Spokane Fly Fishers www.spokaneflyfishers.com January, 2012

JANUARY MEETING: JANUARY 11. 2012 SPEAKER: DAVE BLOOM “FISHING THE MISSOURI”

Dave was born and raised in Great Falls and has spent his life fishing the waters of southwest Montana. He began his guiding career in 1985 on the Henry’s Fork, the South Fork of the Snake and the Teton in Idaho. In 1995, he moved closer to home when he guided on the famous Mon-tana rivers around Yellowstone Park. In 2001 Dave returned to his home waters of the Missouri, which had been the river that captured his imagination since he first fished it as a youngster in 1971.

Up until the late 80’s, the Missouri River had yet to be discov-ered by the fishing magazines and the few outfitters that guided there held it as closely guarded secret. Dave has studied and fished it intently his entire angling life. Since this homecoming, he has been guiding on the Missouri in the summer and on the rivers of southern Chile and Argentina in the winter.

Dave is also a nationally recognized fly-tier and his patterns are produced and sold by Idylwilde Flies. Go to the Idylwilde Flies web site for more info on Dave and his patterns.

Note: The Alice Deaver Estate Sale will continue at this meeting, including a Regal vice.

OFFICERS AND BOARD MEMBERS

President Mike Berube

Vice President Kurt Tempel

Treasurer Gale Allen

Secretary Sherrie Patano

Board Position 1 Brad Thompson

Board Position 2 Dan Wight

Board Position 3 Klaus Rissman

Past President Fred Howe

Sgt. At Arms Carla Ferguson

Contact us at:

P. O. Box 4141

Spokane, WA 99220

Or

sffishers@comcast.net

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN

Programs: Kurt Tempel

Barbless Flyer Editor: Linda Howe

Conservation: Mike Keegan

Outings Don Tietz

Membership Mary Kovatch

Fly Fishing School: Mike Berube

Dan Ferguson

Librarian: Robert Stock/Larry Ray

Project Healing Waters: Tim Reed

FFF Liaison: Dan Ferguson

Beg. Fly Tying: Betty Smith-Lambert

Int. Fly Tying: Dan Ferguson

Club Chef: Carla Ferguson

Volunteer Coordinator:

Judy Kaufman

AROUND THE BEND

Jan. 5, Intermediate Fly Ty-ing 7 PM Jan 7, Beginning Fly Tying 9 AM Jan. 11, SFF Meeting 7 PM Jan. 25, SFF Board Meeting 6 PM

Dave has agreed to have a tying class for us on January 11, the day of our meeting, from 1:30 to 3:30, at the Wildlife Council Building at 6116 Mar-ket. This is your chance to learn from a Signature Tier. The cost of the class is $20. To reserve your spot in the class, contact Judy Kaufman at 924-9462.

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PREZ SEZ By: Mike Berube

It was great to see so many of you at the Holiday Party this year! Over 80 gathered to celebrate the season, enjoy Carla's culinary creations, club member's salad/hot/dessert dishes and of course to exchange fish stories. A big thank you to all club members who helped Carla out planning and set-ting up the event. Thanks to "Pepper" for starting the night off, George Da-vis (AKA Santa) and his rein-dog Sanford who greeted everyone with a can-dy cane. Kurt & Wendi Tempel welcomed everyone with some Holiday Cheer, Thanks! I know I probably forgot someone, but I can't forget Linda

Howe. She seems to be everywhere and always makes things run smoothly. Thank you Lin-da! During the event we had a montage of photos running on the screen. It was pictures from this past year's events. It was put together by Don Tietz and hopefully you enjoyed it, thanks Don! I want to thank Dan Ferguson for the rein-mice and sleigh with the gingerbread house (created by Carla). The SFF new year is ramping up really fast. Beginner and Intermediate Fly Tying Classes start the first week in January. See the previous Barbless Flyers for specific information. Our speaker for the January meeting is guide and tyer Dave Bloom, he'll show us how it's done on the Missouri. He's offering a tying class the afternoon of the meeting. See last month's Barbless and our Facebook page for specifics. Our February speaker is no slouch either. You might have heard of him. Dave Hughes will be with us to share some information. Please see Kurt's write up on him in this edition. Folks, I received a lot of suggestions this past year on new outing locations and will bring them up at the Outings Committee meeting coming up in January. I encourage you to join the committee, please email Don Tietz, chairman, if you want to join the committee, attend the meeting and get an outing on the schedule. If you received something fishing related at the gift exchange at the Holiday Party that you're not fond of........think about donating it to the Conservation & Education Raffle coming up in March. Well, this is just the beginning of the new year's activities for the club. How about making one of your New Year's resolutions to be more involved in the club. We're always looking for new members to help out or lead events. I hope to see you at the upcoming events or out on the Spokane River.

JUST A REMINDER BEGINNING FLY TYING CLASSES BEGIN SATURDAY, JANUARY 7TH, AT 1812 WEST 10TH AVENUE. THE CLASS MEETS FROM 9 TO 12.

INTERMEDIATE FLY TYING CLASSES BEGIN THURSDAY, JANUARY 5TH, AT THE WILDLIFE COUNCIL BUILDING AT 6116 MARKET (2 BLOCKS SOUTH OF FRANCIS. THE CLASS MEETS AT 7 PM.

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CONSERVATION CORNER By: Mike Keegan

MARCH RAFFLE On March 14, we will have the annual raffle for Conservation and Educa-tion. There will be signup sheets for volunteers and donations at the January and February meetings. We have already received about 12 donations. Your help is appreciated. At the February meeting, you can also pre-order (and pay for) your raffle tick-ets so that they will numbered and waiting for you on the night of the raffle.

FISH-IN-THE-CLASSROOMS Several schools have been added to the five which participated last year. Included are Tekoa, Valley, Liberty Lake, South Pines, Reardon, Farwell, St. Georges, and Loon Lake. The Spokane County Conservation District coordinates the activities. Equipment will be set up in early January. Stocking the tanks with eggs from the hatchery will occur on January 20. The release dates are set for April 26 at Liberty Lake and April 27 at Bear Lake. Last year, club members conducted fly casting introduction for the students. We need two or three volunteers for the stocking of the tanks on January 20. Please call Mike Keegan at 509-990-4782 if you are available and can help for the Friday activity.

SFF LENDING LIBRARY OPEN! By: Larry Ray

The SFFC’s book lending library is now open for lending. Almost 250 volumes are available for your reading instruction and pleasure, from The Compleat Angler by Isaak Walton (1653!) to much more current liter-ature. Larry Ray will be present at the clubhouse on Thursdays follow-ing Wednesday club meetings (i.e., the second Thursday of each month) from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to check out books to members wishing to avail themselves of this resource. Those members wishing to return books may also to do so at the monthly club meeting. The Library is located in the SFF Clubhouse at 1812 West 10th, on lower South Hill. Just take the Maple Street Exit of I-90, head south on Maple to 10th Avenue, and turn right. The clubhouse is on the North side of 10th. There is a mail/book drop in the door. Larry is also willing to meet members at the clubhouse, should he be available, at other times if they want to call (425-299-1488) and schedule a visit to the library or to return books.

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MEMBERSHIP Mary Kovatch, Chair

There are two new members who joined the club in December. They are: Dennis Dokken and Glenn Shelman.

We hope to see both of you at the January meeting.

FEBRUARY MEETING: FEBRUARY 8th, 2012 Speaker: Dave Hughes

By: Kurt Tempel

Dave is the author of more than 20 books about fly fishing. His writings have appeared in Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Fly Fishing magazine, American Angler and Fly Tyer. Dave is currently a columnist for Fly Rod & Reel magazine.

Dave was the founding president of Oregon Trout in 1983 and awarded life membership in the Federation of Flyfishers in 1985. Working through college at jobs specializing in the Three Ds—Dirty, Difficult, and Dangerous: mink ranches, tuna canneries, and shrimp boats—Dave’s been there and done that when it comes to working with wild life! He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1967 then served 1 ½ years in the Army with a tour of duty in Viet Nam.

We’re extremely lucky to have Dave as our guest speaker. His program is called, “Match the hatch simplified”. This program will start at 7:00PM in our regular meeting location at St Francis School. In his presentation, we’ll learn and see the aquatic insects that are fed upon by trout. He’ll talk about the flies that match those insects and fool the trout into taking your fly. As Dave is an accomplished amateur aquatic entomologist—you not want to miss his presentation. Additionally, before the evening presentation, Dave’s agreed to put on a 3-4 hour fly fishing workshop, “Elements of Fly Fishing” which includes reading trout waters, selecting trout flies, and tactics for trout. We’ll learn how to read water in creeks, streams, and rivers and lakes. Attendees will also learn the most effective casts and methods to present both wet and dry flies. This should be a very interesting class. This workshop starts at 1:00PM at the Wildlife Council Building at 6116 Market (2 blocks South of Francis) Cost for this workshop is $15.00 per person. To reserve your spot in the workshop contact Kurt Tempel at 922-7564.

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TRAIN THE TRAINERS By: Tim Red

No matter if you are teaching your children, neighbors or volunteer-ing in our casting outreach programs, it’s your lucky day. Len Zickler, our own FFF certified casting instructor, has generously volunteered to teach us an easy and effective method of fly-casting instruction. The major driving force behind this class is to insure that all of our volunteer instructors are on the same page when we teach these classes to the public.

This half-day class will be taught in early spring with the date and time to be determined. A sign up sheet will be available at the January meeting or call Tim Reed at 796-2344 to re-serve your place for the class now.

2011 CHRISTMAS PARTY By: Dan Ferguson

Once again Carla and crew provided the club with a great Holiday celebration. With the all day help of Linda Howe and others who came in early to help set up, we enjoyed a feast of Turkey, Ham and Salmon. The gift exchange went well with a minor glitch when Fred Howe grabbed a non-gift which left us with a couple items left over, but Mike B recovered nicely and tracked down his feathers. That’s what Mike gets for not securing his personal stuff. Fred’s holding the Partridge for a ransom of soft hack-les! The ornament distribution went way to long and we already have ideas to fix that next year. Art and Clara were the lucky recipients of the Gingerbread house and Santa’s Rein mice tied by yours truly. For what seems like the 400th year, George Davis greeted us as the kindly, jolly elf, Santa. Our entertain-ment was provided by ”Pepper” Cheryl Allen’s quartet. This is the third year the Sweet Adeline group has performed for us and I hope they return for fu-ture engagements.

Special thanks for the tasty dishes that were provided by our members - especially the deserts! Carla would like to express her gratitude to Linda Howe, Clara Ross, Brad Thompson, Karen Berube and Gina Er-ickson for working so diligently in and around the kitch-en. Kurt and Wendy did a great job as our bartending staff. The evening would not have been complete without everyone who pitched in to clean and regroup.

There’s no way Carla could remember everyone, so a great big “Thank you” goes out to all.

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BOOK OF THE MONTH By: Larry Ray

This feature will probably appear in each issue of the Barbless Flier, space permitting. In it will be a review of one of the books that is held in the SFFC’s book collection, the volumes of which are available to mem-bers via lending. NORTHWEST ANGLING by Enos Bradner is noteworthy from both an historical perspective and, still, as a guide for Northwest fly fishing. First published in 1950, it is of particular historical value because of its author’s stature as one of the angling pioneers of the northwest. Enos Bradner was, for many years last mid-century, the Outdoor Editor of the Seattle Times. During that period he and his counterpart at the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Ken McLeod, conducted a somewhat spirited, if muted in print, rivalry. They did team, though, with others of that era to form the Washington Fly Fishing Club and, later, in January 1941, to finally obtain fly-fishing only status for the fabled North Fork of the Stillaguamish River. This was the first such designa-tion for a northwest river and was only obtained through considerable effort and despite se-vere opposition. Bradner and McLeod were in sufficient agreement to always describe fish-ing in their beloved Stillaguamish North Fork as “slow” when publishing their weekly fish-ing reports! Northwest Angling was probably the first to detail northwest steelhead and sea-run cut-throat fishing methods. It discusses such innovations as the stripping basket, which is ap-parently a northwest invention, and it also describes the development of some of the pat-terns, like the Brad’s Brat (Bradner’s own), the Conway Special, and the Stillaguamish Sun-rise (McLeod’s), that were originated during that era. The author’s descriptions of his own initial tying efforts, at the knee of the one-armed tyer Dan Conway, are quaint and entertain-ing. There is ample story telling in the book, with a enough of Bradner’s rather dry humor, to make a fine fireside read. The painted color plates contain old standby patterns like the Carrot Nymph, Knudsen’s Spider, and Nation’s Fancy, that will delight those who have been around long enough to recall them. (There are those who still consider the Carrot Nymph to be the go-to pattern in northwest beaver ponds and small lakes, for cutts and brookies.) For those wishing for more inland northwest reference, that is present too. There is a sec-tion on feather collection that includes hunting for Hungarian partridge and a chapter on mountain lake fishing. There is also an alphabetized section on all the major steelhead riv-ers in the Northwest, including those in Eastern Washington. All of which makes for histor-ically fascinating, if dated, reading. “How To” sections also include chapters on various salmon fishing methods (trolling, mooching, and spinning) and bait fishing instructions for lowland lakes, most of which are still effective today. The drawing on proper baiting of a hook with a salmon egg, using a toothpick, harkens back to the pre-power bait days of plunking for trout. All the pen and ink illustrations are the author’s own. Some of the drawings of individual species are almost cartoonish, but the effect simply adds to the charm of the book and reminds the reader of just how sparse detailed information was in that day. Come check out NORTHWEST AN-GLING for an informative and entertaining read,

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FLY TIERS AND THEIR FLIES------------MIKE BERUBE

By: Tim Reed Mike continues to generously donate his flies to our auction and has been tying some ex-ceptional soft hackles. He grew up in Rhode Island fishing local lakes with spinning gear. In 1979 he joined the Air Force where he traveled the world and now wishes he knew how to fly fish when he was in such places as Guam and Iceland. Mike began fly-fishing after he retired in 1999.

For Christmas in 2000, Mike received a beginners fly tying kit and before the weekend was over had tied his first flies. He wanted to learn to tie as he thought it was a natural extension of his fly fish-ing experience. He got ideas for flies to tie from books and mag-azines and improved his techniques by watching on line videos. Mike says one of his big learning jumps came from discovering Fly Tying: The Anglers Art on PBS. Watching Leroy Hyatt and Dave Engerbretson, and later our own Carolyn Sells, dramatical-ly improved his tying techniques.

Enrolling in SFF’s intermediate fly tying class was an “eye-opener” for Mike: “there are so many great tiers in the club and meeting with them for eight weeks in the winter exposed me to lots of different techniques and patterns.” Mike is now focusing on soft hackles, which he gave an illustration of how he ties them in the November newsletter. He says between Leroy Hyatt always saying that if he had only one fly to fish and being always able to pick up a couple of fish using soft hackle patterns, he decided to learn more. Mike is currently reading The Soft-Hackled Fly and Tiny Soft Hackles, A Trout Fisherman’s Guide by Sylvester Nemes. Mr. Nemes is famous for being the catalyst of soft hackle patterns return to popularity. Mike will be teaching a class this winter for the intermediate fly tying classes. As a close on this article on our fly tiers, a quote from Sylvester Nemes seems to be in or-der. “If you have never tied flies before, I urge you to start immediately. The practice is ex-hilarating. It is romantic. It lifts you up when you are depressed and downhearted. That it gives joy and pleasure is confirmed by the fact some hospitals now encourage fly tying as a form of therapy. There is no closed season and the worse the weather outside, the better and more exciting is the task inside”

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

NEXT MEETING

JANUARY 11, 2012

DAVE BLOOM “FISHING THE MISSOURI”

7:00 PM

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

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED