Chapter Meeting – Nov 2024

Pictured Above is an ERO structure located in the South Fork of the Kinnickinnic River
Chapter meeting: Monday November 4thMeeting/presentation starts at 7:00
Network & Dinner at 6:00pm.
Juniors Restaurant & Tap House
414 South Main Street, River Falls, WI
Elevated Riparian Optimized (ERO) structures:
A six-year updateGuest Speaker: Loren HaasLoren Haas is a Kiap-TU-Wish former board member and current chapter member and is much involved in our chapter’s stream restoration projects. He received his Bachelor’s degree from U.W. Stout. His knowledge of fluvial dynamics has been garnered from his career in industry, his own research, and through interactions with like-minded individuals. In looking back, Loren tells of fishing brook trout while growing up in Wisconsin. “Many of the smaller streams had under-sized single lane bridge-crossings with the best deep holes under and just downstream of them. I called it road fishing — driving from bridge to bridge to find brook trout. The same forces that formed holes under bridges are at work in the ERO structures.” The inovative restoration projects depicted in Loren’s presentation are testament to his remarkable expertise in water dynamics and velocities and how they can be used to further the quality of our endangered streams and fish populations.

Those unable to attend can stream the meeting on the Kiap-TU-Wish YouTube Channel with the link below!

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Open House and Gear Swap

We kick off the KIAP calendar year with an Open House and Gear Swap at Rush River Brewery in River Falls.  The event will start at 6 pm on Thursday, September 5th (note- the remainder of our chapter meeting will be the first Tuesday of the month at Juniors in River Falls).   

Please come out and meet up with your old friends and make some new ones, discussing how your summer went and how the big one got away.  Please invite spouses, significant others, friends, and anyone you think might be interested in joining Trout Unlimited.  

There will be something for everyone!  Farmers market, food truck, and music.  Plus we will be having a gear swap.  Bring in your used fishing equipment and drop it off with your name and price.  If your item sells, the money is yours to keep.  We will also be signing up new members at half off the usual price – only $17.50!

Hope to see everyone there!  

Chapter Meeting – May 2024


Chapter Meeting: May 7, 2024
Juniors Restaurant and Tap House
414 South Main Street, River Falls Wisconsin


Meeting starts at 7:00 pm, Dinner at 6:00pm (your dime)

Program:
Following chapter announcements and prize drawings, Dustin Shurrer, Limited -Term Employee (LTE) of Senior Fisheries Biologist Kasey Yallaly will update us on fish survey results conducted in 2023, and Habitat Specialist Nate Anderson, will present an overview of 2023 stream restoration projects and plans for future projects. For those of you who cannot attend, the meeting will be streamed in real time on our newly created YouTube channel. 
https://youtube.com/live/D6flpmMJuHc?feature=share 

Questions?

Please email us at communications@kiaptuwish.org


Kiap-TU-Wish has always supported youth getting involved in fly fishing, and over the last several years our inventory of flies to donate has shrunk. We will be providing flies to those taking the June River Falls Fly Fishing Clinic and those at the Pheasants Forever event (and elsewhere). Bob Trevis, our chapter’s Fly Wrangler, is asking those coming to the May meeting to purge their fly boxes of a half-dozen trout flies and a half-dozen panfish flies. SIzes 14, 12 and 10 are preferred – no 18s or smaller, please. See Bob at the meeting, and thanks in advance!

Chapter Meeting April 2024

April 2nd Chapter Meeting at Juniors

Our Guest Speakers

Kent Johnson, Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter, Trout Unlimited

Clarke Garry, Professor Emeritus, UW-River Falls

Presenting: Kinnickinnic River Macroinvertebrate Monitoring: Past, Present, and Future

What do we know about aquatic insect trends: nationally, regionally, and locally, including the Kinni? What do we need to learn, and what can we do?

Radisson Hotel in downtown River Falls, 414 S. Main St.

Trout anglers in the Upper Midwest have observed declines in insect hatches on their favorite streams. Is this just “Rosy Retrospection” bias, or is something more insidious at work? At this meeting, Clarke Garry and Kent Johnson will discuss the current state of knowledge regarding aquatic insect populations, threats to these populations, and some possible solutions. They will then tie this general overview to the multi-year (2022-2025) project they have been conducting to understand the past and present health of aquatic insect populations in the Kinnickinnic River. To help make this comparison of past to present, a survey will be distributed, to solicit Kiap-TU-Wish member observations of possible changes in Kinni insect communities during the past 20+ years.

Kent Johnson holds a B.A. Degree in Biology from St. Olaf College and a M.S. Degree in Aquatic Biology/Aquatic Toxicology from Michigan Technological University. He worked for 38 years as an Environmental Scientist and Manager, developing, implementing, and directing water quality monitoring programs for large rivers, streams, and lakes for the Metropolitan Council Environmental Services in St. Paul. He has been a KIAP member since 1988 and has been heading up our stream monitoring and storm water management since 1990. He has also worked with TUDARE on stream monitoring and was the WiseH2O project coordinator.

Dr. Clarke Garry is a Professor of Biology Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, who retired after 30 years teaching General Biology, Zoology, and Entomology. He has a B.A. Zoology and a M.S. Entomology from the University of Missouri – Columbia and a Ph.D. Entomology, University of Wisconsin – Madison. Clarke came to appreciate the insects and crustaceans of the Kinnickinnic River beginning with group projects carried out by his students on the South Fork. In 2001 and 2002 he completed comprehensive macroinvertebrate surveys of the Kinni, documenting insect and crustacean populations inhabiting the mainstem. He contributed regularly to the entomology column of Midwest Fly Fishing magazine. His essays are available in book form: In the Kinnickinnic, Stories of a River and Its Insect Life.

Before the presentation, we will be holding board member elections.

We will also be having an in-person silent auction. Some of the items up for bid we did not sell during our on-line auction, and they now have a reduced starting bid. We also have new items that we received after the on-line auction. Items include an almost new package including a Lamson reel, Simms boots, and L.L. Bean waders. Also, a Winston fiberglass rod, rod/reel/line outfit, flies, vests, artwork, fly lines, and more!!!

You don’t want to miss this meeting!

Dinner menu and silent auction will be available at 6 pm, with the program starting at 7 pm. Silent auction will conclude 15 minutes after our speaker’s presentation. Hope to see you there! If you can’t make it in person, the ZOOM link Can be found in a separate post.

All reactions:

3Jonathan Jacobs, Brock Badger Flowers and 1 other

Chapter Meeting – March 2024

March Chapter Meeting!  Our Guest Speaker – Bob White!  March 5th at Juniors!

Please join us as world renowned artist and guide, Bob White, presents, “Beauty and the Beast – Fly Fishing for Trout and Golden Dorado in Argentina.”  Bob’s presentation will encompass his recollections from 40 years of trout fishing in Patagonia, and contrast it with his first experience fishing for Golden Dorado in the Parana Watershed of Northern Argentina.  You won’t want to miss this entertaining presentation!!!

Bob White is an artist and author whose work expresses a misspent youth. Instead of doing his homework, his nose was constantly in the outdoor books and sporting magazines of the day. Consequently, he has wandered between Alaska and Patagonia for over three decades as an itinerant fishing guide, looking for gainful employment. He now paints and writes for a living; which is to say, he’s still searching.

Bob was inducted into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame as a Legendary Artist in 2009. He was Fly Rod & Reel magazine’s Guide of the Year in 1988. As the 1994 Artist of the Year for the Alaska State Parks Foundation, Bob produced and donated the artwork for the first Alaska State Parks Foundation print. His work has been presented twice in Fly Rod & Reel magazine’s Gallery. Bob has been featured as a guide and artist on ESPN’s “Fly Fishing the World” and “Fly Fishing America”, as well as on Ron Schara’s “Minnesota Bound”. He currently illustrates the closing column for Ducks Unlimited magazine and illustrates every issue of the Trout Unlimited magazine. He regularly contributes artwork and the occasional story to a myriad of national and international sporting publications.

Bob lives in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota with his wife, Lisa, their daughter Tommy, and their wonderful retrievers, Quill and Reuben.

Bob has graciously donated a print to the chapter and we will do a card raffle, at $5 a card for the beautiful print below (“Spring Peepers”, 19″ x 15″, signed and numbered edition of 100) .  Bring some cash!!!!

Meeting Specifics:

Join us, March 5th at Juniors (Radisson Hotel) in downtown River Falls (414 S. Main St.), for the Bob White’s presentation.

Dinner menu will be available at 6 pm, with the program starting at 7 pm.  Hope to see you there!  If you can’t make it in person, ZOOM link is below.

Kiap TU Wish is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: March Chapter Meeting
Time: Mar 5, 2024 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82513065860?pwd=N2tmOEZWWEcwczhSOXUyVnVFb2xMUT09

Meeting ID: 825 1306 5860
Passcode: 506645

 

January Chapter Meeting! 

By Greg Olson

When Sarah Sanford accepted my invitation to be our January speaker, I knew we were going to be in for something wonderful;  perhaps wild, probably wacky, but certainly wonderful.  I told her the topic was up to her…. just make it related to fish (please!) and waited and wondered.  When she finally gave me her idea at the Holiday Banquet, I had to check with her the next day to make sure I heard right.  I had!  So without further adieu, KIAP-TU-WISH brings you…….!

An Evening with Eben, Barbara, and Sarah
Hear music, see fish photos (narrated by Sarah), meet the Uninvited Mermaid!
 
Barbara and Eben Gillespie are lovely Minneapolis residents who make beautiful music together. They once invited strangers from the internet to a 60’s music jam in their north Minneapolis basement. Sarah Sanford went to sing and learned they weren’t axe murderers at all! Eb and Barb will share from their enormous repertoire of acoustic music from the 60’s to the present. Sarah has promised that the songs will all be about fishing.

Here is the lowdown!

Join us, January 2nd at Juniors (Radisson Hotel) in downtown River Falls (414 S. Main St.), for Sarah, Eben and Barbara.

Dinner menu will be available at 6 pm, with the program starting at 7 pm.
  

We are not even going to attempt this with ZOOM, but hey, you are going to want to be there in person!  We have never done anything like this before, don’t miss out!  This is going to be too fun!!!

Also the book swap will return!  You know the drill by now.  Bring your fishing/outdoor books you wish to swap out.  If you don’t have any to bring, you can still pick from other members offerings.  If you brought a book that was not picked up, please bring it back home with you. 

Also, this is one of the last chances to bring in items for our February Auction.  We would appreciate your help!

Thanks and hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!