2017 November's meeting - New Year 2018

V President Tom Craig called our meeting to order at 7:10 this evening.

We had 15 members and guest in attendance.

To start the meeting there was a moment of silence for fellow member Judy McDole, who had lost her husband Mike in a home accident this past week. Peace be with You Judy in this time of grief.

Tom reported that the Walla Walla 4-H Super Saturday event had gone well and he had received a Thank You note for he and Diane’s time spent introducing area 4-H youth to fly fishing and fly tying.

Diane and Heidi told us that the beginner’s fly tying class at WWCC had gone well this past month. Diane informed us that she would be presenting a follow-up class in January – Beginning II / Intermediate Fly Tying. This round of classes will be held on Mondays begin on Jan. 22 through Feb. 12. Class time will be 2:30 pm for four (4) weeks.

It was also mentioned that our club's Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, LLC chapter - for men and women veterans only- have fly tying sessions most Thursday 5:00 pm at the Walla Walla Vet Center on W. Poplar Street - telephone 509-526-8387 for more info.

Dale brought up the idea of another Fly Fishing Fair in 2018, maybe again at Waterbrook Winery. Tom said he would contact the winery and find out if they might have any available Saturday dates in late May – early June.

Dale brought up the idea of a club Kokanee salmon fishing trip on Wallowa Lake next June. He talked about an ole fly shop customer of his – Ron Campbell – who currently holding the World Size Record for Kokanee caught. Ron caught this record salmon in Wallowa Lake - Oregon... near here.

Typical Wallowa Lake Kokanee salmon

Dale will try to contact Ron to see if he might be able to make it to our January meeting and discuss what it takes to catch a 5-6-7-8-9 pound Kokanee in stillwaters. 

Ron Campbell and his World Record 9-pound 10-ounce kokanee salmon

Another favorite catch of Ron's is large mouth bass at Pendleton's McKay Reservoir.

Dale had forwarded an email to all club members, a short time ago from the fly fishing group in Pendleton. They had invited our club members to join several of their stillwater outing this past year. They are having a gathering tomorrow -11/16- to discuss their outing of 2017 and think about 2018. Dale said he was going to this meeting and asked if anyone would like to join him.

While discussing fishing trips...

Tom told us about a recent, and very successful steelhead fishing trip he had made to the Klickitat River.

Dale told us about the trip a group of 5 club members had made to Anthony Lake the first Saturday of the month. Harold and Robin went home with the prize catch of the day. You can read more about our 2017 outings via our linked blog reports. 

It was then discussed that the club had need for a NEW DVD /Blue Ray disc player that will be compatible with our projector. We also realized that we need a NEW speaker hookup of our video presentation system. The club officers will be shopping for these presentation components soon.

We are looking for the club's ~new DVD that we used only once for our September meeting program, Fly Fishing Stillwater for Trophy Trout by Denny Rickards.

Since that meeting this DVD has not been returned to the club’s library. If you have this DVD please return it to the club. Thank You.

This evening Barbara won the Door Prize fly box, and Steve won the Raffle drawing fly box.

A nice stash of flies for steelhead and trout catching

Tonight's meeting program, to follow-up with our September meeting program, we presented Denny Rickards – Advance Techniques for Fly Fishing Stillwater – video. 

In it we found a lot of valuable “tricks of the trade” for catching stillwater trout.

 

 a couple of Denny's most productive stillwater flies 

As mentioned, there is a lot of information in this video for those of us searching for, chasing, and trying to catch trout and other fish species in stillwaters.

It was pointed out that the club has a nice selection of books and videos addressing the subject of Fly Fishing in our library. Our other Social Media connection beside this blog site is our Facebook page filled with everyday suggestions for better fly fishing and fly tying. Check it out... www.facebook.com/lovePNWsteelheading/

Our program and meeting concluded about 8:40, and a few folks stayed around to talk of future happenings in the works.

We have NO club meeting in the month of December, and our next meeting will be held at Smith's Family Restaurant on W. 9th Street in Walla Walla on Wednesday

17 January 2018. 

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

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

Let it snow, let it Snow, let it SNOW

Five club members headed for Anthony Lake last Saturday for what maybe our last stillwater outing of 2017. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the low lands in the 60’s. Skies were clear and blue, plenty of warm sunshine. On the Elkhorns the snowfall of the last week or two above the 5280’ level was fresh white up to the 8000' level.
Driving up the Elkhorns was a beautiful peaceful sight to behold. NFR #73 was laced in gold by the Tamaracks and broadleaf trees up to the conifer -only- tree line.

Dick, Brian, Dale and his Buddy got out of Walla² at 10:30 am sharp. Driving over Tollgate, the highway was still damp in many places from the overnight patchy freezing dew and fog. Going pass NFR #64 -the turn off to Jubilee Lake- it was noticed there was a large CLOSED sticker plastered over the sign pointing to that campground, another of our favorite fishing lake. We continued on through Summerville, La Grande, No. Powder, and into the Elkhorns to Anthony Lake.

Arriving at the lake boat ramp, we found Robin and Harold had just arrived.

Everyone compared a few notes for catching triploid rainbows for the day, got our gear put together and jumped into the lake. 

While Buddy watches...

Everyone worked the lake’s honey holes that Dale had pointed out having caught lots of triploid rainbow in those areas during his summer "catching" trips. 

In fairly short time Robin hooked up to a nice 16” triploid. A short while thereafter Dick hooked into a 16” triploid, which he released since he was searching for the larger fish. Harold was on the oars while Robin worked her rod and was watching his. Brian and Dale worked steady on cruising the lake in search of their next catch. After a while Harold got a fish takedown – an 18” triploid rainbow. Robin and Harold both caught their rainbows using intermediate sinking lines, with a BS Special that Dale had given them a few weeks before while on a club fishing outing at Jubilee Lake.

#10 BS Special

Brian and Dale continue to work their FAB fly and BS Special, but only getting a few strikes along the way. 

FAB fly

Checking his mercury thermometer, Dale found it reading 61ºF while sitting in the bright mid-afternoon sunshine in the middle of the lake. A pleasant afternoon for fishing, and a most pleasant afternoon for those that were catching.

Again Robin got a nice bite from a brook trout that was much smaller than the rainbows, so it was quickly released. Shortly thereafter Dick got bit by a brook trout, smaller than the rainbow he had previously caught, so he put the little brookie back to swim away and fight again another day.
Robin reported that these colder water triploid strikes did not hit her fly like a sinking boulder, but were rather lethargic with their take. 

Everyone continued to fish away the late afternoon as the sun was setting in the southwest quadrant of the sky and the moon was rising in the southeast quadrant of the evening sky. After the setting of the sun below the forest skyline, the air began to chill fast and a couple of bald eagles showed up and started fishing the lake. This was some encouragement for Brian and Dale; who had yet to feel a good solid "like a rock" take-down of a lake's triploid rainbow. Usually when the eagles and ospreys show up for dinner, it is time to just keep “fishing” until low light. But "catching" for Brian and Dale was not to be this day. 

Robin and Harold's fresh caught dinner

As the remaining direct sunlight of the day was striking the top of Gunsight Mountain, the air on the lake had gone from chilly to turning cold, so everyone made their last few cast on their way back to the boat ramp to take out, load up our gear, and call it done for another Anthony Lake fishing season.

Driving off the Elkhorns was a beautiful sight. NFR #73 was laced in gold all the way back to I-84. Looking over our shoulders the Elkhorns had a most pleasant glow from a golden autumn sunset.

Getting back to camp, looking at the near future weather forecast, it appears that Anthony Lake may begin the process of freezing over, being covered with snow, beginning this weekend. Time for it to return to a prime winter SNOW ski resort.

Forecast for November 3 - 4 - 5 - 6, 2017

  

Report made by Dale McKain

Tight lines and good fishing -

Walla² Fly Fishers

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