THE 2010 ACADEMY – Applications are now being accepted for the 2011 Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy. To qualify for The Academy, the applicant, boy or girl, 12-16 years old, must edit an essay explaining why they want to attend the Academy and a letter of recommendation is required from their school counselor or science teacher. The dates for the WSCFFF and WCTU sponsored event are June 19-25, 2011. The Academy will be held at The Grinwood Conference Center on Hicks Lake in Lacey, WA. To learn more about the Academy, go to www.nwycffa.org. The application is available on our website or contact Mike Clancy @ nwycffa@earthlink.net. Sponsorships are available. This is a life rewarding experience for our youth to learn conservation and the basics of fly fishing from dedicated volunteers. Mike Clancy, Co-Director, NWYCFFAcademy
My take: this is an outstanding program and a ton of fun for the kids and the volunteer instructors.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Senate Republicans Do It Again
Senate Republicans have again killed a bi-partisan bill to add modest acreage to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
New Use For Old Net
Now that a certain gift-giving and receiving day is near and there is a funny shaped package under the tree, you all must be wondering what to do with your old knotted landing net.
Trim the net away from the aluminum handle (recycle the metal). Buy a large carabiner and some anchor rope. Take all on your next boating outing. Fill the net with rocks, loop the net through the carabiner, attach the rope to the carabiner and you’ve got a portable anchor.
Trim the net away from the aluminum handle (recycle the metal). Buy a large carabiner and some anchor rope. Take all on your next boating outing. Fill the net with rocks, loop the net through the carabiner, attach the rope to the carabiner and you’ve got a portable anchor.
Big Trout
For those trout anglers willing to brave the cooling weather and water, three not-so-secret lakes are getting a dose of “jumbo” trout. WDFW is stocking Thurston County’s Black and Offutt lakes and Kitsap Lake in (ready for this) Kitsap County with 10,000 fish. If you want to narrow down the time frame, here’s a link to the stocking schedule.
War Dogs
Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war so sayeth the Bard. Little did he know he was describing my favorite Pacific salmon. However it’s clear that my favorite salmon is attracting much (some would say way too much) attention from the gillnetters and purse seiners.
Here’s an excerpt from an article I wrote for Fly Fusion
Commercial Pressure
Chum have historically been Washington’s most abundant naturally reproducing salmon with fish classed as summer (spawning September/October), fall (spawning November/December) and winter (spawning January/February) run fish. In Puget Sound, roughly 90% of the returning fish are fall run, though the summer and winter fish provide a nice biological mix. In years past the chum was the least desirable commercial salmon, but that has changed, at least in Washington’s Puget Sound with as yet known consequences to the fish stocks. According to an article in Pacific Fishing, “In Puget Sound, chum has become THE salmon fishing for many fisherman.”
The switch to chum is driven by market price. Five years ago Puget Sound commercial fishers were hard pressed to find buyers for any fish they caught. Now they get upwards of a $1.00 per pound from high-end retail buyers. Chum roe, the only valuable part of the fish a few years ago, fetched $10 to $12 a pound, double the price from 2007.
How much pressure are the commercials placing on the resource? In November 2008, there were almost 75 seiners and 200 gillnetters chasing chum throughout Puget Sound. Mother Nature can stress a fish population as well. December 2008 found the Puget Sound blanketed in record snowfall that flooded many river systems when melted by the Pineapple Express rains. The flood scour damage to redds will only be known when the 2009 age class return three to five years hence.
I’m generally a catch and release salmon fisher so bag limits typically mean nothing to me. However, I’m extremely concerned about the future of the fishery. Take a look at the 2010-11 regulations for the Skagit, Snohomish and Skykomish rivers. These historically are chum rivers. Take a look at the Chehalis system. Note that no chum may be retained by sports anglers.
Here’s a two-part suggestion. First, don’t bash WDFW–it doesn’t do any good and it wastes your energy. Second, express your concerns to WDFW in a positive, constructive manner, get involved in the citizens advisory groups, get educated about the North of Falcon process and hammer on your legislators about the disparity of value between a commercial caught fish and sports caught fish. Suggest to your legislator that the allocation of fish between the commercial and sports anglers must be reversed if only because it makes better economic sense
Here’s an excerpt from an article I wrote for Fly Fusion
Commercial Pressure
Chum have historically been Washington’s most abundant naturally reproducing salmon with fish classed as summer (spawning September/October), fall (spawning November/December) and winter (spawning January/February) run fish. In Puget Sound, roughly 90% of the returning fish are fall run, though the summer and winter fish provide a nice biological mix. In years past the chum was the least desirable commercial salmon, but that has changed, at least in Washington’s Puget Sound with as yet known consequences to the fish stocks. According to an article in Pacific Fishing, “In Puget Sound, chum has become THE salmon fishing for many fisherman.”
The switch to chum is driven by market price. Five years ago Puget Sound commercial fishers were hard pressed to find buyers for any fish they caught. Now they get upwards of a $1.00 per pound from high-end retail buyers. Chum roe, the only valuable part of the fish a few years ago, fetched $10 to $12 a pound, double the price from 2007.
How much pressure are the commercials placing on the resource? In November 2008, there were almost 75 seiners and 200 gillnetters chasing chum throughout Puget Sound. Mother Nature can stress a fish population as well. December 2008 found the Puget Sound blanketed in record snowfall that flooded many river systems when melted by the Pineapple Express rains. The flood scour damage to redds will only be known when the 2009 age class return three to five years hence.
I’m generally a catch and release salmon fisher so bag limits typically mean nothing to me. However, I’m extremely concerned about the future of the fishery. Take a look at the 2010-11 regulations for the Skagit, Snohomish and Skykomish rivers. These historically are chum rivers. Take a look at the Chehalis system. Note that no chum may be retained by sports anglers.
Here’s a two-part suggestion. First, don’t bash WDFW–it doesn’t do any good and it wastes your energy. Second, express your concerns to WDFW in a positive, constructive manner, get involved in the citizens advisory groups, get educated about the North of Falcon process and hammer on your legislators about the disparity of value between a commercial caught fish and sports caught fish. Suggest to your legislator that the allocation of fish between the commercial and sports anglers must be reversed if only because it makes better economic sense
Friday, October 22, 2010
Stillaguamish Surprise
Steve Bohnemeyer and I hit the Stilly yesterday looking for coastal cutthroat. We chose Thursday as it appeared to be the last day of sun before the next Pacific storm hit. We chose well. Cool in the morning, we fished from the sunny side of the river. At the first spot, a place I've only fished for pinks, we found nothing but dinks. Went downstream and found nothing. Headed upstream from Arlington to the North Fork.
The water was clear and cold, the sun high and bright with some salmon broaching and a few cutts rising. Steve broke the ice with some cutts on a black spider. I missed a couple on a Percolator--they ignored the Elk Hair Caddis. A soft-hackle or mayfly emerger would have been a good bet, but they were resting quietly at home. I've been tying some 3-4" long flashabou baitfish patterns but needed to test them to make sure the fibers wouldn't wrap around the hook shank. One cutthroat took the pattern to task. Switch over to chartreuse clouser that Yakima River smallmouth love, as did one cutthroat. Switched to black reverse spider that got bit by a coho. Suddenly it was game on! While trying to get it to pose for a couple more photos, it decided to favor the other side of the river and took my only black spider with it.
Steve loaned me one so the catching continued. Not a lot of fish, but enough to keep us casting and exploring the next riffle and run. Just the way it should be on a stunningly beautiful day.
The water was clear and cold, the sun high and bright with some salmon broaching and a few cutts rising. Steve broke the ice with some cutts on a black spider. I missed a couple on a Percolator--they ignored the Elk Hair Caddis. A soft-hackle or mayfly emerger would have been a good bet, but they were resting quietly at home. I've been tying some 3-4" long flashabou baitfish patterns but needed to test them to make sure the fibers wouldn't wrap around the hook shank. One cutthroat took the pattern to task. Switch over to chartreuse clouser that Yakima River smallmouth love, as did one cutthroat. Switched to black reverse spider that got bit by a coho. Suddenly it was game on! While trying to get it to pose for a couple more photos, it decided to favor the other side of the river and took my only black spider with it.
Steve loaned me one so the catching continued. Not a lot of fish, but enough to keep us casting and exploring the next riffle and run. Just the way it should be on a stunningly beautiful day.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
South End Chum
Hit the water about 4:15 pm on a rising tide down at Johns Creek in Mason County. Heard the fish were in and indeed they were. 9 guys with bait casters and 1 slinging the same gear, but with a fly rod were lined up to intercept the chum as they headed towards the creek. Some fish were around as clearly disclosed by the crashing seals and the frequent "happy jumper." One gear guy had two salmon and a broken rod. About half of the gear fishers had beached fish, but the fish were pretty much keeping their mouths closed. Gear dudes left.
Here's the gear setup. 3 inches of pencil lead, a 3-4 foot long leader, with one orange and one chartreuse small corkie and a bare red siwash hook. Cast, let it sit and wait for a chum to swim by and pick up the floating corkie.
I took a bunch of photos, including a quick video of the guy explaining about the broken rod. Such a pretty day, then the sun dropped low into the magic hour--that's the early morning and late afternoon hour when most movies are filmed--took a bunch more photos. No fish were showing.
As the tide turned and started to drop, the fish appeared. Had the whole place to myself--just me and the big dog on the end of my line. Several jumps, some runs and some minutes later, the dog was released back to the pack. Next cast, another fish. There went the fly line, got it back on the reel, there it went again into the backing, got it back, there it went again into 20 yards of backing. Did not land this one--the leader broke when I had the fish snubbed down tight. You see, since I really had trouble handling this fish with a 9 weight and since I was fishing two flies, thought maybe I was dealing with a double.
The fly was much like an orange comet--short, silver diamond braid body, orange crystal chenille, couple turns orange hackle and silver plastic bead chain, fished on a floating line. It was the tail fly, the head fly was much the same, but in pink. They left pinkie alone.
The fish are already colored-up so go now.
Here's the gear setup. 3 inches of pencil lead, a 3-4 foot long leader, with one orange and one chartreuse small corkie and a bare red siwash hook. Cast, let it sit and wait for a chum to swim by and pick up the floating corkie.
I took a bunch of photos, including a quick video of the guy explaining about the broken rod. Such a pretty day, then the sun dropped low into the magic hour--that's the early morning and late afternoon hour when most movies are filmed--took a bunch more photos. No fish were showing.
As the tide turned and started to drop, the fish appeared. Had the whole place to myself--just me and the big dog on the end of my line. Several jumps, some runs and some minutes later, the dog was released back to the pack. Next cast, another fish. There went the fly line, got it back on the reel, there it went again into the backing, got it back, there it went again into 20 yards of backing. Did not land this one--the leader broke when I had the fish snubbed down tight. You see, since I really had trouble handling this fish with a 9 weight and since I was fishing two flies, thought maybe I was dealing with a double.
The fly was much like an orange comet--short, silver diamond braid body, orange crystal chenille, couple turns orange hackle and silver plastic bead chain, fished on a floating line. It was the tail fly, the head fly was much the same, but in pink. They left pinkie alone.
The fish are already colored-up so go now.
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