowed compartments on other side). This fly box was raffled off right after the business meeting of this evening. Skip also brought an Orvis Combo – Clearwater 4 piece 5-weight fly rod with a Battenkill reel (filled with backing, line, leader), a nice setup for fishing trout and steelhead in our local rivers and streams. This combo will be offered as the raffle item of our Oct-Nov meetings. It was discussed that this Clearwater rod/reel combo, will be raffled off by 100 tickets at $5 apiece. Hope you don't miss your chance to go home with this Walla² Fly Fishers' prize. Watch this blog site for more details on owning this rod and reel outfit... only 100 tickets available.
Thank you Skip for making such nice Orvis items available to our club.

Shortly after 7:00 p.m. President Scott Peters called the meeting to order with 24 fly fishers attending.

The business at hand (actually in Scott’s hand) was looking at the club's organization and programs:

1) During the summer months Scott and Dale McKain – Club Secretary had completed the paperwork to formally tie our club to the Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) as a Charter Club
2) Scott suggested; a motion was made and approved that we would have annual club membership dues of $15 for individuals and $20 family. This will be in addition to the FFF membership dues to Livingston, MT headquarters. It was pointed out the perks/publications that came with the dues paid to FFF - National.
3) Future meeting topics – rod building, fly tying, Columbia & Snake River dam education, etc.
4) We will try to have a month meeting raffle of a fly box with assorted flies for fund raiser (all club members will be ask to donate two flies per meeting to create the box of flies)
5) With Skip's donation of the fly box and the fly rod combo at this meeting to create some club funding, the motion was made and approved by the membership that we would wait for the goal of 18 NEW FFF members to accumulate before asking for the high end rod that the FFF offers for making their NEW membership goal/reward.

Scott once again discussed the purpose and goal of our Walla² Fly Fishers’ club as being:

1) To promote the causes of the Federation of Fly Fishers in helping all interested parties in learning the art and science of fly fish, learning careful fish handling (C&R), etc.
2) To be a family friendly group of fly fishers, welcoming all to our table to participate in our knowledge of fly fishing
3) To help those who have physical, emotional, any handicap needs; where learning to fly fish will aid in their therapy and well being.
4) To bring together our local fly fishing community and enjoy the camaraderie of each others' fly fishing experiences on and off the water
5) Find a stretch of a local/nearby river or stream, maybe two; to adopt, fish and be caretakers of that environment in conjunction with WDFW/ODFW/CTUIR

Also this evening it was discussed without detail the desire of having another fly casting clinic, a fly tying clinic, and as funds are available, having a banquet with a notable fly fisher-speaker to make a presentation.

After the business at hand was discussed, the raffle was held for the Orvis fly box. This was won by Steve Pfeiffer. This raffle raised over $75 for our club funding. Thank you, one and all.
Again, Thank you Skip.

Note: It was found that the funds that was thought to be in a Walla Walla bank from a previous fly fishing club (that we might benefit from) had been donated to the Tri-State Steelheaders a number of years ago.

Meeting was adjourned shortly after 8:15, with a few topics and fish tales being discussed thereafter.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook

2009-08-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today our recently formed Federation of Fly Fishers chapter - Walla² Fly Fishers held our sixth meeting at the facilities of Waterbrook Winery for a beautiful autumn like day of FLY FISHING ON THE POND. The Walla² Fly Fishers are a group of individuals vested in bringing the art and science of fly fishing to our Walla Walla River Valley of Oregon and Washington, USA.

This day was a well co-ordinated effort / event of fly fishing, fly tying, outdoor cooking and wine tasting enjoyments at the newly constructed facility of Waterbrook Winery near Walla Walla, WA. Admission to fly fishing activities and food was FREE and FUN for ALL. The price of sipping Waterbrook vino during lunch and into the afternoon was very reasonable

To make a long story short, the following pictures of today's events should be worth a few thousand words...
Joe Rotter (left) of Red's Fly Shop set up his guided fly fishing trip program and was talking fly fishing right off the bat this morning. Joe did inform us that they had several group package fly fishing trips available through his guide service on the Wenatchee, the Yakima, the Klickitat and many others. He invited the Walla² Fly Fishers to come up and enjoy their fishing fun. If you would be interested in following up on Joe's invitation /presentation you can follow this link to his Central Washington fly fishing guide services.

We also had on tap for the day...

Fly-Tying Demonstration with Scott Peters began at 10:30
Yarn Fly Casting Demonstrations and Classes began at 11:30

Skip Pritchard - FFF certified casting instructorconducts our casting classes for this day.

Walla² Fly Fishers members help to make it easier
Yarn Fly Casting Competition began at 12:30

Dutch Over Cooking Demonstrations began at 11:00 Shore Lunch Presentation began at 12:30 with lunch for all on the grounds being served at 1:30.Lunch for everyone from these food preparations was: grilled salmon, grilled potatoes/onions kabobs, grilled zucchini/ pineapple kabobs, Dutch oven - baked tri-tip steak, with mushroom gravy, carrot/onion stew in a wine sauce, peach cobbler and a blueberry-raspberry-blackberry cobbler.

We had quite a turnout -- quite a party, and the wine was good.
Did I see you there today?

After lunch, Skip had another crew of flycasters on the pond, practicing/ tuning up their newly learned skills from the day's activities. Scott and Dale went back at the fly tying table for awhile to offer a few more flies to those that were watching in the interest of our fly dressings.

With this full day's activity, a few sips of Waterbrook wine, a delicious lunch having been served, we were cleaning up and wrapping up our fly fishing/ fly tying gear for the day, when we found this guy laying in a corner passed out. It was a big day of outdoor activities for everyone.

The Walla² Fly Fishers wish to express our deep gratitude to Waterbrook Winery for the use of their facilities, their hospitality, and the food and wine that we all enjoyed. We also wish to thank Joe, John, Ceil, for their help in making the Fly Fishing Fair a great success with great food and camaraderie.

Scott and Skip, Thank You for making all the arrangements to put this day together with Waterbrook Winery for the members of Walla² Fly Fishers and our fly fishing community.

NOTE: During our affair today, Scott found that there maybe some $$$ money $$$ sitting in a Walla Walla bank that we -Walla² Fly Fishers- may have at our disposal. Stay tuned for further details.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Walla² Fly Fishers in action

2009-07-19T18:03:00.000-07:00

A small group of the Walla² Fly Fishers went fishing on the South Fork Walla Walla River today. Air temperature in the canyon was about 80°, the water temperature was 58°, and the sky was full of sunshine. To the best of my knowledge everyone was hooking- releasing fish (C&R) and having a most enjoyable afternoon. During this meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers, no minutes were taken, no motions were made and since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is the rest of our story in the order of events...

Alex with the first hang up of the day.

Dan with his out-of-town guest from Baltimore, determining a good fly pattern to use.
I strongly suggested to the group that when fishing the So. Fork you wear jeans, cool & wet for the summertime...

In the many years that I have been fishing and horseback riding the So. Fork I have come upon maybe a half dozen or so, buzz-tailed critters on the trails or in the grass here. This day was one of those times. They are heat seekers (for food) so wet jeans and wading boots can help to take a fisherman's legs out of their - defensive or seeking/see ya /got ya- scenario.
The guy pictured above was about 16-18" long -- I didn't get too close for measurement -- with a buzz attachment of about 1' -- it cross my path between Dan's (above) and Lauri's (below) fishing spots. At the end of the ring-tail on the right (hidden by leaf) was its buzz attachments. This snake did not rattle or strike, it just ran away to hide and not to be stepped on.

Lauri appeared to be in her own fly fishing world.
Lovely world, don't you think?
Below is Herb working with the finesse of his 2wt. bamboo/fiberglass rod.
After catching up with Alex and several other guys just above the third ford, I let everyone know what to expect by fishing further upriver, and that I was going to head back to the ranch and play with my baby...

horse that is. "Summer" is almost 1 month old this weekend.

Dale McKain -- as copied/edited from a McKuster Ranch Life blog posting.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Scott Peters - President

Skip Pritchard - Co-President

Dale McKain - Secretary