Most Recent Newsletter - Washington State Council IFFF
Transcription
Most Recent Newsletter - Washington State Council IFFF
COVERING THE DRIFT PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Pg. 2 CONSERVATION UPDATE Pg. 3 NOMINATION BIOS AND BALLOT Pg. 7-10 Officer and Board Member Elections Photo by David Paul Williams FISHING REPORT Pg.12-13 PLUS: HOW TO CONTACT OFFICERS IN THE WASHINGTON COUNCIL IFFF Leaders Line Conservation Update Public Lands and Our Upcoming Election It All Happened At The Fair I hope that many of you were able to attend our 10th Annual Fly Fishing Fair this past April. I thought it was an outstanding event. The Board has already begun planning the 11th Washington Fly Fishing Fair on May 5th and 6th in Ellensburg. I look forward to seeing you there! I want to thank all the volunteers who help make this year’s event a success. This includes all of the Certified Casting Instructors who provided the casting demonstrations and workshops, the seminar presenters, the fly tiers, and those who help with the event, whether running the casting games, working the registration desk, helping with the auction and raffle or elsewhere. We could not do this event without you. THANK YOU! The Fair sponsors Wasatch Custom Tools, Frank Amato Publications and Worley-Bugger Fly Co., deserve special thanks and I would like to encourage them to sponsor the 11th Annual Fly Fish- ing Fair. I also encourage Council members to thank our sponsors. On Friday night we held our Awards and Auction after a wonderful dinner by Cascade Grilling. The following awards were presented this year. Presidents Pin went to Jack Whitney. The Spokane Fly Fishers received the Education Award for their work teaching fly fishing. The Fly Tying Hall of Fame Award was given to Vern Jeremica. The Jimmy Green Fly Casting Instructor Award was given to Aaron Reimer. The Council Federator of the Year went to David Paul Williams. I also announced the Council’s nominee for the Council Award of Excellence to be given at the International Fly Fishing Fair in Livingston this August. This year Chet and JoAnn Allison were nominated. Congratulations to everyone. After the awards we held our live auction which went very well. On Saturday afternoon, we held our annual meeting and conducted the business of the Council, including nominating the slate of Board candidates for positions that expire this July. This year’s slate is: Len Zickler-VP East (2017), Don Simonson-VP West, JoAnn Allison-Treasurer (2018), John NewburyVP Education, Chet Allison - Director (2018), Mike Clancy-Director, Pat Peterman - Director, Vern Jeremica - Director, and Bill Wheeler - Director. We have two Board members who are leaving the Board this year, Dick Lange and Abe Lillard. I want to thank them for their work on the Board these many past years and hope we get to see them at next year’s Fair. Now that the 2016 Fair is in the books it is time to do a little fishing. For me, Maura and I will be heading north to Alaska in mid-June and returning in late September. I hope the rest of you will be spending the summer fishing and come to Livingston in August to attend the International Fly Fishing Fair. Tight lines-Carl Johnson, Council President The IFFF Conservation Committee is made up of all the chapters’ Conservation VPs. Every two months except during the fly fishing fair month, we have a teleconference conservation meeting which lasts about an hour. Our meeting in March was pretty much typical-a real yawner. That is until the meeting concluded and someone brought up the assault on public lands by our elected officials. Then the passion came out. The discussion was going hot and heavy 15 minutes later when I signed off to go eat dinner. Except for Canada, I can’t think of any country in the world that has the amount of public lands that we do. As citizens of this country we can easily access millions of acres for recreation at very little expense. We use this land for fishing, hunting, hiking, backpacking, ATV traveling, sightseeing, photography, star gazing, and solitude. Much of it is stunning scenery. For me and many others the availability of public land is one of the things that makes this country great. There are members of congress who want to turn over public lands to the states saying that the Federal government hasn’t the money to take care of them. They have also talked about selling public lands to reduce the federal debt. The truth is the states have less money to care for these land than the Federal mentioning public lands. One government. The states would sell candidate was for protecting public the land to private companies. You lands and the other was for selling can bet if these lands get in the them. Fortunately, the candidate hands of private companies we will who wanted to sell our lands is be shut out of them. An example now out of the race. Although most of this has happened in southwest of the issues being discussed will Washington. Weyerhaeuser owns a define who we are as a country, large part of the area’s timber land. I haven’t found many issues that Years ago, you could access this would affect our population as much land as easily as public land. Then as the selling of our public lands. they closed it off to the public except I don’t hear many people talking about it. Outside of the Bundy stand-off there doesn’t appear much understanding by the public to this threat. It appears Congress has been where the big push to sell public lands most threatens us. It has attempted to attach riders to various budget and military bills in an effort to get this past the President. I have to wonder who they are really serving when they quietly sneak these riders in and not bring the whole subject up for their constituents to discuss. Between now and November, I would encourage you to drill those that want to serve us on the national level to explain their view on selling public land. When we don’t get the answer we want, then we should start screaming about it. There are many public mediums where we can during hunting season. Then two distribute our outrage. I really don’t years ago, they changed that. Now care if the legislator is local or from if you want to access Weyerhaeuser Utah; we need to apply the heat to land you have to purchase a permit. those who want to sell the heritage They have 500 permits available for that was given to us by Theodore $50.00 for non-motorized use and Roosevelt. 3000 permits at $300.00 per year for general use. Jack Whitney VP-Conservation During the sad Presidential election West comedy we have been watching, I have only heard of two candidates Education Education Introduction To Fly Fishing Educational Experience On May 2nd and 3rd, members of the Washington State Council of the International Federation of Fly Fishers, the Inland Empire Fly Fishers Club, the Spokane Fly Fishers, Veterans of Project Healing Waters, and an entomologist from the DNR office in Colville, shared their passion for fly fishing with the students of Jenkins High School in Chewelah, WA. The students were given an introduction to aquatic entomology, fly tying, and casting a fly rod over the two day event. All in all, 385 students were introduced to fly fishing through the event. The students were attentive, well behaved, polite, and thankful…..with many of the students coming up after the classes to the volunteer instructors telling them thank-you and shaking their hands. Some of the students were “born naturals” when it came to tying a fly and casting, and hopefully they will someday have the same passion for the lifetime recreational activity that the volunteer instructors whom shared with them have. I have already received several calls from parents wishing to know where and what to buy equipment for their children, so that they can get started fly fishing. I have also been asked to come back the last week of classes this school year to teach a full day of fly tying to 25-30 students whom wish to do more tying……so, the fly fishing educational experience was a huge success!!! Your Washington Council has aspirations of conducting 2-4 of these introduction to fly fishing educational experiences each year in the immediate future on both sides of the state, thus ensuring new fly fishers for generations to come and creating stewards of our beloved public waters. John M. Newbury VP-Education Transcription of handwritten thank you note from Shawn Anderson, Principal of Jenkins Jr./Sr. High School, Chewelah Washington Dear Mr. John Newbury, On behalf of Jenkins Jr./Sr. High School students and staff, I would like to give my sincere thank you to the IFFF volunteer staff. Their contribution to our students both in the classroom and on the field was spectacular. It was a great event for our students. We may never know the impact that the two days has had on a future fisherman but we do know that we sparked a small fire in the hearts and minds of some amazing kids. Thank you, John, for your planning and implementation; it could not have happened without you! See you on the street or lake. You are a fishing champion. Shawn Anderson Photo by John Kimura Board Nominations JOHN M. NEWBURY BOARD NOMINATIONS LEN ZICKLER Len Zickler, currently serves as spokesman for the Chairman of the Board Committee of the IFFF and Vice President of the Eastside for the Washington Council of the IFFF. He is also a member of the Spokane Fly Fishers (SFF) and Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club. Len is a life member of the IFFF and Trout Unlimited (TU) and an IFFF Certified Casting Instructor. Len and his wife Dawn moved to Spokane in 2008 to be near their children. Len currently leads the SFF casting program as a part of the Club’s very successful annual fly fishing school. Len served the IFFF as the local coordinator for the 2012 International Fly Fishing Fair in Spokane, WA. Len is a principal and environmental planner with ProjectTributa, a community planning firm based in Spokane. He is a recognized expert in the field of Low Impact Development (LID) - a technology intended to promote natural storm drainage management to insure the maintenance of clean, cold water for people and fish. Len loves to fish rivers and streams of the region including the Clark Fork, Clearwater, St. Joe, Yakima, Upper Columbia, Klickitat, Methow, and the spring creeks of Eastern Washington. JOANN ALLISON JoAnn retired as the Fiscal Operations Agency on Aging. She has supported her addiction for 40 years. JoAnn was a founding the Spokane Fly Fishers. She has obtained a fly rod from Black Dog Custom Rods and is fly fishing now that work is out of the way. She Council Treasurer. manager at Area husband’s fly fishing member & treasurer of pink casting for recovery going to get back into currently serves as Board Nominations John lives in Chewelah Washington, located in the northeastern corner of the state. He has been fishing the area’s waters since he was a kid. John has tied flies the past 38 years to fish the numerous still waters of the area and the upper reaches of the mighty Columbia River, which he refers to as his “home waters.” In 2012, the Washington State Council Federation of Fly fishers awarded John its Conservation Award for his efforts to protect the wild spawning redband rainbow of the upper Columbia River. He has also spent considerable time fishing the waters of nearby British Columbia, Canada for trout and steelhead. Many, many of his still water patterns and steel head flies have been published in books and magazines by several different authors over the years. In 2007, John was the inaugural inductee into the F.F.F. Washington State Fly tying Hall of Fame. In 2008, the Federation of Fly Fishers recognized John’s many contributions to the organization, honoring him with the Lew Jewett Award. Then in 2009, he was presented the prestigious Buz Buszek Memorial Award, the highest honor a fly tier can receive, for his significant contributions to the art of fly tying. It is now his dream to share his passion for fly fishing and tying with as many junior high and high school students as possible to ensure a new generation of stewards to protect our waters and to continue sharing fly fishing with others. MIKE CLANCY I retired in 2000 and decided to take up fly fishing having fished since I was a little guy of 7-8 years old. I went to the 2000 Puyallup Sportsman Show, expecting to learn about fly fishing organizations, where I overheard Bob Shirley, Larry Gibbs and Arnie Gidlow talking about the Puget Sound Fly Fishers in Tacoma. Well, the rest is history. I have absolutely enjoyed our sport and relationships made from that day on. Bob was the President of PSFF at the time and he didn’t waste anytime getting me involved in the club. He was also President of the WSCIFFF in 2003 when he invited me to join the Board on the Council. Over the years I have been Secretary, Vice President (West) and presently the Government Affairs Chairman which I really enjoy. I am Co-Director of the NW Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy, a youth education project of WCTU and made possible with the help and support of WSCIFFF. Board Nominations Board Nominations BOARD NOMINATIONS CHET ALLISON Chet Allison started life on 1/17/48 and worked for Cowles Publishing in Spokane, Washington for 43 years retiring on Dec. 30, 2010. He began fly fishing about 1973 and is selftaught fly tier learning from the fly tying manual. Chet learned to Herter’s Professional build fly rods from Earl Grotto (took his fly tying class) and John Propp. Along with his wife, JoAnn, Chet is a founding and original board of directors of the Spokane Fly Fishers and have been a member of the IEFFC since 1974. He was IEFFC President in 2012 and a Boy Scout fly fishing merit badge councillor for about 5 years. He enjoys fishing Washington lakes and streams. Chet began travelling the state in his motorhome fishing those waters real heavy starting the spring of 2013. Along the way he hopes to learn some new waters and meet some new friends. Chet attended the fly tying expo at Ellensburg in 2012 and will be there for years to come, showing the beginning fly tiers effective easyto-tie flies. Chet was asked to be a BOD member of the WSCIFFF at the Fly Fishing Fair in 2012 and is a current board member. VERN JEREMICA In 1962 I saw then famous fly casting great, Jim Green, fishing for shad below Nimbus Dam on the American River outside of Rancho Cordova, California. I was captured before I owned a fly rod. By the end of the summer I had caught my first trout on a fly I had tied myself. I have been fly fishing and fly tying ever since. In 1978, a fly fishing and tying mentor, Dr. Stan Inoyue, long time member of a Sacramento fly club, California Fly Fisherman Unlimited, encouraged me to improve my fly tying. He was such positive influence, and model of a true sportsman, that from that point on, my interest in fly tying grew like wild fire. In the 70’s through the 90’s, I was primarily a steelhead junkie. Now I primarily fish for trout. I moved to Bend, Oregon a few years ago and now enjoy all the great fishing in central Oregon. In addition to being a current member of the Washington Council board, I’m also a member past newsletter editor and president of the Northwest Atlantic Salmon Fly Guild. It is all about giving and sharing! Be a mentor, encourage others, and you will be blessed. PAT PETERMAN With a lifelong interest in fly fishing, Pat has developed a dedication and passion about teaching fly fishing skills, especially casting. He is a Master Certified Casting Instructor with the International Federation of Fly Fishers (IFFF). He has offered casting classes and casting demos at many club events, IFFF regional events and at the IFFF International Conclave and is involved in the IFFF Casting Instructor Certification Program (CICP). Pat is a member of and has served as President of the Washington Fly Fishing Club and of the Overlake Fly Fishing Club. He serves on the Board of private lessons and the Washington State Council IFFF. He teaches group and can be contacted at patpeterman@gmail.com Steelhead season. P.S. Don’t expect to find him doing any of the above during BILL WHEELER Bill is currently on the WSCIFFF Board as a Director. He has been fly fishing about 10 years when he moved to Washington State and landed up on Lake Alice. At first he thought his eyesight was going bad because he couldn’t see his fly when he cast. It turned out that his eyesight was fine, his casting was bad. So he started on a journey to become a better caster resulting in becoming an IFFF Master Certified Casting Instructor (MCI). He has had the opportunity to teach casting at the IFFF Fly Fishing Fair as well as the Ellensburg Fly Fishing Fair and various club and private venues. Bill is Past President of the Overlake Fly Fishing Club, edited the club newsletter and is currently VP Education for the club. Currently he can better see his fly, he just wishes that more fish would see it. 2016 OFFICER AND BOARD MEMBER BALLOT 2016 WASHINGTON COUNCIL OFFICER AND BOARD MEMBER BALLOT Please vote. You can mail to PO Box 1436, Bellevue WA 98009 or scan (or turn it into a PDF) and email to david@thewriterealtor.com. In order for your vote to count, it must be postmarked or emailed by July 15, 2016. Officers Vice-President, East Len Zickler Write In Name Treasurer JoAnn Allison Write In Name Vice-President, Education John M. Newbury Write In Name Government Affairs Mike Clancy Write In Name At Large Board Members Chet Allison Write In Name Vern Jeremica Write In Name Pat Peterman Write In Name Bill Wheeler Write In Name AFTER THE FAIR WE GO FISHING A Missouri River Fishing Report Five of us, Bill Fox, Allen Hess, Bill Winegar, Mike Clancy and yours truly, headed for the Missouri River between Craig and Cascade in Montana. It is a long way to Arnie Gidlow’s Missouri Riverside Outfitters & Lodge, like 650 miles and a lot of it not freeway. The usual travel time is about 14 hours from my place and with Mike coming up from the Lacey doing a one day drive to the lodge would have put us way into the night for our arrival, then to have to unpack and get our gear together for the next day would have meant we would all be dog-tired on our first day of fishing. So, we left our area around noon, made a short stop at the Worley-Bugger Fly Co. shop in Ellensburg, then kept going to a motel in the Spokane area to spend the night. The next morning we had breakfast and then headed east again towards the Missouri. We stopped in St. Regis, so Al could get his Montana fishing license. We also swung by the still being built Clark Fork Trout fly shop. Steve Temple was busily working on his place, hoping to get a roof on the building within a few days. He should have that up and running sometime in June. We arrived at Arnie’s lodge and unloaded all of our ‘stuff’. We had to go in search of a missing bag that really was not missing, but things like that happen and that gives us good ammo for stories to be told in the future. Prior to us leaving, I had been checking on the river levels of the Missouri River as well as the Dearborn River. The Missouri River, in that area, is controlled by the Holter Dam and they had been releasing a decent amount of water, keeping the flow at a fairly constant rate, which is perfect for fishing. The Dearborn is a free running river, but if it rains hard or has a lot of snow runoff, it can really muddy up the Missouri, which simply means we would fish above the confluence of those two rivers. The river had been holding at around 5,550 cfs, but all of a sudden it jumped it up to 6,525 the day we left and then on the day we were to start fishing it kicked it up to 6,800 and for our second day of fishing it increased it to a very fast flowing 7,200 cfs. The water was slightly murky from the dam dump with lots of floating debris. There was just a little color coming off the Dearborn but not bad enough to stop us from fishing the upper canyon area. We were between hatches (they call it a ‘tweener time’) so the fish were not real active on surface activity since there was very little of that. It was the end of the BWO’s, and March Browns with very few of them out and about. A pseudo mayfly hatch was coming off the water, very small, about the size of a Trico, but grayish brown in color. On the second day we saw a handful of size 16 Caddis on the water, and that was it. The first day we put in at Craig and drifted down to the Dearborn takeout. I was fishing with Arnie that day and he had me start off with a San Juan Worm and a very small mayfly nymph pattern, but after a couple hookups and fish to the boat, both on the small nymph, he removed the SJW and I fished two different Mayfly nymph styles for most of the rest of the day. It really didn’t matter which ones we used, they were eating almost any style. I caught nine fish that day, most were rainbows and most in the 16 to 18 inch range. All were fantastic fighters. There were several fish that never made it to the boat but gave me lots of fun. The water temperature was 50 degrees and the fish were very spunky, jumping like crazy multiple times. I even had one almost jump into the boat but he bounced off the gunwale and back into the water. Great fishing. My morning fishing saw most of my action. Along with the ones that I got to the boat, there were a number that came off prior to that. My afternoon fishing slowed down a lot for some reason. The other two boats were just the opposite. Their mornings were very slow but it picked up in the afternoon. It was a good day considering the water conditions. I did try some dry flying but with only a single fish and a few missed hits. We had a great dinner that night. Crab stuffed chicken breasts, honey glazed carrots, and fettuccini (white sauce and basil). Then for dessert we had a brownie covered in warm chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Yeah, we live it real rough on these trips. Arnie treats us very well. 2016 Washington State Council Awards The next day we drifted from Dearborn to Prewett Creek. The river had come up a lot during the night. I fished with Arnie and we started off nymphing which produced some fish, all on the small mayfly-style nymphs. The fishing was a lot harder, with fewer hits and lots of junk in the water from the increased flows. We started seeing some rises close to shore in a few areas so Arnie had me switch to a dry fly rig. At first it was a Parachute Adams along with a very small Pheasant Tail as a dropper. The first fish to hit was on the Adams. After a few more near misses, we switched to two dries and fished those the rest of the day. Both the Parachute Adams and Caddis dries worked. I got eight fish to the boat that day with many more missed and some break offs. The browns were hungry, but you had to cast to within 3 inches of the shore in that fast flowing water. That can be a difficult target on the best of days for many of us who are not casting experts, but there was one more factor that sort of contributed to the casting and fishing experience. A four letter word known as WIND. Oh yes, it was very windy all day, and the wind switched around and swirled when it wanted to, with a fairly steady wind of 10 to 15 MPH plus those ever so friendly gusts of 25 MPH+. But, if you got your fly into that very narrow zone of 3 inches from the shore in amongst the brush, tree limbs, high grasses and such, there was a good chance of catching a decent brown. My biggest was a measured 21 incher, fat and sassy, and the next largest was a measured 20 incher, just a little more slender. We were all very tired after that day of fishing. Fighting the wind was wearing on all of us. Arnie invited us all up to his house for a grilled steak dinner out on his patio, which overlooks the whole valley, great view! Then we retired to the lodge and started packing up all our gear preparing to store it all away in the rigs for our trip home the next morning. It was a good trip and considering the increased water levels, we did real well and had a great time. By Larry Gibbs Don Simonson presenting the Jimmy Green Memorial Fly Casting Instructors Award to Aaron Reimer. Robert Gerlach accepted the award on Aaron’s behalf. Photo by Mike Clancy Vern Jeremica receiving the WSC Fly Tying Hall of Fame award from last year’s winner, Larry Nickolas. Photo by Mike Clancy David Paul Williams (apparently barely awake) receiving the WSC Federator of the Year award from President Carl Johnson. Photo by Mike Clancy And we catch fish when we go fishing. Mike Clancy with Missouri River brown trout. COUNCIL OFFICERS 2016 FLY FISHING FAIR SPONSORS Washington State Council IFFF President Carl Johnson (425) 308-6161 flyfishalso@frontier.com EFFC & NFA 1st VP, West Don Simonson (206) 999-4562 dksimo@wavecable.com WFFC, MVFF 1st VP, East Len Zickler (509)720-3228 lzickler@ahbl.com SFF & IEFF Secretary and Newsletter Editor David Paul Williams (425) 990-8800 david@thewriterealtor.com NFA Treasurer JoAnn Allison (509)329-0118 jochetallison@msn.com VP, Conservation East Gilbert Biles (509) 663-2325 gilbertbiles@nwi.net WVFF VP, Conservation West Jack Whitney (360) 910-7867 recreationman@iinet.com CSF 2016 YOUTH PROGRAM WSCIFFF FLY FISHING FAIR ELLENSBURG We experienced another great youth program in Ellensburg again this year. I want to thank the following instructors for their time and effort in putting on their program. Mike Koslosky - “Match The Hatch”, Linda Brain - Entomology, Rowdy Sanford - Fly Tying, and Bill Reisbick - Casting Instructor. Thanks again everyone, job well done. Mike Clancy, WSCIFFF VP, Communications Jim Maus (253) 582-9580 jimmaus@comcast.net PSFF VP, Membership Peter Maunsell (206) 725-1661 fishing@maunsell.info NFA, AFF VP, Education John Newbury (509) 935-4141 johnmnewbury@hotmail.com Government Affairs Mike Clancy (360) 753-1259 mtclancy39@comcast.net PSFF & SSFF Directors at Large Larry Gibbs (253) 863-4910 flytier015@q.com AFF Vern Jeremica (206) 251-2898 vern@jeremica.com Pat Peterman (425) 503-5979 patpeterman@gmail.com OFFC & WFFC Jay Woodbury (360) 601-7275 jaywoodbury@hotmail.com SCFF Robert Gerlach (253) 377-1798 rwg@anewds.com PSFF Chet Allison (509)329-0118 jochetallison@msn.com IEFF Bill Wheeler (425) 281-6361 wwheeler48@hotmail.com OFF, PSFF & WFFC Kuni Masuda 360-573-3310 klmasuda@yahoo.com CSF Malisha Small (310) 709-5820 rivermalisha@gmail.com Cowlitz Fly Anglers WSCIFFF www.wscfff.org Northwest Youth Academy 2016 Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy is set and ready to go. We have 18 boys and 2 girls. All their essays and letters of recommendation are in and it appears we have another great group of kids. The Academy is June 19-25 on Hicks Lake at The Gwinwood Community Center in Lacey. We have a fantastic instructor lineup with IFFF, CCI casting instructors, fly tying professionals and conservation experts. Last year we had over 50 volunteers. The 2016 Academy would not take place if it was not for the generous support from the Fly Fishing Clubs, TU Chapters, corporate and private donors. The kids will be fishing at new ponds in Graham, and the Deschutes River in Thurston County. Everyone is welcome to visit us during the week to learn what is happening (please call 1st to make sure we are available). If you are available for guiding, we could use your help, especially in the evenings on the river. If you want to help - please contact Jim Brosio @ 360-481-5184. Seriously folks, we could really use your help with the guiding in the evening on the river. It’s really not guiding, it’s being there to make sure the kids are safe, but you could share your experience on fishing a river with them. We will provide the transportation to the sites. Mike Clancy, Co-Director, NWYCFFAcademy, 253-278-0061