March - Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Newscasts
March 2015 Serving the Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited
The Meicher Madness Auction
We Want You!
Great gear and fun at our March 10 Meeting
Are you willing to step up and lend your talents
and experience?
You never know what you’ll find … and win … at our
annual Meicher Madness Auction. You can get great
deals and get rid of some stuff (to make way for new
stuff, of course).
We have an
excellent and
engaging Board of
Directors, and have
several open slots to
fill this year.
It’s a very fun night and you might walk away with:







Proven patterns tied by local masters
Beautiful fly rods
More proven patterns tied by local masters.
Fabulous fly tying
materials
Wildlife artwork
All manner of outdoor gear
A guided trip with Jim
Bartelt
That means we
need you – or
maybe you have an
idea of someone to
nominate – to step
up!
SWTU is a very active (and award-winning!) chapter,
and the excellent mix of stability and change at our
leadership level plays a big role in our success.
These are just a few of the amazing things people
have donated… and won… at the auction.
Expressing interest is easy! Simply contact any
officer or board member, which you can find listed at
the end of this newsletter. You can also contact Mike
Burda, who is chairing our 2015 Nominating
Committee.
Auction items needed!
Besides your bids, we also need items for the auction.
Gear, books, flies, boots, waders, vests, artwork,
services and more! If it’s remotely related to our sport
and the outdoors, somebody will buy it! Just bring it
that night and somebody will place a bid.
All names are forwarded to the Nominating Committee,
which assembles a slate of candidates for the April
chapter meeting (April 14, this year). If there is no
contest for a slot, the person is typically approved on a
voice vote. If a slot is contested, the election is
conducted via secret written ballot. In addition,
nominations may be made from the floor.
This is our second biggest fundraiser. All proceeds go
to preserve and protect our cold water resource.
Please arrive early to set out your donated item
and/or preview items. We will start PROMPTLY at 7
p.m. and move things along as quickly as we can so
the auction doesn’t run too late.
Check out the Leadership section of www.swtu.org for
specific details on election procedures and the
expectations for each position.
As usual, the meeting is upstairs at the Coliseum Bar
and Grill on East Olin Avenue at 7 p.m. but please join
us earlier for dinner and a few stories.
Read on for:
- Our first workday of 2015
Somebody will win $100
in April
- A few words from our friends at the Badger
Fly Fishers
We don’t do a drawing at the
March meeting, so be there in
April when somebody will win a
$100 gift certificate to Fontana
Sports Specialties.
- A great story about Story Creek
- Rusty uses a needle to weave a tale
- Many other great events and opportunities
1
The first workday of 2015
Welcome New Members
A fun and friendly way to make a difference
We’re pleased to announce the addition of the
following new members to our ranks.
Our first workday of the year will be on Saturday,
March 14 on Pleasant Valley Branch along Dane
County Rd H, about 1 1/2 miles south of County Rd.
A. We will be finishing the stretch of the stream where
we last left off. A map for this location
can be found by clicking on this
link: http://binged.it/1C9hu26
Bill Hayes
John Davis
Brian Busler
Gordon Krueger
Keith Reopelle
Dane Connolly-Nelson
Michael Casler
We are honored to have you among us. Please join us
for a Chapter meeting, and we will give you FREE
raffle tickets, flies and “an offer you can’t refuse” from
some of our most experienced fisher-folk! Try to get
there at 6 p.m. for dinner and to sit with one of our
board members to learn more about us. If you will be
attending your first meeting, please contact Amy
Klusmeier so we can expect you.
When: Saturday, March 14, 2015 from
9 a.m. to Noon (Chapter Approved
Sawyers please arrive at 8:30).
What: Willow and invasive brush removal to benefit
trout stream habitat. Also friendly camaraderie,
donuts, coffee, hot cocoa and a chance to give back
to the resource!
Register Now for the 2015 Women’s
Flyfishing Clinics
Visit the Women’s Flyfishing
Clinic section of SWTU.ORG
to learn more and register.
Where: Pleasant Valley Branch Creek - Take Hwy
151 west out of Madison, on the west side of Mt.
Horeb take Hwy 78 south 6.5 miles to Dane County
Road H, turn left (south) on Cty Rd.H, Cty Rd. H will
join Cty Rd A in 2 miles, turn left and in 1/2 mile H
turns right. Our work site is about 1 1/2 miles south of
Cyt Rd A on Cty Rd. H. You could also take Hwy 69
south out of Verona to Cty Rd A (8.5 miles), turn right
(west) and follow Cty Rd A all the way to Cty Rd H
(14.8 miles), and turn left (south) and go 1 1/2 miles.
See the map link above.
There are also fliers available to review, post or
share [pdf and jpg].
The Trout Bums need your questions!
Send your troutish questions to Tristan Kloss at
tie.a.fly@gmail.com, and we’ll try to get it answered
in an upcoming segment of The Trout Bums Q&A.
Bring: Work gloves, loppers, and hand saws if you
have them; otherwise the chapter has equipment you
can use. Waders and rubber boots are suggested as
we will be working on both sides of the stream. If you
don't have any, you can work on the road side of the
stream.
Free One-Year Memberships for Veterans
National TU will pick up the membership dues of any
veteran who is involved in our veterans program. If this
is you – or you are a veteran and would like to help
with our veteran initiatives – contact Mike Burda.
Parking: Park on the east side of the road.
Save the date: Special Annual Fishing Day
Please mark your calendars for our Chapter's Special
Annual Fishing Day on Saturday, June 13 at Jim
Kalscheur's Ponds (just west of Madison; maps and
more information will be provided in future Newscasts).
You have the opportunity to provide a great day of
fishing for some very special people who are not
ordinarily able to share in the pastime we all love.
If you have questions or think you can help, please
contact Jim Hess (608-288-8662,jim.hess@tds.net) so
we can get a volunteer count estimate.
Thank you. We look forward to seeing you there!
Every workday you attend earns you an entry into the
drawing for the Stream Keeper fly rod, custom-built by
Jim Bartelt!
Mark your calendars for these future workdays
Saturday, April 4
Saturday, April 25
Saturday, May 9
Setup will commence at 7:30 a.m. and the fishing will
begin at 9 a.m. TU members are encouraged to bring
their family members to share in this rewarding
volunteer opportunity. We need groundskeepers,
fishing guides, greeters, servers and fish cleaners. All
volunteers are welcome to fish the ponds after our
guests leave at around 2 p.m. Contact John Schweiger
at 238-8062 for more information.
Check out Southern Wisconsin Trout
Unlimited on Facebook to connect to
activities, discussions and friends. (You can
view the page without a Facebook account.)
2
a fertilizer-related fish kill. Funds have been given to
the Grant/Rock Co. Audubon Society and the
Reedsburg school district for stream monitoring kits
and over 500 schools received free DVDs teaching
children about the importance of our cold water
resources. A more complete list of funding programs is
available on our website badgerflyfishers.com. Our
monthly newsletter is also available on this site.
Conservation Partner Profile
The Badger Fly Fishers
[Ed. Note: We’re happy to give space to our
conservation partners so they can share more about
their goals, beliefs, activities and more.]
The Badger Fly Fishers formed in the late1980’s with
a goal of conserving our watersheds and the life they
support while promoting the sport of fly fishing and the
art of fly tying. We were initially affiliated with the
international fly fishing organization, the Federation of
Fly Fishers but have operated as an independent club
for the past several years.
Most recently, we were honored to be a small part of
Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited’s highly regarded
conservation efforts by donating funds to purchase a
trailer, chain saws and safety equipment for their use
on various stream restoration projects.
As with most volunteer organizations, our membership
numbers vary from year to year but, typically, we will
have an annual membership of approximately 125
people. Many of our members are also members of
Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited and the
Wisconsin Smallmouth Alliance as well. We meet
September through May of each year, on the fourth
Monday of the month, at the Mapletree restaurant in
McFarland. We have a different speaker at each
meeting discussing a variety topics from local trout
fishing to fishing in exotic locations.
We look forward to working collaboratively with
Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited in the future and
want you to know how much we appreciate your efforts
on behalf of cold water fisheries in our area. Not only
do we benefit directly from your hard work, but future
generations will have the same opportunities to fish
pristine waters thanks to your hard work and
dedication. A wise person once said, “our children
don’t inherit the natural world from us, rather we
borrow it from them.” Thanks to organizations such as
SWTU, we are confident that our children will be happy
with what find and will, in turn, treat it with care.
Each year on the second Saturday in February, the
Badger Fly Fishers sponsor the Spring Opener which
is our primary fund raising event. We are currently
having the event at the American Family Insurance
Training Center in Madison. The all-day event
features a nationally known keynote speaker, more
than 20 fly tyers, 25 vendors, lunch and a banquet.
The presentation of the Joan and Lee Wulff
Conservation award takes place at the banquet each
year.
-- Bob Harrison
President – Badger Fly Fishers
Craig Mathews was our keynote speaker this year and
our event drew over 300 attendees.
Money raised at the Spring Opener is used to support
our sister organizations in their conservation efforts. In
the 27 years that we have had this fund raiser, we
have raised and distributed over $70,000 to numerous
conservation groups such as Southern Wisconsin
Trout Unlimited, Harry and Laura Nohr Trout
Unlimited, Aldo Leopold Trout Unlimited and Friends
of the Sugar River. In addition, we have donated
funds to the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources for their Nevin Fish Hatchery Wild Trout
Program, the Blockhouse Creek habitat program and
also to restock Willow Creek in Richland Co. following
Bob Harrison, President of BFF, presents workday
equipment to Jim Hess, SWTU Conservation Committee CoChair. Included in this generous gift were 2 STIHL 16”
chainsaws, 2 carrying cases, 4 replacement chains, 2
protective safety helmets, 2 protective safety chaps, bar oil,
engine oil and sharpening files with handle.
3
extraordinary. I'm guessing with its springs and high
groundwater the marsh was much more typical of the
Central Sands area than of any in the Driftless Area. If
one pheasant hunts the Brooklyn Public Hunting Area,
the public lands around Story Creek, as I do in the
dead of winter, you immediately notice that a number
rivulets are surprisingly deep (always, always deeper
than my boots), never freeze, and have lots of little
fish. The big ditches likewise never freeze (for intrepid
birders, they often hold small flocks of black ducks, the
latest migrating of the puddlers) and tons (not bunches
but tons) of watercress. The drainage ditches are
numerous and many are quite large. The resource we
are restoring is a spring pond of about an acre with
several big upwellings and an outlet that was a lovely
little spring creek meandering a couple of hundred feet
to Story Creek. A large drainage ditch was run through
the pond and then the spring creek was obliterated by
way of channelization and incorporation into the ditch.
What had been a source of clean, very cold water for
Story Creek became a conduit for sediment and
warmer water. The little feeder enters the creek in the
middle of the re-meandered portion.
A heckuva Story … Creek, that is
By Topf Wells
[Editor’s note: This is the longest article that’s run in
Newscasts, but it’s a fascinating slice of history and
conservation and very much worth your time.
Probably also the first to feature a Piranha!]
Let's start this story about Story Creek with most
sincere thank you to the TU members and friends who
worked very hard in frustrating and hot conditions last
August 16, 2014 to restore an important spring pond
and spring creek that are tributary to Story Creek.
Thank you, thank you, thank you (and misspellings
are the fault of the weak eyes of the author of this
story): Henry Nehls-Lowe, Pat Hasburgh, John
Ainslie, Jim Hill, Jim Beecher, Kurt Osterby, Seth
Merdler, Doris Rusch, Bill Mitchell, Michael Mason,
Ben Siebers, Topf Wells and Mike Foy.
To understand what we were doing there requires
some history (you might want to pull up a chair and
pour the beverage of your choice; it's a long but
interesting story) that might best start in the early
1930's in the area around Story Creek. Where now we
see a complex of farms, subdivisions in Green
County, and DNR lands we would have encountered a
huge spring-fed marsh of several thousand acres
surrounded by farms. Among the more interesting
fauna would have been flocks of prairie chickens and
brook trout. Starting in the late 30's and extending
through the mid 1950's the marsh was drained for
agriculture. Shortly thereafter the DNR started buying
land in that area for the purposes of providing public
hunting and trout fishing on Story Creek. By then the
chickens were gone and wetland restoration would
probably have seemed nonsensical. Story Creek
continued to be a good trout stream (30-35 years ago
when I joined the chapter it was usually considered
the third best stream in Dane County, following Black
Earth Creek and Mt. Vernon Creek). It also received
some attention from the DNR. Early project work
occurred on the X stretch of the creek (a Green
County segment, accessed from County Highway X,
of about 100 acres in DNR ownership). About 15
years ago, the DNR re-meandered a long,
channelized stretch of the creek accessed off Alpine
Road. But, it'd be fair to say
that the stream has slumbered
through a long period of
benign neglect.
Meanwhile, under the direction of Doris Rusch and
Mike Foy, the retired and current wildlife managers of
the area, the DNR continued to acquire land. Doris
completed the first wetland restorations maybe 10
years ago on the southern edge of the property. These
were scrapes primarily intended for the benefit of
waterfowl. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk
stopped rural subdivisions on the contiguous areas of
the marsh in Dane County. (By the way, the starkest
contrast in rural land development can be seen on any
of the lands at the Dane County/Green County line
around the marsh. In Dane County the lands are
mostly in farms of different sizes. In Green County,
with no zoning, the number of rural subdivisions is
staggering.) About 5 years ago, Mike conceived a most
audacious plan. He recognized that if the DNR or
partners acquired additional acreage off Bellbrook
Road, he could restore almost 1000 acres of the
original marsh. The land was available in part because
of the Dane County ban on rural subdivisions. And the
restoration would be directed to the original hydrology
of the area, not the more limited one that Doris had
created. Dane County and the Natural Heritage Land
Trust came to the DNR's
assistance and the land was
purchased. Mike then began
the arduous tasks of planning
the restoration (the level of
detail is daunting) and of
writing grants for its
implementation. Successful at
both, Mike set out on the
actual restoration about 3
years ago.
The drainage had more
drastic effects than most of us
could have easily identified. In
general it cut off lots of
springs from the creek and
little feeders. The springs and
high groundwater in the
former marsh are
The work is tough. Much of
4
the work occurs about 2 miles from the nearest road
and the high groundwater level makes it impossible to
use much of the heavy equipment the DNR can
normally use. (The groundwater level is so high that
you can feel the ground quiver as you approach the
spring pond on the normal path in.) Mike had hoped
he was facing a 2-3 year project; he's now expecting
this to take him into his retirement.
who graciously allowed Mike to use the dredge for up
to two weeks this last summer. Our SWTU Board had
supported this restoration and Mike and I came up with
a plan which would start with a workday to begin the
dredging and some initial stabilization of the outlet.
SWTU volunteers would help with the workday and
individual members would come out over the next two
weeks to help the DNR personnel run the dredge. It
seemed an elegant plan. We even had nets for
volunteers to help Mike sample the gazillion of frogs
around the pond to see if a threatened species was
present.
The road to TU involvement started when I ran into
Doris and Mike at the site 2 years ago. Mike explained
that he viewed the restoration of the pond and the
feeder/outlet as key parts of the restoration but with
special challenges. With years of sediments built up,
the pond needs to be dredged and the obliterated
feeder/outlet fully restored and stabilized. The margins
of the pond are quite soft and contained some nice
native sedges, both of which discouraged Mike from
using heavy backhoes. I offered to help and thought
that TU would be helpful – that's who we are when it
comes to trout streams in our backyard.
Prior to 8/16, Mike, Sean, and their crews set up the
dredge; Mike and I also tested it. Mike bought extra
discharge hoses so the spoils could be pumped into
and thus fill in the main drainage ditch.
On a warm,
sunny
Saturday, the
following
stalwarts of
conservation
showed up
(yes, I know
I'm repeating
their names
but they
deserve all
the thanks in the world): Henry Nehls-Lowe, Pat
Hasburgh, John Ainslie, Jim Hill, Jim Baeder, Kurt
Osterby, Seth Merdler, Doris Rusch, Bill Mitchell,
Michael Mason, Ben Siebers, Topf Wells and Mike
Foy). Most of us were delegated to using rocks to
begin the stabilization of the feeder/outlet. Remember
the soft soil and high groundwater. That precluded
using heavy equipment to position the rock. Our
technique, while effective, was Neanderthal. We
heaved rocks as near as we could to the right spots
and periodically some of our more nimble members
would venture into the stream and re-arrange them. I
was astounded by the good humor of everyone
involved and how much rock we moved and stream we
started to stabilize (one very big pile of rocks applied to
30-40 feet of stream). Meanwhile back at the pond
several members were working with Mike on the
dredging itself. Two problems stifled much
progress. August is the height of the vegetative
growing season and clumps of plants at the bottom of
the pond kept clogging the unit. The machine is
designed for sediment; it does not have a chopping
component for plants. Mike had lengthened the hoses
to reach the ditches but joints kept buckling under
pressure. We kept trying until noon. There is no finer
lunch than a ham sandwich and 7 bottles of water
when you have been tossing rocks in the sun all
morning.
Mike's explanation of the importance of the restored
pond's cold water to the upper reaches of Story
Creek, known to hold wild brookies, was enough to
convince me that the project was worthwhile. But on a
chilly May morning the next year I wandered to the
pond with serious sampling gear, an ultralight spinning
outfit and nightcrawlers. Fishing only in the pond, the
bobber twitched on the sixth cast and in came the
catch of the year, a brook trout all of 5 inches long. I
released him immediately, packed up the rod and felt I
had received a message from God. "This is a
resource worth saving," is what I'm pretty sure the
Deity was signaling. For the attentive, other signals
were clear. Last August, just before the restoration
began, Mike took another series of temperatures. All
were taken in the heat of the day and the pond is not
shaded. The highest temperature was 61 degrees (F)
with many in the high 50s.
In terms of the dredging itself, it seemed the ideal
piece of equipment would be a lightweight dredge
known as a Piranha. Its suction and discharge system
mounted on an aluminum pontoon frame is designed
to remove sediments in hard to get to places. On a
quiet winter evening about a year ago, I was roaming
the internet in search of information on yet another
little brook trout stream, I learned that the Elliot
Donnelly Chapter
of TU in Chicago
and the Central
Wisconsin TU
Chapter had
donated a Piranha
to the DNR trout
management effort
headed by Sean
Lawrence. Mike
contacted Sean
Oh, we didn't find any endangered frogs.
5
the face of climate change. They are in the earliest
stages of exploring brook trout refuges. The discussion
is vague and preliminary but it might center in
identifying and protecting clusters of streams with
strong populations of wild brook trout. That's fine as far
as it goes but Story Creek might offer an example of a
complementary strategy. Story Creek and its hydrology
of springs and little feeders can be improved so that it
could support a larger, healthier, more secure and
discrete population brook trout. I'm pretty sure this
spring pond is not the only opportunity to improve the
flow of cold, clean spring water into the creek. And
other such opportunities might exist as close to home,
Token Creek, its massive headwater stream, and some
very cold tributaries. But that's a tale for another day.
I think that people found the project worthwhile,
although everyone had had their fill of rocks. Folks
could not have been more friendly. The surroundings
are pretty special in that the pond is two miles from
any road. Mike thinks you might be about as far from
a road as you can be on public property in Dane
County.
Mike called off any more volunteer efforts until he
could get the dredge operating more productively. He
could not do so and the Piranha was sent back to its
happy home in central Wisconsin where it encounters
nothing but fine sediments, which it handles with
aplomb.
But that's not the end of the story or the restoration.
Thank you, again, to the Southern Wisconsin Board
and officers and the members and friends who have
worked on this project. Thanks also to Sean Lawrence
for the loan of the Piranha and the Elliot Donnelly and
the Central Wisconsin Chapters of TU for the donation
of that equipment to the DNR. Special thanks to Mike
Foy; he has been exemplary in his pursuit of an
ambitious, comprehensive and authentic restoration of
a very special combination of terrestrial and aquatic
habitats.
Regarding the value of the restoration, several
members who worked on Saturday did not often
attend TU functions but live on the east side of the
county and consider Story Creek their home waters.
They were happy that the chapter was trying to help
the creek. Many other members contacted me and
were eager to come out and help during the week and
several of those also considered Story Creek their
home waters. All the folks who fished Story
bushwhack into the area we were working on and all
reported good numbers of wild brook trout (from the
stream; no one had fished the pond).
Mike is not giving up on the restoration. He thinks that
the Piranha might work earlier in the season before
the vegetation grows up. He's also considering
another plan for this winter. (Please note all the
following involve heavy equipment; we're done with
our Ugh and Mugg phrase for the time being.) He
thinks he might be able to harvest large trees growing
along more drainage ditches to the north and west of
the pond. Those trunks could be corduroyed around
different edges of the pond to provide a platform for
backhoes and some protection for the sedges. The
trunks could then go into the ditches as more fill. He'll
keep us posted as he develops these plans. Kurt
Welke and David Rowe are being extraordinarily
helpful. Both have committed Trout Stamp dollars and
labor to further restore and stabilize the little creek,
work which should occur this winter.
Chuckin’ rocks
for fun and
profit.
I'm hopeful that this restoration will be completed and
that there might yet be a pleasant workday for the
chapter. The merits of the project are clear, at least to
me: colder, cleaner water for a stream that supports a
healthy population of brookies. I think it'll be fun to see
how brookies use the pond when it has been dredged
and has a stable connection to Story Creek itself.
Doris Rusch
monitoring the
dredge spoil
flowing into
drainage ditch.
I think there's also a larger context and questions
regarding brook trout. The DNR is recently sounding
the alarm over the future of brook trout in Wisconsin in
6
formations of the Pennine Mountains, just south of the
border with Scotland. The rivers are swift and rocky,
and they contain large populations of stoneflies. The
Yorkshire Dales is an area of striking natural and societal beauty. Moorland plateaus, rocky crags, beautiful
valleys, waterfalls, quaint villages, stone bridges, and
green upland pastures enclosed by dry-stone walls
provide magnificent vistas in all directions. It thus
seems fitting that some of the most beautiful trout flies
ever conceived sprang from the sparkling waters of the
Yorkshire Dales. Flies that originated in The Dales are
variously called 'North Country Flies', 'Hackle Flies',
'Yorkshire Spiders', 'Wingless Wets', or simply 'softhackled flies' today.
Fountains of Youth
Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of
time … flies that remain "forever young"
by Rusty Dunn
Stoneflies are sometimes the forgotten insects of a
trout stream. Their numbers rarely exceed those of
mayflies or caddisflies, but stoneflies hatch steadily
throughout the season. They are at times one of few
food sources available to trout. Hatches of large
stoneflies, such as salmonflies and golden stones, are
legendary on western rivers, but day-in and day-out,
small-bodied stoneflies provide a more dependable
diet for trout. Common names of the smaller species
include Snowflies, Willowflies, Roachflies, Sallflies,
and Needleflies. Examples in Wisconsin include small
early-season black or brown stoneflies, which are frequently seen crawling on snow banks in late winter.
The landmark book of North Country flies and fly fishing is Yorkshire Trout Flies by Thomas E. Pritt. Published in 1885, it quietly but persuasively solidified the
merits of upstream nymphing with flies whose soft
feathery materials imitate movements of a struggling
insect. Pritt emphasized the importance of stonefly
imitations throughout the angling year, and he described the Dark Spanish Needle as being one of his
favorites, because it was consistently effective on
Yorkshire rivers.
As the name might suggest, stoneflies inhabit stony
bottomed, high gradient, silt free streams. Stoneflies
require well oxygenated water for survival. Thus,
mountain creeks, turbulent rivers, riffles, and pocket
water are prime stonefly habitat. Stoneflies do not
emerge through the water column during a hatch.
Instead, the nymphs crawl atop streamside rocks or
woody debris, where they molt to winged adults.
The Dark Spanish Needle (known also as a Needle
Brown and Dark Needle) imitates small dark stoneflies
of the genus Leuctra. They are abundant in the English north and in any stonefly-friendly stream of North
America. "Needle" of its name refers to the long and
strikingly thin body of Leuctra adults, which roll their
wings tightly around the body when at rest. "Spanish"
refers to the color of the adult wings, which are a dark
steely blue similar to that of unpolished steel sewing
needles. Such needles were imported by England
th
from Spain in large numbers in the early 19 century,
which is when John Swarbrick first gave the fly its
name (Wharfedale Flies, 1807). Stash a few Spanish
Needles in your fly box and, when you next encounter
small stoneflies, make sure some American trout feel
the pointed end of a Spanish Needle.
Stonefly imitations date to the very beginnings of fly
fishing history. Excepting fragmentary references of
fishing in Roman times, the very first literary description of fishing with artificial flies is The Treatyse of
Fysshynge wyth an Angle, attributed to Dame Juliana
Berners and published in The Book of St. Albans in
1496. Berners described twelve artificial flies, one of
which – the Stone Fly – imitates its namesake insect.
The Stone Fly is one of only two flies in The Treatyse
whose counterpart among natural insects is unambiguous.
Because stoneflies are insects of turbulent water, they
attracted great attention from fly anglers of the English
north. Rivers of the Yorkshire Dales drain limestone
Copyright 2015, Rusty Dunn
------------------------------------ Dark Spanish Needle (T.E. Pritt) ------------------------------------
Hook: Wet fly / nymph hook, size "0" (modern #15)
Thread: Pearsall's Gossamer silk, hot orange (#19)
Wings: A feather from the darkest part of a brown
owl's wing. Substitute with English woodcock, red grouse, brown-phase partridge, or
other mottled brown feather.
Body: Tying thread
Head: Peacock herl
7
Worth your valuable time …
Icebreaker prizes that still need claiming
Wild & Scenic Film Festival
•
The River Alliance of Wisconsin’s 8th Annual Wild
& Scenic Film Festival returns to Madison’s
Barrymore Theatre Wednesday, March 25 at 7
p.m. The Festival features 10 short and medium
length films that challenge, amaze, inspire and
entertain. Learn more about this amazing event at
www.wisconsinrivers.org/events/display/item/wildand-scenic-2015.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Upper Sugar River Watershed
Association Annual Meeting
Everyone is invited to attend the Upper Sugar
River Watershed Association's Annual Meeting
on Sunday March 8 beginning at 12:30 p.m.
The event will be hosted on the campus of Epic
Systems in Verona in the Delphi Room, with
parking located in the Tent Lot across from the
Delphi Room. This year's meeting will feature a
screening of the award-winning documentary The
Price of Sand. Created in 2013, The Price of Sand
highlights the frac sand mining boom in Minnesota
and Wisconsin. Learn more at
http://usrwa.org/news/.
•
Tom Burroughs – Brewers t-shirt, Simms hat,
Matt Kenseth autograph
Harry Peterson – Simms neoprene socks and
hat
Dot Havens – Guided Trip for two anglers, Black
Earth Angling Company
Diane Barrett – "Field Guide to Wisconsin
Streams" book
Bob Ragotzkie – Midge Patterns from Andy
Davidson
David Flanders – Fly box w/8 bass poppers
Ihor Jakymec – Hand-tied flies w/box from Tom
Mulford
George Batcha – REI Festival Ice Box
Congrats!
Your Icebreaker prizes will be available for pickup at the
March 10 Chapter meeting. If you have questions, please
contact Tristan Kloss.
Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited Leadership:
President
Matt Krueger
(608) 852-3020
Vice President
Amy Klusmeier
Secretary
Tristan Kloss
Treasurer
Kurt Osterby
Past President
Steve Wald
(608) 318-1937
State Council Rep.
Christopher Long
Board Member
Mary Ann Doll
Board Member
Jim Hess
Board Member
Craig Amacker
Board Member
Topf Wells
Board Member
Patrick Hasburgh
Board Member
Michael J. Burda
Newscasts Editor
Drew Kasel
Conservation Committee Co-Chair Jim Hess
(608) 288-8662
Conservation Committee Co-Chair Dan Werner
Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited
P.O. Box 45555
Madison, WI 53744-5555
8
mattjoman@gmail.com
amy.klusmeier@gmail.com
tie.a.fly@gmail.com
kr.osterby@gmail.com
sewald101@gmail.com
chris.long@att.net
dollmaryann@gmail.com
jim.hess@tds.net
craig@fontanasports.com
topfwells@gmail.com
patrick.hasburgh@gmail.com
northernlightsreef@yahoo.com
madkasel@gmail.com
jim.hess@tds.net
danwerner2000@yahoo.com