A8
WEDNESDAY
June 21, 2017
Local ‘Dragons’ rose to the occasion
Wallowa
crew gets
fifth place
By Kathleen Ellyn
Wallowa County Chieftain
The “Dragons in the Wallowas”
dragon boat team played its fi rst
“away game” June 10-11, racing
in the Portland Dragon Boat Races
during Rose Festival.
Approximately 63 teams com-
peted on the Willamette River at
the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in
downtown Portland. The Portland
Race uses the big 1,760 pound Kaoh-
siung-style boats for the international
event, which is why the Wallowa
team purchased a Kaohsiung-style
boat “Wally” for practices earlier this
spring.
The Wallowa County Team came
into the race with 16 of the normal 20
paddlers and relied on friendship with
other teams to recruit volunteer pad-
dlers, an experienced river tiller and a
fl ag-catcher for the race.
The traditional Kaohsiung boat
races include a person who climbs out
and lays belly-down on the head of
the dragon, reaching forward beyond
his nose to snatch a fl oating fi n-
ish-line fl ag from a pole. If the fl ag-
catcher misses the fl ag, the race time
(or win) does not count.
The Wallowa County team ended
up paddling with four borrowed pad-
dlers, referred to as “orphans:” Sally
Flanigan of the Portland Golden
Dragons, and Tessa Fennimore,
Ruthie Fox and Patti Green, all of
Salem, who paddle on the Unsinkable
Cancer Survivor’s Team.
All were excellent additions to
the team as was 100-percent-accu-
rate fl ag catcher Dawn Lewis of the
Golden Dragons and expert tiller
Kenny Brantz of Portland.
The all-woman Wallowa team
jumped out to a fi rst in Division Two
in the fi rst heat on Saturday with a
time of 3:05.60, but began to slip
backward by seconds from there, rac-
ing a 3:06.85 race just a few hours
later.
The squad was in fourth coming
into the quarterfi nals on Sunday and
posted a 3:14.15, enough to earn one
more try.
In the fi nal race, a few hundredths
of a second were trimmed for a
3:14.09.
Photos by Clinton Lions for the Chieftain
The Wallowa County “Dragons in the Wallowas” dragon boat team heads out for thier one and only practice run on the Willamette before the Portland
Dragon Boat Races on June 10. The Hawthorne Bridge over the Willamette River is behind them and they race from the Marquam Bridge back to the
Hawthorne.
It was an impressive rally, but the
top three women’s teams in Division
2 turned in times three to nine sec-
onds faster. Veteran Portland team
Dragon Rose won with a 3:05.67.
The Wallowa team fi nished fi fth
overall in a class of 12.
Nevertheless, the Wallowa County
team was pleased with its fi rst out on
a big river.
Caller Amy Gulzow of Joseph car-
ried tremendous weight given the fact
that the team was without a regular
coach this spring.
Colleen and Rick McLaughlin,
both coaches of the Golden Drag-
ons, were able to come to Wallowa
County for a coaching workshop ear-
lier this spring and Colleen McLaugh-
lin jumped back on the boat in Port-
land on the Friday before the race for
a quick refresher course.
Both McLaughlins then followed
the progress of the team throughout
the Portland event and gave Gulzow
their feedback.
Caller/coach Amy Gulzow signals victory as the Dragons in the Wallowas
celebrate their first fastest heat during the Portland Dragon Boat Races,
June 10-11. Behind Gulzow are Kathy Greene Ward (left) and Julia Zeise.
Gulzow adapted quickly to the
feedback and the changing condi-
tions on the river, pouring her trade-
mark enthusiasm into calling the
races.
Her ability to keep her team ener-
gized even as they began to fl ag in
the fi nal two races and lift them to
shave time was noteworthy.
Tiller Brantz was impressed with
the team on his fi rst and only prac-
tice run with them, declaring them
“very strong,” an opinion he kept
throughout the race.
McLaughlin declared herself
astonished at the strength of the team
and how well members had main-
tained condition and technique over
the Wallowa winter when the frozen
lake prevented practices.
“You have nothing to be ashamed
of,” McLaughlin told the group after
the fi fth-place fi nish. “You are con-
tenders, and I expect to see you back
next year.”
Division One women’s team win-
ner, Liquid Assets, fi nished with a
time of 2:51.33. The leading team of
the Division
One mixed team of men and
women, CCBA Dragon Boat Team,
turned in a winning 2:44.93, while
the Division 2 leading mixed team,
Tsunami USA, turned in a 2:52:89.
Wet a line: Singing the praises of stonefl ies
gone
E
ach spring around Memo-
rial Day, I have clients come
to me and ask what the giant
bugs covering their tents and cots
are and more importantly, “do they
bite?”
The big bugs are golden stones,
a hatch anticipated by both fi sh and
fi sherman. Like a child anticipating
Christmas morning, anglers dream
about the day big stonefl ies come in
late spring, spending countless eve-
nings tying fl y patterns mimicking
the insect and concocting new vari-
ations of old fl y patterns that will
surely fool every trout the fl y passes
over.
While some rivers have an abun-
dance of the stonefl y commonly
called a salmonfl y, northeast Oregon
is blessed with a healthy population
of Golden Stonefl ies.
We have two species in abun-
dance: H. pacifi ca and C. califor-
nica. Both spend two to three years
in the river as nymphs. H. pacifi ca is
the larger and more abundant of the
two. With its “salmon” colored head,
orange to yellow underbelly and
FISHING
Grant Richie
large size up to two inches, anglers
often mistake it for a salmonfl y.
C. californica is smaller with the
largest closer to 1 1/2 inches long.
Their heads are darker, not nearly as
round, and the underbelly is yellow
turning to dark gray or black.
To confuse things further, we also
have small half-inch to three-quarter
inch long yellow stonefl ies. These
smaller yellow stonefl ies are often
labeled yellow sallies in the fi shing
world, and although they hatch in
large numbers a week or two before
the golden stones, the hatches over-
lap giving resident rainbows an
abundance of stonefl ies to eat.
Golden stones crawl to the bank
just after dusk and hatch on rocks,
trees and even your raft. Moss-cov-
ered rock walls on the Grande
Ronde are covered with hundreds
and perhaps thousands of shucks
after the hatch.
An examination of nearby brush
reveals stonefl ies stacked up mat-
ing. Warm afternoon air triggers
the females to take fl ight, and the
huge bugs begin dive-bombing the
water, trying to just touch the water
in order to deposit their eggs. Inevi-
tably, many golden stones end up in
the water becoming trout food.
Guiding both whitewater and
fi shing trips weekly on the Wal-
lowa and Grande Ronde, I have
been lucky enough to witness these
hatches each spring between Minam
and Troy. The hatch normally begins
around Memorial Day in the Troy
area and progresses its way upriver
hitting Minam mid-June on an aver-
age year.
The big stonefl ies live up to a
week, and the hatch can be heavy for
up to two weeks. Random individu-
als pop up throughout the rest of the
summer, and if you were completely
obsessed with following the stone-
fl y hatch, you could continue up in
elevation on the Minam River, Wal-
lowa River, Bear Creek and the Los-
tine River following the hatches up
into the wilderness area as summer
progresses.
The population does begin to
dwindle as you get higher in the
river systems.
During the early days of the
hatch anglers fi nd success with big
dry fl ies late in the afternoon and
into the evening when females are
returning to the river to deposit eggs.
If you fi sh enough, you will experi-
ence some of the best dry fl y action
of the year when big rainbows will-
ingly come to the surface all day
long.
Although you can use fl y patterns
as large as size 4, it is more produc-
tive to fi sh medium-sized patterns
in the 6-10 range with size 8s my
favorite.
Some of my favorite commer-
cially tied patterns are Stimula-
tors, Chubby Chernobyls, Parachute
Madame X, Hedgehog and the Flut-
tering Salmon Fly. Most important
factors for fl y selection is orangish
to yellow color, high buoyancy, easy
visibility for you as an angler and
the addition of rubber legs on any
fl y pattern increases it’s fi sh catch-
ing ability.
To dramatically increase your
catch, tie a second fl y imitating the
nymph 16-inch below your dry fl y.
This is commonly referred to as a
“Hopper Dropper” setup, but in this
case you will be imitating both the
adult and nymph stage of the stone-
fl ies life cycle.
Grant Richie and his wife have
been operating the Minam Store and
Motel, offering raft rentals, shuttle
service, and guiding fl oat and fi sh-
ing trips since 2011. His grandpar-
ents lived and worked in Hells Can-
yon on the Oregon side for the fi rst
half of the 20th century. He has been
fi shing, hiking and fl oating the rivers
and canyons of northeast Oregon for
the past 20 years since attending col-
lege at Walla Walla Community Col-
lege and Whitman College in Walla
Walla.
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Joseph
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Wallowa
609 N Main St
541-432-9050
300 NW 1st St
541-426-4511
202 N Storie St
541-886-9151
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