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

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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

Our new meeting location - El Sombrero Restaurant - Walla Walla

With the closure of Smith’s Family Restaurant this past summer, President Judy made a search of local restaurants to find a new location for our monthly WWFF’s meeting. She did a great job on finding a third Wednesday of the month ~ room vacancy at the newly renovated El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant at 4 West Oak St. in downtown Walla Walla.

Prior to our monthly meetings we try to schedule a 6:00 pm Dutch-Treat dinner open to all interested fly fishers.

We start each meeting by passing out a FREE door prize ticket for a fly box. Additional raffle tickets are then available for $1 a piece or 6 for $5, as dinner is served.

Fly box #1   ---------   Fly box #2

This evening President Judy opened business meeting at 6:55 with a Welcome to All.

We had 22 members and guest in attendance tonight. Since this was the first meeting coming off our 2-month summer fishing break, we made a brief around-the-room introduction of ourselves.

Following these introductions Secretary Dale gave a brief summary of our May meetings with Rick Hafele and the status of our Treasurer’s report at that time. Dale brought up the fact that the club had purchased an 8’ Outcast pontoon boat, and President Diane had donated a float tube for all due paying club members to have access to – no charge. The club does not provide a PFD.

These watercrafts are kept under lock-&-key at Dale’s house for all members to have access to, and he ask that anyone wanting to use these watercraft, please give him a 24-hour notice (via club’s email address) so the watercraft will be unlocked upon their arrival. Dale lives ¼ mile from the intersection of Stateline Road off of WA-Hwy 125 / OR-Hwy 11 between Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater – very easy to find for all due paying members fishing in  OR or WA.
Dale concluded his Secretary's report by asking everyone to refer to this, the club's blog, and Facebook page for more details of past and current club events.

Our club Treasurer Harold gave his report on the club’s funds stating that we currently have $1250+  in the bank.

This evening VP Tyson was out-of-town so his assistant, Heidi gave a report on the progress of cataloging our club’s library and tells us that it should be showing up at our meetings again soon. When the library has been catalogued (books, magazines, video discs) these items will be available to all DUE paying members to checkout a month at a time.

Co-President Diane updated the group on some of the discussion the Board of Directors were in concerning the purchase of an updated CD/DVD video presentation apparatus, which we need badly for our meeting presentations and those of our guest speakers. 
Upcoming events for this weekend, are a planned fishing trip to Anthony Lake on Saturday, to meet with Dale at his house or at the lake, 

and another with Heidi, to conduct an outing to Jubilee Lake on Sunday. Both of these outings are -- bring your own bag lunch and catch-can when you get to the lake.

After the tables had been cleared of foods and plates, Dale and Judy passed out a membership / guest questionnaire for all to fill out to help bring our group together with ideas to fulfill individual fly fishing wants and needs. See the reply results of the questionnaire below or via this link.

 Heidi had visited our last Board of Directors meeting and told us that she had visited Graphic Apparel and talked to them about resetting the club’s logo and what the pricing would be to produce some more club caps as we have done some years ago. 

Getting a feel for this idea from tonight’s group, we asked Heidi to go ahead and place an order for a dozen logo caps. Tom and Dale also mentioned that they had also had some other apparel embroidered with the club logo a few years ago and had enjoy the clothing and the quality thereof – all available at Graphic Apparel on Rose Street in College Place.

After the discussion of club business, we went around the room sharing fishing tales that had come out of this summer’s “Let’s Go Fishing” break.

This evening we also had the pleasure of having a couple of guys from our Walla Walla Sportsman Warehouse pay us a visit. They were the floor reps for the store's Fly Fishing Department, asking how they could help our club and posing the question; Could we get together to enhance the fly fishing community with more angling training / education opportunities? 

They also brought along with them some $10 OFF coupons that were passed out to everyone at tonight's meeting.
We will be looking at opportunities to work and play with the folks at Sportsman Warehouse to share our knowledge and experience of fly fishing with their customers and the general interested public.
Lest we forget, we are about to enter the 2019-20 Fly Tying Season of "it's cold outside, too cold to fish".

Heidi is continuing to develop the fly fishing skills of her group of fly fishing women, with casting, fly tying instructions, and on-the-water experience.
Ladies if you are interested in learning more about the art and science of fly fishing with a group of women - contact Heidi at kc7ccl@gmail.com

This evening Dave and Kris won the fly boxes.

In closing this evening’s meeting the subject of steelhead fishing came up. Tom mentioned that the Tucannon River was being closed to fishing due to the low number of steelhead return this year. Dale mentioned that due to last year’s very low steelhead return numbers he had not done any steelie fishing, 

Black line is 10-year average ------- Red line is 2019
Steelhead returns at The Dalles Dam

but gave the historical migratory progression / fishing progress he had experienced in past year from the earliest fish arrival dates of mid-September into the Deschutes River, with prime November fishing at Troy, OR through the late season fishing dates of April on the Wallowa River. He mentioned that he had been in communications with the ODFW fishery biologist in Enterprise, OR last fall about the open season in that area and says he will try to re-contact those biologists about making a club meeting presentation next month before the steelhead begin to make their showing on the lower Grande Ronde River.
NOTE: Check all state Up-to-Date fishing regulations before leaving on a steelhead fishing trip.

Our meeting was adjourned at 8:00.

Our next meeting will be held Wednesday, October 16^th at El Sombrero Mexican Restaurant

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

Dave Stemmer – PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator

Learn a river - Hire a Guide

This evening Co-President Diane called our meeting to order at 7:05. Prior to our meeting Co-President Judy had been greeting everyone at the door and then made a round through the room to make everyone feel welcomed and pass out meeting agendas.

Tonight we had 24 members and guest in attendance.

Our new Treasurer Harold has not yet received a bank statement, so he was unable to make a report of club funds. Ex-Treasurer Doug tried to bring up a paperless statement on his phone, but he has been exited from the bank’s system, so that didn’t happen.

We discussed our future 2019 meeting programs, and wish to let the fly fishing public (pros and novices) know that they are invited to join us.

February 13th - Rick Hafele

March 20th - Spokane Fly Fishing Women (and/or)
Eric Hoverson - CTUIR Salmon recovery efforts
April 17th - Grant Richie's guided Grande Ronde River trips

May 15th - a fishing trip with Tyson Kopfer
June (first weekend?) - a 2019 Fly Fishing Fair

Summer - group fishing outings

Secretary Dale was asked to speak about the contact he had made with Rick Hafele and scheduling our February 

meeting. Our February meeting will be out of our normal scheduling, and will be held on the second Wednesday of February –the 13^th– instead of the third Wednesday. Dale gave some of Rick’s credentials of being a leading Pacific Northwest stream / river / stillwater entomologist, author, lecturer, and fly fisher. This meeting’s program will be at the usual time of 7:00 pm. 

Dale also announced that Rick had suggested for a club fundraiser we consider he doing a fly fisher’s habitat workshop before our 6:00 dinner hour. 
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Rick offered to conduct one of his 3-hour workshop programs for a fee of $30 per person, of which he would split half ($15 per person) with the club. 

Several people have expressed an interest in his workshop, and we will follow-up on this prospect of helping area fly fishers, biologist become better catchers with a broader understanding of the feeding habits of wild fish. Afternoon workshop time will be 2-5 pm. We are hoping 10 to 20 fly fishers will be interested in attending this workshop; which will also take place at Smith's Family Restaurant in Walla Walla on the 13^th. Please email wallawalla.flyfishing@gmail.com  before Saturday, February 9^th if you are interested in attending the afternoon workshop. We wish to notify Smith Restaurant of a needed chair count - dinner is not included.
 

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Eric Hoverson –new Walla Walla Valley TU President– was with us this evening and said he would be glad to have a meeting program with us in the near future. Eric works with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in the Walla Walla River, Touchet River, and Tucannon River drainages supervising the tribe’s salmon recovery projects. Again it was mentioned that the Walla² Fly Fishers would like to have any / all TU members to join with us to learn more about the pleasure of our fly fishing sport, as you are on and off the river worksites.

Dave mentioned that he was trying to get a rod building friend of his to make a near future meeting presentation on Building Bamboo Rods.

Vice President Tyson and Heidi talked about the effort they are making to update the club’s library, and making it easier for members to check out literature and videos between our monthly meetings.

Co-President Diane announced that she would not be in town for our February meeting. She will be attending the Kelly Creek Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Conference in Idaho, and announced that if anyone would be interested in this conference to speak / contact her for details.

Heidi again mentioned the concept of creating a "Fly Fishers Mentoring Program" for individuals and group to help new members, and area novice fly fishers to become more familiar with fly fishing, and area fisheries. This program will be developing soon.

This evening Tom made introduction that we had joining us for dinner and program Capt. Justin Waters (US Coast Guard Certified), to share his experiences of fishing guide on Hood Canal and western Washington waters. With Capt. Justin this evening he had Capt. Mike Hanford who works closely with him. Together their area of fishing expertise is Hood Canal and the Puget Sound.

Capt. Justin, and Capt. Mike tells us the beauty of fishing the Washington westside is one can fish almost everyday of the year and expect to find a specie of fish coming and going in their annual migration.

Contact: Justin@All-Waters.com -or- (360) 318-5664

Our meeting this evening was adjourned at 8:30.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Club Secretary

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

  Wednesday

13 February 2019
6:00 pm Dinner and Social
7:00 Call-to-Order Club Business

Contact Us

~ Follow Us on Facebook ~

Judy McDole – Co-President

Diane Briggs –  Co-President

Tyson Kopfer – Vice President

Harold Saxby – Treasurer

Dale McKain – Secretary - Blogmaster

Dave Stemmer – PROJECT HEALING WATERS Coordinator