Well, my time as president of Kiap-TU-Wish is coming to a close. It is hard to believe it has been three years already?!?! Well, you’re still here and the chapter is still solvent, so I didn’t muck things up too badly. That is testament to a fabulous board and you chapter members who helped me along the way. I couldn’t have made it without you! It has been a privilege and an honor to serve as your president and I can’t imagine a finer TU chapter and I am proud to be a member.
Looking back over the past three years it’s amazing what we have accomplished. I figured I would never see a River Falls dam removed in my lifetime; to thinking I would see one removed, to now being very hopeful that both will be gone! During this process we have strengthened ties with KCC and TCTU, demonstrating the great things we can accomplish when we work together.
We’ve overcome the difficulties with meeting during the COVID outbreake, although I never overcame the difficulties with setting up a ZOOM meeting …… The Kiap-TU-Wish Holiday Banquet was revived and since has been a huge success; it has been wonderful to see our members come back and support it.
The on-line auction continues to expand and coupled with the chance drawings, the Hap Lutter appeal, and most importantly our member’s generosity, our fund-raising efforts continue to reach new heights.
The addition of a June and August outing has allowed members to stay connected during the summer months and both events were well received last year. Look for the Sulphur Solstice and Full Moon Fever at Phil’s to continue this summer.
Important chapter work continued. Education opportunities such as TIC, BIC, PFF Youth Day, TU Camp, and the RF Fly Fishing Clinic went on as usual. We expanded our offerings with the addition of a Stream Girls program which has been an exciting development, thanks to board members Linda Radimecky and Michele Bevis. We now have board member Rainbow Barry on the Pierce County Groundwater Advisory Committee to make sure our interests are considered and studied. Badger Flowers and Scott Larson are heading up chapter communications efforts and bringing us into the 21st century, a dream come true as we are getting all the chapter documents, research, and history stored on the cloud. Trout stream restoration work continues, making our trout habitat world class! Don’t forget, due to your efforts we received the 2022 Wisconsin TU Chapter of the Year!
Thanks again for all the support and encouragement you have given me, the board, and the chapter over the past 3 years! None of it would have been possible without you!
Tie your own leaders, to your personal specifications, and save money to boot! Here’s my system. A typical 9’ tapered leader costs around $4.00-$6.00 and usually the cost is the same regardless of tippet size, 0X-7X. Most commercial leaders are clear with a perfection loop tied onto the butt end with a typical butt section diameter being around .020 inches .
I have made my own leaders for years using the most basic monofilament, Berkley Trilene XL. I purchase four inch spools of clear mono in several sizes and have a special spool box made by Plano called a ‘Line Spool Box’ that I store them in.
The little black objects are grommets through which you can thread the leader material, and with the box closed, you can measure out any amount of material you want for your leader. The box is currently available for about $14-$17.
I personally don’t think that a trout, even one with glasses, can tell the difference between a 5X and 6X tippet, so I carry only two spools, in 2lb and 4lb Trilene XL, in my chest vest. The 4lb is a fat 4X, and the 2lb is a slender 5X. The latter works great with a size 22 Trico or small nymph, and the 4 pound delivers a streamer or a grasshopper with precision and authority. The four inch spools in my box are: 25lb, 17lb, 12lb, 10lb, 8lb, and 4lb. I also have a spool of 30 pound test that I nail knot to my six and eight weight bass fly lines. The 25lb is just fine for three to five weight lines. There are lots of leader formulas out there, even a few books. Experiment and find out what works best with your equipment. If you’re afraid you might fumble a blood knot, tying one leader will provide you with six to eight chances to practice. And, there are many videos on YouTube to remind you how. Generally speaking, you’ll want about a third of your leader to be the butt section, another third to be the tapered portion, and the rest tippet. I love long tippets. Fill that box with four inch Trilene XL spools, and the cost, with the box, is less than $50, and you can make more leaders than you can ever use in a lifetime.
When most people think of a typical trout habitat project, they think about increasing trout numbers and having an easy place to fish. Another goal of a trout habitat project is to reduce streambank erosion. Historically, agricultural soil erosion from fields led to heavy deposition of fine sediment in streambeds. Excessive bank erosion in wooded and heavily pastured areas continues today. Generally, bank erosion rates are excessive when overhanging vegetation dominates the top of the bank, trees fall into the stream annually, or soil slips and slumps are common. Excessive bank erosion (lateral instability or widening) and downcutting are indicators of unstable streams. Excessive sediment deposition in a stream (formation of central bars or a braided stream) is also an indicator of instability.
Sedimentation of streams results in the loss of deep-water fish habitat and declines in spawning habitat and stream productivity. “Streambank erosion has long been identified as having negative impacts to water quality. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists excessive sediments as a leading problem in our nation’s rivers and streams. Unnatural quantities of sediment entering streams can degrade aquatic habitat and alter physical and chemical characteristics of the water. Nutrients associated with soil particles enter the stream and become available to aquatic plants and algae, ultimately contributing to eutrophication of local and downstream waters.” (Pierce County Land and Water Management Plan. August 2021).
Erosion of streambanks is a naturally occurring process for many waterways, but impacts from humans such as removal of vegetation, foot/vehicle traffic, and channel modifications can exacerbate erosion. Conservation practices such as stream bank restoration, rotational grazing, fencing and buffer strips can be taken to reduce active bank erosion and reduce the impact of fine sediment to streams.
In a recent meeting with Pierce County Land and Water, KiapTUwish and WDNR, Rod Webb shared a formula to calculate how much soil loss is happening each year on local sites.
Eroding Bank Length X Eroding Bank Height X Lateral Recession Rate (FT/YR) X Soil Weight(lbs./ft3)/2000 = Estimated Soil Loss Per Year
Let’s use the latest project on the Trimbelle River-Thom easement using the formula. We did 4,000 feet of integrated bank treatment and the average height of the banks were 7 feet. Lateral Recession Rate for this section of stream is in the severe category with a .4 value due to banks that are bare with rills and contain severe vegetative overhang. Many exposed tree roots and some fallen trees and slumps or slips are present as well. The channel cross section becomes U-shaped as opposed to V-shape. Soil Weight has a 95 value with the Silty Clay Loam texture.
4,000 ft X 7 ft X .4 ft/yr X 95 lbs/ft3 / 2000 = 532 tons per year or 24 quad axle dump trucks of soil are lost each year from streambank erosion within the project site alone!!!
Phosphorus is also reduced by .2 pounds per ton of sediment. With this completed project, we are reducing phosphorus by 106 pounds per year just from within the project area.
Once a project is completed, soil erosion is very limited if not eliminated. Rock protects the bank, the grass covering the rock prevents any future erosion and by sloping the banks to a more gradual slope, lessens the pressure on the banks while allowing the stream to reach its floodplain more easily.
“WDNR records show that Pierce County trout streams have improved substantially during the past 40 years due in part to projects like the Thom easement project and the improved farming practices taking place. In 1980, Pierce County had 17 trout streams for a total of 97 miles. By 2002, there were 47 trout streams for a total of 159 miles and Class I trout streams increased from 11 miles to 47.7 miles and Class II streams increased from 55 miles to 108 miles. The most recent information from Wisconsin DNR, shows 109 miles of Class I trout streams and 95 miles of Class II trout streams in the area.” (Pierce County Land and Water Management Plan. August 2021).
The two photos shown below are the same outside streambank, before the project started and a few months after the project was completed. It not only has habitat for trout and easier to fish, but it’s not allowing any fine sediment to reach the stream, now, and into the future.
When my fly tying journey started around twenty years ago, my goal was to be able to tie up some panfish and maybe some bass flies to play around with up at our lake cabin in Northern Minnesota. I quickly found out that I really enjoyed wrapping fur and feathers around hooks in order to make a fish think that it looked good enough to eat.
After a year or so of learning to tie flies on my own, I decided that I wanted to move it to a higher level and take a fly tying class. I found a class at Bentley’s Fly Shop when they were still located in Eden Prairie.
The instructor for the class was John Mowery. I really appreciated John’s attention to the small details when tying flies.This was my first introduction to trout flies and trout fishing, so it was all new and fascinating to me.
It was at one of these tying classes that John showed us his Un-cased Kinni Caddis. This fly has been a staple in my box since that time and remains my favorite sub-surface caddis fly.
Hook: Size #16 emerger hook
Thread: 14/0 or 8/0 black
Abdomen: Ultra Wire, size Brassie in chartreuse
Thorax: Black Superfine dubbing
Collar: Starling feather
At one of those classes John made a comment about donating some of the flies he tied to Trout Unlimited. A person has to wonder if that comment had an impact on me or not?
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me.
Anglers, how many of us have promised ourselves to simplify and refine our trout fishing gear?… when, according to the carol, “earth stood hard as iron,” and fishing was a dream of Spring? I know I have. Here are a few of my ‘kept’ resolutions.
I used to carry a lanyard with a ring on the end, with eight spools of tippet. I wondered at the ability to market this nylon at outrageous prices for ridiculously small amounts of material. But I replaced it only occasionally, and the stuff that always ran out first was 5X and 3X. Then I discovered that at Fleet Farm I could purchase Trilene XL in 2lb and 4lb test, on the same size spools as fancier tippet. The diameter of the 2lb is a little less than 5X, and that of the 4lb is a little fatter than 3X. That season, I fished with only two spools. And would you believe it? The fish didn’t seem to mind.
At one time in my fishing life, I used to sew vests. The ladies would look at me strangely at fabric shops where I examined dirt-colored cloth of various weights and weaves. I sold my vests for $100, but I never made any serious money at it. I made one for Bob Mitchell, and my fishing partner, and one for myself, of course. I thought the arrangement of pockets was much smarter than the Orvis one I had used previously. But then, I saw this little vest pack with a central zip compartment for a standard fly box, two side pockets for smaller boxes, and room for two tippet spools, tools, a flashlight, strike indicator yarn, and some non-lead split shot. I bought it and have never used my vest again. In fact, I bought two, just so I’d have a spare if anything happened to the first one.
Another result of the Trilene experiment was an examination of leaders. I had been buying knotless leaders because some guide told me that knots in a leader would catch bits of salad in certain rivers, like the Big Horn, particularly if you had a powerful fish on who dove into the weeds. But upon thoughtful reflection, that meant that the weight of the green stuff would slide down your leader until it reached the very thinnest and most breakable part, causing you to lose fish. On the other hand, if a hand-tied leader had knots at regular intervals, the gunk would not slide to the tippet, but be held away from it. I began making my own leaders, tying them with blood knots according to various formulas espoused by respected authors. I used large spools of Trilene XL, which was very cheap, and very handy. I haven’t bought a tapered leader in years.
These are just three New Year’s resolutions that have worked out for me. When fishing is impossible, think about ways to improve your own technique and equipment. Spring will come, eventually.
My fly tying journey started almost 20 years ago. I had been playing with a fly rod to catch bass and panfish. I was not a trout fisherman. It was fun to tie up some Wooly Buggers, Clouser Minnows and Panfish Poppers. The more I tied, the more I enjoyed wrapping stuff around a hook to fool fish. After taking some tying classes at a local fly shop that were of course focused on trout flies, I was hooked.
As my good friend Craig always seems to remind me, I tend to be a little old school. I do not always embrace our current technology. When I started tying flies all of the information available to me was either in books or magazines. I am not sure if YouTube existed back then. If it did, I did not know what it was.
One of my go-to print media was Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine that was put out by the late Tom Helgeson. In each one of those editions there would be an article on fly tying by Dennis Potterout of Michigan. I would soak up everything he wrote like a sponge.
In one of those editions, he featured a pattern called the Opal X-Caddis and he talked about all the success he had with that fly and why you should fill your fly box with them (just like I am about to tell you!).
Based on that article, I tied up a bunch. Of course, since it’s kind of my thing, I had to make some changes to the original pattern. Not everyone agrees, but I always call my changes improvements. That’s how Mr. Potter’s original fly became my Improved Opal X-Caddis. (Thanks to my friend Mike Alwin for the clever name.)
The biggest change I made was to the head of the fly. Mr. Potter would just clip the butt ends of the deer hair wing like you would on a standard Elk Hair Caddis. I refined the head just a little by adding a touch of dubbing and 3 or 4 turns of brown hackle to finish the fly. So now it is improved! I almost always tie the Improved Opal X-Caddis on a size 14 hook, but I do size my hackle down to about a size 18 feather for the head.
Even if you don’t trust my opinion (hard to fathom, isn’t it?), you can believe Dennis Potter: This is a great fly pattern and one that you should have in your fly box this spring.
If you have any questions or comments, I always like to hear from you.
