Welcome New Members

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Vince Tweddell
Cy LeGare, Sylvia Miller
Mike Barnum
Paul Franklin
Joe, Barbara Henry
Stephen, Helene
   Richards
Ladd Zastoupil
Carol Corbridge
Lisa Greif
Mike Masters
Mark Swisher
Hugh, Elizabeth Fechtler
Mike Le Tourneau

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Club Patch

•No meeting at the Red Lion Hotel this month because it’s time for the Rogue Flyfishers’ annual picnic. Get the details about the picnic in the meeting announcement box of this newsletter

• The Southern Oregon Fly Tiers invite you to attend their next meeting, Tuesday, August 12, 7 p.m. at the Madrone Hill Mobile Home Park community building near Gold Hill. Tiers need not be experienced, and those with all levels of skill are welcome. Participants are asked to donate a fly to the free raffle held at the end of the meeting. Each meeting a member is encouraged to demonstrate a new or different skill, from simple to difficult. For more information, call Dan Kellogg at 773-4724. Directions to the community building: Take Gold Hill Exit 40 off I-5 and head west towards Jacksonville for 1.3 miles until you reach the brick entrance to the Madrone Hill Mobile Home Park on the right. You will pass a golf course parking lot on your left shortly after leaving the freeway. After you turn right into the mobile home park, proceed to the community building, located about 100 yards ahead on the left. The address is 8401 Old Stage Rd. Please park your vehicle on the access-road side of the parking lot to avoid the septic cover on the far side.

•Rusty Randall, a long-time club member, died of lung cancer on Thursday, June 19, 2008. A memorial service for Rusty was held in Grants Pass on July 8. We have lost another staunch supporter, talented fly tier, and all-around great guy. We will surely miss Rusty and his great sense of humor.

Special workshops being offered by Rick Hafele and John Smeraglio. Classes are being offered on fly-fishing western lakes and on fly-fishing western rivers. Pre-registration is required: contact Deschutes Canyon Fly Shop, toll free at 1-866-647-4721 or at john@flyfishingdeschutes.com to register.

What: Two-Day Class on Fly-Fishing Western Lakes
Where: Five Lakes Ranch, Grass Valley, Oregon
Dates & Time: Saturday, September 20, 2008 from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, September 21, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Cost: $250 (Includes instructions, fishing on private lakes, lodging on Saturday night, Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast and lunch.)

   The little kid sat on a stool with his child’s fishing rig at the far end of which was a hook with a salmon egg dangling in the bathtub where a trout cruised about ignoring the offering. The youngster was three or four years old, couldn’t have been older because the place where this happened was destroyed by flood when he was five, in the winter of 1937-38. His dad had just removed a fish hook from the boy’s finger, which hurt like the very devil, and while his mother bandaged the wound his dad went out to the stream and brought back a trout which they placed in the bathtub where the boy could carry on his passion. The event would live as on of the boy’s earliest childhood memories, the most vivid of which is watching that trout swimming about, round and round, back and forth, in the bathtub; the pain of the stuck fish hook is remembered as secondary.
   Now, some 70 years later, you folks just selected that little kid as President of the Rogue Flyfishers. As Rusty Randall used to say, growing old is inevitable, growing up is out of the question. So I guess you could say that I’ve been fishing all my life, or close enough to it. Although I’ve had opportunity I never really developed into a great fly fisher, not by a long shot, but I’ve known a few who might qualify. Rather, I stay with fishing, fly fishing in particular, because I love it so. Out there on the river it is just me, the water, the trees, sky with sun and maybe a few clouds and gentle breeze, birds, and then whoa! Fish on! Nothing compares with that. Nothing. And that is the reason that I accept the presidency, to help protect and preserve this precious resource through the good work of the Rogue Flyfishers.
   This is a team effort. I shall rely heavily upon our excellent Board as well as previous presidents, Chick Parsons, Steve Wall and Mike Ireland in particular, who did such outstanding work during their tenures of the last five years. Perhaps most important of all will be the membership contributing time and effort in the worthwhile goals and projects of the club. Most pressing at the moment is our annual fund raising event, the Steelhead Tournament. Already Walter Haines, an Honorary Life Member, is busy in his shop making contributions for the auction, and previous experience with Walter’s work indicates that we have something special to look forward to. So let’s see if we can all get involved in some small or larger way to help make this year’s tournament successful.

Meanwhile, see you at the picnic next Wednesday at Emigrant Lake!
Lee Wedberg

July picnic will be held, once again, at Emigrant Lake Picnic Area A. The parking is free if you have a Jackson County Parks Pass, otherwise there is a small parking fee. Detailed information regarding the format of the picnic is not yet available, but all information will be published in the July newsletter. The date of the picnic is July 16, the third Wednesday of July. We may end up having the picnic food catered, with a fee of about $12 per person.

• Most members will recall that past picnics featured Hank Rogers & Gary Graham grilling delicious lemon chicken using the large BBQ grill that belongs to the Lions Club. However, since last year’s picnic Hank Rogers suffered a brain tumor and as a result of the ensuing surgery Hank suffered a stroke. Hank remains in rehab at the Medford Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, 625 Stevens Street, Medford, where he is staying in Room 108. He currently is working on re-learning how to stand up, but his speech and enunciation are good. He has made definite progress since the early days following his stroke. He would love to have visitors. Hank has done a lot of good work for the Rogue Flyfishers for a long time, including serving on the Board of Directors as Club President from 1996 through 1999. Hank has taken many of us flyfishers in his drift boat on steelhead and trout fishing excursions. Please consider visiting Hank: your visits may help to speed up his recovery.

• Jim Harleman needs your catch results from your fishing trips at the Holy Water. Survey forms should be submitted electronically via the club’s website, ROGUEFLYFISHERS.ORG. Survey results link directly to Jim Harleman who is tabulating the data as part of the Holy Water Taskforce-ODFW effort to improve the fish catch at the Holy Water. Be sure to check each fish you catch to see if it has been fin-clipped – this is important information to report on the survey form. The survey is available by clicking on the Holywater link in the upper left of this home page.

•Club member Winn Ward is in stroke rehabilitation care at Linda Vista Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 135 Maple Street, Ashland, OR 97520. You will remember Winn if you shopped at McKenzie Outfitters where Winn worked in the fly shop. Dave Hopfer reports that Winn is making progress with his rehabilitation. Why not stop by and visit Winn? He will enjoy your company and appreciate your concern.

•Free fly-casting instructions are now being offered to members and non-members. One or more instructors from RFF will be on hand on Wednesday evenings, 6 p.m., at Hawthorne Park, Medford, to provide instructions. Contact John MacDiarmid at 664-8391 for more information. Please call ahead to make sure someone will be there because of ?xa0;Board meetings on the first Wednesday of each month and club meetings on the third Wednesday of each month.