Families on the FLY.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Snow dusted the hills cradling the jade green Middle Fork Willamette River above Hills Creek Reservoir as Marv Clemons stood on a bridge Saturday and talked about fishing the section of stream flowing toward him.

"From that big rock chute down here to the end can be some of the most dynamite fishing you've ever had," Clemons said.

Ten anglers nodded as they made mental notes to return later, after those waters are open to trout fishing.

Today, however, they would be limited by circumstance to fishing the slack waters of the reservoir near the mouth of Hills Creek. The Reservoir is open year-round, and it can provide good fly-fishing when the slack water backs up into the channel of Hills Creek itself as the reservoir fills each spring. Trout concentrate there to feed.

When he scheduled the Cascade Family Flyfishers' first club outing of the year, Clemons had hoped to be able to fish in the stream channel above the bridge. But the water level was a foot or so too low for that.

"Even if people don't get to it today, we'll be able to show 'em where to fish when the season opens," he said.

Showing people where and how to fish is part of what the Cascade Family Flyfishers club is all about.

Formed 21 years ago by Clemons and eight other fly-fishermen, the Cascade group has evolved into one of the largest and most active fishing clubs in the region, with 150 individuals involved. Annual dues are $25.

Much of the club's growth is attributed to club members' willingness to share their favorite fishing holes - along with advice on how best to fish them - with other members.

"That's the reason I joined the club, to learn where to fish," said Janet Dunn, the club's president, one of two women who participated in Saturday's outing.

Saturday's trip to Hills Creek Reservoir was just the first of many fishing trips the club has planned this year.

"From March to November, we have outings most every month," said Darlene Kline-Dolby, the club's secretary. "Sometimes two or three."

Indeed, there are more than 20 trips scheduled so far, according to outings chairman Alan Corbin, ranging from bass fishing on the Umpqua River to steelhead fishing on the Deschutes River. "And we've got a lot of trout fishing in local rivers and lakes," he said.

All the trips provide an opportunity to learn and to "connect with really good fly-fishermen," Corbin said.

Another aspect of the Cascade Family Flyfishers that appeals to many is that women and children are welcome.

(When the Cascade group was forming in 1985, the bylaws of Eugene's other major fly-fishing club contained a "men only" clause. The McKenzie Flyfishers later revised their bylaws, opening membership to women in 1989.)

Five husband-wife couples were among the nine charter members of the Cascade club.

"We believed that the club should be affordable for young people with growing families, and that there should be an emphasis on family participation," said Skip Hosfield, who, as senior vice president for membership of the national Federation of Flyfishers, launched the organizing effort.

"I also thought there was a need for an after-dinner club, because the McKenzie Flyfishers had always had dinner meetings and a lot of people - especially people with kids in school - they can't do that."

Clemons, who had unknowingly run afoul of the McKenzie club's "men-only" rule when he brought his wife, Thelma, along to a meeting he'd been invited to attend, was a charter Cascade member. As was his wife.

One of the new club's primary objectives was to "make a special effort to attract people who had never before tried fly-fishing," Hosfield said.

That goal is apparently still being met, as "our membership is split almost down the middle between relatively new fly-fishers and old-timers, people who have been fly-fishing their whole life," he said.

Helping attract potential members are the education programs that highlight the club's monthly meetings, held on the fourth Wednesday of every month at the Eugene Eagles lodge, 1375 Irving Road. The meetings start at 7 p.m., but doors open at 6:15 for a "social" time that includes a fly tying demonstration. Non-members are welcome.

The program might feature a guest speaker such as Montana guide and author Trapper Badovinac, who will present a program on several blue-ribbon trout fisheries in his home state at Wednesday's meeting. Or it might be a "show and do" event, featuring a number of experts available to teach people one-on-one about knots, leaders, casting or entomology.

The club is also heavily involved in conservation and fish habitat work. Its first project, Hosfield recalls, was to build a dam at the outlet of a small lake in the Middle Fork Willamette drainage "to raise the water level so the fish could over-winter."

Just last month, 17 members of the Cascade Family Flyfishers helped plant 4,000 trees on Green Island, near the confluence of the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers, part of a project that aims to restore river flows to areas that would make ideal fish habitat.

Members of the club also regularly volunteer their assistance at youth fishing and "free fishing day" events, teach fly-tying classes and fly-fishing seminars, participate in annual riverside cleanups, and help the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife backpack fingerling trout to various high lakes for release.

In the end, though, the Cascade Family Flyfishers is about fishing, and many members are looking forward to the next outing, scheduled for April 1 at Hult Reservoir (aka Hult Pond).

For membership information or other details, log on to: www.cascadefamilyflyfishers.com.

CAPTION(S):

Four members of the Cascade Family Flyfishers club work their flies in the waters of Hills Creek Reservoir during the first of more than 20 trips the organization has planned for the year. Janet Dunn, president of the club, practices her craft during an outing on the Middle Fork Willamette River.