Sometimes, Coke McClure will tell you, he feels like a salmon returning home to spawn.

It's a fitting metaphor for the newly elected president of the South East Idaho Fly Fishers, Chapter 720 of Trout Unlimited.

McClure, a retired Episcopal priest and longtime community volunteer, returned to southeastern Idaho after a lengthy hiatus performing mission work for his church in Nebraska and Kentucky.

Fine enough places, to be sure, but the experience gave McClure and his wife, Tamara, a new appreciation for the high desert lands of the Portneuf Valley.

"In retirement, I don't have to travel to Boise," McClure said. "I can stay here in Pocatello and just enjoy life. It is truly a blessed place to live. Fishing the waters here in eastern Idaho is one of the great blessings of life."

Having grown up in the Rexburg area with access to famed trout fisheries like the Henry's Fork and the South Fork of the Snake River, McClure didn't always appreciate the trout streams the Pocatello area had to offer.

"What's remarkable about this group (the local fly fishers chapter) is the conversion story of the Portneuf River," McClure said. "When I moved here from Rexburg, I didn't give the Portneuf River much mind, because it was in a concrete channel. Over the last 40 years, multiple agencies have cleaned up the Portneuf River so that part of it has been restored to a blue-ribbon trout stream."

McClure's goal as president of the fly fishing organization is to continue the restoration of both the Portneuf and the Upper Blackfoot rivers, which were top-notch trout streams in their heydays. Greater focus on habitat protection, erosion mitigation and water quality have improved conditions in recent years, but there is still plenty of work to do.

At the same time, McClure wants to maintain his organization's reputation for skilled fly tiers and artisans of the fly-fishing craft.

"We'll be emphasizing fly tying, we don't want to lose the club's strength of demonstrating tying flies," he said. "We also want to keep updated on the work of the very good people at the Idaho Fish and Game Department. We want to teach young people about the cycle of life, what happens with trout and salmon. And also work on improving the local Portneuf Watershed."

McClure acknowledges he is a relative newcomer to the fly-fishing organization, having discovered it only after returning to the area from his church work about six years ago.

"I'm just now learning the history," he said of the fly fishers' parent organization, Trout Unlimited. "It's really interesting to me. I'm fascinated with the work of Trout Unlimited. They have a clear mission statement. It's all about promoting fishable waters and restoring and preserving clean Idaho streams and rivers."

Trout Unlimited was founded in 1959 in Michigan and expanded nationally following passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972. The organization quickly grew to help protect blue-ribbon trout fisheries in the West.

"Trout Unlimited as a national movement has been very effective," McClure said. "The interest I have now is from national and regional leaders, some of whom live in Driggs. We are living in a place where, in their language, are priority waters. If we do our job right, we can help promote money from outside sources."

McClure said millions of dollars in private funding have flowed into Silver Creek, the famed trout stream in the Sun Valley area. His son is a landscaper in the Swan Valley area and has done significant hydroseeding near Silver Creek, paid for with money generated by organizations like Trout Unlimited.

The local chapter has about 300 nominal members — anyone who subscribes to the organization's magazine is considered a member. But the group has a core of about 30 members who gather once a month at Goody's in Pocatello to eat pizza, talk fishing and strategize about how best to protect and enhance local rivers and streams.

"We're looking for new board members," McClure said. "If they have an interest in joining our leadership team, they should reach out. We're interviewing new leaders all the time."

McClure would also like to see his group promote use of the Edson Fichter Nature Area south of Pocatello, along the Portneuf River, for activities beyond fishing.

"When I was a seminary student, I led meditation walks along the river," he said. "I have an interest in meeting groups out at the Edson Fichter park. There is a wonderful poem about the Portneuf River that Forde Swetnam wrote. There is an amazing literary culture in Pocatello. Maybe have some events like a barbecue on the greenway that make the most of the area."

As he looks back on the moments that most shaped his love of fishing and wild trout, McClure remembers visiting the Robinson Bar Ranch in Stanley and watching a ranch hand land a monster steelhead from a local creek.

"What gets my blood flowing is those runs of steelhead up to Stanley have been diminished because of the four dams on the lower Snake River," McClure said. "Our local chapter, there is a move away from just being a fly-tying club — that's our strength. And now we're talking more about issues, about preserving the environment… To preserve the steelhead runs so our young people will have these amazing experiences in the outback of Idaho."