President’s Message:
Dear Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited Members,
Our next two meetings will be at the Rock Quarry House. Rock Quarry House is in Rock Quarry Park. More information can be found at the following link: https://www.como.gov/contacts/rock-quarry-house-2/. The address is: 2002 Grindstone Pkwy, Columbia, MO 65201. This is where we had our holiday party this month. Starting in March we will be returning to the Conley Street HyVee.
The presentation at the next chapter meeting will be on Personal Locator Beacons to be presented by Curt Morgret. PLBs are satellite based emergency communication devices. Many PLBs have additional capabilities. Many folks have been rescued by access to these devices, not just the owner but also other people encountered in need of rescue by the owner.
We had our Holiday Party on December 6. Thank you to everyone who brought food. The meeting was well attended and I think everyone had a good time (well I haven’t gotten any complaints yet).
At the meeting Travis Figg presented the results of the sweepstakes for the fly box. The sweepstakes was very successful. I think we made about $900 before expenses. So the plan is to have another sweepstakes. The Fund Raising Committee is going to meet to decide what to do next and how often. There was a great deal of effort that went into this first sweepstakes but we think that now that we have the first one done the future Sweepstakes will be easier to setup. Thank you to all that provided flies and the committee involved.
Mike Kruse inquired about interest in a chapter trip to Western Colorado and since there was a lot of interest he will present a proposal at the January meeting.
Missouri Conservation Federation had a grant opportunity that we missed. We discussed having some projects in the hopper so that when these opportunities come up we will be ready. So if you have any ideas for projects we can do that meet our goals for cold water fisheries conservation please bring them to any meeting or let me or one of the other officers or board members know your ideas.
We had our annual chapter Fly Fishing Photo Contest. Our winner was Bill Lamberson. The picture was a picture of him fishing on the Current River with morning fog. There were a number of beautiful photos which we will have posted on our social media sites soon.
Many of you know that Shag of the Morning Shag on KCMQ is our Chapter Secretary. Shag had a stroke on December 5. More details can be found on the shows web site: https://kcmq.com/get-well-soon-shags/ . We all wish Shag a speedy and complete recovery and are looking forward to seeing him at future chapter meetings and events.
Doug Grove
douggrove@yahoo.com or 573-999-5114
Correction:
We apologize to Jerry Forck for misspelling his name when thanking him for his amazing Crackleback. Doug had a great day with it and it usually always catches fish for me.
Jeff
Brown Trout Egg Stocking
On December 6, Mike Kruse and I from our MMTU Chapter met several members of the Gateway (St. Louis) Chapter at Westover Farms near Steelville, MO. If you fished the Meramac River years ago, you will remember it was a great brown trout fishery. Now the river is shallow and the bottom is covered with sand. The last time I fished there the water was 70 degrees and we found no trout in over a mile of the stream. The Gateway chapter had limited success with telemetry studies to track the stocked browns. I suspect many of the trout moved upstream to cooler water in the park or were taken by nature’s predators.
Three years ago the Gate Chapter got approval from MDC to try a new approach at Westover Farms. They purchased vibert boxes and fertilized brown trout eggs. If you are not familiar with the boxes follow this link, https://www.flyfishersinternational.org/Conservation/Projects-Programs/Whitlock-Vibert-Box Dave Whitlock modified the design and successfully established sustaining brown trout fisheries. The Gate Chapter documented their efforts in this video https://www.gatewaytu.org/project-brown-trout.html. The first year stocking was not successful, but Mike and I saw pictures of browns caught at Westover, which stocks only rainbows. Only one was small enough to have been from the egg stocking. DNA testing could confirm the brown was the stocked strain. It was an enjoyable experience and I look forward to hearing how the fry are doing.
Klamath River Dam Removal
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued the Final License Surrender Order for the Lower Klamath River Hydroelectric Project, https://www.tu.org/magazine/conservation/reconnecting-the-klamath/ . This clears the last major hurdle necessary to implement the world’s largest river restoration project to date by removing four old dams on the lower Klamath River.
With this order now in place, the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) — the non-profit entity created to oversee Klamath River dam removal and related restoration activities — and the States of Oregon and California will accept transfer of the Lower Klamath Project License from the energy company PacifiCorp and start the dam removal process.
Removing the four dams will reconnect more than 420 miles of spawning and rearing habitat for salmon, steelhead, lamprey, and other native fish, and while improving water quality, preventing deadly algal blooms, lowering temperatures, and improving dissolved oxygen during hot summer months.
Bringing a river back to life is never simple or easy. For the Klamath River, it’s been a long, hard road, filled with painful setbacks and critical breakthroughs. Today, the broad coalition of Tribal leaders, commercial fishermen, and conservationists who have spent years working tirelessly to make this moment possible are celebrating one of the biggest highlights of the process so far.
Climate News:
TU has already secured $30 Million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure law and more may be coming to help sustain healthy trout and salmon populations.
Trout Unlimited worked diligently on a bipartisan basis to secure significant provisions in the bill that support our mission. With this memo, we are beginning the process of informing staff and volunteer leaders about program funding opportunities provided by the new law.” This link provides more details: https://www.tu.org/magazine/conservation/from-the-field/why-tu-backed-the-infrastructure-and-climate-laws/
President
Doug Grove
Vice President
Travis Figg
Past President
John Wenzlick
Secretary
Nathan McLeod
Treasurer
Brandon Butler
Banquet Chairs
Alternative Funding Committee
Travis Figg
Education Director
John Wenzlick
Membership
Curt Morgret
Conservancy
Bill Lamberson
Conservancy
Sam Potter
e-Newsletter
Jeff Holzem
Web Master
Ty Figg
Facebook editor
Ben Moore