Why Speakers?

Devin Smith,  Director of Restoration shares about the current restoration programs on the Barnaby Reach

Do you want to understand and help save wild fish habitat? Join the club meeting on June 23, 2022 to hear Devon Smith tell about the programs of restoring the Barnaby Slew as part of the Skagit River project. The Barnaby Reach Feasibility Study was funded through SRFB in 2009. The purpose of the feasibility study was to evaluate habitat conditions throughout the Barnaby Reach including the Barnaby complex and identify restoration actions that could improve habitat. This study had several objectives: 

Evaluate the impact developments in the reach have on flow, fish use, and habitat conditions both currently .

 over time.

Develop and evaluate restoration options for the reach that could improve habitat conditions, restore natural processes, and reduce maintenance costs.

 Identify hydraulic and geomorphic changes to the river and floodplain that may occur in the Barnaby Reach as a result of restoration actions.

Select and develop conceptual designs for preferred restoration actions.

The Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) provides natural resource management services for the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. On behalf of these two sovereign nations, SRSC works to actively improve fisheries management within their usual and accustomed fishing areas. These areas include the Skagit and Samish River basins, and were ceded to the United States through treaties signed in 1855. Fisheries management carried out by SRSC includes harvest and hatchery management, research, environmental review, habitat restoration, and a range of other activities.

Gary Lewis, an outdoor writer and hunting and fishing show host, speaker and photographer, who makes his home in Central Oregon. Throughout the year, he can be found hunting and fishing around the world and across the American West. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, he has been walking forest trails and running rivers for as long as he can remember. He is a past President of the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association (NOWA). Lewis is a columnist for The Bend Bulletin and a contributing editor for Successful Hunter magazine. He is a humor columnist for Bear Hunting magazine and a regular outdoor writer for many other magazines. 

Lewis is the author of many hunting and fishing books—Hunting Oregon, John Nosler – Going Ballistic, Deer Hunting Tactics for Today's Big Game Hunter, and Freshwater Fishing Oregon & Washington. Lewis contributed to Fishing Central Oregon and Beyond and co-authored Black Bear Hunting with Lee Van Tassell. In 2008, Lewis's The Complete Guide to Hunting and Trout Fishing in the Pacific Northwest was published. Frank Amato Publications published the Oregon Lake Maps and Fishing Guide. 

Heather Hodson, asks, "Do you want to know how to read the water to catch more fish?"

 She is a guide, fly fishing instructor, critical care nurse and other interest as you can see in the write up below. This is a presentation not to miss as fish seem to know where to hide.   Heather Hodson works hard to play even harder.  If she’s not saving lives as a Critical Care RN, you’ll find her traveling the country in search of new water to fish, hosting outings for women throughout the west, and teaching fly fishing classes. Heather founded United Women on the Fly in hopes of building a community, sharing knowledge and giving back to various fishing and conservation groups.  Heather currently holds the position of Western US Women’s/Diversity Ambassador for Trout Unlimited. She’s also no stranger to being behind the camera.  Heather started taking photos as a rodeo photographer with her 35mm.  With over some 100 days on the water this year, it’s always a tossup between catching fish or being creative behind the camera. Her passion for conservation, getting women involved in fly fishing, and enthusiasm to think outside the box is infectious. “There’s nothing better than capturing the expression of someone who just caught their first fish on the fly, learned something new or living the life they love.” 

Scott Willison is the owner of the Confluence Fly Shop. He’s been fly fishing for over 30 years throughout his home state of Washington, and has also fished in the Bahamas, France, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Wisconsin, British Columbia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Scott has an English Writing and Teaching degree from WWU, has taught in public schools and worked as an educator for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. Scott also guided fly fishing on area rivers and beaches prior to his days in the shop. He serves as a Native Fish Society River Steward for the NF Stilliguamish River and is an active member of the Fourth Corner Fly Club. Sometimes he has a beard, sometimes he doesn’t.

Doug Thomas, born in Hillsboro, Oregon, graduated from WSU and worked at Allstate Insurance Company corporate management from 1987-1992 and eventually returned to Washington state and joined Bellingham Cold Storage as Special Projects Manager with multiple promotions that followed, eventually being recognized in 2016 as Business Person of the Year for Whatcom County by Business Pulse Magazine.

He is a respected member of numerous community-based organizations and is the current President of San Juan AREA Sea Life, supporter of the Boys and Girls Club. Doug is on the corporate board of directors for Cascade Natural Gas, a director on the board of the National Fisheries Institute, served the Global Cold Chain Alliance as chairman of the World Food Logistics Organization, and served as chairman of the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses. Doug was very active serving for over 15 years on the Washington State University Board of Trustees, athletic advisory board and was elected in 2010 to serve on the WSU Board of Governors from which he retired from in September of 2017. Doug and his wife Sandy enjoy boating in the San Juan’s, Cougar athletics, spending time at their vacation home in Scottsdale AZ and visiting their daughter Lauren whenever possible ,occurrence and foraging success. 

A Conservation Committee Pick 

Douglas Thomas, a second generation executive, CEO, and part owner of Bellingham Cold Storage, the largest portside, full-service public refrigerated warehousing company on the West Coast, will present the proposed development of a salmon hatchery pilot project at a site on Bellingham Bay near the mouth of Whatcom Creek. 

The model for this proposal is the Douglas Island Pink & Chum’s (DIPAC) Macaulay Salmon hatchery in Juneau, Alaska. DIPAC started operations in 1976 and today is one of the most successful salmon hatchery programs in the world. The Macaulay facility releases well over 138 million juvenile chum, chinook and Coho salmon, and rainbow trout each year for commercial, sport and subsistence uses. Annual returns range between 2.5-5 million harvestable adult salmon with an estimate value of $6-20 million. For more about the Macaulay facility: Macaulay Hatchery in Alaska. 

His presentation will include aspects of the Alaska hatchery that have made the model so successful, why Whatcom Creek was chosen as the site for the hatchery project, how it relates to fisheries co-management between WDFW and the Puget Sound Treaty Tribes, the impact on native stocks, how it will help the southern resident Killer Whales, the stakeholders, the cost, and what the current proposed legislation (Salmon Repopulation Act, Senate Bill 6509 and House Bill 274 includes.

As a club our mission and purpose is working to protect wild fish and the habitat which sustains them and working  for the betterment and preservation of angling and surrounding lands. It is in our best interest to gain knowledge and information to better understand the issues, form educated opinions and work towards our common goals. Learn more about this proposed bill and hatchery project.

• Bellingham Cold Storage Project Overview of the hatchery plans (White Paper)
• San Juan AREA Sea Life 
• Tri-City Herald article, ‘Orcas don’t have that much time.’ Hatchery bill could save them | Editorial. February 2020
• King5 News January 2020
• SB 6509 An act relating to increasing the abundance of salmonids in Washington waters.
• HB 2741 Increasing the abundance of salmonids in Washington water

Imagine that you had three-four weeks to find fishing holes in northern Idaho and you ask yourself where might you go, well Heather Hudson has a great fishing plan based on her knowledge and experience flies fishing there.

Heather Hodson, Founder of United Women on the Fly, is an expert at making anglers (especially women) feel comfortable and becoming a part of the fly fishing community.  Sometimes referred to as the “Middle Woman,”  Heather volunteers her energy and time to connect and mentor women to become more confident on the water. Heather has dedicated her time to educate and inspire others. She is currently studying for her Casting Instructor Certification with Fly Fishers International in a study group with club members Frank Koterba and Marion Hiller, and has been teaching Fly Fishing since 2014.  She’s also no stranger to being behind the camera.  Heather started taking photos as a rodeo photographer with her 35mm.  With over some 100 days on the water this year, it’s always a tossup between catching fish or being creative behind the camera. Her passion for conservation, getting anyone involved in fly fishing and enthusiasm to think outside the box is infectious. Imagine that you had three-four weeks to find fishing holes in northern Idaho and you ask yourself where might you go, well Heather Hudson has a great fishing plan based on her knowledge and experience flies fishing there.Heather Hodson @northwestflygril

Founder of United Women on the Fly:

https://uwotf.com

April Volkey Podcast: Anchored Ep. 193: Interviews Heather Hodson Founder Of 

United Women On The Fly:

https://anchoredoutdoors.com/anchored-ep-193-heather-hodson-of-united-women-on-the-fly/

Grace Freeman is a master’s candidate in the Marine and Estuarine Biology Program at Western Washington University. While working on a bachelor’s in biology and environmental studies from St. Olaf College in Minnesota, she  spent summers working as a camp counselor and backcountry guide across the western mountain states and in Maine. After graduation, Grace held a variety of field and research tech positions before returning to a role in environmental education and academia. Today, she continues to mentor students as the lab manager for the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab at WWU. Within the work of the lab, Grace’s research focuses on the foraging ecology of harbor seals and their predation on Pacific salmon in Whatcom Creek in Bellingham. She hopes to develop this work into actionable science that can have a positive effect on the co-management of two highly iconic and protected species.
A Conservation Committee PickProgram details: The relatively recent decline in salmon stocks in the Salish Sea have pushed some to search for reasons and call for conservation of the iconic and economically valuable species. One form of this management occurs in the form of culling campaigns. Modern culling campaigns have operated under the assumption that all predators of a given species are equally likely to impact their prey population. Put another way, managers assume that those individuals who visit a site more often will consume a larger proportion of prey items than those who visit less frequently. I examined the hypothesis that visitation rate can explain foraging success and, as such, is an appropriate indicator of the impact of an individual predator. To address this hypothesis, I used a long-term dataset to estimate salmon occurrence, identify individual harbor seals, and describe harbor seal occurrence and foraging success. harbor seals (Phoca vitulina)Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.)

Ryan Smith, brings a background of a degree in biology, and has worked in publishing and conservation along with guiding fly anglers for over a decade.  Since he can remember, fly fishing and appreciating the outdoors has been a way of life. Growing up in Oregon and a few years in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming prepared him for our challenging Puget Sound fishing.
Currently, he is the managing owner of The Avid Angler fly shop in Seattle near Kenmore, WA.  And on a rare day off, one will find Ryan combing the Puget Sound beaches, chasing steelhead, cutthroat, and searching for the next great piece of holding water.  Ryan is also a FFI Certified Casting Instructor, which gives him the knowledge about fishing and casting on our saltwater beaches, about ways to increase casting distance and creating casting power into the wind, so reaching our cruising sea-run quarry is more likely than not. Ryan Smith will present “Fly Fishing on the Puget Sound," for cutthroat and salmon from the beach or in a boat.  A Q&A session will follow his presentation.

Skip Morris is among the most prolific fly-fishing and fly-tying authors alive—his name is known to anglers around the world as a noted fly fishing author and speaker. Over the many years that Skip Morris has fished and written about fly fishing he's uncovered many nuggets of information that have helped him and others to catch more fish. Whether it's trout, bass or panfish Skip has something to share that will improve your odds. Listen to this podcast and up your game!Fly Fishing Tips for Trout, Bass and PanfishHe has written twenty-one books on fly fishing and tying, including the established standard beginning fly tier’s volume Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple, and The Art of Tying the Bass Fly, Morris & Chan on Fly Fishing Trout Lakes (with lake-fishing guru Brian Chan), Concise Handbook of Fly Tying, and Fly Fisher’s Guide to Western River Hatches. His videos and DVD’s range from instruction for tying nymphs, to tying bass flies, to tying and fishing flies for sea-run cutthroat trout.Skip has published over 300 articles on fly fishing and tying in magazines from Fly Fisherman to American Angler. For three years he was among the hosts of the “Fly-Fish Television Magazine” show.As a speaker and clinician, Skip is well-known as an entertaining, concise, and knowledgeable presenter, with a sly sense of humor and an easygoing manner that draws in the audience. As our presenter for February, Skip will do a fly tying demonstration for us during his zoom presentation.He lives with his wife, Carol, amid the rivers and lakes and saltwater beaches of Washington State's wild and magnificent Olympic Peninsula.You may have heard him as a presenter at the a recent Lynnwood Fly Fishing Show.Find out more about Skip Morris:http://www.skip-morris-fly-tying.com

 Over the years Gary Bulla has explored unique and pristine fly fishing waters and shares his fishing adventures. These include fly fishing the California surf, kayak fly fishing expeditions to the islands of Southern Baja, mothership trips to Belize for tarpon and bonefish, and guiding anglers with his trained family of captains on the Sea of Cortez in Baja Sur, Mexico.In the last four years he has also hosted trips to Amazonia. His zoom presentation “Angling the Amazon'' will take us through the capital city of Manaus in central Brazil and onto a mother- ship traveling the waters of the largest river system on the planet. He will cover two tributaries of the central Amazon which he visited on separate expeditions, the Rio Negro and the Uyetama Reserve. His first trip was exploratory on an old wooden mothership. Through intense experimentation he and Michael Williams of Nomadic Waters helped train the native guides on fly fishing strategies that led them to become believers in the power of the fly in the jungle waters.Gary will share his discoveries, including a brief geological history of the area, the warmth of the native Amazonians, the stunning biodiversity of the diverse habitats in the jungle’s ecosystems, the rhythm and camaraderie of life on a mothership, and the tackle and techniques for wrestling the dazzling variety of fish in the vast Amazon forest. As you will discover, Brazil should definitely be on every fly fisher’s bucket list. Please join Gary for a colorful trip through a very biodiverse and mysterious part of the world.Gary will share his discoveries with the club, including tackle and techniques for the dazzling variety of fish south of the border. As you will see, Baja should definitely be on every fly fisher’s bucket list. 

Contact Gary about his guided trips to Baja, the Amazon, and beyond at https://garybulla.com

 The term 'fair weather fisherman' exists for a reason.  Few but the hardiest of souls want to venture out when the weather is nasty and the likelihood of getting cold and wet far surpasses the possibility of catching a fish.  For those plagued by cabin fever the need to stay continuously connected to their passion, staying home is not an option and there are numerous fishing opportunities and fishing related activities to get you through the winter doldrums. His program will be in two parts.Scott Willison, 4CFF member and owner of the Confluence Fly Shop will first work you through some of the better local winter fly fishing opportunities from whitefish on the Nooksack River to rainbow trout at Lone Lake and beyond.  Most of the opportunities are fairly close to home at primed for spending a few hours on the water during the warmer part of the day. The second part of the presentation will discuss planning, prepping and organizing during the off season.  Scott's ultimate goal is to be able to grab a bag and go for whatever fishing opportunity rears its head.  He'll walk you through some of his strategies for keeping 35 year's-worth of gear semi-orderly ready to fish as well as how to set yourself up for success throughout the spring, summer and fall seasons.