Don’t miss this legendary event
By Topf Wells
The Meicher Madness Auction was one of SWTU’s most popular and profitable events for many years. Stopped by COVID, it returns at our Tuesday, September 10 meeting at Schwoegler’s on Grand Canyon Drive. (nevermind one reference to a different month at the end of a prior message)
Good to get there early
You can order food and drinks at the Schwoegler’s main bar it will be delivered to your table. We’re hoping for and expecting a bigger crowd for the auction. If you plan on dinner, PLEASE arrive between 5:30 and 6 p.m. If the auction is your main interest, be there before 7 to peruse the items. If you’re bringing items to donate, please also try to get there early so they can be set out and people have the chance to look everything over.
Amazing items already on hand and more to come
As noted below (“no junk”) the chapter regularly receives donations of quality (sometimes extreme quality) items from generous donors and estates. This includes flies, rods, reels, fly tying material and even a large kit of spin casting lures. Fellow members will also show up with gear to donate to the auction … one of the most popular being hand-tied fly patterns for our local waters. Also books, art, camping stuff and other quality outdoor-themed gear.
Wait, there’s more! Win a hand-built rod just for showing up!!
From all attendees, we will do a drawing for a fly rod.
Here are some needs and changes for this year’s auction: Read More
Posted: October 2, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
Vets on the Fly Activities
By Dyan Lesnik
Vets on the Fly activities are free for all Vets and their family members. All equipment is provided so just show up for their events for socialization and fishing fun. Learn more at their Facebook page.
Posted: October 2, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
Tough News but Still Hope for Allen Creek
By Topf Wells
Please read the recent assessment on the Allen and Liberty Creeks watershed by Dan Oele and Mitch Trow. Ouch, this one hurts. Liberty Creek really no longer functions as a trout stream and will be declassified. Too many row crops where the water temps are cool and water is too warm where the creek flows through public lands. Water temps are the limiting factor for Allen Creek, caused by the dam that forms Evansville’s Lake Leota. That lake is the center of a lovely and beloved Evansville park. It features lots of neat stuff and the pond itself offers good warmwater fishing. But it costs the creek. Mitch has provided some additional observations on Allen and therein lies the hope. The stream has excellent habitat and pleasant fishing where it flows through the Public Hunting Area. The DNR will continue to monitor the creek and explore ways of mitigating the temps that sometimes get too high in the summer.
Posted: October 2, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
SWTU Member Discounts at D&S
Pat Hasburgh is a longtime SWTU member and former Board Member .. and the owner of D&S Bait, Tackle and Fly Shop. Pat’s offered some great fly gear and flies at very reasonable prices since he opened. He’s steadily been building up a fly tying department. To celebrate, Pat is offering a 10% discount for SWTU members on any fly or spin gear in the shop. Pat has generously supported SWTU with many donations. Stop by and see what he has to offer.
Posted: October 2, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
New Members – October 2024
We’re pleased to announce the addition of the following new member to our ranks! Read More
Newscasts – September 2024
Last Updated: October 2, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
This issue is filled with great information, including:
Meicher Madness Auction – Our September 10 Membership Meeting
Last Updated: September 3, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
Don’t miss this legendary event
By Topf Wells
The Meicher Madness Auction was one of SWTU’s most popular and profitable events for many years. Stopped by COVID, it returns at our Tuesday, September 10 meeting at Schwoegler’s on Grand Canyon Drive. (nevermind one reference to a different month at the end of a prior message)
Good to get there early
You can order food and drinks at the Schwoegler’s main bar it will be delivered to your table. We’re hoping for and expecting a bigger crowd for the auction. If you plan on dinner, PLEASE arrive between 5:30 and 6 p.m. If the auction is your main interest, be there before 7 to peruse the items. If you’re bringing items to donate, please also try to get there early so they can be set out and people have the chance to look everything over.
Amazing items already on hand and more to come
As noted below (“no junk”) the chapter regularly receives donations of quality (sometimes extreme quality) items from generous donors and estates. This includes flies, rods, reels, fly tying material and even a large kit of spin casting lures. Fellow members will also show up with gear to donate to the auction … one of the most popular being hand-tied fly patterns for our local waters. Also books, art, camping stuff and other quality outdoor-themed gear.
Wait, there’s more! Win a hand-built rod just for showing up!!
From all attendees, we will do a drawing for a fly rod.
Here are some needs and changes for this year’s auction: Read More
Posted: September 3, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
Fall Workday Schedule and a Special Call for Assistance
Mark your calendars! Conservation Chair Jim Hess has once again worked with public officials and partner organizations to plan out a series of stream workdays.
September 28 – Hefty Creek (Green County)
Clearing woody invasives and installing a brush bundle. Vince Schmitz will be leading this project.
A special plea from Topf Wells for this first workday
Please, please, please attend our September 28 workday on Hefty Creek. We have a wonderful problem with our work days. We get so much done we’re in demand. We need to finish all the brush cutting and in stream bundling in one work day (the 28th) so we can honor Dane County’s request for an October project. We’re getting help from the DNR. Mitch Trow, our acting fish biologist, who will mow work paths for us and Vince Schmitz, another great DNR biologist and the brush bundle pro, will join us on Saturday. If we have enough folks that we can start bundling as soon as we start cutting brush, we’ll do this. So, please help. BTW, this marks our third and probably final year of working on this restoration. Our work has completed the project in areas the DNR could not reach with heavy equipment.
October 12 – Falk Wells Sugar River Wildlife Area or Davidson Wildlife Unit (Dane County)
Clearing box elders and invasive woodies. Meeting with County officials on Sept 4 to evaluate. We could also end up on Kittleson. Read More
Posted: September 3, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
Our Workday Efforts are Growing
Those oak trees we planted at the Willow Creek restoration downstream of the confluence with Smith Hollow are flourishing. Here are photos of the same swamp white oak from last and this year. We may have tired of the rain this year but not the oaks. Thanks to Lloyd Meng and Justin Haglund of the DNR who led the restoration and the tree planting. BTW, all aspects of the restoration are in great shape. – Topf Wells
Posted: September 3, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
Help Dell Creek and the Aldo Leopold Chapter…
… and see 20 professionally operated chainsaws in action.
On September 19 at 8 AM the Aldo Leopold Chapter will host a work day at the 40 acres on Dell Creek that the Leopold Chapter, SWTU, the Badger Fly Fishers, the State Council Access Fund and Groundswell Conservancy helped purchase. The property is lovely with a long stretch of the stream, a brook trout tributary, and some extremely healthy oak uplands. It’s also almost impossible to fish because of the streamside tag alders. Read More
Michigan Hopper / Joe’s Hopper
Last Updated: September 3, 2024 by Drew Kasel Leave a Comment
by Rusty Dunn
Walk through late summer grasses on your way to a trout stream and – if you’re lucky – you’ll hear the buzzing and clicking of grasshoppers fleeing before you. Play your cards right, and you’ll soon be hooked to an angry trout. Hopper season is the most enjoyable time of year for many fly anglers. It’s nature’s reward for suffering through the indignities of hatch matching, tiny flies, fussy fish, and foul weather earlier in the season. No need for delicacy when fishing Jiminy Cricket. Tie a pinkie-sized hunk of fur and feather to 3X tippet, splat it noisily into trout water, and be ready for famously indelicate strikes. Trout often take hoppers with violent eruptions of water, fly, and leader. Read More
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