Taking a Summer Fishing Break - wanna to go fishing with us?

Tonight there was 10 members - 0 guest in attendance.

President Dave had made a trip out-of-town so VP Tom called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

President Dave and Secretary Dale had worked on setting up a program for the evening. Plan A and Plan B did not work out for either of them.

Our gathering then became a Round Table discussion of current fishing reports and plans for summer fishing, and how to best notify all members of upcoming events.

We talked about group fishing outing at Walla Walla's Bennington Lake, a number of folks have already had success with finding trout and bass.

Dale told that he had been talking with Ron Campbell (World Record Holder) about fishing Kokanee salmon at Wallowa Lake. It was discussed that we might try to do a club outing for June 2-3 or 9-10 to chase Kokanee there.

Tom mentioned that he had heard that the store at Boggan's Oasis on the Grand Ronde River was going to be rebuilt after being leveled by fire this past winter.
Tom also mentioned that the Tri-States Steelheaders where holding their Kid's Fishing Day on June 10 at Bennington Lake and on July 7 on Jubilee Lake and if anyone wish to assist they should contact the Steelheaders.

Diane and Dale brought up that Brent Cummings with the Walla Walla School District had been in touch with them by email to conduct a Fly Fishing Workshop on June 27 for educators coming from across the state of Washington. Diane said that she would be out-of-town at that time but offered her fly fishing gear to aid in the instruction of fly tying and fly casting. Dale said that he would head-up sitting up the program with Brent and asked for any volunteer / helpers that would be available for this event. Herb, Heidi, Judy and Robin said they would try to be available to help at the event.

Dale and Tyson brought up while discussing places to go fishing in the early season, that in general most of our area; the streams and rivers were flowing too fast for successful fly fishing until after mid-June and the spring runoff had subsided.

Heidi suggested that Dale uses our email member's listing to put forward any fly fishing items that members may wish to sale or trade. Dale agreed to do that.

We did have our usual two fly boxes available for door prize and raffle, but it was agreed by all attending to sit these boxes aside for tonight, and build on them for our September 19th meeting.

With this Tom called our meeting to be adjourned at 8:15.

Our next meeting will be held at Smith's Family Restaurant on W. 9th Street in Walla Walla on Wednesday

19 September 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's Go Fishing - Grand Ronde Lake

The head water of the Grand Ronde River - Elevation: 7183 ft.

Looking across the lake at Gunsight Mountain - Anthony Lake

Walla² Fly Fishers - Brian, and Dale  headed out this afternoon with a forecast for a beautiful day to be sitting on the water, searching for trout, and beating the heat of the Walla Walla Valley at Grand Ronde Lake.

Moon Phase - Jul 30 -- First Quarter

At 4:00 pm Dale took a temperature reading while sitting on the lake and found the air to be 69° F and the water temperature to be 63°. 

From Walla Walla, it take 2½ hours - 130 miles to arrive at Grand Ronde Lake. About 1½ miles beyond the Anthony Lakes Ski Resort on NFD 73.

Grande Ronde Lake: From La Grande... I-84 East. Exit 285-North Powder. Right @ North Powder Lane. Travel 6.9 miles and go left onto Miller Road 1.0 miles to Anthony lakes Hwy. Travel 13 miles (go 0.9 miles past Anthony Lakes Nordic Center turn off. Go right onto USFS rd 43. 0.3 miles to primitive boat ramp.

After jumping into a lake, Dale rowed across the lake to fish in the shadow of, and in the break from the breeze of the trees on the west side of the lake. After a couple of casts, he spotted a Bald Eagle flying around the lake and then it sat in a dead tree on the west side of the lake. There seems to be a lot of Bald Eagles on the high lakes this year. 

A beautiful sight, as they fly and soar - wide wingspan, brilliant white head and tail that almost glows as the bright sunlight of clear blue skies strike them in flight.

FAB or Blob fly

Today both Brian and Dale started fishing with the FAB flies that we had tied Thursday evening at our Project Healing Waters meeting. After about 30-45 minutes of no action, Dale switched to the BS Special. 

Again and like many times before with the second cast... Fish On!
Brian continued to fish with the FAB until he did catch a fish, with a fly he had tied.

Dale fishing with the BS Special, kept hooking, long line releasing, and at his feet releasing one fish after another. One trout hooked made 4 nice jumps on it's way to the boat.

BS Special

Last fall fellow club member Barbara, found some of these flies on a shelf somewhere, and we started fishing with them, catching with them and tying more.  A most productive, go-to fly with every stillwater fishing outing. After about 30-40+ hookups with this fly, a fish about to be netted made a turn and left with Dale's BS Special. Rarely does this happen using a 2-wt rod.
After the loss of that fly Dale attached an ole favorite stillwater fly, the Elkhorn Lake Special not used since tying on a BS Special last year. 

Elkhorn Lake Special

Today the charm of the Elkhorn Lake Special started catching fish where the BS Special broke off, hooking one fish after another.
Dale had other fishers on the lake asking him... "What are you using to catch so many fish."
After about 30-40+ hookups with this fly, a fish about 30' out made a move, broke off, and left with the fly. Two in a day, very rare happening in stillwater. 

On the way back to home, Dale told Brian that today was the best catching day he had experienced since the days he and Bob Wolfe fished together, and would quite counting with 100+ hookups in a few hours / day's time.

A good tool to have in one's pocket on days like this is a Waterworks Ketchum Release tool.

A very handy tool to have when fish will not leave your fly alone.



Brian said that he tallied 7 hookups for the day, with many no-take strikes, that he was able to get excited about.

click on corner box to go FULL screen - for best picture

It was a good day for all, and we did beat the heat of the valley. At the end of this day of fishing, the lake became quite still and quite as Dale was the last boat to leave the water. It was another wonderful day to be catching on Grand Ronde Lake.

 On the way home Brian did call his wife and let her know he had fish for their dinner.

Tight lines and good fishing.

Report submitted by
Dale McKain

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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Summer thru September fishing trips revisited

This evening V. President Tom called our meeting to order at 7:09.

There were 10 club members and guest in attendance tonight.

One of our visitors this evening was Andrew Bassler. Andrew is a member of the local fishing organization ~Tri-State Steelheaders ~ and has become that organizations coordinator for their education and outreach programs. He tells us he wishes to learn to catch a steelhead on a fly rod.

There was a short discussion of our club’s participation in the Walla Walla Farmers’ Market Kids’ Day program. That event took place on Saturday 10 September.

 
Harold and Tom demonstrated fly casting and helped a few kids learn to handle a fly rod, and place a fly into a hoop at the end of a 30’ cast. Dale demonstrated fly tying for the kids.

Some discussion was made with current fly fishing trips. Mike, Ed, and Matt had made a recent fishing trip into the high Eagle Caps, in search of Golden trout.

Mike reported that they had found the Goldens, but it was some tough, steep terrain they had to navigate to get to the fish.

Dale reported that he, Barbara, and Dick had made a fishing outing to Anthony Lake. 

Anthony Lake and Gunsight Mtn.

They had a beautiful day catching rainbows and brookies. 

Dick C&R in Anthony Lake

Said the lake was a bit busy with water sport enthusiasts, but after the sun came off the lake they found the fish started to feed and rise to dry flies.
See our club blog for more details.

 
 





Dale reported that he and Barbara had tried to organize a fishing trip to Jubilee Lake on August 20 to beat the 94° heat if Walla Walla.

Dale on Jubilee Lake

They were the only two to make this trip and found the fishing to be very good, even though the lake had a lot of recreational traffic on it. Again as at Anthony Lake, when the human traffic leaves the lake, trout will show up on a dry fly.
See our club blog for more details.

   

Barbara with a redband holding onto her line

#10 Orange Stimulator and an Oregon October Caddis

Dale also reported that he and Barbara had fished the Wallowa River the previous weekend, caught quite a few fish, and noticed that the October Caddis were beginning to show up on the river – not in great numbers, but beginning to show up.

Deschutes River between Moody and Rattlesnake rapids

The steelhead fishing trip going to the Deschutes River tomorrow was discussed and we will be leaving Dale’s house at 7:00am. As of this evening it appears that it is just Tom and Dale going on this day trip.

The beginning of October's fly box raffle prize

Tom then lead the discussion to our usual meeting fly boxes door prize and raffle. He suggested that we begin with October’s 
meeting, just offering one fly box per meeting for raffle - club funds. A vote was asked for and the resolution was passed. With a small number of members present this evening it was agreed upon that tonight’s fly box will be held over for October’s meeting raffle / prize.

Our program this evening was highlights of V. Pres. Tom's Summer of 2016 fishing trip to Alaska. 

This past summer Tom spent several weeks fishing some of his favorite ole fishing sports with his son. He told us about some of the rivers he fished – the Russian and Anchor river – and tells us two of their favorite flies used as #18 Copper John and #18 Prince Nymph. These too are two of the best searching nymphs one might use in our Pacific Northwest waters.

Anchor River steelhead

Anchor River Dolly Varden

Their quarry was salmon, steelhead, rainbows, and Dolly Varden. In Alaska they found them all. Catching up to 25 BIG fish per day.

Tom also passed around a booklet of his AK fishing photos taken during this trip – a good show.

He also passed around a few copies of Fish Alaska magazine and told everyone they could take a copy of the magazines if they wanted one. 
Thanks Tom.

Our program came to a close at 7:40.

Our next monthly meeting will be October 19th at
Smith's Family Restaurant

1425 Pine Street

Walla Walla
http://www.smithsfamilyrestaurant.com/

Dinner and social at 6:00 pm with meeting following at 7:00

Come one, come all, come as you are.
Our meetings are open to the interested fly fishing public.

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

Let's Go Fishing - Julibee Lake

Again today the temperature was bordering on HOT in Walla Walla at 94 °F.
Earlier this week club secretary Dale had sent an email to all club members that there would again this weekend be a Dutch-Treat fishing outing going to Jubilee Lake. Only Dale and Barbara replied to the announcement and so comprised today's gathering going to the Jubilee Lake.

Our leave time this week was around 9:00 am with plans to make a brunch stop at the Long Branch Cafe and Saloon in Weston, OR. Dale had been here many times for breakfast, and today was Barbara's first visit. Barbara says she will return.
Always good food and the leftover portions can be boxed up for a meal later in the day.


From Weston we hit Hwy 204 going east, through Tollgate, to Langdon Lake and the intersection with Skyline Rd / NF Road 64. The sign there showed 12 miles to Jubilee Lake. Arriving at Jubilee Lake we found there is a $3.00 day use-parking fee. It was about 11:15 getting to this area.

 
We found a parking space right next to the boat launch, so in short order we put our boats and fishing gear together and headed for the water.  The air temperature here was quite pleasant, not hot and the water surface temperature was cool very pleasant. Here we found quite a few people around the boat launch, on a boat docking pier, and playing in the lake. Only electric (no gasoline) motors allowed on the lake.
Jubilee Lake is 92 acres in size. The elevation of the lake is 4,761 feet.

Boat launch area with toolie beds on the right of this picture

From the boat launch area, Barbara went off to the right to fish the toolies, while Dale headed straight out towards the opposite lake shoreline.

Looking across the lake from the boat launch side.

 

This week it took about 30 minutes of casting practice before we found the hook-ups for our flies. During the afternoon Barbara used a Wolly Bugger, and a Copper John, Dale used an Elkhorn Lake Special, and an AP Emerger.

 
At sunset there was a very nice hatch of dun Callibaetis flies - size #16 - hatching, mating, and dropping their eggs back into the water. This made for some wonderful evening catching on a dry fly.

A nice Rainbow sitting in Barbara's lap

After sunset Barbara switched to an Adams, Dale started using a BWO. 

Working with an Adams - dry fly

Barbara told me that while she had hooked into about 10 nice rainbows, the young man fishing beside her, using hard tackle caught nothing. Maybe someday soon we will see that young man at a Walla² Fly Fishers' meeting, wanting to learn more about catching fish on the fly.

As the sun sinks slowly into the west - Dale's catch rate increases

During our afternoon at Jubilee Lake we ran into quite a few friends from Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater. This is a very busy place on a hot afternoon in the Walla Walla River Valley.

-CLICK- on this map to see it in Google Map mode, and find directions from Jubilee Lake to where you are sitting

Distance to Julibee Lake from south Walla Walla is 47 miles, driving time is about 1¼ -1½ hours.

Summer Diet for stillwater fish

Stillwater Hatches an article by Brian Chan with tips on stillwater fly fishing.
 

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

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