August 2026 Newsletter
Mid Missouri Trout Unlimited CH 493
President’s Message
President’s Message:
Dear Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited Members,
Our first Tuesday monthly Shakespeare South Pizza gathering is next week. The gathering starts at 6:00 PM on Tuesday September 1. Board members are asked to come at 5:30 for a board meeting. We will have a lot to discuss at the Board Meeting so we may reconvene after the pizza gathering is over. It will be fun to learn about the fun times fishing that many of us have been having this Summer.
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Drew Dittmer will be our presenter and will be giving a presentation on Fly Fishing In Mexico,
We need to start talking about the winter stocking of Bethel Lake. We have often held fly fishing opportunity on the Saturday after the Stocking. That will be on November 7th. I believe we need some flies and may need to check that the equipment in good order.
Please not there is another opportunity to object to the repeal of the Roadless Rule. Please go to the TU website for more details. https://www.tu.org/roadless-areas-defending-americas-sporting-lands/
From here to the end of the letter is extracted and unmodified from the July Newsletter (the information still applies):
The Tri-Lakes Fly Fishing Show will be September 11th and 12th. Trout unlimited will have access to a booth again and I am looking for folks to volunteer to help introduce Missouri Fly Fishers to the good work we are doing.
The Women's Free Fishing Day at Bennett Spring State Park in Lebanon, Missouri, is scheduled for Saturday, September 26, 2026, running from 7:30 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. During this event, female anglers of all ages can fish for trout without a state fishing license or daily tag fees. The chapter will have a booth and will be giving away fly boxes. I am looking for folks to help at the booth and if you can’t be there you can always tie flies before hand. Bill Lamberson can tell you what we need or you can tie your favorite cracklebacks or mohair leaches
I would like to have a stream clean up on Spring Creek (near Newburg in Phelps County) on October 2. Please let me know if you can volunteer. We hope to get a few bags of trash filled and get some fishing in on this or any of the other nearby trout streams. The sign needs to be fixed but I don’t think we will be able to coordinate that in time. That effort needs coordination with the US Forest Service.
The chapter is investigating the possibility of hosting the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) showing this year. We are looking for a venue where we can have the showing on a Sunday evening in Columbia with a place to socialize with our community before and/or after the event. Our hope is to do this in October, so stay posted.
If you are a fly tyer please consider donating fishing flies to the chapter. We have many opportunities to donate these flies either through our keep them wet program, for fundraising campaigns, or as donations to the Mayfly Project. You can always donate direct to the Mayfly Project as well. If you are not fimiliar with that organization follow this link: https://themayflyproject.com/. Sarah and Ben Havens are good contacts for the Bennett Springs Mayfly Project.
Trout Unlimited’s Climate Change Workgroup has been working hard on a policy for Data Centers and I hope that you keep up on what they are doing. Trout Unlimited has information about Data Center development here at this link: https://www.tu.org/responsible-data-center-development/ . Another very good resource to understanding the issue is he Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited policy statement. Here is the link to that policy: http://patrout.org/policy-statement-on-artificial-intelligence-data-centers/ .
Tight lines everyone.
Doug Grove
Advocacy:
Note on Trout Unlimited’s Climate Change Workgroup: The CCWG will take part in a session of data centers at CX3 and I will say a few words about the new data center document we are developing. We are also planning training training after CX3 that will be open to all TU members. Please consider attending.
We viewed TU Chief Scientist, Helen Neville’s Trout and Climate Change during a chapter meetting. She will present an updated version at CX3 and I hope to be able share recordings of both sessions. Jeff
Another way to Keep Them Roadless
Speak up for keeping our roadless areas intact. Some of America’s best trout and salmon fishing depends on it. We can comment until September 21. Please keep our best fishing and hunting spots free of roads.
Conservation:
RECONNECTION IN THE ADIRONDACKS
Replacing 63 culverts and restoring 44 miles of stream for brookies on the Moose River has its challenges but many more successes.
RISING FROM THE ASHES
Watch how summer steelhead make the most of a reconnected habitat and rush back in once a dam comes down.
DROUGHT AND TROUT: COLORADO AND RIO GRANDE RIVERS
Yes, the situation is dire, but thanks to restoration projects across the West, native trout have a fighting chance to survive.
Education:
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
Watch how college clubs from across the country gather to build community and drive their passion as well as that of local youth.
TROUT TIP - STACK THE DECK
Set a new angler up for immediate success with these tips
Be there to give new anglers a great start.
NLC News from Rich Thomas:
The NLC Leadership Team (Paul & myself) along with Chris Wood, President & CEO, John Burns, Chairman of the Board and Steven King, General Counsel have been working on updating Trout Unlimited's by-laws. The reasoning is pretty simple, the last update was made in September, 2018 and aside from some minor issues found with consistencies throughout the document and communication preferences, it was determined that there was a need for language changes due to the current size of our organization as well as anticipating the new membership model to be launched in early 2027. Further, the new version includes our current branding format.
I have the updated "redline" version along with the "final draft for publication(Jeff)“ of the bylaws which were reviewed and unanimously approved by the NLC Steering Committee. Let me know if you would like to see them. I am sending this out as a "head's up" and prior to it being posted to our website which is required, per the bylaws, to be published thirty days prior to the vote. The vote will be called for at the National meeting and of course the NLC should be the majority in attendance, I did not want anyone to be unaware of the changes and / or vote.
Please let Paul or myself know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you for all you do and look forward to seeing you next month!
Rich
Richard Thomas
Trout Unlimited
Chair, National Leadership Council
908 432-8452
Second Half of Summer
Provided by Curt Morgret
He liked the long, bright days of high summer. It was the party a long time coming, sunburns, green grass, big headed shade trees and the heat to absorb and dread all at once. But the last of July and early August the tall grasses gave up the crisp green and in barefeet the softness was gone. He felt the sun’s angle lowering, only a little, but enough to change the conversation in his head. It caught him like a sigh.
The first wet wading steps into the stream stung his feet, ankles and calves exactly as anticipated, then his focus changed to the riffles, the rocks, the eddies, and the long run outs. He looked for rises but he had already tied on a nymph, not too heavy and not too far below the chunk of yarn all glommed up with floatant because this was the beginning of the end of summer and the water slid between the rocks instead of over them and the clarity ressembled the church windows of the old German pastor.
The day increased with heat but the humidity had broken a little. The hot, hung-over fish held in the deep pools looking for some aspirin and a quiet place to lay around and, please, nobody talk to them right now. But in the early morning maybe one could be convinced that now, and this fly, needed to be eaten. Thinking about this very deeply might’ve created a moral dilemna, but he didn’t, and he might or might not be a worse person for it.
The first cast created a tunnel vision of focus. All other sounds, sights and senses shut off when the little fly dimpled above the rock, and the indicator settled, then glided down and around, slowing when the deeper water was reached. How many times would this be repeated during the morning? He never counted and he wasn’t a counting person. True, the difference between zero and one for certain things determined some level of satisfaction, but after that it got a little blurry. How many? Five. Maybe four (three). More than two. Did the hooked ones that stayed on for more than three Mississippis count? Maybe he fudged a little.
The day warmed and the sun crested the tree tops. The beginning of the end, or, maybe just the end. He fished back over water that he worked on the way out from the car, changing flies from earlier so the fish wouldn’t recognize that it was him. Again. Now it was the big hopper pattern. Hoppers used to be complicated with multitudes of material, knotted legs, hackle, dubbing and deer hair. Now a couple of pieces of foam and some springy rubber legs and you were set. He would fish this without change all the way back, no more strategy.
His feet crunched in the gravel as he tried to stay way to the side of the narrow runs, out of sight, but the small bits of rock laughed at him for his pretend stealth. Only the best spots this time, no need to waste casts on all that no-fish holding, fly robbing stuff he enthusiastically cast to earlier. The splash of the big hopper didn’t allow for more than three casts per hole. Well, maybe more if the casting was easy.
Today, would be a day of no fudging. No “about” or “something like.” No, today was about bold, outright lies told with punctuation, confidence and competence. Don’t elaborate, be compact, change the direction of the conversation a few degrees. This is true on the very best days, too.
The short, dark days waiting over the horizon didn’t interest him. Nor did lounging in a condo somwhere in the warm southwest where golf seemed to be the most popular medication. But here, in the second half of summer, he had bought a nine-weight and a saltwater fly line. Just maybe a pirate’s life . . . .
Fishing
Teach Don’t Tell
TROUT TIP - MAKE IT FUN
Spend time this summer passing along your passion for fly fishing, but don't forget to keep it fun.
When it comes to fly fishing, everyone wins when teaching is the focus.
POPPERS FOR SUMMER FUN
When it's too hot for trout fishing, try your hand at fishing poppers for other fish quarry.
Water Quality Monitoring Training:
Please continue to send me items for the newsletter.
Thanks for all you do for trout,
`
Jeff Holzem
MMTU Newsletter Editor
MMTU Advocacy Coordinators
Ozark Council Climate Change Coordinator
NLC Climate Change Workgroup Co-Chair
OZARK Council NLC Rep
President | Doug Grove |
Past President | John Wenzlick |
Secretary | Bill Lamberson |
Treasurer | Ty Figg |
Financial Reviewer | Curt Morgret |
At Large Board Members | Lynn Kleopfer, Eric Cunningham |
Banquet Chairs | Curt Morgret |
Alternative Funding Committee | Chalen Jackson |
Education Director | John Wenzlick |
Stream Team | John Wenzlick |
Membership | Curt Morgret |
Conservancy | Bill Lamberson |
Conservancy | Sam Potter |
e-Newsletter | Jeff Holzem |
Web Master | TY Figg |
Facebook editor | Ben Moore |
Event Planning | Doug Grove |
Advocacy | Jeff Holzem |
Diversity | Open |
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