President Steve Jones
A Look To The Past
“We were back in upstate New York, because we were friendly with Lee and Joan Wulff through the Federation. We spent time in their home and they took us fishing on their favorite spots. They lived right on the Beaverkill and we went fishing in the Beaverkill both days. It is a classic place to fish.” The speaker in that quote was Gordy Young, a member of the Washington Fly Fishing Club in Seattle. The year he was recalling was probably in the early 1960s.
That memory and many others are part of an archive at Western Washington University that collects oral histories of notable Washington residents, including fly fishers. Gordy’s interview is one of 64 that are part of the university’s Fly Fishing Oral Histories collection. It’s one of the first histories in the collection and it’s the first mention of the Federation. That us. The Federation was the Federation of Fly Fishers. It was renamed Fly Fishers International a few years ago. We’ve been here since the beginning.
Errol Champion, Lew Bell and Ed Foss of Seattle were there in 1965 when the Federation was formed in Eugene, Ore. By the early 70s Champin and Foss were president and secretary of the Northwest Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers and they hit the road talking to every bunch of fishermen they could find urging them to form a club and become members of the Federation. Thanks to them, we have several Washington fly fishing clubs celebrating their 50th anniversaries. Olympic Fly Fishers of Edmonds, 4th Corner Fly Fishers of Bellingham, Clark-Skamania Flyfishers in Vancouver, Fidalgo Fly Fishers in Anacortes, Evergreen Fly Fishing Club in Everett and probably others. I’m still looking.
I learned about all this thanks to Danny Beatty and Robin Larue of the Fidalgo Fly Fishers who responded to my last column asking about the founding of your local fly fishing clubs. The response was gratifying and navigating through the oral histories at WWU has become a regular pastime for me … Partly because of this memory from 1970… “I was up fishing at Hihium in September of that year,” Steve Raymond recalled in a 2002 interview. Hihium is a lake in British Columbia about 7 hours drive north of Seattle. It’s killer good. Make the trip if you can. “In fact I remember I was playing a fish at the time,” Raymond continued, “and Pat Kirkpatrick pulled alongside in his boat and said, ―We just got a long-distance phone call down at the ranch from Bradner over at the Federation conclave in Sun Valley. And he said that Lew Bell of Everett has been elected president of the Federation and he wants you to be secretary.” So I had to make a decision on the spot, and I was playing this fish, so I said, ―Yes, I’ll do it. And Pat took off and I landed the fish. There’s a-lot to unpack in that comment.
First, Steve Raymond did become secretary of the Federation. Pat Kirkpatrick was owner of the Circle W-Ranch Lodge on Hihium Lake and a well-known personality in the early Federation. He was never an officer that I can find. But, many Seattle fly fishers knew him from both BC and Mexico where he drove his camper every winter where he fished the Sea of Cortez for dorado (mahi mahi). When storms were bad, he led all the fishers to Mar de Cortes at the northern end of the Sea of Cortez to the safety of asphalt roads and drinkable water.
The man Steve Raymond refers to as “Bradner,” was Enos Bradner, a Seattle Times reporter and author of “Northwest Angling,” 1950, which is regarded as a foundational text on Northwest fly fishing. He was creator of the early steelhead-staple fly the, “Brad’s Brat.” The Federation held conclaves in Sun Valley in 1969, 1970, 1972, and 1973. Lew Bell, son of Ralph Bell, chief judge of Snohomish County Superior Court, often fished the Skykomish and the Stillaguamish with his son. The younger Bell earned a law degree from the University of Arizona, returned to Washington to practice law and in 1965, Bell co-founded the Evergreen club in Everett. Bell played a pivotal role in the formation of the Federation of Fly Fishers. At the first FFF Conclave in 1965 in Eugene, Bell, along with Lee Wulff, presented the initial draft of the organization’s first constitution.
Whoa. Let’s read that again.
A Washington fly fisher, Lew Bell, wrote the organization’s first constitution… Lew Bell of Everett had been elected one of the Federation’s early presidents and he had a bunch of Seattle fishing friends he brought in to our organization. Washington fly fishers have been here since the beginning! We are foundation! I want to again thank Danny Beatty and Robin Larue of the Fidalgo Fly Fishers for introducing this archive to me. I’m not native Northwest. I migrated from the flatlands. I didn’t figure out trout until my 20s. Steelhead didn’t reveal themselves until well into my 30s. I’m a student. Thanks to everyone who understands, appreciates, shares this sport.