SWTU, P.O. Box 45555, Madison, WI 53744-5555 president@swtu.org

Newscasts – April 2022

This issue is focused on some amazing upcoming events, including:

In-person Meeting: Friendly Faces, Prizes, Elections and More

meeting

We’ll see you Thursday, April 7 at our new location

Our first in-person meeting since the pandemic started is Thursday, April 7, at Schwoegler’s Bowling Alley on Grand Canyon Drive in Madison. The meeting will start at 7 p.m., but please join any time after 5:30 for dinner or drinks and catching up with friends. We’ll meet in Schwoegler’s community room on the southern end of the building. The room is located just off the southernmost entryway.

This is the annual business meeting for SWTU and we will be asking for your vote in our board election and approval of two changes to the bylaws. Emails on the bylaws and election have been sent, and you’ll find more information later in this Newscasts.

We’ll also talk about and take questions on our big spring fundraiser coming up fast on April 23. See below for details and how to get your tickets now.

To celebrate our long-delayed gathering, you’ll have a chance to pick up some great door prizes, and we’ll set aside plenty of time for folks to catch up with one another … and free flies for new members!

For the safety of all, if you or someone in your household is not feeling well, we urge you to stay home. Please also consider the CDC guidelines for gatherings, including staying up to date with your vaccinations. Thank you for your kind consideration. Like most venues, Schwoegler’s does not require masks but we’ll respect any member’s decision to wear one.

schwoeglers bowling logo Schwoegler’s Lanes, 444 Grand Canyon Dr., Madison, WI 53719

SWTU Spring Fair Fundraiser: Get your tickets!

Tenney Park

Spring Fair Fundraiser Poster

April 23, 2022, from 5 to 9 p.m.
John Wall Family Pavilion
Tenney Park | 1414 E. Johnson St., Madison

Our critical fundraiser has been delayed for two years, but our conservations efforts have not slacked in that time!  We need your support to fund our outstanding local and regional efforts to conserve, improve and access coldwater resources. This ticketed social event will feature delectable street food, local beer(donated by Karben4!) and wine, fair games, SWTU conservation highlights, a B.E.A.C ‘Drinking With Scissors’ open tie area and Iron Fly event, bucket raffle, silent auction and more!

Advance ticket sales are closed. Tickets will be available at the door. 

All tickets include admission, food, two drink tickets and your bucket raffle tickets. There are three admission levels depending on the number of bucket raffle tickets you would like.

  • General Admission includes 45 tickets
  • Silver Admission includes 85 tickets
  • Gold Admission includes 200 raffle tickets

Please remember that this is our first major fundraiser in over two years, and in that time our chapter’s actions in outreach, access and conservation have only increased – we need your most generous support!

You can win!
An amazing array of raffle items
  • Winston, Scott and Orvis fly rods
  • Ross and Orvis reels
  • Renzetti Traveler vise
  • Musky gear package
  • Guided trips
  • Restaurant gift certificates
  • Beautiful artwork
  • Tom Wendelburg flies, rods and other things (with all proceeds to Black Earth Creek)
  • Much, much more!!

Spring Fair Fundraiser Poster

Join the first Stream Team Workday of 2022!

workday

April 9, 2022 at Davidson Wildlife Unit
By Jim Hess, Conservation Committee Chair 

The weather is looking wonderful for Saturday, and we hope you can join us. If you’ve never done so, know that the work is simple and plenty of people on hand to help. You may also learn of a new place to drift a fly. For the safety of all, if you or someone in your household is not feeling well, we urge you to stay home. Please also consider the CDC guidelines for gatherings, including staying up to date with your vaccinations. Thank you for your kind consideration. Read More

Slate set for Chapter Elections: April 2022

The Nominating Committee of the SWTU Board presents the following slate of candidates for the election to be held at the Annual Meeting on Thursday, April 7.

President: Mark Maffit (see bio below)
Vice President: Topf Wells (incumbent)
Treasurer: Nick Jackson (incumbent)
Secretary: Henry Nehls-Lowe (incumbent)
State Council Delegate: Michael Williamson (incumbent)
Three open Director positions:

  • Tom Thrall (current Director seeking to continue in the role)
  • Kevin Maes (see bio below)
  • John Freeborg (see bio below)

Read More

Proposed Bylaw Changes

The SWTU Board of Directors asked Bob Selk to review the SWTU Bylaws and propose changes regarding the filling of director positions, making it more manageable, and address the inability to hold in-person meetings, as we have experienced the last two years. Listed below is a brief discussion of these changes and the proposed bylaw amendments. The Board unanimously approved these changes at our February 22, 2022 meeting and recommend their approval at our April 7, 2022 chapter meeting. Read More

Learn what your Board’s been up to

Minutes from SWTU Board of Director meetings can be viewed in this Google Drive. If you have questions on what you read in them, reach out to one of the Board members listed on the last page of each newsletter.

Blue Dun Hackle (Leisenring)

Fountains of Youth – Classic trout flies that have withstood the test of time … flies that remain “forever young”

by Rusty Dunn

 

The winds of change are often gentle at first, but they freshen with time.  Little by little, old ideas fade away, replaced by new ones.  Only hindsight reveals when the transition actually occurred.  For wet fly fishing in America, the winds of change began in 1941 with publication of The Art of Tying the Wet Fly by James Leisenring.  This 81 page treasure introduced British-style soft-hackled flies and methods to American an­glers.  It was published just three short years after Ray Bergman’s 1938 blockbuster book Trout, which included a lengthy examination of wet fly fishing.  The col­ored plates of wet flies in Trout are truly mag­nificent.  Page after page, row after row, hundreds upon hun­dreds of brightly colored flies.  Legendary flies, such as a Leadwing Coachman, Parmachene Belle, and Green­well’s Glory.  Smartly dressed sol­diers in a vin­tage army, almost all of which were tied with down wings of matched quill slips.  Where are these flies today?  Mostly, they’re in the unturned pages of old fly tying books and the untraveled corners of old fly boxes.  The wet flies pictured in Trout are fossils of a bygone era.  Headstones of former champions.  Lei­senring brought a new style of wet fly to America, one as old as fly fishing itself. Read More

New Members – April 2022

We’re pleased to announce the addition of the following new members to our ranks! Read More