Trout Unlimited April 2000 Letter
GET YOUR GLOVES AND WORK BOOTS READY
The Ted Trueblood Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Emmett Ranger District
of the Boise National Forest have scheduled two stream projects in the coming
months. Both projects will make important contributions to conservation of
bull trout or restoration of watersheds.
The first project is scheduled for May 20-21 at the Silver Creek Plunge
Resort. Restoration activities include riparian fence construction,
interpretive trail construction, and building abutments for stream trail
bridges to improve access. We need about 30 People (4-5 people with small
chainsaw skills) to complete the work over the two days. If interested call
Andy Brunelle, 343-1510.
National grant funding was acquired by the Boise National Forest to improve
the fisheries and riparian conditions at the Silver Creek Plunge Resort in
the Middle Fork Payette River drainage. Bank restoration and riparian
planting was completed last fall but several projects remain unfinished. One
weekend worth of assistance would prove valuable to the restoration of this
popular fishing and camping site.
The second project will occur at Squaw Creek, north of Emmett. This project
will be a riparian fencing weekend on July 29-30 (Saturday, Sunday).
Activities will include flagging the line, brush removal, placing braces on
trees for corners, stringing the electric tape, setting posts and clips, and
placing weights along the tape to ensure there are no high spots. We will
also install the ground, fencer, and battery, and once turned on, check to
make sure the fence is hot.
For the weekend we will need 10-15 people. The Emmett Ranger District
intends to construct two additional riparian exclosures using electric fence.
The purpose of this effort is to protect critical Bull Trout spawning
habitat and to improve streambank stability, riparian vegetation condition,
and fish habitat in general.
The Silver Creek Project May 20-21 represents a return to where Trout
Unlimited did work last September to rehabilitate damaged and eroded stream
banks.
Silver Creek is about 25 miles north of Crouch (see map on page four). From
Boise take Highway 55 north to Banks, turn east onto the Banks-Lowman Highway
(798) and travel about 10 miles. Turn onto road 698 towards Crouch.
Continue north through town, and follow this road to the forest boundary
where the road will turn to dirt. Stay on this road another 5 miles or so,
until you see Trail Creek Campground on the left. Turn east onto 671 towards
Silver Creek. Follow this road to the Silver Creek Forest Service
Campground. This is where we will meet. It is just north of Silver Creek
Plunge on the west side of the road.
TU BANQUET APRIL 8TH
The 9th Annual Conservation Banquet for the Ted
Trueblood Chapter will be held on Saturday, April 8, 2000, at the Doubletree
Riverside. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., and the dinner will occur at 7:30 p.m.
Following the dinner there will be a short program reviewing the major
activities of the Ted Trueblood Chapter. Following the program will be a
live auction where those in attendance will bid for products and services,
proceeds of which will support the Ted Trueblood Chapter.
The annual banquet is the main source of income for the Ted Trueblood
Chapter. Each year we depend on the success of our banquet to fund stream
restoration, conservation and education projects in Idaho. Efforts include
hands-on work to conserve and restore wild trout, salmon and steelhead, and
providing support for adult and youth education programs.
Please make plans to attend this banquet. An advertisement elsewhere in this
newsletter provides details on purchasing tickets, which are available for
$35 per person and $60 per couple. For more information call Jim or Mary at
343-8548.
THE MORE I LEARN . . . THE LESS I KNOW
By Marv Taylor
If I live to 100 and fish every day until my ashes are scattered on my
favorite trout lake, I might someday become a decent
fly-fisherman. I'm not certain, however, that my accumulated knowledge of the
sport will actually be greater at 100 years of
age.
While I do usually learn something new on every trip I make, on some fishing
excursions I arrive at exciting conclusions that
either refute my theories about fly-fishing or bear them out. On other trips,
I come to the frustrating conclusion that the more I
learn about fly-fishing, the less I actually know.
I've always been a firm believer that presentation of a fly is more important
than pattern of fly being presented, as long as we
are in the ballpark with our pattern. A recent fishing trip to Malheur
Reservoir in eastern Oregon emphasized that axiom.
My partner, Boise's Bob Buning, and I began our day's fishing at the fairly
shallow upper end of the lake. The water was no
deeper than 10 feet. Bob started with a crawdad pattern on a No. 2
fast-sinking line. I started with a slightly different
crawdad on a No. 3 extra fast-sinking line.
While I knew my line might sink too quickly in the shallow water, I was
following my cardinal rule of fly-fishing: Unless there
are indicators to the contrary, such as fish working the surface, start from
the bottom and work up. I wanted my weighted
crawdad pattern to bounce along the mostly weed-free bottom, kicking up silt
or sand, just like the natural.
The motion I put on my fly had been my standard crawdad retrieve: A 6-inch
rip, then a 6-second pause, then two quick 6-inch
rips, another pause, then three quick rips, pause and repeat the sequence.
Although my fly grabbed the bottom once or twice during the first 20 minutes,
I hooked and released eight or nine trout. Bob
didn't have a strike on his No. 2 line.
"My momma didn't raise no dummy," Bob said as he changed to a No. 3 line.
He caught a nice two-pound rainbow on his next cast. We stayed with the extra
fast-sinking lines as long as the fish continued to
take our crawdad patterns.
Now the big question: In 5- to 7-foot water, why did our No. 3 lines present
weighted crawdad patterns better than No. 2 lines?
On the surface, it makes no sense at all.
Since crayfish spend most of their time right down on the bottom, the only
answer I can come up with is that the No. 3 lines
may have kept our patterns tighter to the bottom than No. 2 lines did. The
No. 2 lines might have been lifting the fly off the
bottom on each of our "rips," while the No. 3 lines kept the angle of our
moving imitations closer to the bottom. If the water had
been 10-feet deep, I might have even used a No. 4 sinking line.
Were there other factors that might have influenced the appeal of our fly
patterns? None that I can think of. We both were using
the same length leaders, the same 4-pound tippets and the same Duncan Loop
knots on our flies. Bob had duplicated my retrieve
as closely as he could.
Later that afternoon the crawdad patterns quit producing when a callibaetis
mayfly began to hatch. When we switched to
intermediate lines to fish, the really shallow water with mayfly emergers,
Bob caught more fish than I did, using the same
patterns. The only difference was that I was using a Corland line and Bob a
Scientific Angler. The lines do not sink at exactly
the same sink-rate. It's possible that the fish might have been cruising 2
feet deep and my line was taking my fly down 3 feet.
I had a similar experience earlier in the summer at a small lake just north
of McCall. My partner for the day began fishing the
9-foot deep channel with a sink-tip line. She had no hits during our first
hour of fishing. I caught eight of nine nice brook trout
on a No. 3 full sinker. We were both fishing the same Canadian Red Leech
patterns.
The little 50-acre reservoir is crystal clear at this time of the season, so
the fish should have had no trouble seeing our flies, at
whatever depth they were fished. After the first hour, my partner switched to
a No. III sinking line and matched me fish for fish
for the rest of the day.
While it's dangerous to generalize on fishing techniques, there are certain
principles that top anglers live by. The late Ted
Trueblood, legendary columnist for Field and Stream magazine, once wrote that
fly-fishermen should fish the top foot of a lake
or stream and the bottom foot. Dry flies and emergers on top; weighted nymphs
on the bottom.
While I tend to agree with most of what Ted wrote, I can make a strong case
for fishing the middle depths. Since most mayfly,
caddisfly and midge larvae migrate to the surface and are preyed upon by
hungry trout somewhere between the bottom foot and
the top foot, fly-rodders who follow the teachings of Jim Leisenring and Pete
Hidy, will often fish this middle ground with wet
flies (and nymphs). While Leisenring and Hidy never used lead wire on their
nymphs, they did employ heavier wire hooks for
deep-sinking flies.
Since anglers seldom know for sure at which level the fish may be
intercepting the larvae, it is important for fly-fishermen to
begin their searching pattern as near the bottom as possible.
The major criticism I have of most wet-fly anglers, whether they are fishing
stillwater or moving water, would be they don't fish
their flies deep enough.
When in doubt on your favorite lake or stream when fishing wet flies, always
go to a deeper sinking line than you think you will
need.
Marv Taylor of Boise is a veteran fisherman and fishing columnist. He can be
reached through the Post Register at 542-6795 or
via e-mail at rthornberry@idahonews.com.
HENRY’S FORK FOUNDATION RECEPTION APRIL 10
A reception for the Henry's Fork Foundation will be held in Boise on Monday,
April 10, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Doughty's Bistro, 199 N. 8th (8th &
Idaho), in downtown Boise. The reception is being held both for members of
the Henry's Fork Foundation as well as others who may be interested in the
work of the Foundation.
Members of the Foundation's Board of Directors and staff will be on hand for
the reception. A slide show will be presented by Executive Director Jan
Brown. There is no charge for the reception, but donations will no doubt be
accepted.
Please RSVP with Andy at 343-1510 by April 6.
TRUEBLOOD CHAPTER TOUTS SAVING SNAKE RIVER SALMON
Nearly 1,200 people turned out for the two public hearings on February 23 concerning recovery of Snake
River Salmon. The hearing was dominated by the discussion of the future of
the four lower Snake River dams. These dams have become the subject of great
attention because they have an uncanny ability to wreak havoc on salmon
populations across central Idaho and eastern Oregon.
Public awareness continues to grow that these concrete structures are a
blight on the region, and that they deserve the same fate as Seattle's
Kingdome (did you watch that on TV on March 26?), another outmoded concrete
structure built in the mid 1970s just like Lower Granite Dam. TU members
Richard Jones, Jim Cook, Barry Ross and Dave Brown all gave oral testimony.
They all represented TU with distinction providing thoughtful testimony,
accented with their new TU caps! Good job guys.
Questions of Comments send to:
tutedtrue@aol.com
Ted Trueblood Chapter Idaho Trout Umlimited