anewsletter - Feb. 2010 pub.pub

FLY LINE
THE
www.rainlandflycasters.
homestead.com
NEWSLETTER OF THE RAINLAND FLY CASTERS
PRESIDENT’S HACKLES
February 2010
The main run of hatchery steelhead is winding down, but the good news is that the natives will follow
close behind.
The Rainland Fly Casters Board of Directors met on Thursday the 4th of February. We have some club
members who have stepped up to take over doing various club functions. They are Burt Went
(conservation director), Butch Pinson (program director), Dick Magathan (banquet-auction), and Jim
Ackerman (outings coordinator). I want to thank all of them. We need your help too. If you have an
interest in helping out in any of these areas, please contact the member who heads up the group.
The board voted to purchase new hats from the Bent Needle. Dick Magathan says they will cost $15.00
and they look fantastic.
Tom Scoggins has purchased more tungsten beads heads. They will cost $3.00 for a pack of 25. These
bead heads went fast at the last club meeting so get yours early.
RFC is donating $100.00 to each of the following organizations – Columbia Land Trust, Western Rivers
Conservancy, Wild Steelhead Coalition, The Nature Conservancy, The Native Fish Society, Water Watch
and Trout Unlimited.
Walt Weber has contacted NCLC about the clubs $5,000.00 donation for the Necanicum River Project
that fell through. Neal Maine is working to get our money returned to the club.
Steve Wascher is still looking for an interested person to come learn about taking over the club newsletter.
He has most of the newsletter in a format so that the next person to take over will have all they need at
their finger tips.
A poet once said, “ Some fishermen fish all their lives before they realize it isn’t the fish they’re after”.
I attended the carcass distribution on the Lewis and Clark River. A reporter was there from The Astorian,
and a photographer was with her. The day was sunny and we had fun doing the work. What a beautiful
river. While there, I discovered the perfect torture for a fly fisherman. Take him to great fly water and
then don’t let him fish it all day.
- Dave Johnson -
PAGE TWO
BOOK REVIEW
A Good Life Wasted or Twenty Years As A Fishing
Guide by Dave Ames is his story, his search to find
what was important in his life and the interesting
people he got to know along the way.
The three main characters in the story are Dave,
Kingfish and Heidi. All are unique, independent sorts
with their own stories.
Dave’s first job had all the benefits – his own desk,
secretary, a regular paycheck, health insurance, life
insurance and a retirement plan. Before his first day
was over, Dave quit his job, grabbed his fishing gear
and headed for the mountains of Montana. He
“formed a congregation of one in the Church of the
Reduced Humanist. It’s a simple faith: Reduce the
world to its fundamental order, then everything else
follows according to the Laws of Science, everything
except Free Will.”
Kingfish was an Indian fishing guide and got Dave
his first guiding job on the Apikuni River. His father
was white and his mother was a Blackfoot Indian. He
was discriminated by the whites and the Indians. His
story involved too much alcohol, trying to fit in and
doing what he loved in a place that was sacred to him. He was one that never let the bully go unchallenged.
Heidi was the Montana girl with the dysfunctional family. She shared the same interests of Dave and
Kingfish. She loved the outdoors and could handle herself in that setting. She ended up falling in love
with both men.
The book mentions many of the positives and negatives involved in guiding dudes on one of the more
productive rivers in Montana. Dave Ames, like David James Duncan in his book The River Why, gives
his river a name. A name that describes his river without giving a clear location of its whereabouts. I can
respect ambiguity to keep fishing demand down but by guiding people for over twenty years to this area of
Montana, I would suggest that the word is out. With the draw of good fishing and beautiful country,
people will come and in large numbers.
My hope is that Dave Ames and David James Duncan, through their guiding and writing, will turn on
more people to nature and to the special places. Hopefully, the writers’ love of their rivers will rub off on
their readers, and maybe just maybe, these readers will become stewards of THEIR homewaters.
GOOD NEWS
Most of the positions have been filled for 2010 thanks to several members that have stepped forward.
See the impressive list of volunteers on page 7.
PAGE THREE
FEBRUARY MYSTERY WATER
The winners of the January mystery water contest were Kyle Smith and Bob May. It was Black Lake.
If you haven’t had a chance to fish Black Lake, plan to attend our May Club Picnic at the lake (more info
as we get closer to the date). The January winners received two of Dave Johnson’s optic flies. This
month, the mystery water is a flashback to an earlier club outing. The mystery water guess deadline is
February 16th – Good Luck!
RIVER RAGE ?
I haven’t done much steelheading this season; other stuff has kept me busy. So I made an effort to ignore
the rain and wind , the high water levels, the crowds and finally get my line wet. I found a nice secluded
place among some old growth. It was a peaceful place.
Before long, a bearded fisherman strolled upstream towards me. He stopped and looked directly at me
then he gazed across to the opposite bank. He had a look of wonder, like he was trying to solve some
enigma. He would cast a couple of times and then moved closer. When he was twenty yards away, he
squinted his eyes, tilted his head and tried to solve that puzzle in his head then he moved closer.
Now, I enjoy fishing with friends and sharing a location if I have my space. This guy wasn’t going to let
it happen. He reminded me of a turkey buzzard moving ever closer to the carcass and, I guess, I was the
carcass. He didn’t bother to communicate, just kept moving closer casting his line so that he now was
in my space. His upstream cast was in my drift.
I decided to leave. I see this kind of behavior when I clam for razors. When people see a digger drop a
clam into his net and sees that net full of clams, it isn’t long before other diggers start moving in around
him to get some of the action. I do it. I guess it‘s human nature. Yet, even clam diggers make an attempt
not to cross in front of another digger. I wasn’t having any luck, there were no fish on the bank for this
fisherman to lust over and I know he saw me fishing.
As our rivers and streams become more popular, I guess we will have to adjust. When a frustrated
driver looses his temper, we call it road rage. When a fisherman looses his temper, we could call it river
rage. Whatever we call it, we must restrain our first impulses. All fishermen must educate themselves to
a code of etiquette that respects each other’s space. Otherwise, we might read in the newspapers of
fishermen fencing with their rods over a section of river.
PAGE FOUR
FLY OF THE MONTH
(featuring Jim Ackerman)
BLACK AND PURPLE
Hook: 2/0 through 10 salmon hook
Tag: flat silver tinsel
Rib: flat silver tinsel
Body: purple floss
Wing: black marabou or bear hair or ?
Hackle: purple hackle
Thread: red
Fish this fly with a sink tip on the swing, hold on
tight, good clear water fly.
BABINE SPECIAL
Hook: Tiemco 7999 size 2-10
Thread: fluorescent orange
Tail: white hackle fibers or polar bear hair
Body: fluorescent chenille to form two eggs
separated by red hackle
Hackle: white
Fish this fly by itself or as a dropper along the
bottom. I usually fish behind a pink or black
weighted leech, 18 to 24 inches.
PAGE FIVE
TWO-EGG SPERM FLY
Hook: Tiemco 7999, 2-10
Thread: fluorescent orange
Tag: flat silver tinsel
Body: two eggs made with glow-bug yarn
separated by silver flat tinsel
Wing: white marabou
Fish this fly low, close to the bottom by itself
or as a trailer.
FUCHSIA LEECH
Hook: 2/0 through 8
Thread: color to match body
Weight: barbell eyes, 15 to 20 wraps lead or
tungsten wire
Tail: rabbit strip, silver flashabou
Body: rabbit strip fuchsia
Head: hot pink sparkle chenille
Fish this fly deep or with a trailer on the swing or
directly downstream.
The winners of the February mystery water will receive two of Jim’s flies. Jim is one of our newer
members, lived many years up in Alaska and is one of our RFC board members. He likes our winter and
spring Saturday fly tying workshops and is looking forward to our first one in 2010. If you are interested
in a workshop, let the board know ASAP – thanks.
PAGE SIX
FEBRUARY PRESENTER
Chris Hoover and Chuck Cameron will be telling us a bit about bamboo rod building at our February
18th regular meeting. There will be a powerpoint presentation, including a snippet from Trout Grass.
They will be addressing the history of bamboo, theory of the taper, features unique to bamboo, tools for
constructing a rod and they will bring refinished rods and books on the subject. See ya there!
LISTENING TO THE LAND PROGRAM SERIES
On January 20th at the Seaside Library, Joe Sheehan (Oregon Fish and Wildlife) and Doug Ray (Carex
Consulting and a RFC member) talked about the Nietzel Project on the Necanicum River. The talk was
part of the “Listening to the Land“ series sponsored by the Necanicum Watershed Council and the North
Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC). The project is an off-channel wetland complex in a pasture along the
river. You can see it from the highway; it’s about a mile from the Cannon Beach junction on the way to
Portland. It’s designed to provide salmon habitat for smolts so they can escape from the velocity of winter
flows.
On January 23rd, we toured the project and planted native trees to help establish important riparian habitat
around the channel. We had a good attendance and we were finished in a couple of hours. Katie Voelke,
NCLC director and past RFC presenter, brought her son Gus to help with the plantings (middle photo).
PAGE SEVEN
2010 RAINLAND FLY
CASTERS NEW MEMBERSHIP
RENEWAL FORM
Name ______________________
Address ___________________
City, St, Zip ________________
Phone ________ Email ____________
MEMBERSHIP TYPE:
(Please circle the type desired)
Individual $25.00
Student $12.00
Family
$35.00 (# in family ___ )
Life
10x current dues
Bring this form and your dues to the
next club meeting. If not, mail to:
RAINLAND FLY CASTERS
P.O. BOX 1045
ASTORIA, OREGON 97103
Your membership benefits are
monthly club programs, raffles,
clinics, use of our book and video
library and special discounts. Now
is a great time to join or renew your
membership.
Please check the box below if you wish to be a FFF
member for 2009 and have paid the dues.
President Dave Johnson
360-642-1327
[email protected]
Vice President– Jason Crisifulli
360-665-4903
Secretary/Webmaster– Kyle Smith
50-325-8549
kssmith@[email protected]
Treasurer – Tom Scoggins
503-325-6358
[email protected]
Ghillie/Banquet Chairman
Dick Magathan
503-325-2765
[email protected]
1 Yr. Director/Program Coordinator
Jim Ackerman
360-642-3038
[email protected]
2 Yr. Director– Chuck Cameron
360-665-4903
3 Yr. Director-Chris Hoover
605-393-5335
Salmon Carcass Program/Litter Patrol
Bob May
503-861-2838
Program Director – Butch Pinson
503-717-0791
[email protected]
Conservation Director – Burt Went
503-368-4648
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor – Steve Wascher
503-738-8673
[email protected]
THE FLY LINE
PO Box 1045
Astoria, Or. 97103
UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
February 10-14 – Sportsmen’s Show Portland Expo Center- more info at
www.otshows.com.
March 12-13 – The NW Fly Tyer & Fly
Fishing Expo – Linn County Fairground
and Expo Center in Albany – more info at
www.nwflytyerexpo.com.
March 18 – Building Bamboo Rods (see
page 6).
NOTE:
March 31 – Deadline for 2010 RFC
membership dues.
MEETING LOCATION AND TIME
Club Meetings are held at the American Legion,
1132 Exchange, Astoria at 6:30 p.m. on the third
Thursday of every month. Before the meetings,
join the program presenter and fellow members at
Andrew and Steve’s Café for dinner and fish
stories. Will eat at 6:00 p.m. Fish stories usually
start at 5:30 p.m.
SUPPORT OUR MEMBER OWNED FLY
SHOPS:
Chuck Cameron’s Fly Shop
Seaview
(360) 642-2589
River City Fly Shop
Beaverton
(503) 579-5176