We shall RETURN

NO WWFF MEETINGS until further NOTICE

Please observe these COVID-19 precautions

~ Deliberately increasing the physical space between people to avoid spreading illness. Staying at least six feet away from other people lessens your chances of catching COVID-19.

~ Frequently wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. When soap and running water are unavailable, use an alcohol-based hand rub with at least 60% alcohol. Always wash hands that are visibly soiled.

~ Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.

~ Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

~ Deliberately increasing the physical space between people to avoid spreading illness. Staying at least six feet away from other people lessens your chances of catching COVID-19.

~ Spend plenty of time outdoors in fresh air and sunshine catching fish.  

To discover some of the finest fishing spot in NE Oregon and SE Washington scroll through the years of our blog's postings; to plan your next catching outing.

Tight lines and good fishing ~

COVID-19 pandemic is putting everything on HOLD

The first confirmed case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was announced by the state of Washington on January 21, 2020. Washington made the first announcement of a death from the disease in the U.S. on February 29 and later announced that two deaths there on February 26 were also due to COVID-19. Until mid-March, Washington had the highest absolute number of confirmed cases and the highest number per capita of any state in the country.

With the onset of COVID-19 taking place in Washington at this time, this email was sent out today to the membership of our Walla² Fly Fishers.

Greetings ALL,

The COVID-19 outbreak issue has been weighing on our minds for the past few days. 

Tuesday morning I called St. Mary's Hospital, and the WW County Health Dept. to ask for advice. 

The Health Dept. advised  us (I passed it along to club fellow officers) to use our best judgment. The WW County Health Dept. was NOT suggesting calling off group meetings at this time, but would advise sending a message to ALL that if you are feeling less than 100% it is best to stay at home, be safe and not to spread a common cold, or the COVID-19 flu like virus.

Since many of our members are 55+ years old -- a most critical age for complication with the COVID-19 outbreak ~ the club officers have made the decision to be SAFE; to, for, with ALL concerned and CANCEL our March 18 meeting.

Tough call, but we are inclined to stay Safe and Sound, by staying home - with little to no exposure to annual illnesses; waiting for this national / community illness to pass.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing

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Diane Briggs –  Co-President
Judy McDole – Co-President

Tyson Kopfer – Vice President

Harold Saxby – Treasurer

Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster

A New Year ~ old business, new business...

This evening President Judy called our meeting to order at 7:03 PM.

We had 19 members and guest in attendance.

Judy asked if there was any new business that discussed:

Tom announced that he was again “working” with the Walla Walla County 4-H to make a fly fishing presentation at their Super Saturday on March 21^st. He asked if anyone that would be interested in helping with fly fishing / fly tying demonstrations please contact him via email tcraig@cbfr.biz to discuss.

Tom also mentioned that he has a neighbor that has 2 fly rods For Sale – a 4 wt. Sage and a 3 wt. St Croix. Please contact Tom <tcraig@cbfr.biz > if you might be interested in getting a Good Deal on some nice rods.

Next Treasurer Harold gave us a rather extensive 2019 Treasury activity report. He mentioned the income for the monthly fly boxes we raffle and give for a Door Prize. He mentioned the sale of the Walla² Fly Fishers caps had brought in a little money as the club makes $1.20 per cap sold at $15 each.
Harold mentioned we bought an 8’ pontoon boat for ALL Due Paying club members to have FREE access to.
Our speakers cost last year came to $1250.
Harold reported that as of today the club had a little over $1050 in our checking account.

Secretary Dale gave a recap of our November meeting, which was particularly informative presentation given by Heather Hodson.
Our New Year –January meeting was cancelled due to the winter’s only snowstorm making streets and highway hazardous for evening travel.

Dale reminded everyone if they want more details of our club’s monthly meetings and group activities to please make reference to the club’s blogsite.  https://wallawallaflyfishers.blogspot.com/
There one will find a recap of our 10-year history of activities.

Dale also mentioned that the club had purchased the 8’ pontoon boat – kept at his house just south of Stateline Rd. and also given to the club by he and President Diane at two full size float tubes for use of the Due Paid club members. He as that anyone wishing to use any of these watercraft that you give him a 24-hour notice so he will have them unlocked from his chain-link fencing.

Dave gave us an early season fishing report, as since the January snowstorm many days are been very spring like in our area. He told us that there are 3 Tucannon lake opened for fishing, March 1^st most all the lakes in our area will be open for fishing and all the rivers should be open by June 1^st. Please check Washington and Oregon Fishing Regulations for details.
Dale mentioned that he had posted the eRegulations for WA and OR on the club’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/lovePNWsteelheading/

Dave also reminded us that Jefferson Park across from Super 1 Food grocery store was now opened for children, senior citizens, and handicapped individuals to fish.

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

More to be added to this report...

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing

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Diane Briggs –  Co-President
Judy McDole – Co-President

Tyson Kopfer – Vice President

Harold Saxby – Treasurer

Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster

January 15, 2020 - Meeting Cancelled

Due to inclement weather conditions with poor road / street conditions throughout the Walla Walla River Valley tonight's meeting of Walla² Fly Fishers has been CANCELLED.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 19 February ~ same time, same place ~ weather permitting.

Tight lines and good fishing

Contact Us

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Diane Briggs –  Co-President
Judy McDole – Co-President

Tyson Kopfer – Vice President

Harold Saxby – Treasurer

Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster

Fly Fishing Northern Idaho with Heather Hodson

This evening President Diane called our meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

Diane wished welcome greetings to all, we had 25 members and 4 guests present.

Treasurer Harold reported that the club had over $1200 in the checking account. He told us that at the last meeting we had received $36 on the fly boxes raffle and $75 in cap sales.

Secretary Dale made a brief recap of our October 16^th meeting and again asked everyone to refer to the club blog – http://wallawallaflyfishers.blogspot.com/ – for more details. He reminded everyone that this evening was the last meeting of 2019 and our next would be in mid-January (weather permitting).

This month President Judy was "Summer Vacationing" in the Commonwealth of Australia.

Heidi announced that the ladies group of Walla² Fly Fisherwomen would be holding a meeting at Barbara’s house on December 2^nd.

This evening our guest speaker Heather drew the raffle ticket for the first choice fly box – Roz won that box.

This evening we were pleased to have Heather Hodson from Spokane as our program speaker.

Heather Hodson is the founder of United Women On The Fly.  Heather is an expert at making anglers (especially women) feel comfortable and becoming part of the fly fishing community.  Sometimes referred to as the "Middle Woman", Heather volunteers her energy and time to connect women, help start a Woman's Program or enable anglers to become more confident on the water.  Fly fishing for 13 years, Heather has dedicated her time to educate and inspire others.  She is currently studying for her Casting Instructor Certification with FlyFishers International and has been teaching fly fishing since 2014. Heather currently holds the position of Western US Women's /Diversity Ambassador for Trout Unlimited.

This evening Heather had a very educational and entertaining program on fishing the most popular trout and steelhead river of northern Idaho to include: Kelly Creek, St. Joe River, Clearwater River, No. Fork Clearwater River, Snake River and the No. Fork Coeur D'Alene River.

With each of these rivers Heather’s presentation showed us the layout of the river, maps of some of the best fishing areas, maps of her favorite campgrounds, listings of the insect hatches and their season of emergence, and in some cases the best way to rig your fly rod to best access and offer presentations to holding fish…

In the meantime, Heather kept pulling out some of her fly boxes and passed them around which made an attractive "here's what I use" presentation...

To wrap up her presentation Heather spoke about steelhead fishing, She mentioned that she and a group of fly fishing women had started their steelhead season on the Deschutes River, and caught a few steelies there.

Then she followed the run up the Snake and Clearwater rivers...

 

Please do not remove Wild Steelhead from the water - revive and keep them alive - they are precious
and fewer than ever.

After Heather's presentation we asked her to make the second drawing of the evening for the Door Prize fly box - Tim won the second box.

In Heather's off-fly-fishing-time; she is a hospital critical care nurse. This writer will ask for her by name, the next time I have to go to the hospital, feeling that she would be the best.

We wish to Thank YOU Heather, so much for making the trip from Spokane this evening, to make a presentation that made many of us want to pack our fishing gear and follow her back to fish Northern Idaho rivers. And a Thank You to our club's women members that asked Heather to be with us this evening.

Our next meeting will be held the 15th of January 2020 - Happy Holidays.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing

Contact Us

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Diane Briggs –  Co-President
Judy McDole – Co-President

Tyson Kopfer – Vice President

Harold Saxby – Treasurer

Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster

Thoughts of PNW Steelhead fishing

This evening President Diane called our meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

We had 12 members and guest in attendance.

Diane called on Secretary Dale to refresh our memories of the business of September’s meeting. He referred to the meeting's points of interest - Secretary's Report, Treasurer's Report, a recap of our September 18th meeting survey, and business matters. He reminded everyone of this blog-site for a record of 10 years of club activities.

Club Treasurer Harold reported that we had over $1180 in our bank checking account.

Dave gave us a report on a recent fishing trip he and Tom had made on the Yakima River, Dale gave a report of a most recent trip to Anthony Lake.
Dale reminded everyone that most area (OR and WA) trout streams and rivers would be closing to fishing November 1. He also mentioned that with the very low return number of steelhead this fall, many Columbia River tributaries were being closed to steelhead fishing in WA, OR, and ID for the balance of this year.
Dale reported that the steelhead return count pass Bonneville Dam (year to date) for yesterday October 15, 2019, and the 10-year average was – Adult Steelhead 75,180 while the 10-year average for this date was 282,546. A very sad 26% return on the 10-year average.

Dale also made a brief report of what he had received from Kyle Bratcher, Acting District Fish Biologist- ODFW in Enterprise, OR this week and distributed to all WWFF via email. Kyle reported that even though the steelhead return numbers were very poor, that for the time being the Grand Ronde River basin would remain open for steelhead fishing. He mentioned that anglers should check the most current fishing regulations to determine any and all rivers being closed to steelhead fishing in Oregon.

This evening we changed the order of the meeting’s usual two (2) fly box distribution. The winner of the sold raffle tickets has first choice of the box they want; the remaining box becomes the FREE door prize of the evening.

This evening we got to try out the club’s new upgraded audio-visual projector system using member Heidi’s Trout Unlimited: - Season One DVD on the subject of Steelhead Fishing on Central Oregon’s Deschutes River. The video gave us a lot of steelhead fishing, fly tying and Redside trout catching reminiscing.

It was a very informative video, discussing the Deschutes River fishery and what the Central Oregon TU Chapter has done and is doing to help enhance the steelhead and salmon fishery in central Oregon's Maupin area.

Deschutes River - Maupin, OR area

Maupin,OR - small, very much a tourist town catering to the Deschutes River activities

River rafting ~ kayaking

Sea run steelhead - adipose fin clipped

Signal Light

Spawning Purple

Many books written of Steelhead Fly

Golden Cock

Deschutes River steelhead

Deschutes River steelhead w/Eric

Deschutes River steelhead w/Dale

Adipose FIN should be clipped / missing to legally keep-kill a steelhead

The program was strictly fly fishing for steelhead, until the producer / fisher of the video found that steelhead fishing is much more time consuming (creel count is measured in Hours per Fish) than trout fishing; so as the video ended the producer / fisher turned to using hard-tackle-lures in order to catch a returning sea-run steelhead.  Sad but True.

While using a Blue Fox treble hook spinner

Thank you Heidi, for sharing this video.

If you wish to learn more about steelhead fishing in the Columbia River basin follow this link to... Chasing Steelhead through the Pacific Northwest.

Our meeting was adjourned at 8:30.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing

Contact Us

~ Follow Us on Facebook ~

Diane Briggs –  Co-President
Judy McDole – Co-President

Tyson Kopfer – Vice President

Harold Saxby – Treasurer

Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster

Dave Stemmer – PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator