ON THE WATER FOR JUNE

Memorial Day weekend……It is appropriate that we all pause to remember the Men & Women who are serving or have served in our Armed Forces……. ALL GAVE SOME & SOME GAVE ALL……It also seems fitting to remember family, friends & old fishing pals who have passed. May they all rest in peace.

Where has this month of May gone?? I suppose it’s indicative of my getting older when the time seems to go by so quickly. We started the month with a fun Club Breakfast followed by our 1^st successful Big Creek Litter Patrol and then we had Dr. Laurie Weitkamp give us a very informative presentation on Salmon Research & Management Activity. We are very pleased to have 2 new Club Members and they are, Gil Little and our “First Lady of The Club” Barb Dudley who many of you know is Wayde’s lovely wife. Welcome to both of you and we are especially pleased Barb has blazed a trail which we encourage other ladies to follow.

I guess I need to tell you the sad story of my “Week on the Metolius River.” It goes like this, we went up to the river on Saturday and checked into our lovely cabin and I went over to the Camp Sherman Fly Shop, bought some flies, and quickly found out the upper section of the river was closed until after Memorial Day. The lower section of the river was open but it was running to high to wade & fish safely. So I never un-cased a rod or got my waders wet. You all heard the line about “when your plans turn into lemons the best thing you can do is make lemonade.” Well that’s what we did. We had a fun weekend in Sisters and came home in the rain on Monday. We rescheduled our reservations for the first week in September. By the way, there is still a LOT of SNOW at & above 4000ft and the Santiam River is really getting with the program. The Hoodoo Burn looked very sad but is beginning to show some signs of under growth between the snow patches.

Sparky, aka Bill Furgason, deserves an “Att’a Boy” for the great job he did on turning our Special Club Ball Cap Idea into reality. Many members already have their caps and for those of you who don’t, we will have them available at our 1 June Meeting. We also should acknowledge the great job Big Fish, aka Wayne Hill, has done by acting as the “Ram Rod” for our successful Litter Patrol Activity. He is also working with SOLV to have the Club Adopt Big Creek as a part of their Adopt a River Program. We got some really special compliments from various Newport City Officials for our Community Service Involvement. This is the direct result of all of you members who are so supportive of this ongoing monthly Club Activity. We also want to thank Bob Abbott for sharing his “Found Fishing Floats” with the Club Members.

As we look to June, it portends to be a fun & busy month. On the 1^st The Bear Ambassador, aka Tom Roederer, will be giving us a presentation on “Living with Bears.” On the 14^th it’s a field trip down to the US Coast Guard Station, followed on the 15^th by our 2^nd Big Creek Litter Patrol Morning. Phil Reed, his schedule permitting, will be bringing one of his boats to get some of the litter only accessible by boat. It should be a fun & rewarding morning.

Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the traditional camping and boating season. This year it’s also the opening of the state’s “second” trout season, covering most rivers and streams that flow out of the Coast Range. These rivers (Siletz,Yaquina,Alsea,Salmon,Siuslaw) should be very good fisheries for native Cutthroat followed, in an other month, by “Bluebacks”, as the sea-run Cutthroats are known. Shad can also be caught in some costal streams while the Siletz River anglers might also encounter summer Steelhead and spring Chinook Salmon. Watch for this kind of good info. on our Web Site Mastered by Big Fish.

In closing, I’ll leave you with this thought…..”Nothing I can do about it now”…..Don’t let regret get you down!!….get involved in our Club’s Meetings & Activities, hook-up with our fishing pals and go fishing. Live in the moment you never know how many you’ve got left!!

Well that’s the top of the news as it looks from here. Hope to see you on the Water !! The HOOK