I’ve been able to sneak down to the river a few times in the past month and have found some willing trout. A few weeks ago I had a great day using October Caddis Pupae with a soft-hackle dropper fishing the deep runs downstream from the TJ Meenach Bridge.  Since that trip I’ve found more fish keying in on small BWO patterns like WD-40′s and Hackle Stackers during the afternoon. Get out and give it try if you get a chance!

-Wayne Jordan

Johns the editor in chief for NW Flyfishing Magazine and has fished for steel-head at least a couple times. Check out his article on the Imnaha river in NE Oregon in the current issue.

We look forward to seeing you all there. Remember, we’ll have a knot tying seminar by Brad Thomson before the meeting with our speaker at 7.

Karen Honeycutt
West Zone Fish Biologist
Three Rivers Ranger District
Colville National Forest
255 West 11th
Kettle Falls, WA 99141
Work (509)738-7738

Here’s an update for Growden and our wonderful Spring that we had!

So we had an eventful Spring – dam overtopped and banks eroded away.  The site looks a lot different.  I will be so relieved when we don’t have the dam in place anymore.  We, of course, had the highest flows since 1998 this Spring, which I am beginning to think large flood events can be predicted and droughts ended by the partial removal of a dam or a major stream restoration project.  Bruce and I have learned a lot and are reconfiguring the designs.  The dam overtopping wasn’t bad and as soon as we pulled the grate the water went down 4 feet.  The bank erosion was significant and basically doubled or more the stream width.  The log structures were mostly buried.  On the other side, the revegetation went great, there was just nothing big enough to hold the banks.  Currently we are looking at a 90% + survival on the plantings and staking.  The wet Spring helped of course.  We realized that we built the channel to withstand this event if the banks were fully vegetated and treed.  Without the vegetation, as soon as the water went around the log jams, it took off.  So now we’ve learned how to build the stream to allow for the capacity of a flood like this until the vegetation takes hold.  Overall it looks fine and we are really happy with what we have out there to work with.    
Here’s a picture from atop the topsoil pile.  If you get a chance to wander over, you’ll be surprised at the changes.  Make sure you stop in.

We start up again after July 4th and will at least have the remaining dam out and the new stream in place in early September.
 
Karen Honeycutt

Carla and I were recently fishing the Methow River for Steelhead. As we returned to the car at a Game Department access site, we were chatting with a couple other fishermen getting ready to head down to the river. While one gentleman was stringing his rod, it suddenly snapped a quarter of the way down. Just shattered!  Needless to say they were bummed.

We gave it some thought as to what might have happened, but at the time really couldn’t come up with a good explanation. It wasn’t until we drove off I recalled they had the rods in the back of their truck with the tips hanging over the tailgate. Having traveled a couple of miles on a rough gravel road, those rods bounced and bounced. I wouldn’t be surprised if they hit the steel tailgate hundreds of times. All it took was a slight bit of pressure to snap the rod.

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen rods being transported in this manner and I’ve been guilty of it myself. One thing I used to do though is string a bungee cord across the truck bed and rest the rods on it. I now try and remember to bring my magnetic rod holders for travel. I’ve seen MANY folks place rods under the windshield wipers. This scares me half to death. It can’t be a safe way to haul a rod.

Suffice it to say, with most of us being a bit on the lazy side; break your rods down before travel if you don’t have a proper way to carry one on your vehicle.

Oh, neither Carla nor I caught any fish. I was hoping to turn her into a card carrying Steelheader!