Kelly Creek Flycasters

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE    

Saker Medevarapu - Kelly Creek Flycasters President

Greetings Club Members!

 

The steelhead are here and depending where you fish you can run into huge crowds or relatively uncontested water.  I have heard that the fishing up the Snake and Grande Ronde have been good in certain areas and not so productive in others.  I have not fished the Snake very much this year but I heard that skating them up  was outstanding just up until a few weeks ago.  It does not get any better than that in my opinion!  Sounds like the hot river to have been on was the Salmon River, but I do not get that way very often.  I believe Dave and Gloria have been camping out there so hopefully we can pry a report from them at the meeting!  In general it’s still steelheading, hot or not just depending on where, when, and a little bit of luck.  I personally prefer catching fewer fish if it means that I do not have to bring my own rock to stand on…

 

The Federation of Fly Fishers “Five Rivers Sweepstakes” will stay open until mid March 2010, so they can sell enough tickets to make the event a financial success.  Members can still participate in that fund raiser by purchasing tickets from the FFF web site or $20 each or 6 tickets for $100.  You will have an opportunity to win a trip to the Five Rivers Lodge at Dillon, MT, or the Grand Prize - a trip to Cinco Rios Lodge in Chile.

 

Board elections are also being held this month, so please plan on attending and considering volunteering on the board.  Generally, it is not a lot of work but it has to been done to keep the club functioning. 

 

Let’s have a good turnout this meeting and bring a guest and some flies for the raffle!

 

Saker

  

 

Kelly Creek Flycasters NOVEMBER Program

 

Thursday, November 12th at 7:00 PM

Quality Inn, Clarkston WA

                   

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Blackburn owns and operates Kootenai Angler Outfitters located about 7 miles north and east of Libby, Montana on the Kootenai River.  Dave is a long time Outfitter and Guide on the Kootenai River as well as other northwest rivers in Montana.  His operation includes cabins, a restaurant, fly shop and river lodge.  His is a first class operation and he caters to fly fisherman from throughout the United States as well as Europe and other international locations.  The large rainbows of the Kootenai are the primary target.  That is to say also, that the protected Bull Trout of the Kootenai sometimes grab the fly.  Dave is an avid outdoorsman with big game hunting, waterfowl hunting, and upland game bird hunting, skiing, and taking up his time when he is not casting a fly himself or guiding some sport into a trophy rainbow.

 

Come listen to Dave, a very personable fellow and watch his array of photography depicting the great rivers of northwest Montana.

 

 

Steelhead Fishing on the Salmon River

 

Gloria and I spent the first two weeks of October on the beautiful Salmon River near Whitebird, Idaho.  As most of you know, this was a banner year for numbers of Steelhead returning to Idaho. The Salmon was no exception. On a normal early morning or late evening fish, we see 5-6 fish roll or porpoise and often 1 or 2 go by us in the water. This year on one occasion I saw at least 30 fish roll and several going by my leg.

 

The fun part of the trip is always watching our guests down there catch Steelhead. This year everyone that stayed with us caught more than one fish and several caught 2-3 per day!! Anymore this just seems to be more fun that catching the fish myself. Most of the fish were small at 22' - 25" but we did get 5-6 over 33". We suffered with fine wines, steaks, Lattes in the mornings, Chocolate milk shakes in the evening and lots of fun stories.

 

On Saturday evening, I caught a truly remarkable spectacular fish - an appropriate end to a special, special trip. It was nearly dark when she just smashed the Beats Me fly. Immediately she cart wheeled across the river, jumped several times and went into my backing twice. I finally beached her about 12 minutes later. She was a beautiful chrome color with just a hint of rose on her sides and not a mark of any kind!

 

I sat down and had a pretty good cry for a dear steelhead friend I lost just 3 weeks earlier and told him this one was for him.

 

Dave Clark

KCF Board Member

 

 

TYING CORNER – NTE

By Bob Bates, FFF Clubwire

 

Tiny insects have been around much much longer than fly tiers have been around trying to imitate them to catch fish.  From the time of my first contact with tiny flies, sizes 24 and 28 in the late 1950’s, the same argument has been voiced:  They are too small to catch fish or tie on a leader.  Wrong!  Look around, and you will see more people like Norm Crisp of Prairie Village, KS who are taking advantage of small flies.  Fish like them so why shouldn’t we?  Norm was tying this simple, tiny, effective pattern at the 2009 FFF Conclave in Loveland, CO.  Sometimes small flies are the only thing that will catch fish.

 

He fishes the small streams in Missouri that flow out of limestone bluffs.  These cool water springs yield freestone streams that are good for trout.  Southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa and parts of Wisconsin also have these cool streams containing brown trout and in the rare case brook trout.  Midges are the food of choice.

 

Midges are found all over the world, so this pattern can be used in many places.

They can hatch anytime there is open water. 

 

Materials & Equipment:

Hook:  Tiemco TMC 100, sizes 22 and 24
Thread:  Uni 8/0 color to match body
Overbody and wing:  Poly yarn tan, gray, olive or black

 

Step 1:    Attach thread and wind a thread base around the bend and back to front of hook.

 

Step 2:    You might have to split the yarn.  Attach poly yarn near front of hook,

               and bind it down all the way around the bend.

 

Step 3:    Wind thread forward to eye then rearward to a point about one third shank length behind the eye. 

               Bring poly forward to front and secure.  Stand up post and wind thread in front of it.

               Trim post to be about one-half shank length long.

 

Step 4:    Finish the fly behind the post, and trim the thread.

 

Closing Comments: There is still the question of putting the fly on a piece of nylon.  Hold the fly so there is contrasting background for both the hook and the leader.  Since there are no fibers over the eye there should little or no problem threading the fly on the leader.  But if you still have a problem, I saw a device the other day that made putting the fly on the leader virtually guaranteed.  Drop the fly eye-first into a magnetic slot in the tool.  Then slide the leader along another slot which guides it through the eye.  Now tie whatever knot you want.  There are two problems with the device.  It will sink if it isn’t tied to something, and the price was $10 on the model I saw.

 

Norm tied this fly using a standard vise.  He just buried the hook a little more than usual.  At home I put it in a narrow jaw vise to show it off better.  The main thing is that tiny flies can be tied with regular tools, and they catch fish.

 

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@gmail.com or by phone at (208) 743-8970.