Tyson WINS-- Walla² Fly Fishers’ rod and reel

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

Contact Us

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

November's meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Contact Us

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

October's meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers

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

Contact Us

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

September's meeting

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

Contact Us

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

2009 - Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook

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 11:00Shoreline 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

Contact Us

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

Walla² Fly Fishers in action

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

Contact Us

Scott Peters - President

Skip Pritchard - Co-President

Dale McKain - Secretary