As many of you know, Mark Pinch and Lee Funkhouser have been attending meetings of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife for the past few years working on the management plan for the Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area.  The plan is important to us because the area includes Z Lake, a fly fishing lake that attracts some of our members.

In the past 18 months the advisory committee has completed the management plan and we are pleased to report that the WDFW has been working with us to maintain the Z Lake fishery as is, with some minor improvements regarding directional signage.  There is access to the lake by trails, and for those needing easier access, the office at Swanson Lakes will provide a key to the gate so that one can drive to Z Lake.

I am including the proposed public schedule for the finalization of the management plan for anyone interested.    I have not fished Z Lake, but many of our members have and the reports have been good.

Public Presentation Schedule

May 11th the Swanson WLA Draft Plan will be released for SEPA and public review (30 days)

May 19th Swanson Lakes Wildlife Area Public Meeting will be held at 6PM at the WDFW Spokane                Regional Office

June 22nd – Final WAAC review of the final plan (emailed out to WAAC members)

Early July – published on the WDFW website

How to get there:

Driving to Z Lake is relatively easy.  Hiking into the lake itself from Telford Road is not as easy, but certainly doable carrying a float tube.

Driving out Highway 2 and past Davenport, you will look to take a left turn on Fictenberg Road, (approximately 42miles out of Spokane).  Travel on Fictenberg road for 7 miles and take a left on Telford Road.  Follow Telford Road for about 4 miles and then you will have to park and hike the rest of the way going due west.

Anglers are getting the run around at Rocky Ford Creek, a fly-fishing holy water north of Moses Lake. The issue:  Lack of money to fix the lower footbridge.

Since wading is prohibited at the desert spring creek, anglers have only one way to cross the stream — the upper bridge. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has closed the lower Rocky Ford Creek footbridge for safety reasons.  Chad Jackson, district fisheries biologist in Ephrata explains: During the spring of 2013, WDFW engineers inspected the lower RFC footbridge and due to public safety concerns and liability instructed Region 2 Lands Division staff to close the footbridge to public use.  Bank erosion along the eastern and western shorelines has caused the footbridge approaches to fail and compromised the wooden piers the footbridge rests on.

Essentially, it’s at risk of tipping or collapsing.  Unfortunately, there is no quick or easy fix to the footbridge to safely re-open it for public use.  WDFW will need to replace, and possible relocated, the existing footbridge.  Early cost estimates to replace the footbridge range between $100,00 to $160,000 and covers permitting, materials, engineering, and labor.

WDFW has requested capital funds (legislatively appropriated) and applied for grants through the Recreation and Conservation Office.  To date, funding attempts have been unsuccessful.  However, WDFW will continue to look for funds to replace the footbridge. In the meantime, anglers wanting to fish from the east shoreline of RFC will need to cross at the upper footbridge and hike downstream.

Note: Neal has contacted Eastern Washington’s legislators urging them to support funding the construction.  Sending personal communications to your legislator will help us to get this project off the ground.

IEFFC Work Party at Bayley Lake:  On  October 9th, seven members of the IEFFC continued what has been a long-standing (over 30 years) club project to maintain the inlet channel at Bayley Lake.

Jerry McBride, Floyd Holmes, Bob Anderson, Stephen Aspinwall, Bill Papish, Don Perry and Jim Athearn spent several hours removing grass, weeds and tree limbs from the channel.  They then placed gravel by the weirs to refresh the spawning area.  While it is uncertain just how much trout production occurs from the channel, it is believed that by providing a place for mature rainbows to spawn there is an increased survival in large fish that contribute to a higher quality fishery in the lake.  Jerry, Bob, Floyd and Don stayed after the work party to exercise a few of those trout.

On March 10th ten members from the IEFFC volunteered to help WDFW clip fins at the Spokane Hatchery.

These fish are to be released in Long Lake as part of a study being funded by Avista. A big thank you to George Potter, Larry Ray, Floyd Holmes, Bruce Morgan, Ray Kranches, Neal Beechinor, Jerry Harms, Ivan Lines, Dan Lobb, and Harry Calhoun.

Randy Osborne, District 2 Fisheries Biologist for WDFW, followed up by saying “I want to thank the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club for providing volunteers to help with the fin-clipping at Spokane Hatchery.  With your clubs help, we ended up clipping about 37,000 fish that day!”