2025 President’s Retreat

Presidents’ Retreat was held July 26 at Devils’ Elbow Camp Ground on the North Fork. Bob Johnson, Skip
Cavanaugh, Jeff Pope, Pat Stuart, Jerry Mc Bride, Bob Schmitt, Bryan Harman, Phil Beck, and Shawn Denny joined
Guy Gregory and his wife Norine for a potluck supper and some good discussions. Fishing seemed slow for everyone,  but Jerry- per the norm!

 

Rocky Ford Winter Outing

Rocky Ford Creek was the site of our Winter outing. It was a successful day, with great weather, good food, and huge fish. IEFFC members present were Jim McDevitt, Shawn Denny, Guy Gregory, Jeff Pope, Lee Funkhouser, Bryan Harman and his friend Trevor.  Jeff Pope caught the largest fish of the day, a massive 28-inch rainbow. He was rewarded for his efforts by losing his balance while reviving the fish and taking a plunge into the water.  Shawn Denny caught what he said was the largest trout he had caught with a fly rod. There are some mighty big fish in the creek this year.  Join us for next outing – the Annual One Fly Outing at Amber Lake on April 26th!

 

EWU Scholarships – Red Tie Gala 2024

On Friday, October 18th, IEFFC members Stephenie and Rob Stephens, and Skip Cavanaugh and his wife, Holly, attended Eastern Washington University’s Red Tie Gala – an event that recognizes donors that help fund student scholarships. The event was held in the ballroom of the Spokane Tribe Casino.
The Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club awards two scholarships annually to students involved in Fisheries Science. One of the $1,000 scholarships is directly from the Legacy Committee, while the other is funded from donations, by members, to our restricted FFI account. Your purchase of Legacy Committee items, and your individual donations, provide the funding for these students.

As proof of the significance of these scholarships, we witnessed several inspirational stories shared by students that would not have been able to complete their college degrees without financial assistance, and stories of how their degrees opened doors of opportunities that otherwise would not have been available.

Thank you for your support. You are making a difference.

Bayley Lake Channel Restoration 2024

What a day! We had 12 volunteers this year and met at the Maverick’s restaurant in Colville for breakfast which, as usual, was very good.

Background
Many years ago the IEFFC put in weirs (low dams) and laid down gravel in the ponds formed by the weirs to create spawning beds in the short, channel-like stream that flows out of Potters Pond into Bayley Lake. The idea was to enable rainbow trout to come up in the channel in early spring and spawn with the females getting rid of their eggs enabling them to live a year or two longer than the normal three years. This of course, meant more large fish in Bayley. Normally, the water in the channel gets too warm for the fertilized eggs to hatch so there isn’t much, if any, natural reproduction.
Present
During the summer the grass grows almost chest-high in the dry channel and along the banks. The grass restricts the flow. Also, the gravel gets moved around and is sometimes covered with sand. Just about every year a group of members from the IEFFC has gone up in September or October to cut the grass and clean it out of the channel. We also renew the gravel as required. Most years the channel is dry so it is fairly easy to do the work and usually takes about two hours. In past years
the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife National Refuge (LPO) has provided the gravel. We used up the last of the gravel last year and the LPO was unable to provide gravel this year so the IEFFC purchased the gravel and had it delivered to the LPO.

The following IEFFC members worked on the project: Jerry McBride, Bill Faloon, Bob Schmitt, Eric Apelskog, Bob Johnson, Guy Gregory, Scott Fink, Jeff Pope, Phil
Beck, Jake Nelson, Doug Brossoit, and Chad Hueter.

We traveled in caravan style to Bayley Lake, unloaded equipment and set about cleaning out the chest high grass that had grown up and renewed the gravel. The grass was the thickest we have ever seen. As usual, Bill Papesh loaned us his gas powered hedge trimmer which was wielded by Phil Beck and later by Chad Hueter. Doug Brossoit brought his hedge trimmer also. They led the way with others raking the cut grass out of the channel and spreading gravel where needed.
After we finished the work Bob Schmitt provided sack lunches and assorted beverages for the group. Thanks to Bob for doing this again this year. We launched our boats on Bayley Lake and fished for about four hours. With 12 people fishing only a few had bites and Scott Fink caught the only fish which was about six inches long. Very disappointing. As far as I know, Bayley has never had a summer or winter kill, but it looks like maybe this year there was a summer kill. Scott and I fished Bayley in late April this year and caught a fair number of really big fish so we know there were fish in the lake go ing into the summer. Not sure what happened this summer, but it doesn’t look good. IEFFC member Father David fished Bayley about a week before us and caught three large fish. Father David is an outstanding fisherman so maybe the rest us just don’t measure up. Of course, being a Catholic priest probably doesn’t hurt when it comes to fishing.

In spite of the poor fishing, I would say we had a successful day with lots of
camaraderie and work well done.

Fin Clipping 2024

We had great weather for fin clipping this year, sunny
and cool in the mornings, arguably a bit warm mid
day.

Club members pitching in included Doug
Brossoit, Matt Mason, Phil Beck, Skip Cavanaugh,
Steve Boharski, Jeff Pope, Bill Papesh, and Guy
Gregory.

We teamed up with the Spokane Fly Fishers, and were
joined by a number of WDFW staff, and on Tuesday,
students from Colville High School.

Clipping of adipose fins goes a long way to protecting
wild fish by clearly marking those fish which may be
legally retained. It’s important work, and it cannot be
mechanized. That snip requires a human touch.
Thanks to all for the turnout, it was as lot of fun!.

NW Youth Fly Fishing Academy Learns Runje Releaser Use

In an effort to continue training fly fishers on the importance of proper fish handling, Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly-Fishing Academy Director John Gravendyk utilized our Runje releasers and trained the 2024 academy students in its use.

The Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club supplied the academy with 20 releasers and the students were allowed to add the releasers to their fly-fishing equipment.

We appreciate that fish handling is a part of the academy curriculum and that these students now have a tool that will assist in keeping released fish healthy.

 

2024 Presidents Retreat

This year’s president’s retreat was held on July 27th, at Kit Price Campground on the North Fork of the Coeur D’Alene River.  President Bob Johnson supplied the main course, Kabobs, which was excellent, and attendees supplied the rest in a potluck manner.

We had a great turnout with the following IEFFC members and guests in attendance: Bob Johnson, Guy Gregory, Denny and Tina Clark, Leonard Gross, Phil Beck, Jeff Pope, Jerry McBride, Bob Schmitt, Mike Schmitt, and Lee Funkhouser.

The food was great, and the conversation was fun.  The fishing was only okay, but no one complained.  The heat has made fishing a bit challenging this year. 

National Fishing and Hunting Day

The Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club was asked to help the Boy Scouts in celebrating “National Hunting and Fishing Day” in an event held at Camp Cowles at Diamond Lake on Saturday, September 30th. IEFFC Vice President Bob Johnson took charge of our involvement and gathered seven fly tyers to demonstrate fly tying to the kids and parents in attendance.

Over 700 people attended the event and our area was consistently busy with attendees watching flies being tied. IEFFC members tying included Johnson, Bryan Harman, Lee Funkhouser, Jerry McBride, Bob Schmitt, Jerry Harms and Phil Beck.
Flies that were tied by our members were given to the kids, along with an explanation of what the flies represented and how to fish with them. We received a very good response from the kids and their parents.

Fin Clipping 2023

Fin Clipping September 26 and 27, 2023

By Jerry McBride, Conservation Chairman

Our club showed up and clipped fins again this year. Along with volunteers from the Spokane Fly Fishers we clipped the adipose fins of 50,000 trout destined to be planted in Lake Spokane (Long Lake). Avista pays for the fish as part of their mitigation for dams on the Spokane River.

Fin clipping is done to allow fishery biologists to determine the source of the fish as there is some natural reproduction in the lake.

Thanks to the IEFFC volunteers who clipped fins this year.

Tuesday, September, 26         Wednesday, September 27
Doug Brossoit                          Jerry McBride
Mark Pinch                               Bob Gersh
Skip Cavanaugh                      Phil Beck
Scott Fink
Bob Schmitt

Fall Outing

The Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club Fall outing was held on Saturday, September 16th. A healthy group of IEFFC members attacked the river from the lower end all the way up to Teepee Creek, with varied success. The best fishing seemed to be higher up, but fish were caught throughout the system.

Following the day of fishing, the group met at Steamboat for a chili feed. Bryan Harman and Bob Johnson did most of the heavy lifting and the food was excellent. There were some interesting tales told at dinner and a great time was had by all.

The surprise of the day was IEFFC member, Lee Funkhouser, getting his deer. Unfortunately, Lee is
not a hunter and he got his deer with the right front of his truck as he headed down the river road. Nobody in the truck was hurt, but the deer received severe injuries and had to be put down.

We are planning a winter outing for Rocky Ford. The weed growth has to clear out before that makes sense, but details will be sent out near the end of December and we are currently looking at January as a good time to meet.