Covering the Drift Volume 23 Issue 2 March 2019

Gary Borger on Universal Nymphs

Prime Lies - Page 2 Conservation - Page 3 Young Tiers at Work - Page 6 Centennial for UW Sciences –Page 6 Calendar of Ellensburg Workshops –Pages 9-10 Washington State Chapter March 2019 Fly Fishers International Volume 23, Issue 2

Inside this issue Prime Lies Leaders Line ...... 2 Conservation ...... 3 endeavor. Please come out and Borger’s Approach to Nymphing 4 Spring Ahead join the fun and learning. If you Borger’s Universal Nymphs ...... 5 are coming and have some free Borger’s Ellensburg Schedule .....4 It’s March and I have 3- time, consider volunteering for Academy Registration Open ...... 3 foot-high plowed banks of snow such things as making the coffee, Young Tiers at Work ...... 6 on my driveway, a good excuse helping with the raffles, setting to not get my trailer out of the up the tables on Thursday, and a Ellensburg Schedule ...... 9-10 garage to take it to Albany, Ore. thousand other things. Contact for the Northwest and Carl Johnson or me if you can Special points of interest Fly Expo. I got a hotel help. room instead. High school soph- There will be a few • Registration is open for the omore Maxine McCormick, mul- Washington Fair changes this year in the Fair with May 3-4 in Ellensburg. To regis- ti-time world fly champi- a Theater, tying les- ter online go to on, demonstrated casting at the sons and demonstrations by Gary www.wscffi.org/2019- Expo this year. I have seen her Borger. In addition, we will be registration cast before and she was remarka- holding a Continuing Education • Jack Whitney catalogs some of ble. I hope you made it to the the largest fish conservation (CE) program Saturday after- groups at work in the Pacific Albany Expo this year and I noon for all casting instructors, Northwest in his conversation hope you join Washington State whether they are FFI certified or column, page 3. Council’s Fly Fishing Fair in El- not. We just want to improve fly • Gary Borger will provide a vari- lensburg May 3rd and 4th. casting instruction for everyone ety of expert casting, fly tying Online registration is up and run- and we know there are lots of and fishing knowledge at the ning and we have collected a Ellensburg Fair. Stories on pag- people teaching es 3 and 4 preview some of great group of tyers and casters, through clubs and shops who what he will be speaking about. as well as our Celebrity Fly Fish- have been excluded from CE er, Gary Borger. By the way, I events in the past. All those peo- stole the title of my column, • On the cover a native coastal ple are now welcome to attend steelhead and the blue/green Prime Lies, from him. this Saturday afternoon program. Intruder that fooled him. Our volunteers have put a Everyone is better off if we can huge amount of work into this continued on page 8 Academy Open Conservation

The deadline for The Business of Fighting the 2019 Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fish- for Threatened Salmon ing Academy is April 15. Boys and girls must be 12- By Jack Whitney www.wildsalmoncenter.org/ 16 years of age to apply. Wild Fish Conservancy Those that are accepted, During a recent TU – This organization use to be will be notified by the meeting I was having a con- called Washington Trout. middle of May. The versation with a recently re- Their emphasis is on science, Academy this year is June tired local WDFW fish biolo- education and advocacy. They 23-29, 2019 on Hicks Lake gist. He said to me “You have a staff of 16 professionals in Lacey, WA. Applicants know Jack, we have created of which a sizable number of must submit a written es- quite a large business fighting them have degrees in fish re- say explaining why “they” for Salmon.” Later I reflected lated science. Dr. Richard would like to attend and a on what he said and thought of Williams is on their board as letter of recommendation all the fish conservation organ- well as on the FFI board. Their from their school counse- izations in the NW and the current high-profile project is lor, science teacher or re- number of people connected the Columbia River Pound Net sponsible adult. Cost is with them. So, I started look- Project which is also referred $300 and there are spon- ing into the different salmon to as a . This project sorships available. No one and steelhead conservation is being supported by NOAA, will be turned away be- players and thought that I Wildlife Departments of the cause of lack of money. would pass on some of what I three NW states, University of The support from learned. Washington, Wild Salmon the fly fishing community Wild Salmon Center – This Center and a host of other con- again this year is nothing organization scientifically servation groups and private short of spectacular. Ap- identifies and protects the business. They have initiated plications are coming from strongest rivers suitable for or been a part of various law all over the State. We will wild salmon. These areas of suits and have been listed as an need volunteers again this focus included Northern Cali- “extremist organization” by year as guides to take the fornia, Oregon, Washington the Costal Conservation Asso- kids fishing in the morn- (there are two river systems), ciation (CCA). They are locat- ings and evenings. We British Columbia, Alaska, ed in Duvall, and more can be will be fishing a local pond Russia and Japan. They work discovered about them at and the Deschutes River in with communities, agencies, www.wildfishconservancy.org/ Thurston County. The tribes, and local conservation The Conservation An- Academy has a Facebook groups providing them with gler – The Conservation An- page loaded with pictures scientific, political, legal, fund gler advocates for wild fisher- from past years and our raising and communication ies, which includes steelhead, website expertise. The Wild Salmon salmon, trout and char, www.nwycffa.com You Center’s home office is Port- throughout the Pacific Range. may download the applica- land and they have a staff of They see themselves as a tion off the website or call 20 paid employees of which 4 watch dog organization that Mike Clancy @253-278- are Phd’s, 8 have their MS and holds public agencies and na- 0061 or Jim Brosio @ 360 6 are BS/BA degreed. The av- tions accountable for protect- -943-9947. erage annual revenue over the ing wild fish, by use of admin- last five years is $5.8 million istrative, political and legal dollars a year. See Continued on page 8 3 and fly back to the surface. Because if In Ellensburg the fly line is on top of the water go- ing at X speed and the fly is on the Gary Borger Makes bottom going at one-half X, the line will pull the fly back to the top.” Nymph Fishing Visual “I put the split shot, 8 to 12 inches above the fly. The split shot anchors that fly at the bot- Everybody likes dry tom. Then I put an indicator fly fishing because its such a about 3 to 5 feet above the fly. If the anchor works on the bot- visual process. You see the fly. You see the fish take the fly. tom, the indicator will be go- It’s an exciting process. It’s ing one-half to two-thirds the possible to experience the same Gary’s speed of the water around it visual link nymph fishing if on the top,” says Borger. If you develop the right tech- Schedule the indicator is moving at the nique, says Gary Borger. Friday May 3 same speed as the surround- ing surface water, then he ad- “Whether you’re fishing 8:30—Nymphing at the surface, or at the bottom vises adding more weight un- you can make it a process that Top to Bottom til the indicator slows down. is totally visual to the angler,” 10:30-The Perfect “Another thing the he says. But the process works Cast shot does is help set the hook. The split shot continues to only if you understand where in 1:30-Tying Demon- the water column your fly is move after the fish picks up moving, he says. “If you’re not stration, Down and the hook, so the shot then on the bottom, you’re not doing Dirty Flies pulls the hook and helps what needs to be done and you make the set. The hook is set 3-Tying Demon- by the shot and then the indi- will not catch fish. Period.” stration, Unique The problem with get- cator goes under. If you pull ting flies to the bottom of a riv- Hackling Tech- every time the indicator stops, er is that the fastest current is niques you’re just pulling your fly off the bottom. But if you always on the top. A weighted fly can drop through that cur- wait for the indicator to go rent, but the faster current at the Saturday May 4 under there is a fish there.” top will always be creating drag 8:30-The Angler as Borger is indifferent on the line. Borger works to what indicator a fisher us- Predator workshop es. It can be a fly such as a around that by using split shot 10:30-Tying not weighted flies. Chubby Chernobyl, a tuft of wool or synthetic yarn, or one “The split shot has more Demonstration, of dozens of commercial indi- purpose than just sinking the Down and Dirty cator products. Regardless, fly to the bottom. Everybody Flies it’s the weight that makes the thinks that’s the only purpose indicator work. Combining but its not. The job of the split 1-Continuing Edu- cation for Casting the right weight with the indi- shot is to anchor the fly against cator makes nymph fishing a line drag that is pulling the line Instructors truly visual process. In Ellensburg Universal Nymph Designs for Any Opportunity Gary Borger is a noted fly tier, but he isn’t a fly purist. “There are literally hundreds of thousands of fly patterns and every one of them catches fish,” he says. Only the patterns that work have survived in the literature or the re-telling between fishers after a day on the water. The huge variety of patterns also proves a basic fact about fish behavior, he says. Fish aren’t always selective. “During non-hatch periods fish are basically sampling the drift,” says Borger. “Anything that comes along and looks tasty they will eat it. Obviously in a hatch you want to find a fly that matches what they are taking. Even then there are some nymph designs, what I would call universal nymph designs, that are exceptional in being able to catch fish.” The pheasant tail, for example. In just about any river tie on a in a size 14 and smaller and “I don’t care where you are you are going to catch something,” says Borger, which means something since he has fished about every- where. “Of course, we’ve gone to flash- backs (flash-back pheasant tail) and so on, but they don’t necessarily work any better than a plain old pheasant tail.” The pheasant tail is a universal nymph, says Borger. The is another. Another universal pattern Borger likes is a hair-leg worm. It can be tied to imitate small may flies, stone flies or drag- on fly nymphs. With a brisk retrieve it can also imitate bait fish like sculpin. Woolly buggers are also a universal design. In fly fishing, we classify nymphs as any sub-aquatic invertebrate, including leaches which a wooly bugger imitates. Borger regularly fished the pattern like Chet Allison at work on a Pheas- nymphs below shot with an indicator to ant Tail with the finished product target large brown trout and steelhead at center right. At top a Prince around his Wisconsin home. Add rubber Nymph. Clockwise from lower legs to the pattern and the possibilities ex- right, a wooly bugger, the hair pand again. leg and at bottom the rubber “For some reason, fish love rubber legged Wooly legs. You can put them on any way you Bugger. want, as tail, as legs, have them sticking out the middle of the body, wind them on at the front—gosh dang they just work.”

Young Tiers at Work in Lynnwood

Adrian Mead (at left) was one of dozens of kids introduced to the art of fly tying during the Fly Fishing Show in Lynnwood in February. Overlake Fly Fishing Club members Bill Reisbick and Howard Levens provided patient instruction. UW Fishery Sciences Celebrating Centennial Fish and oceans have been part of the years of discovery. From Professor Bud life blood of Washington since before state- Burgner’s studies of sockeye in Lake Ale- hood and part of a long-running research and knagik, Alaska to Prof. Amanda Bradford’s education program at one of its leading univer- work studying Western gray whales in the Rus- sities. The University of Washington School of sian far east the program has played an im- Aquatic and Sciences is celebrating portant role in our understanding of oceans, 100 years of science April 16-18. The school is rivers and species that inhabit them. Go to making its annual Bevan Symposium on aquat- www.fish.uw.edu/news-events/100-year- ic sciences a celebration of that effort by tell- celebration-and-2019-bevan-symposium for ing Centennial Stories of the school’s first 100 more information and registration materials.

Pioneering scientists including Bud Burgner at work in 1946 and Amanda Bradford in 2002, have made the UW program a world leader in aquatic science .

Prime Lies Conservation From page 3 From page 2 means. One of their major initiatives is improve fly casting instruction. If you hatchery reform. They have a staff of 5 employees can’t commit a full afternoon to CE, Don Simon- which include Bill McMillan and Bill Bakke. Their son and Robert Gerlach will be doing a workshop home is located in Edmonds and go to for club casting instructors. www.theconservationangler.com/ for addition in- Thursday evening will be a free dinner for formation on them. volunteers and the famous dessert auction to raise Native Fish Society – This organization ad- money for groups like Project Healing Water. vocates for native fish and promotes the steward- Friday evening is the Awards Banquet and Live ship of the habitats that sustain them. One of their Auction. Be sure to attend and help recognize achievements is publishing the River Steward some of the great people who have worked so Handbook which you can download from their hard for the Council and help raise money for oth- website. They have a staff of 7 and their revenue in er deserving organizations. Both events will have 2017 was $509,676.00. Their headquarters is in a no host bar. Will Godfrey will be the auctioneer Oregon City and you can find out more about them again this year for the live auction. That man at https://nativefishsociety.org/ knows how to run an auction. It’s always a blast. Finally, Saturday evening the Yakima Riv- In addition to these wild fish advocacy or- er Headwaters TU Chapter is sponsor the Fly ganizations there are fishermen’s groups such as Fishing Film Tour right in the main hall in the CCA and , both of which have armory. chapters in Oregon and Washington. And there are To register, go to the Washington State many local organizations such as the NW Steel- Council website www.wscffi.org then go to Fly headers, Skeena Wild Conservancy Trust, Friends Fishing Fair in the black banner and then to the of the East Fork, Wild Fish Rescue, Snake River bottom of that page. I’m registered, are you? Waterkeeper, Idaho Rivers United and Save Our Wild Salmon to name just a few. And the list goes Hope to see you there. on and on. Bill Jack

Address Washington Fly Fishing Fair Schedule for Friday May 3 Register at: www.wscffi.org/2019-registration Washington Fly Fishing Fair Schedule for Saturday May 4 Register at: www.wscffi.org/2019-registration