Kelly Creek Flycasters

  www.kellycreekflycasters.com         P.O. Box 2131 Lewiston, Idaho 83501 

***IMPORTANT NOTICE***

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE    

Saker Medevarapu - Kelly Creek Flycasters President

Hello Friends!

It’s hard to believe that 2007 is drawing to a close already!  Christmas is just a few short weeks away!  Our kids get very excited this time of year.  Even little Graham is anxiously waiting for Santa (or “Ho-Ho-Ho” as he calls him).  I hope everyone is up on their Christmas gift shopping.  I always find that waiting until the 23^rd  or the 24^th always provides greater inspiration of gift ideas.  This month’s meeting is our Christmas party!  My kids and I have been busily wrapping presents for club members so I hope everyone can attend.  Plus we have one extra special gift that we will be drawing for out of the paid 2007 membership but remember you HAVE to be present to win!

This year our Banquet committee has changed the direction that our fundraiser has gone in the years past.  Typically we did the Tie and Lie in February and then the Dinner Style Banquet in April.  This year we will be combining the two events and return back to the Fly Fair days of yore.  We are adopting the name “The Kelly Creek Flycasters Fly Fishing Fair” making this an all day event; with fly tying, casting classes, specialty classes, a women’s group, and destination shows that culminates with the dinner, auction, and keynote speaker in the evening.  The Committee plans to employ a different marketing strategy to make this not just a club event, but a community event.  Granted, changes are always viewed with caution and skepticism, particularly when we are asking people to open their wallets.  Banquet tickets this year will be priced differently but fairly.  We have changed from one general admission ticket this year to different packages.  For example, if I was purchasing a single Adult Gold Package, I will receive 10 Blue raffle tickets, 10 Red raffle tickets and two Gold Draw tickets besides my general admission.  The color of the raffle ticket refers to raffles draws of different quality of items.  The Gold Tickets will be available only by purchasing the Gold Ticket package and will not be available for general purchase at the banquet or any other time.  The Gold draw will contain a group of desirable items that will be drawn as a group to one ticket holder at the end of the evening.  I hope we can continue to depend upon the membership, and their attendance, during this transition to the Fly Fishing Fair.  As always we continue to rely heavily on items donated from the membership and I will circulate the sign up list for donations at the next club meeting. 

In last month’s newsletter I missed thanking one other departing board member.  I would to thank Terry Nab for his service to the KCF as well.  Speaking of which, congratulations Terry and Susie on your recent nuptials!  We hope to see your glowing faces at the Christmas meeting.  Of course most of us have met Susie already, but no one has met Mrs. Nab yet, so official introductions to your new bride are in order!  Susie you will be a welcomed addition to our fly fishing family!  On a slightly different tangent, Zach and Terry have branched out into the fly fishing calendar business!  If you have not seen their calendar stop by Mark’s and take a look at one!  Great job guys, very nice photos!  My clinic has purchased several to use as a marketing item and I hope that if you need a 2008 calendar, the membership will support Zach and Terry and purchase some of their product!

Saker

Tight Lines and Screaming Reels!

Kelly Creek Flycasters DECEMBER Program

Thursday, December 13^th at 7:00PM

China Inn, Lewiston ID

PROGRAM:  Where Did All These Steelhead Come From?  by Kent Mayer

Asotin Creek has one of the most abundant, naturally-producing steelhead streams on the eastside of the Cascade Mountains.  With a population of about 600 adults and 40,000 juveniles in just 29 miles, Asotin Creek averages 1,400 juvenile steelhead per mile!  And all of these fish are listed as “Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. 

Asotin Creek has been proposed to serve as a reference (i.e., experimental control) stream for steelhead recovery and supplementation efforts throughout the Columbia River Basin.  The Asotin Creek assessment project is a low cost, high-value project, which collects and distributes data on both adult and juvenile steelhead.  It may be the only unsupplemented reference stream collecting such a wide array of reference data.  In addition, more than $8 millions dollars has been spent on habitat improvement projects in the Asotin Creek watershed since 1996.  The question is:  What has this money bought? 

Come find out why the Asotin Creek Assessment Project is one of the most unique steelhead research projects anywhere.  Kent Mayer is a fish biologist from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and a member of the Kelly Creek Flycasters.

A Trip To Remember !

I would have to consider myself one of the lucky ones to fish the North Fork from Montana down to Ahsahka.  Down through Black Canyon to Kelly Creek, to Cold Springs, to the Bungalo, to Quartz Creek, to Skull Creek, to Canyon Ranger Station, to the Little North Fork and on to Ahsahka.

In 1956, four of us decided to float the river.  At that time the road only went below the Bungalo, 2 miles to Castle Rock.  From there it was by trail or by floating the river.  I had made the float from Castle Rock to Canyon Ranger Station before.  That was the next road coming down Beaver Creek to Canyon Ranger Station, but this time we were going to go the 80 miles to Ahsahka.  Harry, Don, Mac and I took 2 rubber rafts and headed down the river.  We left Don’s pickup at Ahsahka and took Harry’s pickup to Castle Rock.  We spent 8 days on the trip.

It was nice that first 26 miles not seeing any people, no cars, no dusty roads, and no litter along the banks.

There were some places on the river you don’t want to mess with.  We had to rope our 2 rafts down through a few places.  The toughest looking rapid was the Irish Railroads.  There had been a few people who got in trouble there and lost everything, and some had lost their life in that rapid.

We ran into two Arizona students at Skull Creek.  They were with the Forest Service staying at Collins Creek, 5 miles up Skull Creek.  They were on the Arizona track team in college and they would take turns running from their cabin at Collins Creek to Canyon Ranger Station to get their daily food supplies – 5 miles down Skull then 6 more miles to Canyon Ranger Station.

In the middle of our trip, we decided to hike up Skull Creek and try a fly or two.  The fishing was out of this world!  Not too many people had been in there fishing.  The two students were quite interested in our fly fishing.  I don’t know if they ever took up fly fishing or not.

After a full day on Skull Creek, we continued on down to Canyon Ranger Station.  We visited with a few fellows there and did a little patch work on our rafts.  I had my 7 man raft and Harry had his 5 man.  We had some tears and damage to fix 3 or 4 times on the trip.

Going on down river to the mouth of the Little North Fork, we found the fishing there the best ever.  Several fish over 20 inches – Rainbow and Cutthroat.  Don had a spinning outfit and got a hold of two big Bull Trout, both over 20 inches but very slim.

We went to Ahsahka over the most beautiful water you would ever want to see and fish.

Now as I troll for Blue Back on the 52 miles of slack water, I find myself trying to hear the sound of the fast running water that used to be there 500 – 600 feet below.  To this day I have not heard it again.  Dworshak Reservoir certainly covered up some of the prettiest and finest fishing in Idaho.  Kind of sad, sad, sad!

Fred Smith

Board Member

KELLY CREEK FLYCASTERS TREASURER’S REPORT

Account Balances through NOVEMBER, 2007

                          Savings CD:                                         $10,088.22

                          Checking Account Balance:                    $4,252.04

                                                                                   ----------------

                          Total Funds:                                        $14,340.26

Kelly Creek Flycasters

2007-2008  EVENT  SCHEDULE

Kelly Creek Flycasters Board of Directors

TYING CORNER – Yellow Eagle

Article by Bob Bates, FFF Clubwire

Riffles, Runs & Lies is edited by Diane Lillibridge on behalf of the Kelly Creek Flycasters.

All club members are welcome to submit articles for inclusion into the club newsletter

by contacting Diane at KCFNewsletter@cableone.net or by phone at (208) 743-8970.