A Note from the President - Brad White

While the calendar says Fall, as I am typing this I am looking at several inches of snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20's. Some would say that's wonderful steelheading weather!

We had an interesting and informative presentation in October about the status of native brook trout in the state of Ohio. Brook trout are the only native inland trout in the state. They are confined to just a few small streams in the northeast. Interestingly enough, they appear to be a strain unique to Ohio. The Ohio DNR, TU and several other groups are doing all we can to preserve this native species although it is an uphill battle, mostly due to loss of habitat.

Next month we will have what should be another fascinating presentation on Artic Grayling and their possible reintroduction to streams in Michigan. This is a "don't miss" presentation.

We would like to hear from you! If you attended our banquet, please send us an email at info@fttu.org and let us know what you thought, what you liked, and what if anything we could do to improve it. If you didn't attend the banquet, we would also love to hear from you about why you didn't attend and what we could do to make it more appealing to you. Please send your thoughts and suggestions to info@fttu.org.

Finally, if you are interested in conservation, we continue to look for new and additional board members. Give us a shout!

See you on the stream!

Brad White

Conservation Banquet
at Rockwell Springs Trout Club

On Saturday, November 2nd, we had our annual Conservation Banquet at Rockwell Springs Trout Club in Castalia. Joe Hemming, President of the Anglers of the Au Sable (AotA) and Fly Fisherman Magazine Conservationist of the Year (2019) was our guest speaker. Joe did a great job letting us know about all of the great activities that AotA gets involved in and also gave us an update on the status of the hatchery in Grayling.

We presented Joe with a $1,500 donation from FTTU for AotA to help them continue the great work they are doing. The funds for the donation were made possible by last year's banquet and from proceeds from the Fly Fishing Film Tour presentation in Maumee earlier this year. FTTU also donated money to Partners for Clean Streams, a non-profit based in Perrysburg that is focused on maintaining a quality watershed in the Toledo Area.

We had some great auction items, including several rods and a nice rod and reel combo. We also raffled off a 7'6" bamboo rod with two tips and a case, which was won by Paul Justen.

Rockwell hit it out of the park with the food this year and I didn't see many desserts (chocolate parfait) go to waste. If you didn't make it to this year's banquet, you should really plan on coming next year.
 

No Meeting in November

Since we have our banquet in November, there is no regular members meeting.

December Presentation and Annual Meeting
Reintroduction of Artic Grayling into MI waters

Thursday, December 19th, 2019

Our December meeting will include a brief annual meeting and a presentation by Nicole Watson of Michigan State University on her research relative to the reintroduction of Artic Grayling to Michigan waters.


 

The annual meeting will include a brief presentation on some of our past and upcoming activities and a treasurer's report. We will also need to vote on board members for the two positions whose term is expiring at the end of the year. The nominating committee has put forward Tod Armbruster and Ryan Williams for the three year terms.

We will then have what promises to be a fascinating presentation by Nicole Watson from Michigan State University on her research.

Nicole’s research seeks to answer key uncertainties to successful reintroduction of Arctic Grayling to Michigan streams. The focus of her research is three part: predation of newly hatched Grayling fry by young Brook and Brown trout; competition between age-0 Grayling, Brook and Brown trout; and imprinting of Arctic Grayling to their “home” waters.

Nicole received her M.S. from Central Michigan University where her research focused on the use of unique otolith microchemistry of juvenile Steelhead in tributaries of Lake Michigan to trace back to stream of origin.

Dinner and social hour will be at 6:00 PM. If you are planning to eat please be here by 6:15 to place your order.

We will have our annual meeting at 6:45. Only current Trout Unlimited members will be allowed to vote at the annual meeting.

The presentation will start at 7:00 PM.

This meeting is free and open to the public. You are responsible for your own food and beverage.

The meeting will be at Charlies Taverna, 1631 Toll Gate Dr, Maumee, OH 43537

Early 2020 Activities

Thursday, January 16, 2020 - Brad Dunkle of Wildwood Anglers will talk about steelheading in Michigan. Brad will cover locations, gear, and techniques.  Location - Charlie's Taverna, Maumee - 6:00 PM

Thursday, February 20, 2020 - Bar flies with Wayne Samson. Bring your tools and vise. Wayne will lead us in tying a couple great flies and we can have a beer while we are doing it. Everyone survived last year. It was a great time! Location - Charlie's Taverna, Maumee - 5:30 PM to eat. Tying will start @ 6:30 PM

Friday, February 28, 2020 - Fly Fishing Film Tour at the Maumee Indoor Theater. We had a great turnout for this last year. Hoping to have an even better one this year. We will have plenty of door prizes, a raffle or two, and there is usually a chance to enter the national sweepstakes for a great destination fly fishing trip. More details and ticket sales should be available sometime in December.

March and April - TBA

Watch our web site and Facebook page for meeting announcements. We will also send out email reminders prior to our meetings.

Looking for a Board Member

At the Fallen Timbers Chapter, we currently have a spot open for a board member. If you are interested in conservation and in preserving, protecting and restoring cold water fisheries and their watersheds, we would love to talk to you. We have a working board. Our board meetings are monthly and expect a prospective board member to be able to attend most of the meetings throughout the year. You must also be willing to volunteer and work at many of our events throughout the year.

We are an active chapter and while we are busy, the work is very rewarding.

If you are interested, please contact one of our existing board members or email us at info@fttu.org. We have a nominating committee that will review all applicants and decide the appropriate candidates to present to the membership for possible election.

 Meetings:

We have our regular meetings at Charlie's Taverna on Toll Gate Dr. in Maumee on the third Thursday of the month, September through April. 

Meeting schedule is:

6:00 Dinner and social hour
6:45 Short business meeting
7:00 Presentation

If you will be eating dinner, please make sure you have your order placed by 6:15.

These meetings are open to the general public. 

For details on any of our meetings, please check the events page on our web site where details will be posted on all meetings.

Board Members

Three Year
Brad White
Tom Rairdon
Two Year
Stephanie Bowman
Paul Justen
One Year
Tod Armbruster
Ryan Williams




 2019 Officers

President/Chairman - Brad White
Vice President - Stephanie Bowman
Treasurer - Ryan Williams
Secretary - Tom Rairdon

Committee Chairs
Conservation - Tod Armbruster
Membership - Tom Rairdon
Trout-in-Classroom - Brad White
Veterans Services - Tom Rairdon
Youth Education - Stephanie Bowman
Nomination Committee - Brad White

Past President - Dick Altman


Board Meetings:

Our officers and board members meet every month on the 2nd Thursday of the month. While we spend all of our time focused on chapter business, we welcome all members to come to our meetings to listen in or be heard. We welcome your involvement.

If you want to attend a board meeting, you are more than welcome. Just drop us a note at info@fttu.org and we will make sure you know where and when the next board meeting will be.  Meetings start at 7:00 PM.