Our Eighth Annual Fly Fishing Fair

Heading for Waterbrook Winery this AM

  Today's forecast reads
AM rain

Low 50°   ~   High 72°
Wind Gust  @  >25 mph
Talking about, and with the practice of fly fishing,
this should make for a good day.

The past seven years we have beat the odds, of cool, damp mornings in SE Washington for our Fly Fishing Fairs. Today the odds caught up with us, but it did not dampen our spirits. As everyone that picks up a fly rod knows, some the best days fishing are the ones that are overcast, and even better are the ones with a little rain on the river / stream surface to start or finish a day's outing. 

... tis not all of fishing to fish.
- Izaak Walton

Waterbrook Winery entrance - wet

From the get go this morning, we had rainfall, but it began to slack off rather quickly once we began our day's activities.

Waterbrook fishing pond - rainy

Soon the Walla² Fly Fishers began to arrive with fly fishing and fly tying gear in hand ready for the day.

Grant Richie and sons from Minam, OR set up a shelter for our casting instructor to work out of. Grant and family operate the raft and fishing guide services at www.minamraftrentals

Jim Gallagher from Ellensburg, WA brought his fly tying gear to join us at the tyers' table. Jim operates his business out of Troutwater Outfitters and Fly Shop at troutwaterfly.com/

President Dave sit up a presentation table for our club sponsored Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc.

Our casting instructor this year was Grant. With our morning weather conditions, the participants this year were few.

At the tyers' table there was Jim, Herb and Dale. Jim was tying his specialty flies for fishing the Yakima River, Herb was tying some of his favorite bass flies, and Dale was tying stillwater and steelhead flies.

Between the morning rains and the afternoon wind, some found a chance to wet a fly on the Waterbrook Winery ponds.

It wasn't too late in the morning that the rains ceased and the changing weather winds began to blow. 

Disregarding the weather, people kept coming out to see us today.

With the wind and a bit of chill that went with it, at noon time many of our guest found that it was lunch time, and came in from the weather to grab a bite to eat.

By mid-afternoon the clouds began to part, the sun was shining bright, and Our Eighth Annual Fly Fishing Fair was drawing to a close.
As the day came to an end, we were out from under the rainfall, the winds had subsided, the Walla Walla Valley vineyards were growing greener, and our Blue Mountain foothills make a beautiful place to think about going fly fishing for: trout, steelhead, salmon, bass, crappie, blue gills, perch, carp, Northern Pike Minnows, etc.

For the folks that joined us today at Waterbrook Winery, we hope you enjoyed your visit. We hope you learned a little about fly fishing and fly tying, and you will join us at our next club meeting in mid-September.

Waterbrook Winery, Thank You again for allowing us to have use of your lawn, pond, banquet room for our day's activities.

We wish to Thank ALL the participants which helped with our program today, and we hope to see everyone back to share their fish tales with us again next year.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

Contact Us

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