Hi All,
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It was awesome to see so many Kiap-TU-Wish members at the Holiday banquet, last year we had 64 people attending and this year we topped 100! It reminded me of an Olson family Christmas, where I would see some faces that I hadn’t since the previous year. It was the only day all my uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandmother were together in the same house and what a full house it was, with my father being one of ten kids! The only downside was that the house reeked of lutefisk. The swedish meatballs, lefse, rommegrot, krumkake, and rosettes made up for the smell though. If you have any feedback about what you liked about the banquet and ideas to improve it, please let me know. No worries, we will never be offering lutefisk at Juniors!
I’m looking forward to the Wisconsin early trout fishing season opening up on Saturday, January 6th. If the temps get above freezing, winter can be fun to scratch that itch and get a little fishing in. The way this winter is going, there could be a lot of January and February days above freezing. I supposed I just jinxed that…. I believe I have mentioned it before, but a pair of insulated, boot foot waders has really made winter fishing much more enjoyable for me. I had tried my stocking foot waders with bigger boots, different combinations of wool socks, foot warmers, etc., but regardless it would not take long for my feet to turn to blocks of ice. However, that has all changed with the insulated boot foot waders. I have spent time at the vice, cranking out midge patterns that dominate the winter hatches and I am ready to go! Don’t forget to volunteer for some of Randy’s work days! Those always make the winter go by faster.
I’m really looking forward to our chapter meetings in the new year as well. I can’t wait to see what Sarah Sanford and her friends the Gillespies come up with in January. Then we have the Dick Frantes fly tying meeting where we are thinking of offering some fly tying challenges to those that want to participate. March brings renowned artist and guide Bob White to Juniors. In April, we have the usual chapter business to attend to and then Kent Johnson and Dr. Clarke Gary will present some of their recent aquatic bug sampling findings on the Kinni compared to findings at the same sites decades ago. Carl Nelson will also report on sampling he and his team did on the Rush. In May we will have Kasey and Nate back!
Our on-line auction and 3 x 100 chance drawing will be starting in January. The auction is shaping up to be bigger and better than before. If you have any items to donate, you can bring them to the January chapter meeting or any of the area fly shops: Lunds, Mend, or Bob Mitchells. For the 3 x 100 chance drawing, we again will have a Joshua Cunningham painting, this one titled “May on the Rush”, a Norling bamboo rod, and a Sage 4wt graphite rod. Last year the tickets sold out quickly, so be sure to get yours while they last!
