January Meeting - What'd you miss?

With the rivers finally on the rise due to the recent rains, our January meeting found around 28 members at the Lucky Lab Public House. Though the room was far from capacity – Erle gladly welcomed 4 new attendees [we appreciate seeing the new faces] and several returning faces! We’re glad everyone could make it and hope you found it worth returning!

Read on for more......

Chapter Highlights:

• PNW Sportsman Show is upcoming – let us know if you want free admission by putting some face-time in at the TU booth for a few hours. You won’t be alone as we always double-up the staff and chances are you’ll meet some new folks! Contact Erle Norman.
• Project Healing Waters helping returning Vets reacquaint themselves with fishing and fly tying is going strong – monthly programs are available if you have time to help out! Contact Jerry Lorang.
• Michael Ellis doted on the Christmas for Coho program – we are done with Week One and have two more to go. A good number of volunteers are making this a real success! Thanks to them all! The Chapter took in over 200 trees for habitat – placement will start by the end of this month. Contact Michael Ellis for more info.

Finally - as advertised – we had a visitor from the far north; well, at least as far north as Washington state! John Weinheimer with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife came and visited – some of our long-time members recall John as having made 3 previous trips! Even as far back as when the Chapter met at a Beaverton church – estimated to be 20 years running now! John freely admits he came to sell Washington State as a fishing location and was trying to “poach’ us Oregonians from ODFW [we had the legal team check into this and no laws were being broken – in fact a number of those legal eagles make annual treks to the north].

John W/WDFW  Region 5 Fish Bio

John has 31 years with WDFW and has been working trout in the state since 1987 – a wealth of knowledge that if anyone needs information or has interests – especially in his Region 5 zone – they should tap into. His contact is through the NEWLY UPDATED WEBSITE or is listed below.

The biggest point he enthusiastically made – just as ODFW does – is the biggest benefit for everyone is that folks need to GET OUT! GET FISHING! And TAKE THE FAMILY [especially the future – KIDS!]. To that end Region 5 in SW Washington [covers Clark/Klickitat/Skamania Counties] has 187 lakes – 37 of those are maintained as put-n-take with catchable fish for the families including 29 that are easily reached by main highways! Many are within the same distance of the metro area as our Mt Hood destinations! He also reviewed the Wilderness/Hike-in opportunities [where he also noted that WDFW works with At-Risk Youth Programs to supplement and survey] as well as noting the presence of many wild production locales.

Now John did bring a list of waters to try out and noted the fish present in them – with a few ‘do not misses’ in the list – but I would hate to be accused of HOT-SPOTTING on the TVTU blog so since you missed the meeting, looks like you missed out on the goodies! A couple of highlights to peak your interest:

• Check out the fall triploid opportunities [yes those poor sexless fish that have only FOOD on their mind and grow disproportionally fast and fat!]
• Look to Merril [ff’ing only] for the reknowned Hex hatch
• And check out the Black Friday opener for those non-shopping types

John was very straight forward presenter and WDFW representative who is very enthusiastic for the opportunities in Washington. He recommends the new website - especially the MAPS section - but is certainly is available to answer specific questions and can be reached at weinhjmw –at- dfw.wa.gov.

The one thing that rings true and certainly is found with ODFW as well – they are selling fishing and selling opportunities. Management for the many can be a challenge….

Hope to see you in February for Jason Borger!