Due to my own foolishness of taking 10 graduate credits and working full time, most of this glorious Fall has passed me by as far as fishing goes. One of my over committments turned into a real treat. I volunteered to teach a beginners fly fishing class for the Outdoor Education Program here at EWU. The class was made up of 6 women and one male all between 18-20 years of age. We met for two 2 hour classes over the last two weeks and then made an overnight camping trip to the St. Joe River as their "graduation". The Fall colors were absolutely stunning as we made our way over Moon Pass. Half the class members were from Hawaii and the other half from the Everett area. None of them had ever been into this remote of wilderness before and listening to the comments followed by silence was fun. The Western Larch was their favorite. We survived the night even though a 60% chance of rain was forcast. We went to bed with the stars and I woke up with the stars and clear sky. We made it on the river by 9:00 and the sky was starting to darken up. Add in a cold wind blowing upriver and our newbies were experiencing Fall fishing at its finest, haha. The fish weren't especially friendly to the group. I had one rise early on and that was it. After an hour 3/4ths of the group retreated to the van to get warm when it started to rain. My group from Hawaii stayed with me. As the first drizzle let up, the fish started rising. I hooked a nice cutt for a few seconds and then the hook popped free. It went dead again until it started drizzling again. This time the fish were rising everywhere. I had one more miss and then hooked a nice 16 inch cutt and handed the rod to one of the remaining kids. He had a blast fighting the fish and they were in awe of its colors. The fish did the slimy fish wiggle and was back in the river before the picture but they were quite happy. The fishing then went dead again and a serious downpour started. We retreated to the van and headed home. Next year we will have to get up there the first week of Oct. when the fish are in a bit better mood. I think the kids all had a great time and it made a nice final river trip of the year for me. Mike Spangle, WA
