Spokane Fly Fishers www.spokaneflyfishers.com October, 2008

OCTOBER 8, 2008 GENERAL MEETING

SPEAKER: TIM TOLLETT BEAVERHEAD/BIG HOLE COUNTRY

Tim’s father was the one who taught him how to fly fish. It was 1961 and at the tender age of five, Tim thor-oughly beat the water to death, but his father stayed with him despite Tim’s lack of knot tying and casting abil-ity. In the early 70's Tim started work-ing for Walton Powell of the Powell Rod Company, building fly rods and tying flies for Walton and his wife's fly shop in Chico, California. In 1977,

he started guiding for Al Troth, and in 1980, along with his wife, Teresa, opened up Frontier Anglers in Dillon Mon-tana. Along with their two kids, Tamara and Tobin, Tim and Teresa have establish one of the few remaining family owned fly fishing businesses in the United States. Tim says, “I am just like everybody else who enjoys the world of fly fishing. I just happened to have made a living doing it.”

NOVEMBER MEETING NOVEMBER 12, 2008: 7:00 PM

ANNUAL FLY AUCTION

Please, remember to start tying those flies that you wish to do-nate and call Betty Smith-Lambert at 838-5914 and let her know of your plan to donate. As you know, this function is a major fundraiser for SFF with the proceeds financing much of the functions, printing, post-age and speakers for the year. This is always a fun meeting and we hope all of you can at-tend.

SFF Officers and Board Members

President Fred Howe Vice President Mike Melmoth Treasurer Ray Baker Secretary Gail Bailey Board Position 1 Bob Hudson Board Position 2 Craig Pearsall Board Position 3 Tim Reed Past President Dan Ferguson Sgt. At Arms Bob Kowal

Contact us at: P. O. Box 4141

Spokane, WA 99220 Or

sffishers@comcast.net

AROUND THE BEND October 4th, Spokane River Clean Up 9 AM October 4th-5th, Clark Fork Outing October 7th, Conservation Committee Meeting 7PM October 8th, SFF Meeting 7 PM October 11th, Amber Lake Out-ing October 15th SFF Board Meet-ing 7 PM October 30th, Outings Commit-tee Meeting 6 PM November 12th, SFF Meeting 7 PM November 19th, SFF Board Meeting 7 PM

PREZ SEZ By Fred Howe

Our meetings got off to a good start this year with Dr. Ross Black’s explanation of his use of our last year’s donation to fund some of his research. It was really interesting to learn what the fish in the area were eating (very beneficial for fly selection). He has prom-ised to return to the club with the final findings of the study. One problem arose at the meeting. No blue box for the name tags. The disappearance has been solved and the box with the name tags – for those of you who are not comfortable taking them home

– will be at the next meeting. Our speaker this month, Tim Tollett, should be interesting, as he is the owner of Frontier An-glers in Dillon, Montana, and very knowledgeable in fishing the rivers of Montana. I was able to attend the Missouri and Yellowstone Outings this year and certainly enjoyed the beautiful weather, the fantastic scenery, the company of SFF members and, of course, the fishing. We need to show our support for the October 4th, Spokane River Clean Up. Give Mike Keegan a call at 455-4433 or 990-4782. He will fill you in on the details. Mike has an area all set up for our club participation. We all enjoy the river. Let’s do our part in cleaning it up Remember, our November meeting will be our Annual Fly Auction. I encourage everyone to make a donation of flies for our primary fund raiser of the year. I also encourage you to at-tend the meeting and be the lucky bidder for some great flies. The November meeting will also have wine and beer available, with the services of Jerry Voelker. And, of course, Klaus Rissman will be preparing hot dogs and German sausages. See you at the meeting on October 8th.

FISHING UPDATE FROM JAN SADLO: As of Saturday, October 19th, Am-ber Lake was fishing really good. Damsel Nymphs and Dragonfly Nymphs were getting up to 20” Rainbows. The lake was certainly not crowded.

OUTINGS COMMITTEE MEETING

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30TH

Geno Baril has called the first meeting of the Outings Committee for the 2009 planning to be held on Thursday, October 30th, at Maxwell Tavern, at 1425 North Ash at 6 PM. The members who have signed up already to be on the committee and anyone else inter-ested in having input into the selection of the outings for the upcoming year are encouraged to attend.

CONSERVATION CORNER By Roger Bertsch

CONSERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7TH

There will be a meeting of the Conservation Committee on Tuesday, October 7th at 7 PM at the clubhouse. All members are welcome to attend the meeting and we are looking for some new committee members. If you are interested in joining the committee or would like to be added to the email “collective” please let me know. Roger Bertsch, 327-8231.

SPOKANE RIVER CLEANUP SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4TH - 9 AM

The annual Spokane River Clean Up is on October 4th. Our club will be involved in this event. Mike Keegan has been involved with the planning for the past few months and our club has been assigned an area. Mike will be the team leader and will be in charge of our group. This should be a fun day on the river and a chance to contribute to an important local event. If you have any questions, please call Mike Keegan at 455-4433 or 990-4782. Or, call Roger Bertsch at 327-8231.

KIDS CASTING CLASSES By Linda Howe

Bright and early on Friday, September 19th, five members of SFF met at Bear Lake to assist the Northwest Natural Resources Institute in their out-door education program “Water Festival” for 5th and 6th grade students from three different schools. Mike and Alli Melmoth, Bob Kowal, Carla Ferguson and I assembled rods for the student’s use and in four hours had a wonderful time as nine different classes (about 180 students) learned basic fly casting. We had to work fast to get the rods ready between classes. The kids cast a piece of yarn (no hooks) into hula hoops. As can be expected, some were very good at it while others only seemed to foul the lines. Bob Kowal gave a mini lesson to the students on the lake’s food chain. Every student did get a chance to cast. Bob also assisted the Inland Fly Fishers in the program the day before. At the end of the day, we were all very tired but agreed that it had been fun and most plan to volun-teer next year. It isn’t too early to say that you, too, would be interested in helping. Thank you to every-one for donating your time.

ELK AND WIGWAM RIVER, B.C. OUTING REPORT By Roger Bertsch

Four of us attended this outing; Jack Fruit, Tim Holt, Jesse Wanskasmith, and myself. I ventured north in search of native Cutthroat and Bull Trout. We enjoyed a nice Elk River float from Hosmer to Fernie on Saturday. We used a new “put-in” as the past put-in is now privately owned. It was a good but not great day on the river and several Cutts to 17” were caught and released. Due to the weather forecast, we moved the Wigwam hike to Sunday. We found a river that was pretty well blown-out due to rain and landslides into the river and the Cutts were not taking anything. The good news was that the Bull Trout were tempted by our offerings and we caught and released nine. The smallest was 26” and the largest 35”. Four fish were over 30”. Monday was a walk and wade on Michel Creek and we all caught some nice Cuts to 18”. On Tuesday we parted ways and I took an extra day to try one of the Alberta streams, Livingstone River. I fished for about three hours and caught several nice Cutts to 15” while wading. If I host a Canada outing next year, it will likely be in Alberta. The countryside is beautiful, the location far more remote than the Elk River Valley and lots of rivers and creeks with trout. There are excellent free campsites, albeit without facilities

KOOTENAI RIVER OUTINGS REPORT By Jan Sadlo

About 14 people attending this outing. Half of the group were “old-timers” and the rest were

relatively new to the club. For some, this was their maiden voyage. They had been asked to bring a bottle of champagne to commemorate the event — but they forgot.

I gave a beginning lesson on casting and safe usage of the pontoon boat. Sharon McMullin and her friend, Judie (our newest member) white knuckled it through the rapids; but, both said they were game to try it again. The best flies were Black Caddis, small Red Humpy's, Copper Johns, Orange Stimulators (because an October caddis hatch was occurring), and Hopper patterns worked well. Most of the fish caught were on the smaller side, but several 14 to 16 inch were caught.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the pancake breakfast and all the rest of the food in the morning. About eight of us stayed for a partial float on Sun-day and did catch quite a number of fish. (Jan may not be able to host this outing next year, because of a trip to Mexico, so i f you wish to take it over as host, please call Jan at 467-6101 or Geno at468-0589.)

MISSOURI/YELLOWSTONE OUTING REPORT By Judy Kaufman and Jo Gooley Twenty-one folks attended the Missouri outing for three day of good to exceptional fishing - and catching! Big Browns, Rainbows, Cutthroats, and the occasional Whitefish were all being caught. On Friday night the wind blew so fero-ciously that we were all relieved in the morning that no one had blown over! That storm also brought a hard rain and a cold Saturday morn-ing. So five folks opted to go into Great Falls to visit the Lewis and Clark Museum. It was very interesting but maybe not that interesting when they returned to camp and heard reports of the large fish that had been caught that day!

On Sunday morning and afternoon most of the folks who attended the Mis-souri outing heading for Livingston Montana and five days in and around Yel-lowstone Park. The Yellowstone River was fished both by floating outside the park and wading inside the park. The float trips were rewarded by LOTS of whitefish! The Yellowstone River inside the park proved to be the best fishing spot of the week. The Lamar River, Slough Creek and Soda Butte Creek were also fished inside the park. The Lamar produced some great Cutthroat -especially where the river left the road. Soda "Butte" was a bit of a surprise - a small cone shaped solidified

geyser sitting beside the road - not even nearly as large as Steptoe Butte! Soda Butte Creek has small water and fished best where deeper holes could be found. Slough Creek proved challenging with deep clear pools holding visible, educated Cut-throats. Two springs - Armstrong and Nelson—were fished (for a fee). These two creeks held beautiful fish that demanded perfection in fly selection and presentation. It's always a thrill to watch that big fish take your fly and it takes nerves of steel to wait that second before setting the hook. Those who fished these spring creeks have now fished one of the "Fifty places to Fly Fish before you die"! As always this was a wonderful outing with many longtime members and some new anglers attending - twenty-five in all. The new anglers gained respect by their good humor, diligence, and increasing ability to catch fish. There are always those that don't fish and their contribu-tions to the success of this outing never get mentioned. We wouldn't have the wonderful food, free shuttles, great hospitality and nearly as much fun without them. THANKS!!

HOOK REMOVAL On the Missouri trip, Mike Melmoth II (or, Mike, the younger) had the misfortune of getting a fly hooked to his finger. He found a stranger who knew the string-yank method for hook re-moval and saved the day for Mike. Maybe we should all have the knowledge of this simple technique.

STRING-YANK METHOD

The benefit of a string-yank technique is that it can be done with-out anesthesia and in the field. It is also the least traumatic method. Do not use this technique on involved body parts that are not fixed such as an ear. An embedded hook barb in the ear may require another method, but if the hook went all the way through, an advance and cut method might be your method of choice. Perform the string-yank method carefully as it can cause more damage if performed improperly. Wrap string or fishing line around the middle of the bend in the hook and hold the ends tightly with a good grip so that it will not slip. Stabilize the body part, apply downward pressure to the hook shank parallel to the skin, and apply a firm swift jerk parallel to the hook shank while still pressing down on the eye/shank of the hook. If using the string-yank method, wear protective eyewear and do not allow anyone to stand near the path of removal. They might get hit by a flying hook.

RETROGRADE REMOVAL

Don’t have a string (or line)? You might just try the Retrograde Technique. It is the simplest of the removal techniques but has the lowest success rate. It works well for barbless and superficially embed-ded hooks. Downward pressure is applied to the shank of the hook. This maneuver helps rotate the hook deeper and disengage the barb, if present, from the tis-sue. The hook can then be backed out of the skin along the path of entry. Any resistance or catching of the barb and the procedure should be stopped.

2008 UPCOMING OUTINGS

See September Barbless for:

Clark Fork October 4-5th Hosts Jim & Jo Gooley Amber Lake October 11th Host Geno Baril Dry Falls October 18-19th CANCELLED (No Host)

WILD WOMEN’S WEEKEND REPORT By Mary Kovatch

It was a beautiful day since the weather cooperated on Saturday September 27, 2008, for the Wild Women’s Weekend at Camp Reed on Fan Lake. Five women from the Spokane Fly Fishers traveled north to instruct any interested women in the art of tying flies and casting. There are three separate sessions during the day, two in the morning and one in the afternoon of one hour each. Betty Smith-Lambert with her usual expertise in tying was the in-structor for the women who wanted to learn to tie flies. Betty had them tying the Zug Bug and all were pretty experienced when the

session was over. Her friend Susan was along to help .

For the casting sessions, Linda Howe, Pat Mielbrecht, Carla Ferguson and Mary Kovatch were instructors. There were not as many who signed up this year as in past years so each woman practically had her own personal instructor. There were three who expressed an in-terest in the club and possibly the Fly Fishing School. We were treated to a wonderful breakfast and a great lunch and all had a successful and good time.

THE BARBLESS FLYER Spokane Fly Fishers P. O. Box 4141 Spokane, WA 99220

NEXT MEETING

OCTOBER 8, 2008 7:00 P. M.

TIM TOLLETT

BEAVERHEAD/BIG HOLE COUNTRY

ST. FRANCIS SCHOOL 1104 W. HEROY

“THE MISSION OF THE SPOKANE FLY FISHERS IS TO PROVIDE A FAMILY FRIENDLY

ORGANIZATION FOR PROMOTING THE SPORT OF FLY FISHING THROUGH EDUCATION, APPLICATION, AND CONSERVATION.”

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR NAME TAGS TO THE MEETING