Medical Lake Sign Project – By Jerry McBride
They say that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it doesn’t take a village to put some new signs up, but it
did take the efforts of two governmental organizations, two fly clubs and quite a few people.
Need / Concept
During a Zoom program presentation to our club Jolynn Beauchene, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Officer mentioned the need for a sign at the Medical Lake City Park that spelled out fishing rules for Medical Lake. The sign would be placed at the park on the southwest end of the lake. She had come up with a sign concept that was more pictorial and thought it would be more effective.
City of Medical Lake
Scott Duncan, Facilities Manager for the City of Medical Lake was a strong supporter of placing the sign in
the park and coordinated the schedule and determined the location of the sign.
Budget for Sign
Spokane Fly Fishers partnered with the IEFFC and contributed half of the cost of the sign.
Creation of Sign
Jolynn emailed the graphics for the sign to me and I forwarded them along with some verbiage to IEFFC
member Lee Funkhouser who put the graphics and verbiage together for a 48” wide by 42” high sign in digital form. I then forwarded this to National Barricade & Sign Co. that produced the sign
Frame for Sign and Assembly of Sign
After the steel was acquired for the frame, IEFFC club member Bob Johnson took the lower cross member
piece into the machine shop of his former employer and notched out the ends so the cross member would fit
into the frame. I took the frame pieces to the home shop of IEFFC club member Floyd Holmes who welded
and painted the frame. Floyd and I then pop riveted the sign into the frame.
Installation of the Sign
On July 12, 2022 a team consisting of two members from the Spokane Fly Fishers (Ken Moore and Chet
Allison) and two from the IEFFC ( Phil Beck and Jerry McBride) installed the sign.
Postscript
Due to the generous donation by the Spokane Fly Fishers there was enough money left in the Projects budget
to “resheet” the other two signs at Medical Lake with the new version of the sign. The signs were pulled out
of the frames and taken to National Barricade to be resheeted. To resheet a sign, a new sign is printed on
plastic film and applied over the old sign. This allows the reuse of the aluminum backing plate saving about
$100 per sign. Phil Beck and Jerry McBride repainted the sign frames and installed the new resheeted signs
August 1.
Summary
At the end of the day there is a totally new sign at the Medical Lake city park plus updated signs with the
current pictorial style at the boat launch and at the north end of the lake. Hopefully the new signs will improve compliance with the Select Gear fishing rules. The signs are there because of the efforts of two governmental organizations, two fly clubs and a whole lot of people.
Kid’s Fishing 2022
Kid’s fishing this past May was a great time for the youngsters. We had a small
gathering on Friday, May 6th, as the weather did not look as if it would be cooperating. It turned out better than expected and the kid’s from the Ronald McDonald House caught some very big fish. Special thanks to Jerry Harms, Bob Schmitt, Jake Nelson, and Bryan Harman, who were there to assist chaiman Floyd Holmes in making sure the kid’s had a good time.
On Saturday Bryan Harman, Stephen Aspinwall, and Jim Athearn helped Floyd to assist the 700 kid’s who attended the open session. Again a special thanks to those club members. The fishing was very good and lots of big fish were caught.
Big Horn Show 2022
What a great group of volunteers we had at the sports show!
Volunteers are what makes our club strong and viable and we all owe a big thanks to Bob Johnson, Bruce Morgan, Denny Carson, Skip Cavanaugh, Stephen Aspinwall, Dick Avery, Bob Burton, Dan Lobb, Keith Kuester, Guy Gregory, Bill Papesh, Jake Nelson, Chet Allison, Jon Bowne, and Bob Schmitt for being hosts, sharing their knowledge and expertise about our
great sport of fly fishing and about all the wonderful conservation and education activities our club has and continues to provide in the region. I think everyone they talked to left very impressed with our club and our members.
Jerry Harms, Lee Funkhouser, Jerry McBride, Gordon Olson, Bryan Harman, Phil Beck, and Leonard Gross were our demonstration fly tyers and their tying skills impressed everyone who passed by. They tied some amazing flies that will be in the Christmas raffle next December.
Bob Johnson put together 3 boxes of flies donated by Bryan Harman, Jerry McBride, Phil Beck, Chet Allison and Jim Athearn for a raffle. Denny Carson donated one of his beautiful fly boxes for this and it caught everyone’s eye. The raffle made about $140 for the club.
Since we were trying to minimize exposure of our members during these crazy pandemic uncertainties, Leon Buckles came up with the idea for our booth design featuring our club and highlighting all of our past and present conservation and education activities. He and Lee provided the photos we used. Extra thanks to Leon and Phil for helping with booth setup and to Bob S, Stephen, Phil and John for helping tear everything down. What took about 3 ½ hours to assemble was down and in Phil’s truck in under 45 minutes.
Again, thank you all very much for making this another successful show
WSCFFI Club Conservation Award
The Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club of Spokane wins the Club Conservation Award from the Washington State Council of Fly Fishers International for 2021 for its outstanding leadership acquiring and permanently conserving 8 acres of public fishing access on the Grand Ronde River. Known as the Ebsen Fishing Access site, the private lot had been operated by WDFW for public use for years. When the Inland Empire club learned the owner wanted to sell but WDFW was unable to purchase the site, the Inland Empire Club moved swiftly to create a partnership with the Wild Steelhead Coalition and put down earnest money to keep the land off the market. Inland Empire then swiftly reached out to the Washington State Council of Fly Fishers International for help raising the cash to finance the purchase.
Thanks to the hustle of the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club of Spokane, the partnership of Seattle’s Wild Steelhead Coalition and the generosity of fly fishers statewide, eight acres of prime river access are permanently in public hands. Special credit goes to Inland Empire member Jim Athearn who was at the center of every step in the transaction, and club President Jon Bowne who kept the club squarely behind the effort. Credit also goes to landowners Lynn “Radar” Miller and his wife Kay. The couple has admired the rugged Grande Ronde for years and wanted future generations to enjoy it as well.
The Inland Empire club put up $2,000 in earnest money to secure the land. The Wild Steelhead Coalition pledged another $2,000 to launch fundraising. More than a dozen clubs and individuals –most of them affiliated with the Washington State Council of Fly Fishers International and many of them members of the IEFFC—donated $30,000 that covered the purchase price and legal fees surrounding the transfer to state control. Donors included eight Washington fly clubs; the Spokane Fly Fishers, Evergreen Fly Fishing Club, Puget Sound Fly Fishers, Columbia Basin Fly Fishers, Northwest Fly Anglers, Clark Skamania Flyfishers, Wenatchee Valley Fly Fishers, Dry Side Fly Fishing Club and the Kelly Creek Fly Casters of Lewison, Idaho. In addition, the Washington State Council of Fly Fishers International donated and two national organizations pitched in, the national board of Fly Fishers International and Back Country Hunters and Anglers.
Another key person who made a huge contribution to the Grande Ronde project was Mark Pinch. Without his technical knowledge and guidance on the real estate aspects of the project, we would have not been able to pull this off. He was always there to answer questions and look over our shoulders to make sure we were squared away with the all the intricacies of the real estate transactions.
“There was regional support for this,” said Jim Athearn. “Now it will be a regional asset forever.”
Steve Jones, President of the Washington State Council of FFI was present at the Ebsen Fishing access site dedication to present the award to the club.
Jim with President Emeritus Leon Buckles
Steve Jones presenting the plaque to Jim Athearn
WDFW Regional Director’s Award
At the Faha Ebsen Access dedication ceremony, Jim Athearn received the “Regional Director’s Award” from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for his work on Faha Ebsen project.
Jim worked closely with Josh Mills of the Wild Steelhead Coalition, Bob Dice, Chris Donley, Greg Heingartner, Jerrod Ploof and Jeremy Trump to successfully purchase the land for public access to the Grande Ronde River.
Jim’s dedication to this project was key in making it a success. As stat
Jim Athearn
ed on the plaque “For your dedication and persistence in procuring funds to purchase the Ebsen property and in your subsequent donation to WDFW. Your efforts have secured public fishing access at this popular site in perpetuity. Thank you!”
We all know how hard Jim worked on this project and this award is certainly well deserved.
Congratulations.
Frank Faha-Ebsen Access Dedication
A large group gathered on October 15th, 2021 to dedicate the Frank Faha Ebsen Fishing Access Site near the mouth of the Grande Ronde River. The group included numerous members of the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club. Among those present were the many members who generously donated to the project and IEFFC member Jim Athearn, who was the project lead.
Members of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife were present as well as officers of the Washington State Council of Fly Fishers International to make the dedication. A monument honoring IEFFC member Frank Faha and a monument honoring the monetary commitment of numerous individuals and groups was unveiled at the ceremony.
The acquisition of this property was an example of extreme cooperation by numerous caring individuals and those involved are to be commended. The IEFFC was joined by the Wild Steelhead Coalition in a partnership that worked closely with WSDFW and WSCFFI to make this access site a reality. Numerous individuals and groups contributed to the purchase of the land, many of the individuals being members of the IEFFC.
Another key person who made a huge contribution to the Grande Ronde project was Mark Pinch. Without his technical knowledge and guidance on the real estate aspects of the project, we would have not been able to pull this off. He was always there to answer questions and look over our shoulders to make sure we were squared away with the all the intricacies of the real estate transactions.
A special thanks to the following IEFFC members donating to the acquisition: Jim Athearn, Leon Buckles, Bob Burton, Keith Kuester, Hubert Langenhorst, Bill Papesh, Mark Pinch, Chet Allison, Doug Arndt, John Bennett, Scott Fink, Jerry Harms, Bob Johnson, Jerry McBride, Jim McDevitt and Randy Shaber.
Included in those present at the dedication were members Frank Faha’s family, including his wife Gayle, pictured below.
Dedication Crowd
Frank’s wife Gayle
Fall Fin Clipping
A mighty group of IEFFC warriors headed to the hatchery on September 27th and 28th to perform adipose fin-ectomies on thousands of tiny fish. This is one of our most difficult projects and the ex
treme weather didn’t make it any easier. The rain on Monday was an absolute downpour, but our members stayed the course and upwards of 50,000 little trout had their fins clipped.
For those of you not familiar with the process, it starts with the fish being anesthetized. While they are briefly immobile a group of amateur surgeons carefully take the fish in their hands and trim off the adipose fin with micro scissors. Speed is essential because the fish gain mobility quickly and a squirming two inch fish is likely to lose more than an adipose fin. It takes courage to perform this function knowing that their lives are literally in your hands.
The members volunteering were Jerry McBride, Skip Cavanaugh, Bill Papesh, Guy Gregory, Jim Athearn, Phil Beck, Floyd Holmes, and Mark Pinch.
Thank you all for your efforts.
Fall Projects Listed – By Jerry McBride
Bayley Lake Spawning Channel Cleanup September 25
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 that we could fish for. Normally, the water temperature in the channel gets too high for the fertilized eggs to hatch so there isn’t much if any natural reproduction.
Present
During the summer the grass along the channel grows almost chest-high and then droops into the channel tending to restrict the flow. Also, the gravel gets moved around and is sometimes covered with sand.
Just about every year a group of eight to ten 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. The Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge provides the gravel.
September 25, 2021
Members of the IEFFC are going to go up on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge northeast of Chewelah on Saturday, September 25, 2021 to clean up the Bayley Lake spawning channel. We will have five “veterans” who have done this work before that have boats paired up with five other members. The other members will meet up with the “veterans” and ride up to Bayley with them. Once we have completed the work which usually takes about two hours we will go fishing in Bayley Lake which can be very good in the fall. The pairs will meet up at Zips in Chewelah at 8 am with the IEFFC buying our breakfast.
For those of you that have never fished Bayley this is a great opportunity to fish it with someone who knows the lake and how to fish it.
Fin Clipping at WDFW Hatchery September 27 and 28, 2021
Again this year the IEFFC will join other groups at the WDFW Spokane fish hatchery to clip adipose fins from fish that will be planted in Lake Spokane. This project takes two days. The IEFFC has committed to furnish six people each day. At this point it is not clear what if any Covid-19 restrictions will apply. In past years WDFW has furnished lunch to all of the participants. Volunteers need to show up at the hatchery before 8 am.
