www.wyflycasters.org
Vol 40 No 7
The Monthly Newsletter of the Wyoming Fly Casters
SMOKEY’S
BIG DAY
DUSTED MEMORIAL
July 2013
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Dear Flycaster’s, Summer is heating up quick and it has already been busy. I would like to thank George Axlund, and Colin Tierney for donating their time for our highway clean up on Saturday. It was a good day and we cleaned up a small portion of our two-mile stretch. We will be having another clean up day August 17th. Please mark your calendars and help with our conservation efforts. After a summer of people taking out their boats, it will need a good cleaning. Our Ten Sleep Camp out is coming up on Aug. 2-4. Make sure to try and make time to participate in this or a different get together. These times are relaxing, and also a fantastic way to get some tips and lessons if you are new, or a great way to pass on the knowledge you have to someone just getting into the sport. Ten Sleep is just one way to meet new folks. I am pleased to announce I was a participant in the Game and Fish sponsored event “Becoming an Outdoor Woman.” I learned a lot about rifles, shotguns, and scat! Yes, I said scat. It is amazing what you can learn about who is where and what they are eating. I highly recommend learning more about the environment and who lives there. Every time I go to a class or someone more knowledgable takes me out, I learn to look for more things and the more I see. I highly recommend taking a class through the college or
July 2013
President’s letter something around town. Make sure you look in the paper and message boards in coffee shops. Speaking of classes we are working on a more regular schedule for fly tying, and we will be having a knot class or two in the upcoming months. This month our speaker is Coleman Smith from the Bureau of Reclamation. Please be there as he is going to share valuable information for our anglers. We would also like to have a casting class in the near future. I hope to have most of the classes in the evenings so we can have a great turnout. If there is something you would like to learn more about please let me know and I will see what we can do. Don’t forget for those of you who are volunteering you have an overnight in Newcastle with Project Healing Waters it’s coming up July 17. Well I hope everyone has a relaxing July 4th. Don’t forget to take time for your families and fishing! Happy Fourth of July!
Kelly
Hi Dick: No need to thank the WFC we just wanted to let you know that we are often thinking about you often and wishing you the best. Please keep fellow fly casters in mind should you need anything. If you’re not already fishing, let us know when you’re ready to go. No doubt there’s a lot of us that would like to go with you. : )
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What’s inside ... Kelly Kukes, President Lee Tschettert, Vice President Casey Leary, Secretary Matt Stanton, Treasurer BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terms expire in 2014: Spencer Amend, Bob Fischer, Jim Johnson, Chris McAtee Terms expire in 2015: George Axlund, Bian Bayer, Derrick Dietz, Joe Meyer Terms expire in 2016: Cheryl Alexander Lee Wilson The Backcast is the monthly newsletter of the Wyoming Fly Casters, an affiliate club of the Wyoming Council of Trout Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy and the Federation of Fly Fishers. Editorial content does not necessarily reflect the views of the officers, board or members of the Wyoming Fly Casters. Annual dues are $20 for an individual, $30 for a family, or $250 for a lifetime individual membership or $450 for a life- time family membership. Visit the club website at www.wyflycasters.org. To pay dues or contact the club, write to P.O. Box 2881, Casper, WY 82602. The deadline for submission of information for each issue is a week before the end of the month. Make contributions to the next issue by e- mailing material to the Backcast editor at marketingmavenaha@ gmail.com or call (708) 997-2071. The Backcast is available either in electronic format or through USPS snail mail. To receive each newsletter through a monthly e-mail, you must be able to open .pdf (Adobe Acrobat, a software program available free of charge) documents. Usually, each issue is roughly 1 MB in size, some are larger. Your e-mail provider may have limits on the size of attachments. In order to be added to the e-mail list, send a request to marketingmavenaha@ gmail.com. In addition to receiving each issue of the newsletter earlier than your hard copy peers, e-mail subscribers are able to print each copy in vibrant color -- an added plus if the issue is rich in color photographs. By sub- scribing electronically, you also save the club roughly $17.40 a year in printing and postage expenses.
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Smokey’s Big Day Dusted Salamander Business Speas Memoral Classifieds Calendar
Front Cover Image: Newly retired Scott Novotny enjoying the North Fork of the Powder River. This is just the beginning of his new career, Fly Caster Extraordinaire. Good Luck Scott!
Mission Statement:
The mission of the Wyoming Fly Casters is to promote and enhance the sport of fly fishing and the conservation of fish and their habitat.
Description:
The Wyoming Fly Casters club was formed in 1974. The membership currently consists of approximately 160 members. The WFC was organized by a group of dedicated fly fishermen and since the club’s inception the Wyoming Fly Casters have strived to further the sport of fly fishing through conservation and education. Conservation of our water resources is one of our primary goals and in cooperation with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department we have and will continue to carry out worthwhile projects for the benefit of Wyoming fisheries. In addition to conserving Wyoming’s water resources we encourage conserving the fish themselves. A fish safely released today will live to give sport to others.
For easy access to digital version of newsletter go to: www.wyomingflycasters.org
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July 2013
Wyoming Fly Casters
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July 2013
The day I got “dusted” by the Powder River By Peg Novotny
It is possibly one of the most beautiful canyons on the eastern slope of the Big Horn Mountain Range. If you’ve ever traveled to the Big Horn’s or looked at a topographic map, you’d probably notice the range stacks steep canyons upon steep canyons. These areas and river courses are world class and extremely difficult to approach. I wish I had known a bit more about this before my brother Scott and I decided the night before that we would go fishing on the North Fork of the Powder River the next day. So being the scouts (always be prepared) that we are, we didn’t prepare much. Yep, no food or special maps. Just a big cannister of Gatorade, ice in two empty igloo coolers, a GPS device (it needed batteries) and an awful amount of heavy gear for out backpacks. So we left Casper at about 9 a.m. and we were in Kaycee around 11:00 a.m. or so. We stopped at the local gas station and got some chips, drinks, beef jerky and batteries. Driving west from Kaycee we turned left at Barnum and followed the winding roads through some beautiful landscapes. With each turn another type of land form would come into view until a grand vista of red cliffs against varying shades of western mountain greens were perfectly complimented in a divine composition. No mere mortal is capable of capturing such magnificence! For those of you who have been to the Powder River Canyon, the hike down is steep with large bolders, burned tree remains and very unstable landcover that one must carefully transverse in order to get to the river far below. Rocks and bolders along the way are marked so one can be sure to stay on the “trail.” Without them I have no doubt that one would spend the rest of eternity trying to find a path to the river. No kidding. We carefully made our way down and reached the river in about 40 minutes. We took off our backpacks,
unzipped the lower leg portions of our pants, assembled our rods and tied our flies to our lines. Scott helped me with my double loop knot. Now it was time to try our luck. Since the river was full of greasy boulders and slime-covered rocks, Scott put on his metal brip wading boots with aluminum bars for better footing. I put on my chaco’s. We surveyed the river looking for some holes to cast our lines. There weren’t a lot of easy access places on the river. What was available was usually on the other side of big bolders or in areas that didn’t have any broken trails leading to it. As I made my way to some spots that were easier to
Wyoming Fly Casters
access, I kept my eyes open for snakes and tried to avoid a lot of conspicuous spider webs and traps. Oh brother, ECK! I also didn’t feel comfortable navigating my way through the deeper water on top of slippery riverbank bolders and rocks. You see it wasn’t until I was halfway down the canyon that I realized I didn’t have my waterproof bag in my backpack for my camera equipment. I wasn’t about trek back up the canyon to the car and get it. At that moment, I was hoping I wouldn’t regret it. So I found a couple of places I thought would be good to fish. At one point if felt like I almost had a fish on but for all I know, it was probably the current pulling at my line.
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Casting was bit tricky as there were a lot of trees and bushes close. I managed to cast my line where I wanted it to go. But sometimes my backcast got caught in the foliage. Too bad there didn’t seem to be any fish where I thought they’d be. It was ok the day was beautiful and the water was crystal clear. Scott was fishing downstream from me, so periodically I’d look to see if he had caught anything. I never saw him with a fish on, or in hand but didn’t think much about it. The sound of the river moving was deaffening so it wasn’t possible to just yell out to one another and be able to communicate. But I knew one thing for sure, I wasn’t catching anything. continued on page 8
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continued ... I got “dusted” by the Powder River It had occured to me that I wasn’t seeing any fish either. Where the heck were they? It actually wasn’t until we felt it was time to go that I actually saw a fish. Yep, a baby jumped out of the water as if to say “neener, neener no fishy for you two today.” We took that as a final side it was time to go. So we put our hiking boots back on, packed up our backpacks, broke down our rods and prepared to leave the area. Not being as far downstream as Scott, I put on my backpack and decided to sit on a huge rock in the river to wait for him to reach me. As I sat down, I realized my backpack was considerable heavier than it had been coming down to the river. So heavy in fact that as I sat down, the weight of the backpack pulled me off balance and the downward slope on the back side of the rock didn’t help. Gravity just took care of the rest.
It felt like I was moving in slow motion. I was sliding into the Powder River upside down and head first. Thank goodness my shoulder broke my fall against another boulder but with that downward motion, my head did eventually hit it as well. Now upside down in the water I wasn’t sure if I was still where I fell or halfway down the river. I then heard my brother yell out “you’re all right, you’re all right,” so that told me I was exactly where I fell. Good news in a bad situation. Once I got to my feet I realized my camera and phone were in my backpack. Dang, at least the backpack was still on my back. Then I realized I couldn’t see. More bad news I lost my glasses. Hmm. Well what can you do? Time to get it together and hike out of the canyon. Then I noticed a big ugly spider sitting on my left shoulder. Ha! I flicked him off. You’ll have to do a lot better than that to scare me now, I thought. Scott did the trailblazing and I followed immediately behind. We started up the canyon I kept close behind
Who Newt, a Salamander! Why is this man smiling? Well heck, it’s WFC’s own Joe Meyer. What “fish” decided to grab his bait this time. Holy smokes! This is no fish. Here’s what Wikipedia says: They are typically characterized by a superficially lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, short noses, and long tails. Salamanders have never more than four toes on their front legs and five on their rear legs, but some species have fewer. Their moist skin usually makes them reliant on habitats in or near water, or under some protection (e.g., moist ground), often in a wetland. Some salamander species are fully aquatic throughout life, some take to the water intermittently, and some are entirely terrestrial as adults. Unique among vertebrates, they are capable of regenerating lost limbs, as well as other body parts. Many of the members of the family Salamandridae are known as newts.
Wyoming Fly Casters Scott so I could try to see how best to hike my way out of the canyon. As we started up Scott said that this is usually the time that snakes like to come out. Well great I thought. “Well then let me know if you see one, because I can’t see much of anything” I said. It was a challenge to keep on the trail. Scott kept an eye out for the rocks and boulders that were marked as part of the trail. We stopped often to catch our breath which we easily lost while hiking up the loose gravel trail. During these rests we reviewed how our day started. What we ate that day, what we drank, did we take our vitamins and prescriptions, did we tell someone exactly where we were going etc. We also considered what we would bring more and less of in our backpacks next time. We concluded we overpacked “stuff” for the trip and underpacked health sustaining necessities. Once on top of the canyon and back at the car, I
Highlights From the eastern front of the Bighorn Mountains, flows one of the best trout streams in Wyoming. The North Fork of the Powder River winds through a treacherous canyon, then courses from old-growth ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forests to arid red hills, creating a wilderness fisherman’s dream. Deep, rugged Pass Creek Canyon also supports excellent fishing, while Packsaddle Canyon offers spectacular scenery. Elevations rise from 5800 feet in the foothills to 8000 feet on the highest limestone and sandstone cliffs. Canyon depths vary from 300 to 1000 feet Wyoming Bureau of Land Management
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applied ice to the bump on my head. We drank a lot of gatorade and rested. I changed my shirt and took off my soaked boats and put on some thongs. Then I started to access damage. Bump was going down, still couldn’t see, the tip of my fly rod had broken off, my cell phone was fine and I didn’t know if my camera would be ok or not. (later I found out, it’s not) Quite an expensive day. What I was able to take away from this experience is there’s no substitution for having a plan and being prepared for your adventure. The trouble we experienced that day could have been much worse. If either of us had gotten hurt badly we had no phone service to call for help. One of us would have had to hike up the canyon and drive out just to get cellular service. If time was of the essence, who knows how badly things could have turned out. Lesson learned. My advice for anyone, make a plan and be prepared.
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Mick Novotny and a local Brown buddy
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July 2013
WFC Memorial’s new home at Speas Access Photos and story by Matt Stanton
Over 30 volunteers gathered at the WFC Speas Memorial Access today for a single purpose: To help Laton Jones complete his Eagle Scout Service Project. The Wyoming Flycasters were represented by me and Carl Myers, whom was also Laton’s English teacher this year at NC high school. This project has been a long time in the making and coincides with a larger project on the property spearheaded by Al Gettings of the Wyoming Game and Fish department. Improvements to the property include handicap fishing access points, a gravel pathway along the river, erosion control and installation of benches. Also, today was finally the day that the new WFC memorial post was placed and existing memorial stone relocated along the gravel river path. The memorial post only needs some final additions and we can call that project a wrap. After four hours of hard labor, there is still quite a bit of path around the pond to build and the handicap access still needs completed, but Al says it will all be finished this summer. Al also tells me the pond will be open for fishing as soon as new signage arrives, but I don’t think there’s any fish in it, so I wouldn’t waste your time Joe. At this point I could wax poetically about the beautiful improvements made, but I’m a believer that a picture (or seeing it yourself) is worth a thousand words. So, enjoy the pictures contained herein then get out and see it with your own eyes. And don’t forget your rod!
Wyoming Fly Casters
Classifieds
Member Notes
Classifieds
FREE
Remembrances
Vivi Crandall and Terry Redlin prints (contact me for names/prices) COLMAN FLEETWOOD COLONIAL POPUP CAMPER
and
Scott Novotny gscottn@gmail.com 307-315-3534
Our members are very special to us and we want to remember them in times of adversity.
http://www.roadslesstraveled. us.Popup.html
If you know of a member or their spouse who is ill or is recently deceased, please contact Donna Diesburg at (307) 234-4278 or e-mail her at faith10@bresnan.net.
Classifieds Member Notes Classifieds Member Notes
INDOOR DRIFT BOAT STORAGE
SAVE THE DATE
on the river $50/month or $500/year.
Ten Sleep Outing August 2 - 4th
Outdoor storage $40/month.
Those interested in volunteering to plan and organize the event please contact
Call Clarke 307-262-3306
Member Notes Large selection of framed, signed and numbered
See your ad here! Just send in your ad information and any picture you have to accompany it and we’ll run it for you! marketingmavenaha@gmail. com
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Lee Tschutter See the WFC July Newsletter for more information.
Men’s Chaco Z/1 Sandal. Size 13. “Matrix color” New in box $45 OBO Matt Stanton 307-258-9915
All Patagonia SST Jacket XXL $300.00 2011 model NIB; SST Jacket women’s older style XL $125.00 NIB SST Jacket Small; older style used $50.00 Scott Novotny 307-315-3534
The Backcast Newsletter www.flycasters.org
July 2013
4 THURS Holiday
10 WED
General Meeting Izaak Walton Lodge 7 pm
17 WED
Board Meeting Izaak Walton Lodge 7 pm Project Healing Waters - Newcastle
22 SAT
Road Side Cleanup 9 a.m. Sutherlands Parking Lot