In May I fished the Yakima River with an younger fishing companion. It was a so-so day until the final two hours drifting to our take-out at Roza when the hatch and the fish came into harmony and we hooked up on some really nice trout.
It so happens two days later was the formal opening of the new Bighorn Recreation Area on the Yakima that Washington State Council FFI and its members statewide had worked to buy and protect. The Washington State Council helped the Western Rivers Conservancy raise money to purchase the former Yakima Canyon Ranch, which included Bighorn, and turn the land over to BLM to manage for all our benefit. That week the joy of fishing the Yakima and the value of Fly Fishers International came into clear focus for me.
It was Lee Wulff who said: “Make a fly fisher and you make a conservationist.” Wulff, who passed away in 1991, was visionary in many ways but none so clear eyed as that statement. The skill to present and hook a fish with a fly requires a close inspection of nature, so close in fact that it becomes a kind of love that turns into commitment to sustain that water and the land around it.
That also summarizes the reason why I’m a member of Fly Fishers International and why I want to sustain this organization and the fishing culture around it. FFI helps us turn our passion for fishing into action for the environment. That’s important to me and I think it’s important to you as well. It became important to the young man I fished with on the Yakima too. I asked him to join FFI. He did and that was a big reward just like the chunky 18 inch rainbow that came to my net near Roza and the ribbon cutting at the new Bighorn Recreation Area. We need the new generation of fly fishers to sustain our organization just like we need healthy watersheds to keep our water clean and our fish healthy.
The perfect opportunity to ask a friend to join is coming up Sept. 21 at the Fly Casting Fair at Clark College in Vancouver Wash. Make a plan now to attend and invite a friend to join you. When people see what FFI is about and understand our commitment to education, conservation and community our membership grows. During the pandemic our membership fell. Now thanks to new events and the effort of our membership director, Larry Gibbs, our membership has stabilized. I look forward to growing again.
Besides leading membership for our council, Larry has been instrumental in helping FFI rekindle membership efforts nationwide.
For that, FFI named him its 2024 Fly Fisher of the Year. Please see the story elsewhere in this edition for more on his contributions.
President Steve Jones