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June 2017 ISSUE

MONTHLY MEMBERS MEETING

Please check your calendar and make sure that the monthly meeting of the McKenzie Fly Fishers is there in bold print - Monday June 19, 2017 at Willie’s Restaurant. 400 Industrial Way, Springfield. Cocktails and an opportunity to chat and mingle at 6:00, dinner at 7:00, speakers at 8:00.

PREZ SEZ … Sparky Rice Since the last newsletter lots has been going on although things are going smoothly for our club. So I'm taking my family to Hawaii for a vacation. I'm leaving things in the capable hands of Al Eckerdt who will be running our meeting next Monday. After our last meeting I joined Eric Olsen and his son and some other friends, Matt Purvis, Jay Chapel and his son for the Deschutes. We did well from Warm Springs to Maupin with the help of Ethan Nichol who also had Ty Holloway and a new guide new to me Mike Ramsey. Not only was the fishing great, but the camp set ups and meals were excellent. I also learned a new technique, the bow and arrow cast. When hunkering down underneath the bushes you let out a rods length of leader, pull the fly back by your left ear to flex your rod, aim in between the branches to your spot and let fly. That's how I caught my first fish of the trip. Let me see if I can include a picture of two with this new computer. Back in Eugene the Mckenzie was high and fast when Terry Willis and I went out two weeks ago. We each caught a fish. Last week Alex, the tennis pro who caught the most fish at out Munsel Lake outing told me that he caught the biggest trout of his life on a dry fly up above the dam on the Middle Fork of the Willamette. It flopped out of his 15 inch net twice before breaking off. Two days ago (June 12) Walt Meyer and I drove up to Crane Prairie to meet guide, Fred Foisset. The weather report was off, way off. With 40 degrees and 25 mph winds we turned around and came home, but had a good time catching up on our 4 hours of driving. Isn’t that why we fish? It’s not just the fishing. So now I’m looking forward to the Summer evening fishing. Good luck on catching wily trout to all of you too. See you at the picnic in July!

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JUNE PROGRAM

"Solving Puzzles" by: Phil Fischer

Phil's Custom Trout Flies: Have you ever experienced trout rising consistently, only to throw your whole fly box at them and wind up frustrated?

Solving Puzzles is a result of many years of experience that pulls together the fundamentals of entomology, fly tying and fly fishing. This program has recently been updated to establish a focus on Central Oregon lakes. Phil Fischer is an avid fly fisherman who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and has fly fished for trout extensively throughout the Western United States and numerous international destinations. In 2010 he relocated to Sunriver Oregon to be closer to the fantastic fly fishing opportunities in Central Oregon. He now spends a lot of time each year fishing the Central Oregon lakes, including Crane Prairie, East Lake, Wickiup, Hosmer and others. He has

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over 40 years of fly fishing and fly tying experience. He owns Phil's Custom Trout Flies, and has fly customers throughout the US who count on his expertise in solving fly fishing puzzles on their own home waters. Come early for a fly-tying demonstration For the fly tiers in the club Phil has offered to do a fly-tying demonstration beginning at 5pm. He will tie the different stages of the Callibaetis Mayfly a popular and prolific hatch in our Central Oregon High Lakes. FUTURE PROGRAMS July 17, 2017 ******MFF Club Picnic****** Details Below

August 21, 2017: Jay Nicholas — Flyfishing opportunities around Pacific City. – Fly fishing opportunities throughout the year near Pacific City touches on winter steelhead, sea-run cutthroat trout, ocean bass, ocean lingcod and Albacore, Coho salmon, estuary Chinook, sight fishing for summer steelhead in the town lake and hatchery trout in the lake. This presentation has something that is likely to appeal to very wide range of abilities and interests. September 18, 2017: Joe Moll, Executive Director of The McKenzie River Trust – Joe will bring us up-to-date on the activities and acquisitions of the trust and how it is impacting the health, restoration, and preservation of the McKenzie River and other conservation projects. Joe promises not to sing and play his banjo. October 16, 2017: Ty Holloway, fly fishing guide. His presentation is All About Catching Summer Steelhead on the Fly. The Holloway Brothers, Ty and Clay were raised just outside of Eugene. They grew up fly-fishing the McKenzie, exploring the area’s rivers and lakes, and working at the local Caddis Fly shop. Following high school and after a couple of seasons guiding in Montana they returned to Oregon in search of year-round fishing and focused their energy and knowledge developing their guiding business. The Holloway bros. guide service showcases the finest fly fishing the state has to offer. Ty Holloway is a knowledgeable and respected fly fishing guide, one of a handful of certified fly fishing guides on the North Umpqua. Don’t miss this presentation as Ty shares his secrets for success fly fishing for Summer Steelhead. November 20, 2017: Annual McKenzie Fly Fishers Auction Sunday, December 10, 2017: Holiday party

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EVENTS AND OUTINGS MCKENZIE FLYFISHERS 2017 OUTING/EVENTS SCHEDULE

DATE LOCATION FISHMASTER June 17 Town Run Steelhead Gary McKenney June 23-25 Hosmer Lake Phil Johnson & Tom Fauria July 17 Jeff DeVore House Club Picnic July 18-20(Wkday) Umpqua R. (bass) Mark Rauch Aug. 4-6 Agency/ Klamath Lake John O'Connor and Clint Brumitt NF of MF Willamette R. is being explored Sept. 15-17 Gold Lake Board of Directors Oct. 6-8 Diamond Lake Tim Knerr October 13-15 Klickitat River WA (Kalama Cup) Evergreen Fly Fishers MFF LIARS LUNCH ANNOUCEMENT: Sparky Rice The Liars Luncheon that is held every Friday at 12:00 - 1:00 has been moved to House of Chen until further notice. It is across the street from Matt Arena at 1861 Franklin Blvd. Get there 15 minutes early if you want to make sure you get a good seat. MFF MCKENZIE RIVER CLEAN-UP: Bob Bumstead July 8th is the date for the McKenzie River Clean-up this year. As usual we are responsible for cleaning from Hendricks Wayside to Armitage Park. For decades Flyfisher members have performed yeoman service in this effort, and I hope this year will be no different. Attached is the sign-up sheet for the event. You could volunteer as a team or as individual members. If you are bringing a boat, sign-up as “rower." Ideally we will have one rower and two “snaggers” per boat. But just a rower and one snagger will also work. If you don’t have boat and would like to volunteer in a boat, call up the rower to volunteer and then let me know. Al Eckhardt will have a paper sign-up list at the June meeting, but you can sign-up now on line. Just look at the attached sign-up list, select a run, and email me (bumstead@pacificu.edu) to get your favorite run.

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Hosmer Lake Outing: June 23, 24 & 25, 2017 Phil Johnson and Ton Fauria Rainbow, Brook trout and scenic vistas await at Hosmer. The Cascade Lakes Highway is now open. We hope you will join us for the June outing. Camping reservations at Hosmer are available at the following link:

http://hoodoorecreation.com/deschutes-campgrounds/ Click on either South Campground or Mallard Marsh. MFF Fish Master camp will be in the “South Camp Ground”, #2 The South Camp Ground provides easy access to the boat ramp for those with trailered

boats. Excellent camp spots are also available in the adjacent “Mallard Marsh” campground at Hosmer Lake. The trail to enter/exit Hosmer mid-lake is closest the Mallard Marsh camp ground host, which provides lake access only for float tubes, kayaks and canoes, not drift boats.

The Club will provide a mid-day meal on Saturday and Sunday. The purpose of the mid-

day meal is to avoid interfering with prime time morning and evening fishing. We will have a campfire at Camp spot #2 in South Campground on Friday and Saturday evenings. Awards will be given for the best story of the day.

Please reply to let us know if you plan to attend so we can plan meals. If you have

questions about the outing, call Phil Johnson, 541-554-8256, or Tom Fauria, 541-914-0373. We recommend you make campground reservations early as possible. If South Camp

Ground and Mallard Marsh are full, nearby back up campgrounds are at Lava Lake, Little Lava Lake, Elk Lake, or Quinn River or Rock Creek at Craine Prairie.

Umpqua Outing Mark Rauch Reminder: The Umpqua River Smallmouth Bass outing is scheduled for July 18-20. Base camp is at Umpqua River RV Park South of Elkton. 3 Drive through sites have been reserved, (2 are taken) so there is plenty of room for tenting and/or small trailers. Fishermen will be wading and floating short drifts or plying the waters right at the camp in pontoon boats.

Enjoy the Hosmer Lake outing in June, and gear up to come to the Umpqua in July, the day after the Club picnic.

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MFF CLUB PICNIC 2017

YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE INVITED to the

ANNUAL McKENZIE FLYFISHERS’ PICNIC on

MONDAY, JULY 17TH 2017 The McKenzie Flyfishers’ annual club picnic is again scheduled for the third Monday in July [July 17th, starting at 6:00 PM] so don’t forget to mark your calendars! The location is again on the banks of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River, where you can enjoy an evening with your fishing friends and family. The Club will provide hamburgers for your dining pleasure, grilled expertly by fellow club members. Tables and chairs, soft drinks, plates, napkins and utensils will all be provided by your Club as well. As always, adult beverages are your responsibility. In addition, another legendary salmon cook off is being planned, with skilled Club members preparing their favorite salmon recipes. The picnic is always a memorable Pot Luck event, so plan to bring your favorite hors d’oeuvre, side dish or dessert dish. There are plenty of wild trout looking up in July, maybe even a steelhead or salmon, so come early, bring your gear, float down from Pengra Boat Landing if you like, and compete for the prize for catching the biggest fish at the picnic. Watch for more information about activities being planned, and for directions to the picnic site, at the June Club meeting and in the July newsletter. Plan to bring your spouses, children, grandchildren (and even prospective new members) and come join in the summer picnic fun. Please RSVP and tell us how many people from your family will attend. Call (541) 343-3109 or (541) 505-2692 and leave a message, send an email to oakcrk@aol.com, or text to (541) 505-2692. See you out there. The 2017 Picnic Committee

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FISHING REPORTS

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Deschutes Outing Mark Rauch Four intrepid MFF anglers made the mid week trip to the Deschutes last week. Meca Flats was full of hopeful fly fishers, no room for us….but wait….the Camp Host site was unoccupied, and some of the “regulars” encouraged us to take the site because the BLM wasn’t supporting Camp Hosts this year. We occupied the site without incident, except on the last day the State Trooper assigned to the camp gave use a bit of a grilling…. One of those epic salmon fly hatches occurred the day before we got there. Tuesday evening there was a big cloud of active bugs, and active fish. On our arrival day Wednesday the weather was cool ( 96 to 70) and windy. The bugs were in the grass that evening, not moving around, fish were not rising and not taking big bug dry flies. No fish to hand on Wednesday evening. I had short hook up on a big dry fly, but nothing to a net.

Dan Robinhold, Alan Stults, Ted Taylor and I (Mark Rauch) hit the water Thursday with high hopes. Weather was mostly sunny, cool at 70 degrees. Not many rising fish, but we persisted with the large stonefly/salmon fly dry patterns. Most of the crew did not catch fish on

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Wednesday. We probably stuck with big fly dry flies too long and didn’t do enough nymphing and other dry fly patterns.

Dan Robinhold saved our camp honor by releasing a 20” fish late in the afternoon. One of the bigger fish Dan has ever caught on the Deschutes. He was a happy guy. The fish took a medium sized salmon dry fly pattern, about 1.25” long. We ate pretty well, and enjoyed each other and the wonderful Deschutes River setting. Ya should have been there, but I don’t where you would have camped.

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Crane Prairie Report Clint Angling report May 26, 2017. Two fearless, meaning ancient and over the hill, anglers from the club reacted to the recent reports of good angling at Crane Prairie. We can confirm that the reports could be accurate or the anglers could have just been lucky. Upon intense questioning, the angler who made the original report said that brown woolly buggers were the best fly to use. This angler, who also provides the annual auction with a box of his lake flies each year, always makes the woolly bugger more than just a woolly bugger. The Two Anglers (TTA from now on) started out with their brown woolly buggers and for a few hours the fish were not having any of it. In the boat the conversation proceeded like this......... “Look that boat has one on, but they are bait fisherman” “That pontoon has one” “There is another one.............” and so on. We even asked one fly angler what pattern he was catching them on and he said “purple Chironomid.” Anglers never lie do they? Finally, we started to do what one should do, experiment. Change the fly pattern. Change the count down sequence for different depths. Change the retrieve. Change the boat location. It was during one of these boat changing locations that the first fish was caught. One of the anglers best flies to use in almost any circumstance is the slump buster. Look it up, tie a few or buy a few. They will reward you. Low and behold the rod was almost jerked from his hand as the boat quietly moved to a new location. Upon landing the fish we remembered the rules for Crane Prairie, you have to release wild trout and this dude had his adipose fin intact. We savored the tussle with this marvelous species. So one angler continued with slump buster while the second

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one switched up on flies and methods. We saw that lots of chironomids were hatching so on went the indicator and down went the fly to depths of the channel. The fish finder was showing fish at 12 feet, our fly was at 12 feet and the strike indicator was basking in the bright sunshine. No action. Mr. Slump buster was also striking out and then he remembered club member, David Bailey. On an outing a number of years ago at Crane Prairie, Dave had kept a fish that was loaded with dragon fly nymphs. Off comes the slump buster and on goes a dragon fly nymph. Cast, a very slow retrieves and cast again. Slower retrieve, slower and even more slowly. Finally a fish decided on a meal. That is one. In a brief flurry of action three or four trout chose the dragon fly. All but one was netted. Meanwhile angler number two was exploring. Finally a fish devoured his damsel fly. And then just as quickly, the action stopped. We now began a series of changes, adaptations, modifications and even frustrations in search of fish. We cast and retrieved; we floated strike indicators and many other methods trying to convince one or more trout to respond. Standard patterns and balanced patterns were tried. We did not leave too many stones unturned. Lots of club history was recalled. A fly called the shaggy dog was put into action. This was during one of the slow periods. It remained slow until we decided to head for home in the late evening. One stroke on the oar and shaggy came to life. Two strokes and the largest fish of the day was hooked. This wild beast was released and just over 20 inches in length. The final tally while it is not totally remembered, can be summarized by saying we released more wild trout than hatchery trout that we kept and the released wild trout might also equal the number of long distant releases we employed. In spite of the text above, it was a very good day to be on the water. And upon comparing, the TTA realized they had lost their Crane Prairie trout catching virginity on the same day. One always remembers when they lost their virginity.

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INVITATION TO JOIN You do not have to be an expert fly fisher to join the McKenzie Fly Fishers. Our monthly meetings are an excellent opportunity to meet other area anglers, to have the best of regional experts on subjects dear to the hearts of fly fishers, and our outings and classes are wonder ways to hone skills and lead local waters first-hand. Interested? Just curious? Contact Al Eckerdt, 541-554-2388 or Karl Lockbaum, 541-214-9909.

2017 BOARD

President Sparky Rice At-Large Clint Brumitt

President Elect Al Eckerdt At-Large Jim Rhoten

Secretary Dave Thomas At-Large Mark Campbell

Treasurer Mike Layne & Bala Palani At-Large Terry Willis

2017 COMMITTEES

Auction Jim Rhoten Conservation Arlen Thomason

Education Tim Knerr & Clint Brumitt Holiday Party Patrick Dowd

House/Raffle Tom Fauria & Phil Johnson Library Ted Taylor

IFFF Terry Willis Outings Clint Brumitt

Membership Al Eckerdt & Karl Lockbaum Website Liz Yocom

Newsletter Editor Mark Campbell Picnic Jeff Devore & Joanie DeVore

Handbook Dave Thomas

Lawsuit Oversight Dave Thomas & Arlen Thomason

Programs Dan Robinhold, Sr., Bill Laing, Mike Star, & Scott Halpert