September - FIDALGO FLY FISHERS

VOLUME 40
MAY 2013
AROUND THE BEND
September Meeting
Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013
Farm House Restaurant, La Conner
Wet Fly:
6:00 PM
Dinner:
7:00 PM
Chester Allen, author of "Fly Fishing for
Sea-Run Cutthroat," will be our speaker.
Chester, a fly angler for more than 40 years,
fell in love with sea-run cutthroat fishing
when he moved to Olympia in 1996 to join
the staff of The Olympian newspaper.
Chester eventually managed to become the
paper's outdoor columnist -- a position he
held from 2001 to 2010. Chester is now executive editor of Sports Car Market
magazine, which is based in Portland, OR. A
graduate of the University of Oregon School
NUMBER 5
of Journalism and Communication, Chester
has worked for Northwest newspapers and
magazines for more than 20 years.
Chester still makes the short run to Puget
Sound several times a month to pester searun cutthroat trout. His presentation will explore the often-sensational, easy-to-reach
warmwater fishing in the Pacific Northwest.
Chester will talk about fishing for sunfish,
largemouth bass and smallmouth bass. The
Northwest may have the three best smallmouth bass rivers in the world, just about
every lowland pond has bass and sunfish and
it doesn't take much in tackle or effort to get
into these fish before or after work. Chester
also casts flies on many waters in Oregon,
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, including
Yellowstone National Park.
Chester is now working on his second book,
which will explore the odd corners -- and the
often-weird tactics -- in fly waters throughout the Northwest and the Rocky Mountains.
Chester's blog is www.watermagic.typepad.com
An Active Member Club of the Federation of Fly Fishers
Salmon Festival
2013
Another success!
By Bruce Freet
Our booth at the Skagit River Salmon Festival on Saturday, September 7th was
crowded with interested kids and adults, especially from 11 am to 3 pm. The 2nd annual
event was at Edgewater Park in Mount Vernon from 10 am to 6 pm. We had four fly tying stations and someone demonstrating fly
tying, plus three or four casting stations, and
people were waiting for a chance to do
either. Kids and adults alike were enthralled
by a chance to do it themselves and they frequently told stories about family members or
friends that were fly fishers. By the end of
the day, we had tied over 90 flies and had
some thoroughly “wind” knotted leaders.
Everyone had a great time! Check out
Sunday’s Skagit Valley Herald for the great
review.
immediately behind them were manned by
three crews during the day. Those helping
with the fly tying were Robin LaRue, John
Freeman, Greg Peterka, Bruce Freet, Danny
Beatty, Dan Ballard, Carl Hendricks, Patrick
Smedlie, Jim Paget, Matt Virata, Dave Barcott, and Dr. Jim Murphy. Frank Barcott,
Boshie Morris, and Sheila Tomas assisted
from behind the scenes.
The casting was very popular too, and was
located behind our booth. Our casting instructors were Russ Asbury, Alice Turner,
Dick Raisler, and Oliver Iverson. If the
activity at the fly tying tables slacked-off,
tiers were frequently seen helping at the casting area.
While we know that the Salmon Festival
was well attended we don’t know the exact
number at this time. However, we can tell
you that we had about twice the crowd at our
booth as we had last year. Dick, Russ, and
Bruce wish to thank everyone that helped
make this a success.
Robin LaRue, Danny Beatty, and Matt Virata
were our front people, attracting attention by
continually tying flies, either the LaRue Cutthroat or the Generic Pink. They were usually surrounded by people watching and asking questions. They were definitely multi-tasking. To add to the interest level, they
gave their flies away. The fly tying stations
An Active Member Club of the Federation of Fly Fishers
THE HIGH COST
OF FISHING
Recently I was going though some old papers and ran across a scrap book documenting a fishing trip to Canada in June, 1948. I
celebrated my 13th birthday in fish camp that
year. The trip included my dad, two of his
pals, a nephew of one of them, and me. The
amazing thing about this trip was its very
low cost of only $23.74 per person for a 750
mile round trip to Canada and 10 days of
fishing. This included all transportation
costs, food, motel, camping, fishing licenses,
and some tackle.
My dad was a wannabe writer, and he had
made a deal to write a series of articles about
the trip for the local paper. The proceeds
from his articles and my photographs paid
for the trip. The interest of the editor was to
publish information to show that a lot of
money was not needed to travel and fish. In
1948 everyone was very frugal since all had
just experienced the hard times of the Great
Depression and World War II. The war was
over and everyone needed some reassurance
that the good life was coming and within financial reach of everyone.
Times sure have changed. Now when I head
for Canada for a week of fishing I usually
have about $500. in my pocket, and credit
cards. Gas in 1948 was about $.25 per gallon. Today gas in Canada is $1.75 per liter
which translates to $6.65 US dollars per gallon.
In 1948 we drove north from our home in
Michigan, and crossed over into the Upper
Peninsula of Michigan on the ferry as the
bridge had not been built yet. The first night
was spent in a motel and the three rooms
cost a total of $6.00. Breakfast for two of us
was $.75. The next day we entered Ontario
and drove to the resort where we camped for
$.50 per night.
We drove a total of 750 miles, about the
same distance we might experience today if
fishing in the Merritt, British Columbia area.
How far towards Merritt do you think you
could go today for $23.74?
Tom Fulk
Fidalgo Fly Fishers
Add Five New
Members
President Carl Hendricks presented five new
members to the club at the May meeting.
Each new member was introduced with a
brief background by one of their sponsors.
Terry Abrams and Denny Church
Terry Abrams was introduced by Denny
Church. Terry is retired from the Department
of Fish and Wildlife. He spends many days
each year fly fishing at various locations
with Pass Lake one of his favorites. You will
probably recognize Terry at Pass Lake because he is one of the few in a drift boat.
An Active Member Club of the Federation of Fly Fishers
Graham Read and Wayne Lantz
Wayne Lantz has Dan Farmer as a sponsor
and Dan told about Wayne inheriting his
father-in-laws fly fishing rods, reels and tying vise. When Wayne thought about learning to fly fish his wife suggested he take the
Anacortes fly tying course.
Graham Read and Sheila Thomas
Graham Read’s sponsor is Sheila Tomas.
Sheila took us from a bar stool at a local tavern where she first met Graham to the club’s
meeting room at the Farmhouse via a bike
ride around the state. He has fly fished the
reservoirs near London and Pass Lake with a
long break in between.
Dave Barcott and Bob Santeford
Bob Santeford took his application to the
Pass Lake April Fools outing. After striking
up a conversation with Dave Barcott, Dave
signed the form and at the introduction ceremony he was introducing his newest, best
friend. Later, during fishing reports, Bob discussed his use of productive flies at Pass
Lake.
Boshe Morris and Art Neumarkel
Art Neumarkel owned a construction company and took up fly tying and fishing when
he retired. Art enjoys tying with the Norlander system he bought after watching
Norm demonstrating at a show.
Please welcome these newest members when
our club meetings resume in September.
Danny
An Active Member Club of the Federation of Fly Fishers
Fly of the Month
Easy Damsel
The Fort Smith and
other Fishing Rivers
in Montana Chronicles
Ann Bodle-Nash reporting
By Chester Allen
Damselflies are almost always on the menu
when you're fishing a warmwater pond or
lake. Here's a quick tie that catches fish and
it won't break you heart to toss it into thick
cover:
Tiemco 3761 hook in sizes 10, 12 or 14
Small brass or black bead to fit hook.
Olive marabou
Ultra Copper wire
Olive Krystal Flash
Olive dubbing -- I prefer spiky rabbit dubbing for this fly.
Debarb hook and thread on bead.
Place in vise.
Start thread just behind bead and wrap a
base to just above the hook point.
This fly uses a long marabou tail to imitate
the swishing, swaying action of these bugs.
Tie in a fairly sparse tail that is 1.5 or 2
times the length of the hook shank.
Tie in two strands of Krystal Flash on either
side of the tail.
Tie in thin copper wire
Dub a very rough body and rib with wire.
Whip finish -- and then fish.
This fly sinks when you stop stripping and
rises when you strip. I like to use a floating
or intermediate line and keep up a rapid
series of short strips.
Extended road trips, with uncertain agendas
are rare and surprising. This month I found
myself wandering between Missoula, Twin
Bridges and Bozeman (Montana) for fly
fishing, with a desire to travel on south to
Yellowstone and the Teton National Parks—
those icons of the West— that have called to
non-native adventurers since about 1830.
It is true I have been fishing various iconic,
testosterone-infused fly fishing rivers including the Big Horn at Fort Smith, two hours
south west of Billings, MT. It is true I called
out a New Yorker, dressed head to toe in Orvis or LLBean olive green clothing with a
buff in the pattern resembling a brown trout
pulled up over his chin, for his bad manners
while he was standing in the narrow stream
attempting to claim ownership of the water
and the fish beneath. He stood waist deep in
the reportedly 43 degree water, hands on
hips, whining when our boat gently tried to
navigate past he and the other ten men
scattered across the stream in their waders
and/or hippies ( hip boots).
I later accidently met the New Yorker on the
porch of his cabin (adjacent to mine at Ellyn
and Michael’s Ft. Smith Flyshop resort), and
for the record he started the conversation by
asking if I was the woman who called him a
Brown Trout at the put in. He was a man so
full of his New York accent and his East
Coast fishing manners, that he received my
recommendation to take it all back to the
East coast and leave the west alone. We had
no further conversations for obvious reasons.
An Active Member Club of the Federation of Fly Fishers
I would like to report the Big Horn River to
be a fishing Disneyland: crowded with fishers quite sure it to be the happiest place on
earth, with reportedly 7,000 fish per mile.
Big Browns and ferocious Rainbow trout
sometimes tried to leap into our boat, or
smash themselves against the boat or take
the fly when I was only resting it in the water
while enjoying the scenery. But if solitude
and serenity are also part of your fishing
game, this is not the place. It is very
crowded, with fifty guided boat’s worth of
fishers fishing the same 13 miles of river.
Mid-August is also very hot and exceedingly
popular.
Following those encounters of the fishing
kind let us move on to fishing the waters of
the also iconic Madison, Beaverhead (known
affectionately as the Beav) and the Jefferson
rivers. These rivers are located south of
Butte, and near Ennis, Montana, a town
jammed with fly shops, T-shirt shops, and
fishing paraphernalia.
Fishing with a pack of women led by Fanny
Krieger (a grand dame of women’s fly fishing lore) the rivers were all running exceptionally low, historically low, and very
warm. I was told the snow pack came off in
May but then the usual summer precipitation
failed to arrive. This translates to a relocation by necessity of the trout to the middle
channels and deep holes in the Madison (the
50 miles of riffle Madison); a closure of the
Jefferson from an unknown August date until September 2nd when frankly it was very
slow moving and fished poorly; and the
Beaverhead which is basically a narrow—
but scenic— irrigation ditch full of fish.
With temperatures of over 85 degrees in the
first week of September, both the fish and
this fisherperson’s patience were tested. I
considered abandoning my only sport.
After a few days rest I have reconsidered.
Ann
FIDALGO FLY FISHERS
P.O. BOX 325
ANACORTES, WA 98221
An Active Member Club of the Federation of Fly Fishers