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!”

This years Morning Star Boys Ranch Casting/Tying and Fishing was held May 8 and 10, 2014.  It was well received by the boys and those IEFFC members who participated are to be commended.

The Fly tying was held on May 8th and the following members were available to the boys to show them some basic patterns and assist them in learning how to cast.  Special thanks to Mike Beasley, Merlin Heintz, Mark Hensley, Ward McAuliffe and Bruce Morgan.  This part of the Fishout is often overlooked, but is so essential in preparing the boys for a good day of fishing on Saturday.

On Saturday everyone met for breakfast at LindeBees Diner at 7 am and had the usual great breakfast.  The Legacy Committee covered the cost of the breakfast through a donation in memory of Jim Rose.

From the diner everyone headed to West Medical Lake where the boys were split up and placed in the various boats brought by IEFFC members.  Those manning the boats included Stephen Aspinwall, Ray Kranches, Bob Harley, Bruce Morgan, Doug Pineo, Frank Faha, Harry Calhoun, Hugh Evans, Jim Athearn, Ladin Langeman, Paul Wham, Russ Roundy, and Bob Burton.  We don’t know until the morning of the fishout how many boys will be coming so the following members were ready to assist with a boat if needed; Jerry McBride, Jim Turner, Doug Brossoit and Bob Anderson.

Thanks to all of these volunteers for making the program a huge success.

The IEFFC had an expanded role at the Big Horn Show this year and, thanks to about 20 volunteers, it was a great success reflecting very well on our club.

We added the tying theater, kids’ raffle for a beginner’s tying kit, and gave out 18 additional kits put together with donations from club members, materials from Bob Bates’ collection (courtesy of the Legacy Committee) and some club funding.  There were 100 entrants in the raffle won by Yancy Davis from Coeur d’Alene.  He was there shortly after the drawing and said he was going straight home to start tying.  Our tyers included Harry Calhoun, Neal Beechinor, Randy Shaber, Hugh Evans, Ray Kranches, Bob Harley, Rick Ripley, Gordon Olson, Leonard Gross, Bill Papish, Jerry McBride, Larry Ray, Don Perry, Leon Buckles, Jason Mulligan, Chet Allison, and Bill McElroy.  Rick and Leon set up the booth and Larry came by to help them break it down on Sunday.  Leon was there every day, all day, to make sure things ran smoothly.  Tom May provided some hats to give the kids.  It was nice to see some IEFFC members stop by the booth and, hopefully they got to see Bill Papish in action on Saturday – a true master at working a crowd to draw in the kids for a personal tying lesson.  Thank you to all our volunteers and we look forward to next year and maybe even a few more new ideas for the kids.