2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook

Reported from notes taken, this year we had a beautiful day and a lot of fun at Waterbrook Winery and the 2011 Fly Fishing Fair. Again our group of Walla² Fly Fishers, found plenty of sunshine, fresh air, fly casting instruction, fly tying demonstrations / instructions and some really great foods.

Below is a recap of this day's events in still pictures (worth a thousand words) and a couple of live videos. Hope you will enjoy this review of our day at Waterbrook Winery.

The jest of this day's activities was to help bring our local Walla Walla Valley neighbors and families into the realm of having fun with a fly and a fly rod. The price of admission for this day of fun in the sun with a gourmet dutch oven cooked meal was FREE. The heart of our day's activity of course was helping people learn the very easy task and fine art of casting a fly to fish with a different kind of rod than most were used to.

One of our founding club members
- Skip Prictchard -
FFF Certified Casting Instructor
made casting easy for one and all interested parties.

Now, while all of this outdoor activity was going on... on the inside we had wine tasting, and fly tying demos taking place.

Again this year we were privileged to have John Spain as our chef of the day with some more of his wonderful Dutch Oven cooking to please all that joined us for lunch.

After the days major activities and lunch, there was time to sit around and compare note and tell tales of tails for the balance of the afternoon.

With all said and done we wish to say Thank You Waterbrook Winery for again allowing the Walla² Fly Fishers to share your facilities, casting pond, patio, and tasting room to have a great day sharing fly fishing with the Walla Walla Valley.

As a final note of interest, we held our club raffle for an overnight guided fishing trip for two with Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop and the winner was Kirk Upton. Congratulations Kirk, and we hope you found lots of Tight Lines and good fishing in the Yakima River with Joe and his crew. Just over $450 was netted for the club from this raffle.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Past Presidents
Bob Long
Scott Peters

Working with WDFW programs

This evening we had 18 members and our guest speaker to turnout for this last scheduled spring meeting of the Walla² Fly Fishers. President Tyson lead the discussion after dinner to address our 2011 Fly Fishing Fair being held on 11 June, the raffle tickets being sold between now and 11 June for an overnight fishing outing with Red's Fly Shop/Guide Service, on the Yakima River with lodging provided at Canyon River Ranch Lodge. Most members present at this meeting came away with some raffle tickets and they will be available at our 2011 Fly Fishing Fair.

In looking for activities for the club to become involved with once again Casting for Recovery was discussed. We are now looking for interested individuals that might wish to get involved with a local program.

Casting for Recovery was founded in 1996 in Manchester, Vermont, the unique brainchild of a breast cancer reconstructive surgeon and a professional fly fisher. It began as a local grassroots group with a big heart and an original national vision, and quickly received endorsements from medical and psycho-social experts for its innovative healing program model while at the same time provoking intense interest by national media.

Casting for Recovery was founded on the principles that the natural world is a healing force and that cancer survivors deserve one weekend — free of charge and free of the stresses from medical treatment, home, or workplace — to experience something new and challenging while enjoying beautiful surroundings within an intimate, safe, and nurturing structure. Anyone here wish to join this cause with your fly rod in hand?

Following our business discussions we had Glen Mende from WDFW as our guest speaker for the evening. Glen's presentation this evening was a discussion of the fishery habitat and the fish stocking programs across eastern Washington and particularly that of southeast WA. He discussed the need of some volunteer help with some of the WDFW programs for enhancement and recovery of some area fisheries.

Glen discussed Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) that has become a real problem in the southeast WA hatchery programs. This disease has caused a lot of trouble in the Tucannon River system and hatchery program there.

He also discussed the invasive aquatic species that have invaded our area waters and are currently damaging our native fish populations and causing havoc with different water and irrigation systems of the area.

Glen also talked about the possible steelhead run of 2011 saying that it is thought that this year's run will be larger than the 2010 run. He says that the propose steelhead harvest of SE Washington for 2011 will be 25,000.

Discussing some fishery and habitat project that our club could consider becoming involve with Glen suggested joining forces with the Tri-State Steelheaders, Walla Walla Conservation District, WDFW Bull trout spawning surveys, USFWS / ODFW / CTUIR brook trout projects.

Glen we wish to Thank You again for joining us this evening and giving us some ideas of how the Walla² Fly Fishers might have an impact on the fishery and habitat improvement of our area.

Our next gathering which is also open to the interested fly fishing public will be our third annual 2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery. Please mark your calendars for Saturday 11 June for this fly fishing event and a free dutch oven luncheon. Activities began at 11:00 a.m and include fly casting instructions (fly rod are provided), fly tying demonstrations, a fly fishing trip raffle, guided fishing trips opportunities, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Fishing the Wallowa Country with Mac Huff

April 13th the Walla² Fly Fishers once again came together at Jacobi's Cafe in Walla Walla. This evening we had 20 members and guest in attendance. Our business meeting began at 7:00 pm with the following orders of business being discussed:

1) Reminder that the Walla² Fly Fishers 3rd Annual Fly Fishing Fair will be held this year at Waterbrook Winery off Old Hwy 12 west of Walla Walla on June 11th.

2) We’re still selling raffle tickets for the Red’s Fly Shop giveaway of a night at the lodge in the Yakima River canyon and a guided float for two down the river.

3) 2011 club membership dues are due $15/single ~~ $20/family and payable to the Walla² Fly Fishers. Please mail to our Treasurer Dr. Doug Coe at 1341 Lowell Drive Walla Walla, WA 99362
If you’re not a member of the Walla² Fly Fishers, please contact Doug Coe and he can assist you with membership and dues.

4) Dan Grinstead then gave a brief talk with a handout about the growing opposition to the construction of a permanent industrial corridor for over-sized loads headed to Alberta, Canada. The proposed route is Highway 12 through WA, OR, ID, and MT. The organization is All Against the Haul, and you can learn more at their website allagainstthehaul.org.

5) President Bob Long announced his pending re-location out of the Walla Walla area. Vice President Tyson Kopfer will now step into the position club President.
Hear, Hear, now is the time for all good Walla² Fly Fishers club members to consider stepping forward and throwing their hat into the ring for the position of club Vice President. Thank you.

After our business affairs were discussed, our guest speaker Mac Huff from Joseph, OR gave his presentation about the fishing opportunities in Wallowa County.

Mac discussed fishing from the highest fish-bearing lake in the state - Legore Lake - at 9,000 feet to the Snake River at 900 feet. Included in his presentation were the Minam, Grande Ronde, Wallowa, Lostine, Bear Cr. Sheep Cr. and Imnaha rivers and Wallowa Lake, with good trout fishing and the World Record Kokanee salmon.
He talked about talked about the fish distribution of the Wallowa, Imnaha, and Grande Ronde river drainages. The lower Grande Ronde has rainbows, small mouth bass, bull trout and steelhead, moving to higher elevation the bass disappear and bull trout become more prevalent.

Roughly above 6,000 feet bull trout are the most common species, unless they are in a water shed with brook trout, then there can be interbreeding (bad.) The Eagle Cap Wilderness lakes are "brook trout" lakes or "rainbow trout" lakes, depending on whether brook trout were planted there. If brooks were planted, then they dominate the lake.

Mac gave us an overview reminder of common invertebrates in our rivers and had pictures of stoneflies, caddis, October caddis nymphs, midges and 'hoppers.

Some of Mac's favorite ties for trout

and steelhead

He also talked about the season and confirmed that fish will bite in the rain, snow and ice - winter comes early to the Wallowa country and spring runoff is usually later in June. In you are interested in learning more about the fishing opportunities available in the Wallowa Country, please contact Mac at Eagle Cap Fishing Guides - http://www.eaglecapfishing.com/
Mac, Thank You once again for joining our group and refreshing our knowledge of the spectacular fly fishing opportunity available in your area.

NOTE: The Federation of Fly Fishers (FFF) was conceived along the banks of the Grande Ronde River just north of Troy, OR when a group of fly fishers from Eugene, OR felt the sport of fly fishing should be maintained and enhanced for as long as man can fish these rivers of NE Oregon and SE Washington.

Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Tight lines and good fishing.

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tight lines and good fishing.

Tyson Kopfer - President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Fishing with Bob Wolfe and Chironomids

March 9th the Walla² Fly Fishers came together at Jacobi's Cafee in Walla Walla. This evening we had 10 members seated for dinner. Our business meeting began at 7:00 pm with 18 members and guest in attendance. Discussed this evening was a number of upcoming events for all members to be aware of:
1) the Walla² Fly Fishers 3rd Annual Fly Fishing Fair will be again held at Waterbrook winery on June 11th.
2) the Washington FFF Council will hold its annual Fly Fishing Fair in Ellenboro, WA April 29-30.3) 2011 club membership dues are due ($15) and payable to the Walla² Fly Fishers. Mail to Treasurer Doug Coe @ 1341 Lowell Drive Walla Walla, WA 99362
4) also there were passed out the raffle tickets for a guided fishing trip on the Yakima River with Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop, for a club fund raiser. The lucky raffle winner of this club fund raiser will receive accommodations for 4 at the lodge of Red's Fly Shop, and guided fishing trip for 2. This raffle drawing will be held during our June 11th Fly Fishing Fair. Please contact President Bob Long or Scott Peters for more details and tickets.

Following our business meeting we once again were glad to have Bob Wolfe from Pendleton, OR and the Blue Mountain Flycasters to join us and discuss fishing stillwaters with tiny flies called chironomids -- "midges". Bob's, PowerPoint presentation included a number of prime fishing spots in eastern Washington, with plenty of discussion of fishing Lake Lenice. Bob passed around a number of bottles of chironomids specimens taken from fish caught. He discussed some of his favorite flies tied to imitate the chironomids he has found around the area, including passing around his working boxes of chironomids flies. We hope Bob got back home with most of his handsomely tied flies. Also discussed was the technique for fishing chironomid flies, lines, leaders, strike indicators, depths for fishing these flies. Bob also discussed the action of lake "turnover" that occurs in the spring and fall as water temperatures change from top to bottom, pointing out that chironomids are churned in the water column during these "turnovers". The favorite flies fished that Bob discussed were his Black Magic and Red & Green Magic. Each of these he ties using .5 mm Stretch Magic beading cord and creates segmented bodies using 7 wraps of each color. As Bob closed his presentation, he invited the club to join the Blue Mountain Flycasters for a couple of their stillwater fishing outing on Bull Prairie Saturday 30th April and Saturday 21 May to Penland Lake east of Heppener, OR. Our meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Next meeting will be held Wednesday 13 April, and President Bob ask that everyone bring a couple of flies to help fill the boxes for raffle - one is a FREE door prize. Thanks

Respectfully submitted,Dale McKain
Secretary

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tight lines and good fishing.

Bob Long - President

Tyson Kopfer - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Fishing British Columbia with Will Godfrey

Due to a slight mix up in scheduling for our February meeting, the Walla² Fly Fishers had our dinner served in the dining car at Jacobi's Cafe. This month we had 13 members and guest in attendance.

Business discussed was the purchase of a guided fishing trip on the Yakima River with Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop, for a club fund raiser. The lucky raffle winner of this club fund raiser will receive accommodations for 4 at the lodge of Red's Fly Shop, and guided fishing trip for 2. Our cost for this raffle will be $405. We hope to sell 100-150 tickets at $10 apiece. Scott and Bob will be the leaders of this campaign and the drawing will be held at the end of our 2011 Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery on Saturday 11 June.
Details are to follow.
After this topic discussion, Treasurer Doug Coe gave a report of annual membership dues collected at our January meeting. Collected at that time was $270 which brings our club treasury to over $850 in the black. More membership dues were also collected this evening.

Also discussed were club plans to continue with our winter fly tying workshop of 2011, and it is planned to be held again at Country Estates Mobile Home Park in College Place Wednesday 23 February, 7-9 p.m. Please find direction to Country Estates in the right hand column of this blog posting.
Following these topics of club business, we were privileged to have Will Godfrey as our speaker for the evening discussing his past 50 years of fly fishing the Pacific Northwest, including British Columbia.

Will Godfrey is a Life Member of the FFF and has a long history of giving back to the fly fishing sport, in the 1970s he owned a fly shop in the fabled area of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River in Island Park Idaho and he has been neck deep in the sport and the art of Fly Fishing ever since. Will has volunteered his time and his talent for decades to promote the sport and support both conservation and education, especially youth education about the sport. He is an accomplished Auctioneer who this year alone will be raising money for the Henry’s Fork Foundation, Federation of Fly Fishers at the annual Conclave, Snake River Cutthroats, Washington Council of the FFF and of course his home club the Kelly Creek Fly Casters where he serves on the Board and is the past president. He has for many years had a special place in his heart for Steelhead fishing and the art of tying flies for that endeavor. He is an accomplished author with 2 books published and a 3^rdin the works.
Will's presentation this night was on the Babine River steelheading and the fishing opportunities there and about the fishing in the Lewiston / Clarkston area. His presentation was based on slides of his adventures of the 1960's and 70's which had a rich flavor of the way fishing used to be.

We wish to thank Will for his time and travel to make such a generous presentation to our club this evening.

Will's presentation was over shortly before 9:00 p.m. and the meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter.
Respectfully submitted,
Dale McKain
Secretary

Walla² Fly Fishers

Contact Us

Tight lines and good fishing.

Bob Long - President
Tyson Kopfer - Vice President
Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer
Dale McKain - Secretary

Fly Fishing Central WA with Joe Rotter

This month we had a good turnout of 30 members and guest for our January meeting. Promptly following dinner we had the election of new club officers led by President Scott Peters. As was nominated at our December 2010 meeting the following slate was so elected by unanimous vote.

Bob Long - President

Tyson Kopfer - Vice President

Dr. Doug Coe - Treasurer

Dale McKain - Secretary

Following the election of officers, our outgoing Treasurer Barry Gould gave his last treasurer's report and told us that ending club funds for 2010 was just over $700 in Baker Boyer Bank. It was a good year for the club, with plenty of good speakers, outdoor activities, and a fall banquet with Brian O'Keefe.

Joe Rotter of Red's Fly Shop of Yakima give the program of the evening. His Power Point Presentation was titled Fly Fishing All Seasons on the Yakima River. This was a very well done presentation which detailed hatches and bug matching strategies, hydrology, when to wade, when to float, trip planning, the Yakima River. Joe also discussed other nearby rivers which, included information on fishing the Naches, Klickitat, Methow, and Wenatchee Rivers for Steelhead – along with Carp fishing the Columbia River, Smallmouth Bass fishing on the Lower Yakima River, and many of the lesser known mountainous tributary streams in Eastern Washington.

We wish to thank Joe for again making a great presentation, and joining our meeting for this evening.

After the meeting Joe made the club a special offer for a guided fishing trip on the Yakima River to help us create a club fund raiser. This offer will be presented at February's meeting after being discussed by the new club officers.

The meeting was adjourned shortly thereafter, with individuals socializing one-on-one.

Our next meeting will be held 9 February 2011.


Tight lines and good fishing.

Old Officers ~~~~~~~ New Officers
Scott Peters - President - Bob Long
Skip Pritchard - Vice President - Tyson Kopfer
Barry Gould - Treasurer - Doug Coe
Dale McKain - Secretary /Blog Master - Dale McKain

Club officers' meeting 1/4/2011

Greeting Fellow Fly Fishers,

I wish to report that Tuesday, January 4 the outgoing officers and the officers elect of the Walla² Fly Fishers held a club business meeting at Jacobi's Cafe. Present for this meeting was Scott, Barry, Dale and the new officers elect - Bob Long - Pres., Tyson Kopfer - VP, Doug Coe - Treasurer, Dale McKain - Secretary.


During this meeting the points of concern that were discussed:

1. Current Baker Boyer Bank account balance
2. Liability insurance needs
3. Membership, old and new
4. Membership dues
5. Meeting location
6. Fly Tying workshops
   
7. Fly Fishing workshop
8. Meeting programs
9. Fly Fishing Fair at Waterbrook Winery
10. Club Fishing Outings
11. Club Banquet
12. Club $$$$ funding
13. Reaching out for more club membership participation
14. Club participation in the Tri-Cities 2011 Sportsman Show
    

So as you can see we had a pretty thick agenda list to discuss. All of these matter will be brought before the full club membership at our next meeting on Wednesday January 12, 2011.

Briefly going down this list of discussion...

• Baker Boyer Bank account currently has over $700 in funds

• It was agreed that the club should maintain the FFF liability insurance policy to cover our need of
  --- annual insurance cost around $180

• We need a current roster of club members --- "old" and new --- Dale has a listing of monthly meeting attendance,
  --- FFF National has a computer roster of FFF due paying members

• It was decided that we would continue to meet at Jacobi's Cafe and hope that club members would not be reluctant to attend because of higher food and beverage prices at this location. Scott will check with cafe ownership and see if they could offer a $10 fly fishers' meal deal for our hungry club membership.

• A winter fly tying workshop will again try to be started, hopefully at Country Estates Mobile Home Park in College Place as was last winter.

• We have the opportunity to work with the Walla Walla YMCA to conduct fly fishing classes. We need a few novice fly fishers to help share their knowledge with any wannabe fly fishers in our area. We would hope this should also generate new club membership.
  

• It was discussed the range of meeting programs we had during 2010, and how we might compliment that with fly fishing subjects of interest in 2011.

• Fly Fishing Fair 2011, again Scott will be our Point Guy with this project. He has already been discussing the date and event with Waterbrook Winery and John Spain our chef of the day. Again we hope we can have Skip Prichard to join us as our FFF certified casting instructor.

• Club fishing outings were discussed concerning the available to fly fish a 100-150 mile radius of Walla Walla for trout, carp, shad, bass (large and smallmouth), steelhead, salmon, etc. Everyone agreed they wanted to learn more of area fishing opportunities and get involved with more club fishing outings.

• A 2011 Walla² Fly Fishers Banquet was discussed. Scott said he felt that he might be able to get John Shewy to come as our guest speaker. Date of banquet will be dependent on John's and all others 2011 schedule.

• Club funding was discussed and agreed that with membership dues ($15/year-individual and $20/year-family) along with the monthly fly box raffles, and earned banquet revenues, we should be able to make it through 2011 with money in the bank.

• We hope to get more of the club membership involved with club activities in 2011. Now that our club has gotten "off the ground" we hope to create more fly fishing opportunities and membership events around our area, than just the monthly club meetings.

• 2011 Tri-Cities Sportsman Show in Pasco this month. FFF is looking for members that would like to enter the show for FREE and spend up to three (3) hours greeting and talking fly fishing to passer-bys at the show. More to be discussed at January 12th meeting.

With all of the above in mind, we hope to have a good turn out for our first meeting of this New Year and let's discuss. Hope everyone saw the $9.00 WinterFeast Dinner Deals available at Jacobi's Cafe right now. Please leave your wet waders and studded wading boots at the door, Thank you.

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

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