penticton fly fisher journal november december 2010

PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

JOURNAL

Nov / Dec 2010

— Presidents Report Page 4 & 5—Equipment Review— Spey Fishing Page 6 & 7—Heart of a Mighty River by Mark Angelo Page 8 & 9— Earth, Wind and Fire Part II Page 10—Christmas Gifts You Don’t Want Page 11— 2011 AGM and Election Notice Page 12— 2010 Fish Out Schedule Page 13—Sailfish Page 14— Photo Gallery Page 15— Classifieds and Calendar of Events Page 16— Tying and Fishing Techniques

PAGE 2 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Vol. 07 Number 06, 2010

Nov / Dec 2010, Edition

Penticton Flyfishers

Box 354, 113-437 Martin St., Penticton, B.C., V2A 5L1

Editor

Bruce Turnbull

Home Ph:250-493-7386 Work Ph:250-487-2000

Fax 250-487-2049 Email: [email protected] (or)

[email protected]

President Phil Rogers

250-403-8832 [email protected]

Vice President

Peter Kruse [email protected]

Treasurer Ken Baker

[email protected]

Secretary Denis Currie

[email protected] 496-5499

Membership Director

Tom Knight [email protected]

The Penticton Flyfishers are members of

BC Federation of Fly Fishers (BCFFF)

BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF)

Federation of Fly Fishers

(International FFF)

Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Alliance (OSCA)

Contents

Idelback Evening —by Bruce Turnbull

Penticton Flyfishers New Website is

www.pentictonflyfishers.ca

PENTICTON FLYFISHERS Presidents Report by Phil Rogers

Here it is,the end of October. I hope every-one was able to take advantage of some fall fishing. The weather has been a little rough on us at times this fall. I know that our small group of dedicated fly fishers and their fami-lies who attended the Club Fishout at Tunkwa Lake had to battle against winds and rains on Friday and Saturday. This may have kept the catch count lower than what was expected but never the less a good time was had by all that attended. Thanks to Mike Daviduck and Tom Knight for cooking the hot dogs and hamburgers at the Saturday night potluck. It was the highlight of the weekend for me. Thanks to all that attended. I hear the only causality was a little bit of Bob D’s ego as he got out fished once again. Never mind Bob, you might hit it at the next big outing. I hear that the weather was not co-operating for our members that went up country for the elusive steelhead and coho. Heavy rains and swollen rivers made a big impact on several of these trips. George Graw’s friend, who owns the Bailey Bridge campgrounds just outside of Bella Coola, has suffered devas-tating losses to his property and business due to the floods in October. We hope he is able to salvage some of his losses and is able to carry on. In September I was able to fish Stoney Lake (Douglas Lake Ranch) along with Ken Woodward and six others from Kelowna. Again the weather did not co-operate fully as we battled moderate to high winds on the Friday and Saturday. On a positive note, everyone on the trip was able to land fish with the biggest in the 5 lb range. We stayed at the Minnie Lake Ranch House and had a terrific weekend. I hope to be able to bore eve-ryone with the details and slideshow at one of our meetings this winter. Speaking of meetings, Ron Flack will be giving a presentation on fishing in Belize at our November meeting. I

hope everyone has a chance to come out to this meeting and catch Ron’s slideshow. Tom Dellamater and George Graw report that the Penticton Creek fish ladders appear to have had a very good return in numbers and size this year. We will have to wait for MOE’s official num-bers to find out how good a year it was. The ladders were removed on Oct 23. Thank you to everyone who helped with the Penticton Creek work parties. Several of our club members are participat-ing in the Okanagan Nation Alliance – Kokanee project. The latest info was that 2300 kokanee were seen in the channel on 18 Oct. 1000 kokanee were tagged that week and we started fishing for them on Saturday 23 Oct. We caught around 20 fish that first weekend. On Monday 25 Oct approximately 20,000 fish were at the mouth of the channel. Another 1000 were to be tagged on the Monday and Tuesday. This project will continue until the end of November. It will be interesting to hear what the final results are and what has been learned about the Skaha Lake kokanee. This is the first step in a much larger study on the fish in Skaha Lake. Others projects

will include rainbow trout and sockeye in the lake. On 12 Oct, I attended Alexandra Morton’s presentation to the Kalamalka Flyfishers in Vernon. It was a very informative 2 hours. The talk and discussions were centered on the problems caused by fish farming on the coast. There was nothing substantially new in her presentation but it certainly reinforced the issues of lice and chemicals being used to treat the lice and fish related viruses. The next chemical to try and protect the farm fish from lice is apparently extremely toxic to all shellfish including prawns. A new virus originating in Norway and has now shown up in Chile. According to Alex, the fish farms have not released medical reports as requested and are now not allowing provin-cial vets onto their sites to check on the health of the farmed fish. Alex was trying to drum up support and get people to join in on her walk to the Cohen Commission in Van-couver on 25 Oct. I hope she receives lots of support on her walk. Without cleaning up

the migratory routes all the conservation and habitat improvements for our ocean fish will be meaningless. On a final note, the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association is holding Flyfishing Symposium II on 13 and 14 Nov in Vic-toria. There are 11 guest speakers over the two days. Both days start at 9:00 am and finish at 5:00 pm. The cost is $80.00 for both days and includes a meet and greet on Saturday night. See you all at the November meeting

2010 Executive

Pres: Phil Rogers Vice Pres: Peter Kruse

Secretary: Denis Currie Treasurer: Ken Baker

Membership: Tom Knight Past Pres: Angus Cameron

Phil


Equipment Review- By Dr. Terry Tartachuk

sent the fly to the fish in a line flowing down the river paral-lel to the cur-rent. The aforemen-tioned methods give the fish a look at a fly, presenting it as food freely drifting in the current.

Another way to en-tice the steelhead or salmon is to play on their aggressive or curious nature and present the fly sweeping across their zone of interest. Instead of drifting down the seam, the fisherman paints the river with sweeping arcs to have the fly pass in front of the fish. These flies are often attractor-type flies or those that imitate a swimming prey such as a minnow or sculpin pat-tern. The traditional down-and-across wet fly swing does exactly this. The two-handed rod and the spey cast al-lows the steelhead angler to efficiently place the fly in front of the fish in a very precise and controlled man-ner. When you take up spey casting with the two-hander, the first thing you notice is not the distance, but the power steering that you have. The control of the line, leader, and ulti-mately the fly are part of the gratifica-tion of this style of fishing. With prac-tice, the distance will start to appear, but the newfound control will amaze you. To fish for our steelhead during the cooler water temperatures that we often experience, the mantra is " Low and Slow with line control". Selecting Spey Fishing Fly Lines

Lines are classified by head (belly)

length: Skagit, short belly, mid length, and long belly. Each of these has there own positive and negative factors. Most of them come with interchangeable tips to allow fishing at various depths.

The Skagit, as associated with Ed Ward and other Pacific Northwest anglers, al-lows the fly fisher to lift and cast a heavy sink tip and a weighted fly with ease. The Skagit casts are delayed an-chor casts with a slower rhythm. This gives the beginner a little longer to think about what is going on in the cast. Be-cause of the shorter head on the Skagit line, the caster needs the least amount of back cast room. That is a smaller D-loop to load the rod for the cast. The drawback of the Skagit line is the short head and the need to strip in a lot of run-ning line between casts. The second drawback often seen by the real hard-core steelheader is the amount of guide icing that will be developed due to strip-ping in all that wet running line for each cast. The Skagit line needs to be indi-vidually tailored to each rod both by line weight and length.

The short belly line, such as the Rio Windcutter or the Scientific Anglers (SA) short belly, has head lengths about

Spey casting for salmon and steelhead is catching on. The use of the two-handed rod really complements the fly fisher who wants to use the traditional methods of angling for these species. The two-handed rod allows one to make a longer cast with minimal back cast room. Spey casting, which is a change of direction roll cast, can be accomplished with ei-ther a two-handed rod or the standard one-handed rod. Once learned, the tech-nique allows the fly fisher to reach and fish those areas that previously went un-fished.

As Lefty Kreh often preaches, the pres-entation is what it is all about. To pre-sent the fly to a steelhead, the current drag is the main factor. The fly can be presented drag free, or the current drag can be used to the angler's advan-tage. The drag free presentation is ac-complished in many ways. The first would be the upstream fly cast with added slack, such as in the tradional dry fly approach to a rising trout. Another would be the long line nymphing (chuck and duck) style. Here the fly and weight is cast across or slightly upstream and the running line mended upstream if pos-sible. The fly then travels downstream held back by the weight as it bounces along, approaching the same speed as a free-drifting nymph. The third would be the float technique whereas the float travels with the surface speed of the river's flow and is held back slightly by the line drag. Therefore, the fly is pre-sented at the current's speed, drag free, at the fish's level. The drift length of all three of these methods can be increased considerably when a drift boat is used and floats are at or slightly slower than the surface current speed.

All of the methods mentioned above pre-

The Art of Spey Fishing


45 to 67 feet. They both come with in-terchangeable tips and the running line is built into the line. These lines allow the beginning angler to feel the load on the rod without having to manage a lot of line in the air or have a large D-loop. These lines will pick up a heavy sink tip and cast a floating tip as well. Like the Skagit, they will have to be stripped in between each cast. The 45 to 67 foot head will cover most of the water the beginning spey caster will want to fish. The drawback will be in the mending ability of the shorter head. These are the best lines for the beginning caster.

The mid belly lines are the Midspey by Rio and the Classic Spey (previously the Mid-Spey) by Scientific Anglers. These lines have a belly length of 59 to 69 feet. This length allows the angler to mend much easier than with the shorter lines and he or she does not have to strip in as much line as the previously men-tioned lines. The fly control and presen-tation are more precise. These are good lines for the lighter and shorter rods. These lighter and shorter rods may have trouble handling a line belly longer than 70 feet. Like all mid-sized things, they are a compromise. They do not pick up a heavy sink tip like the short belly or Skagits, and they don't mend like the long bellies. This class of line is often recommended for the caster who has the basics down and wants to start reaching out and touching some fish way out there.

The long belly lines are the Rio Grand Spey and the Scientfic Anglers XLT. Both of these lines have head lengths of 80 to 100 feet. They allow the caster to make a long cast and a very large mend. Imagine a mend of over 60 feet with your single-hander. As of this writing (2007), neither of these lines have interchangeable tips. Since both are floaters, the technique used will be mostly with subsurface or floating flies. I find that there is an exceptional amount of gratification in taking a steelhead on the surface. As mentioned earlier, these lines have the best line control and there-fore best fly control. However, because

of their long head, the D-loop will be bigger and a higher skill level will be required to control that much line. Here in the fro-zen west, the ice buildup on the guides can be markedly re-duced by using the long belly lines and leaving some of the belly inside the guides while bringing the fat part to the reel. Using this technique and not stripping really prolongs your fishing time before you need to march to shore and break the ice off your guides. Presently, if you want to fish deep with a long belly, you need to use the 10 or 15 foot sinking leaders by Scientific Anglers, 7 or 12 foot sinking leaders by Rio, or the 15 foot tips by Rio or SA. To really take advantage of these lines in the winter, you may have to cut up a new line (ouch) and make it into an interchange-able tip line. These lines are usually recommended for the more experienced caster.


The Fraser River is British Columbia's larg-est and most ecologically diverse waterway. At its very heart, not too far from the City of Vancouver and between the towns of Hope and Mission, lies a meandering section known as one of the most productive stretches of river anywhere in the world.

Commonly called the 'Gravel Reach' because of the gravel and cobbles deposited there by the torrential currents of Fraser Canyon, this stretch of river wanders across a complex, ever-changing landscape of floodplains, side channels, wetlands, and backwaters, screened by native black cottonwoods and cedars and hidden far from the constant din of Highway 1.

The humble name belies a rich ecosystem that supports an exceptional diversity of fish, birds and other wildlife; a truly unique natu-ral bounty that, in turn, underlies extensive cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, recreational and economic values for First Nations, local communities, and indeed, for all Canadians.

But the heart of the Fraser is also increas-ingly at risk. The growing pressures of ur-banization, agricultural expansion, resource extraction, and land development are rapidly claiming the remains of this once extensive ecosystem.

To counter this, a number of organizations such as the Nature Trust of British Colum-bia, the North Growth Foundation, the Riv-ers Institute at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, and the BCIT Fish and Wildlife Program are leading

an initiative to bring together political, corporate, and public interests to restore and protect what's left of these aquatic habitats and landscapes for future genera-tions. Exceptional Abundance

The Fraser is a river of exceptional abun-dance. It remains the world's greatest salmon river and the Hope-to-Mission stretch is widely viewed as the heart of the watershed, sustaining BC's (and perhaps North America's) largest single spawning run of salmon. More than 20 million pink salmon will reproduce in the main channel of the Gravel Reach while some of North America's largest runs of Sockeye salmon (34 million and counting this year) migrate annually through this corridor to spawn upriver. Chum salmon also spawn in the side channels while juvenile Chum and Chinook salmon feed along its gravel bars.

All told, the Gravel Reach supports more than 30 species of fish, including several considered at risk. It has the largest popula-tion of white sturgeon in North America of any river corridor not influenced by dams. As the largest and longest living freshwater fish in North America, sturgeon can grow to over five meters in length, weigh more

than 600 kilograms, and can live for 150 years or more.

The list of species supported by this remark-able ecosystem goes on and on; seals, sea lions, beaver, martin, bears, deer, cougar and coyote. Extensive bird populations include red-tail hawks, green and great blue herons, bald eagles and turkey vultures. It's also home to amphibians such as the Oregon spotted frog, western red-backed salaman-der, and the Pacific giant salamander. This extraordinary abundance has sustained First Nations for thousands of years and today provides exceptional cultural, recreational, aesthetic, and economic values for all of southwestern British Columbia. All this is made possible by the wild, rambling nature of this stretch of the Fraser, the very attrib-utes we have so often sought to tame.

While this complex mix of land and water-scapes continue to nurture and sustain much of the Fraser's abundance, it also faces in-creasing developmental pressures. Particu-larly worrisome is the lack of any collabora-tive plan or vision to safeguard its many val-ues and, despite past studies and recommen-dations to preserve remaining habitat, gov-ernments of all levels have not yet been able to effectively protect this world-class ecosys-

To Save the Heart of a Mighty River

By Mark Angelo


tem.

In contrast, down-stream from Mission, there has been progress in mitigating impacts to the Fraser through ini-tiatives such as Metro Vancouver's "Greenway Network" and the Fraser River Estuary Management Plan (FREMP). In a similar vein, decisive and quick action is now needed to protect and maintain the ecosystem values of the Gravel Reach before they are lost forever. The Heart of the Fraser initiative seeks to achieve this with a multi-pronged approach that includes boosting public awareness of the area's out-standing ecological, cultural, and recrea-tional attributes while promoting the need for a collaborative plan for the corridor.

In addition, a major focus of this campaign, in conjunction with the Nature Trust of BC, is on the acquisition of key private lands to be set aside for conservation purposes. With progress now being made on this front with a dozen major properties purchased thus far, groups leading this initiative hope this will encourage various lev-els of government and First Nations to de-velop collaborative approaches to protect key crown (or public) lands. On an encourag-ing note, the McGil-livrey Slough, a crown land parcel in the midst of this part of the Fra-ser, was recently pro-tected because of its important fisheries and

wildlife values.

The Heart of the Fraser initiative signals hope that we can avoid the mistakes that have been made in so many other parts of the world, where once productive habitats along great rivers have been lost, or se-verely damaged. Few places on Earth still have such a rich and intact stretch of river so close to a major urban center. Conse-quently, we have a chance to do things differently--but there is an urgent need for

action if we are to protect the heart of one of the world's greatest rivers.

Mark Angelo is the chair of the Rivers Institute at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and an internationally ac-claimed river conser-vationist. He has re-ceived the Order of Canada, his country's highest honor, in rec-ognition of his river conservation efforts both at home and abroad. He received the United Nations

International Year of Fresh Water Science, Education and Conservation Award, the Order of British Columbia, the National River Conservation Award, and an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University. He is a Fellow International of the Explorers Club. Angelo is the chair and founder of World Rivers Day, an event celebrated across dozens of countries on the last Sun-day of each September. He has traveled on and along close to 1,000 rivers around the

world over the past 5 decades. He has au-thored numerous arti-cles and papers about rivers and his expedi-tions, including the Riverworld presenta-tion launched in con-cert with National Geo-graphic Online in 2003 and shown to audiences across North America. Source: National Geo-graphic and Mark Angelo


Wow, now you're really ready to go. You've got a site, collected your tinder, kindling, and fuelwood and now you just need to put it all together. So, how are you going to build your campfire? The way you assemble your wood before lighting it is called the Fire Lay and there are a few classic methods to use, depending on what you will use your fire for. I nearly always start with a teepee unless I've been asked to create a large council fire for entertainment. Whatever type of fire you decide to make, keep these things in mind: • Plan where you will light it - leave an opening to reach the tinder. • Light the upwind side so the wind blows the flame into the fuel. • Leave air space between pieces of wood. Build UP, not OUT. Create a higher pile of wood rather than a flatter pile.

Teepee Fire This is my favorite and I believe the most useful and easiest to light. The key is to stick a few sticks into the ground to supply support for the rest of the kindling. • Place your tinder bundle on the ground or on a small piece of bark. • Stick three or four kindling twigs in the ground to form a teepee above the tinder. • Lean small kindling twigs against the downwind side of the tinder. • Leave an opening on the upwind side all the way to the center tinder where you can light the fire. • Continue to lean twigs around the teepee structure. • Work your way up to pencil-sized sticks, leaving plenty of air space between sticks. • Poke three or four pencil-sized sticks into the ground forming a larger teepee struc-ture. • Lean some smaller fuelwood pieces against this support structure. Have additional small fuelwood and kindling ready in case it is needed.

This style produces a fast flame and quickly falls into itself in a pile of coals. The heat is directed up to a single point and is useful for boiling water in a single pot above the teepee. Once the teepee collapses, fuelwood can be laid around it like a log cabin or just criss-cross on top of the flames. Log Cabin Fire This is the most popular style for beginners to build - I don't know why, maybe because it looks like a house? Anyway, I tend to not use it because it is difficult to access the interior. But, I do add wood to a burning teepee fire to turn it into a log cabin. • Lay a small teepee fire. • Lay two larger pieces of fuelwood parallel on opposite sides of the teepee.

Earth, Wind and Fire

Part II


• Lay two slightly smaller pieces of fuelwood parallel on the other two opposite sides. Leave a space under the upwind piece through which you can reach the tinder to light it - you might need to fashion a mini-torch and stick it in to light. • Continue to lay smaller and shorter pieces to form a cabin or pyramid shape. Have extra kindling ready to drop into the top or through the spaces on the sides to feed the internal fire until the outer walls catch fire.

This kind of fire makes good coals and is a classic campfire look. Getting it lit is the challenge. Lean-To Fire This fire keeps air space open due to the support stick and a steady, light wind really helps it get started. • Stick a long, large piece of kindling in the ground at a flat angle. It should point into the wind. • Place your tinder bundle under the stick. • Lean very tiny pieces of kindling on the tinder bundle. • Lean more small kindling against the support stick. • Lean larger kindling against the first layer. You could create a second lean-to of larger sticks over the first lean-to.

This is fun to light, but the most common challenge is burning up all the tinder without catching the kindling because too much air space is left open. Once it gets going, it's fun to anticipate the main support stick burn-ing through and falling. Council Fire The big daddy of large group campfires. A council fire burns hot, bright, and for a long time without adding more wood. It does take bigger logs and is meant for entertaining big crowds. • Lay 4 logs, each about 5 or 6 inches across and 3 to 3.5 feet long, with about 4 inches of air space between logs. • Across these, lay a platform of about 6 logs, each about 5 inches across and 3 feet long. • Across this, lay a layer of 4 inch logs, 2.5 feet long. • Then, two layers of 3 inch logs, 2 feet long, in perpendicular layers. • Then, 2 layers of 2 inch logs, 2 feet long. • Then, 2 layers of 1 inch split wood, 18 inches long. • Make a lot of split kindling sticks and stick them into any open air space in the log layers. • Create a teepee structure on top of the last layer of split wood. • Leaving a space to light the teepee, continue placing more split pieces around the teepee to make a few more layers. The teepee is lit and the fire burns its way down through the layers.

This fire maintains good flame for a long time as burning fuel drops down into the larger pieces of wood and ignites them. There is no large structural collapse as you might get with a log cabin. Hunter's Fire Good for cooking and has good wind protection. Not useful for entertaining or warming. • Retrieve two short logs 6 to 8 inches in diameter and place them nearly parallel to each other about 6 inches apart at one end and 3 inches at the other. • Create small teepee fire between the logs and feed it fuel until there are good coals. • Use the two logs as a platform on which you set your pots to cook. Spread or pile the coals to create hotter and cooler cooking areas.

Source: Internet

PENTICTON FLYFISHERS PAGE 10 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

BTRA Christmas Gifts You Don’t Want

Coffee Mug Fishing Rod Lighter

Wine Bottle Stopper

Pewter Fish Pin

Sardine Can First Aid

Fish Cufflinks Another Fish T-Shirt

More Fish Ties


Penticton Flyfishers Annual General Meeting

and Elections

February 3rd 2011

Membership is $40.00 per year and is now being accepted by our Club Membership Chair Tom Knight. For members please keep your email address and phone

number up to date with Tom. Its important that you receive all of the newsletters and notices as part of your

membership.

2010 FISHOUTS

? Kettle River July every weekend

PAGE 12 PENTICTON FLYFISHERS

Link Lake May 28, 29& 30

Darke Lake May 15

Idelback Lake June 26 & 27

Columbia River in August

Leighton Lake and

Tunkwa Lake Sept 10-12

?

Fish Out’s for 2010


Sailfish The two main subspecies of sailfish, Atlantic and Indo-Pacific, range throughout the warm and temperate parts of the world’s oceans. They are blue to gray in color with white underbellies. They get their name from their spectacu-lar dorsal fin that stretches nearly the length of their body and is much higher than their bodies are thick. They are members of the billfish family, and as such, have an upper jaw that juts out well beyond their lower jaw and forms a distinctive spear. They are found near the ocean surface usually far from land feeding on schools of smaller fish like sardines and anchovies, which they often shepherd with their sails, making them easy prey. They also feast on squid and octopus. Their meat is fairly tough and not widely eaten, but they are prized as game fish. These powerful, streamlined beasts can grow to more than 10 feet (3 meters) and weigh up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms). When hooked, they will fight vig-orously, leaping and diving repeatedly, and sometimes taking hours to land. Sailfish are fairly abundant throughout their range, and their population is consid-ered stable. They are under no special status or protec-tions. The sailfish is distributed

from approximately 40° N to 40° S in the western Atlantic Ocean and from 50° N to 32° S in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It has been taken in the Medi-terranean Sea, although few records exist for this region. In the western Atlantic Ocean, its highest abundance is in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast of Florida, and the Caribbean Sea. In this region, distribution is ap-parently influenced by wind conditions as well as water temperature. In the northern and southern extremes of the its distribution, sailfish appear during warm seasons. These seasonal changes in distribution may be directly linked to prey movement. In the eastern At-lantic Ocean, there is an aggregation off the coast of West Africa. In the Pacific Ocean, the sailfish is widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions. It resides in waters from 45° to 50° N to 35° S in the west-

ern Pacific and from 35° N to 35° S in the eastern Pacific. Sailfish are espe-cially abundant off Papua New Guinea and the Philippines as well as from Ta-hiti to the Marquesas and off Hawaii. This species may also be found in the Indian Ocean to approximately 35-45° S latitude. The Atlantic sailfish swims in the sur-face epipelagic and oceanic waters. It generally remains above the thermo-cline, in water temperatures between 70° and 83°F (21° to 28° C). There is evi-dence that it also swims into deeper wa-ter. It is less oceanic than other bill-fishes, making frequent forays into near shore water. Cephalopods (squid and octopus) and bony fishes are the primary prey items of the sailfish in the Atlantic Ocean. Mack-erels, tunas, jacks, halfbeaks, and nee-dlefish are the most commonly taken

fishes. These prey items in-dicate that some feeding occurs at the surface, as well as in midwater, along reef edges, or along the bottom substrate. Sailfish in the Pacific region feed on fishes and cephalo-pods including squid. Fishes consumed include sardines, anchovies, jacks, dolphin, ribbonfish and triggerfish. Source: Internet


Picture Gallery Yellow Lake Floating Dock 2010


CLASSIFIEDS CALENDAR of EVENTS

For Sale—15 ft Sage graphite Spey rod, line weight 10, 8 3/4 oz, 4 piece, used only ten times. Call Ken Cochrane 250-860-9128 or email at [email protected] For Sale—Sharps "SCOTTIE", a 4" Perfect style Salmon reel. Has almost all of original lead finish, Bronze line guard, slightly filed foot $400.00 3 1/2" Hardy Perfect, no line guard, long alloy foot, Ivorine han-dle, with a Hardy drawstring bag. An early model which, unfor-tunately, has been refinished. 2 small cracks, one on a pillar the other close by on the frame. They should not affect the reel for fishing. $550.00 Hardy Marquis Salmon #1 Saltwater with twin handles, slight paint loss around rim only, Hardy case $400.00 Hardy Salmon #1 spare spool (Not a saltwater spool) $100.00 Hardy St. John Some paint loss around rim. $250.00 Hardy Marquis 8/9 spare spool all grey model $65.00 Hardy "Wathne Collection" #8 Numbered edition #248 & spare spool Basically same reel as a Golden Prince except for finish, Grey frame, Silver spool. Cases for both. Reel and spool are in as new" condition. I do not think they have ever been fished. $330.00 Hardy Perfect 3 7/8" leaded finish straight line writing no line guard. $330.00 Call Ken Baker 250-493-2926 or email to [email protected] FOR SALE -10’ fiberglass boat, with trailer and electric 28 lb thrust motor for $600.00 obo. If interested please call Tom at (250) 493-8183.

Nov 04—general Meeting. Lets have a good turn out so we can plan on some activities for this winter. Time 7 pm at the Old CPR Station on Hastings St. Nov 11—Fly tying night. A pattern will be announced at the Nov meeting and a recipe sent out. Don’t know what will be tied that will be discussed at the meeting. Time 7 pm. Same place. Nov 17—Executive Meeting at Phil Rogers House. Time 7 pm. Dec 02—General meeting. Last meeting before Xmas so come out and see what the club has planned going into the new year. Time 7 pm. Same location.

www.bcwf.bc.ca

www.bcfff.bc.ca

www.pentictonflyfishers.ca

www.troutwaters.ca

Tying and Fishing Techniques

The Penticton Flyfishers meet the first Thursday of every month except July and August when we meet at nearby fish-outs. Club meetings begin at 7 pm at the “OLD CPR” Train Station on Hastings St., and everyone is welcome. Membership costs $40 per year (Junior membership is free) and includes membership in the B.C. Federation of Fly Fishers, the B.C. Wild-life Federation, The Federation of Fly Fishers (International), and the Okanagan Similkameen Conservation Alliance (OSCA). The club is registered as a society and its function is to promote the sport of fly fishing, to educate, and to conserve and protect the environment. The club is actively involved in conservation projects throughout the Okanagan and surrounding areas. If you would like more information about the club, its membership, projects and programs, please call any member of the Executive (see inside front cover).

Bruce Turnbull Bruce Turnbull

Around the first of October, Tom D., my brother Glen and I joined forces to fish the Methow River in Washington State for steelhead. This would be the 2nd time for Tom and I as we went two years ago but at the end of November. This time we decided to go earlier. Not a good decision. None the less it was an adventure to see more of the river and visit a number of different pools and runs. The weather was hot in the mid 80’sF and so the fish were no where to be found. The Methow is a beautiful river and the technique they use to fish it is a 2 fly dropper rig. This is a new tech-nique for us as its not allowed in BC. On Washington rivers it is.

The set up can be used in a couple of different ways. There is the dry fly with a nymph dropper set at various lengths below the dry fly. The rule is the length below the dry fly should enable the nymph to get down to near the bottom if not bouncing along on the bottom. This needs to take into consideration the

speed of the flow and the depth of the river. To help the nymph to get down we used a couple of split shot but of such lightness that it did not take the dry fly under. In most cases it would be a bead head nymph and that was enough. The next technique is to go with two wet flies, like a nymph and or a stonefly/leech/ with an egg pattern, nymph/stonefly pattern on the bottom. The rig can be weighted above the top pattern or in between the two. Above all of this you would need a strike indi-cator. We used small balloon type floats called Thingamabobbers. These were easy to attach and slide up and down the leader to get the desired depth.

As we were new to this technique it took a little while to get used to casting this rig. Its very awkward at first as the technique reverts to more of a chuck and duck toss than a traditional fly cast. It was not nice to have the rig tag you in the back of the head when

poorly cast. Lets say you learn quickly how to throw it. We tried several differ-ent patterns and rig set ups but none of us managed to bring a fish in. Brother Glen had a nice one on for a quick up-stream run but as quickly as it arrived the fish was off. The area is very nice and the camping was acceptable with all services. We will venture there again and will likely take the pontoon boats in order to get better access.

Dropper Rig Setup

penticton fly fisher journal november december 2010

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