President’s Message:
Dear Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited Members,
Hopefully we have all had lots of opportunity to fish this month. I always enjoy November fishing. I want to give a shout-out to Jerry Fork, a member of the Capital City Fly Fishers on his Hotspot Crackleback and thank John Wenzlick for giving me one. I had a blast with it yesterday. It is always fun when you have lost count and keep catching more fish. I don’t know if Jerry follows this newsletter but if one of you CCFF guys see him, let him know I mentioned him.
We had our November monthly meeting at Bethel park. The presentation at that meeting was by Chalen Jackson on Tenkara fishing. Tenkara is a Japanese style of fly fishing. Unfortunately I was not able to attend, but the reports on the presentation were all very good. Thank you Chalen. I wish I had been there.
Our next three 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 last year. Starting in March we will be returning to the Conley Street HyVee.
The next meeting, i.e. our December 6th meeting, will be the annual Holiday Party. Our meetings start with a social hour beginning at 6:00 PM, followed by a short business meeting and this time we will have the photo contest. The Holiday Party is a potluck, bring a main dish or desert (or both) to share and something to drink. The party is open to significant others and many do attend. The main event at the Holiday party will be the annual photo contest and as usual the winner will receive a $50 gift card. Please send your entries by email to me at douggrove@yahoo.com or bring them on a USB stick to the meeting.
We had the (somewhat) Annual Learn to Fish Day at Bethel Park on Sunday November 6th. Unfortunately the Boy Scout Troup we expected needed to reschedule and we were not able to accommodate them this year. There were a number of members of our Chapter that came to the event; Bill Lamberson, Chalen Jackson, Curt Morgret, Dan Summers, John Wenzlick and myself.
Travis Figg and the Fundraising Committee have started the first of our sweepstakes. They collected the flies for the Fly Box Sweepstakes at the November meeting. The fly box has been arranged, photographed and a very nice write up was created. If you have not seen the web site or made your donation yet please visit the website at: https://midmotu.tulocalevents.org/midmissouritroutunlimitedflies .
Hope to see you at the Holiday Party
Doug Grove
douggrove@yahoo.com or 573-999-5114
More about the sweepstakes.
This one is closed and the drawing will be November 29. Here is what is included:
- 120 flies tied by our chapter members
- A new Wheatly fly box
- 1/2 dozen flies tied by Team USA Master's Division team member Mike Sexton (his team took home the gold for the US this year!).
Watch for a future chance to win a Duke Welter hosted fishing trip in the 2023 season for one or two anglers in the Viroqua area. It will include hosted fishing on some of our Driftless Area spring creeks, lunch, tips, flies, and stories, some of them true. Generally that has a value of between $500 and 1,000 when it's donated to the WI state council.
Proceeds from this drawing will help our chapter's efforts with projects to protect and restore clean water resources.
Benefits for Trout from the Inflation Reduction Law:
One example is $40 Million has already been allocated to the Forrest Service and TU is working to direct funds for projects that benefit trout. You can read how else this law will reduce emissions and help trout.
Another funding opportunity:
Doug and I met with a TU staffer to talk about their Headwaters Youth program. It sponsors fly fishing clubs on college campuses. MidMO TU is trying to connect with them to get more members and to take care of the environment. What we learned as an aside is Bass Pro provides grant money for stream projects. Individual stores offer up to $10,000 and the national offers up to $1 million. If we want to take on a tree planting project or partner with another group, we can apply for funds.
Jeff Holzem
Newsletter editor
Council Climate Change Coordinator
NLC Climate Change Workgroup Co-chair
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