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Volunteers are the engine that power TCTU's activities. In the twelve months from September 2023 to August 2024, nearly 400 volunteers contributed over 2000 hours of time to Education, Habitat Improvement, Advocacy and Community Engagement. We had 19 super volunteers, who participated in 5 or more volunteer events. We'll be giving them a shout-out at Oktoberfish.
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Thanks to Cory Goldsworthy and Nick Peterson who gave a terrific presentation on Coaster Brook Trout. You can see a video of the presentation on YouTube here (don't forget to subscribe!). You can download a copy of the presentation by clicking below. 
A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
by Jim Sauter “Live each season as it passes, breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden Welcome to the fall season. Many subtle changes are appearing during this time of year. The Apple House at the Minnesota Arboretum is now open and serving apple cider slushes and caramel apples. The local coffee shops have unveiled pumpkin spice drinks. The days are getting shorter, and the leaves on trees and sumacs are transforming. The evening temperatures are cooling as are water temperatures in area streams. And the trout are getting hungrier and more active. I really love this time of year. A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
The Duke Hust award is an annual award given to a chapter member who exhibits exceptional leadership and dedication to the chapter. It is given in honor of George Agar "Duke" Hust, a past president of the Twin Cities chapter of Trout Unlimited and of the Minnesota State Council of Trout Unlimited who passed away in 2007. Duke was instrumental in the formation of the Twin Cities Chapter and tirelessly donated his time and resources to ensure its success. Nominations for the Duke Hust award may be submitted at any time. Nominations for a given year will close on September 30th and the award will be given at a chapter event later in the Fall. To receive the award, individuals must be a member in good standing and not currently serving on the TCTU board. To nominate a chapter member for the Duke Hust award, please download the following document, fill it out, and email it to [email protected]. 
You can find the latest edition of our chapter newsletter here
By Jim Sauter
Greetings from TCTU Streamkeepers. I. INTRODUCTION Welcome to the dog days of summer. This is usually a time when the Dog Star, Sirius, begins to shine and we experience the sultry heat of summer. The good news is that most of our stream water is still in nice 50-60 degrees. We only had one reading where water temperatures were about 65 degrees, and that was Belle Creek on July 28th. The coolest stream came in at a nice water temperature of 53 degrees on July 21st at Trout Brook. Recently, when checking out a possible site for the Save Our Stream training on Eagle Creek, my eleven-year-old granddaughter, Hannah, and I decided to take a water clarity test. When we arrived at the stream, we visited with several representatives from the MN DNR, MNTU, and TCTU. They were in the "planning stage" for a future habitat project on the stream in 2025. By Zander Cummins - 2024 TCTU Scholarship Recipient I attended The Northwest Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy from June 22 – 29 of this year, which was the 23rd year of the camp. The Academy is a program near Shelton, Washington that is dedicated to growing the next generation of fly fishers and conservationists. There were 18 kids there this week and a variety of volunteers teaching us different skills.
There were three main sections of this program. The first three days of the week were dedicated to building our skills as fly fishermen. We had casting classes from Marion Hiller, an FFI certified casting instructor, and tying lessons from a variety of different experienced tyers, including a couple of the directors. I liked the variety of different ways we could practice casting such as 1-on-1 instruction, the casting course, and tic-tac-toe casting. Because of this practice I was able to pass the Bronze course by the end of the week. The fly tying lessons were also really useful to me because I could watch to see what I was supposed to be doing. The second part of the week was focused around the biology and conservation of trout, and entomology. We learned about these topics through Power Points by different people with knowledge on the subjects and a couple of field trips. Here is a list of the presentations and the activities that went along with them. Entomology 101 and Match the Hatch We went to a river to find bugs and then came back and talked about how they are important to the ecosystem, how to identify them, and how to create and choose fly patterns to match the bugs we found. Then, after dinner we tied flies that matched what we found. Fisheries Conservation This was led by a guy from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service who talked about what he does at his job. We then rotated through three activities, trout dissections, radio telemetry, and invasive species archery. These activities taught us more about the fish, how people track and estimate fish populations, and the dangers to streams in Washington state. Fish Barriers The same guy then talked to us about culverts and other fish barriers. After the talk we went to a culvert with some of his surveying equipment to see if the culvert was small enough that it was a fish barrier (it was not a barrier). This including taking water depth measurements, width and height measurements, and slope/waterflow measurements. Clean, Cold, and Complex Waterways This lesson was about the things that make up a healthy trout stream, clean, cold water and a wide variety of other organisms. To go with this, we took water tests at the lake we were on and at a nearby stream to see if they were good trout habitats. These tests included pH and dissolved oxygen samples, water clarity tests, and temperature checks. We found that both water systems were fairly good for trout but they were a little warmer than trout like it and the stream had a slightly too high pH. The final part of our time at the academy was spent using our skills to catch fish on both a river in the area. We had one day at the river where we learned wading safety and how to mend while on the river. We then split into groups to fish different beats along the Satsop River and Bingham Creek. I went to Bingham and caught a couple of nice trout. On the last day of camp, we had the chance to go back to the river. I went to Satsop that time and my group caught a bunch of little trout. Throughout the week we had a lot of free time to do what we wanted to. Sometimes during free time we were able to go out on boats and fish the lake. The problem with this was that there were lots of rules about when we could do it which didn’t give us as much time on the lake as I would have liked. Because of this I spent most of my free time tying flies which was really fun because there were tons of materials we could use. This was one of my favorite parts because I was able to experiment on different flies without wasting materials that I bought. During my time at the Academy I learned a ton and became a much better fisherman. I also learned a lot about what people in conservation jobs do which will be good to know when I decide what I want to go to college for. This program was an incredible opportunity and I think it would be cool if Minnesota had a program like this for people who had gone through other programs such as the Foster the Outdoors program I did. Thank you so much for the scholarship allowing me to attend this program. A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
by Doug Moran I love my dog, Minnie. Heck, we all love our dogs. But did you know that our dogs deposit about 120,000 tons of poop a year? That’s 240,000,000 lbs a year! Minnesota has about 900,000 dogs. And between them all, they poop about .73 lbs per day! All this poop contributes about 20% of the bacteria found in our lakes, rivers and streams, and spreads nasty stuff like Giardia and Salmonella! In fact dog poop is the 3rd largest source of bacterial pollution in urban watersheds! That’s not all! The nitrogen and phosphorus found in dog poop also raises havoc by fertilizing algae and other things which deplete the oxygen aquatic wildlife needs to survive. So take these 3 simple steps to reduce the impact of dog poop in our waterways!
Editor's Note: Doug Moran is a TCTU Board Member and our self-appointed Poop Czar. He is the number one advocate for solving the number 2 problem.  by Yves Charron Good times in Preston!!!! Good TCTU participation, weather was great, water levels were excellent, the fish were biting, what more can you ask for!!! We kicked-off the weekend with a meet and greet dinner on Friday. A few new faces this year….it was nice to see. Then, we stopped at the river for a bug talk with Vaughn Snook (DNR) and some basic fishing techniques on the river. No cicadas sighting to report, but some BWO. On Saturday and Sunday, it was time to fish and put this new knowledge acquired into action. Some of the catches! Thank you for the ones who joined me in Preston. See you next year! Yves Charron TCTU Treasurer by Jim Sauter
Greetings from TCTU Streamkeepers. Wow. What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time we had extreme heat and drought. This year we have cooler weather, flooding, and drought concerns have vanished. Typically, we ask our stream monitors to take at least three of our stream monitoring readings within one day after a major rain event. This is not a problem this year! by Doug Moran  Doug’s lawn is in the Vermillion watershed. He minimizes his fertilizer use and composts his grass trimmings. He’d rather fish than do lawn maintenance, but it doesn’t look too bad! We all know that Minnesota has a nitrate problem.
We know that nitrate is bad for humans (cancer, thyroid disease--especially for infants), bad for aquatic life, and bad for our economy ($210 billion/year). 27% of surface water tested by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency exceeds the EPA limit of 10 mg/L. And 10 percent of the private wells sampled in southwestern, southeastern, central, and north-central Minnesota have nitrate levels above 10 mg/L. So what can you do about it? A lot. A few simple things!
Do your part! It’s easy to reduce the amount of nitrate you add into our groundwater! PS: If you’d like to learn more about Nitrates, please click here for a great article on the MNTU website. A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
 By Mike Hodgens
Paradise valley in the spring is unpredictable. Some years it is snowy and cold, others have bluebird days. Some years the Yellowstone is in full runoff, while other years it is perfectly floatable. For more than a decade I have headed to Paradise valley to fish this unpredictable time of year. by Jim Sauter
Greetings from TCTU Streamkeepers. As we gear up our stream monitoring efforts, this article will feature one of our eight targeted streams, give a Streamkeeper monitoring "tip of the month," announce a future training opportunity, and post some observation results. The Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization (VRWJPO) recently released its 2023 annual report, and it's available for review on their website by clicking the link below. 2023 Vermillion River Watershed JPO Annual Report For a quicker review, they also produced a two-page summary with some key highlights, and we've attached that here.
by Bob Luck
If you’d like to skip the President’s Angle and scroll right down to the Cat Fly, let me cut to the chase. Please attend one or more of the following habitat events scheduled between tomorrow and June 1st: May 16 and May 19: Tree planting on Cedar Valley Creek in Southeast Minnesota. You may remember Jen Biederman talking about this stream during her habitat presentation earlier this year. A very special place! https://mntu.org/event/plant-trees-with-minnesota-trout-unlimited/ May 21: Brush removal on Little Pickwick Creek near Winona. Another beautiful Driftless area stream, where our friends at the WinCres chapter are doing a great job and could use some help. https://mntu.org/event/win-cres-volunteer-workday-little-pickwick-creek-2/ June 1: Invasive species removal and trash pickup on TCTU’s home stream, the Vermillion. A bit closer to drive! We recently submitted our annual activity report to TU National, and here is the bottom line: in our last fiscal year, over 100 TCTU members donated over 2000 hours of their time. by Yves Charron This past April, I went fishing on the Rush with a fellow TCTU member. As we were concluding our day of fishing, he said “I will put on my special fly”. After a few drifts through the rifles, and a couple of nice fish in the net, I asked “what is so special about the fly?” He responded CAT HAIR. I did return home that day thinking I could give this a try myself since I have 4 cats at home. I took the brush and started to groom my cats. The cats enjoyed it, and I got the material needed to tie some flies. That’s what we call a WIN-WIN!  Finally got a chance to get out and try to fish with the cat flies. Conditions were not the best, but the cat flies worked! The tan color flies and the white seems to get more strikes than the gray color.  I ended up losing my trout flies on the bottom or in the trees….so I guess I will have to go back to square one and groom the cats again!
Give it a try yourself…. maybe you will have a new preferred pattern to fish the trout stream this summer. Tight lines! by Jim Sauter
Welcome to the 2024 TCTU Streamkeeper monitoring season. The good news is that our recent April and May showers have been very beneficial to our water levels in area streams. This year we are transitioning to the Save Our Stream protocol from the Izaak Walton League, and the chemical monitoring season began in April and concludes in late September or early October. We may also conduct one or more macroinvertebrate surveys in October. A new edition is out from our friends in SE MN and Iowa, including everything new about Habitat, Conservation, Advocacy, and, of course, a fishing report!
April 26, 2024 Goodhue High School Fishing Club Event
Contact- Please reach out to Dusty Hoffman to let him know you can volunteer to Guide. Email: [email protected] Cell phone: (507) 459-9851 Friday, April 26, 2024- Guided Trout Fishing Location: Creekside Park, Rushford, MN Time: Arrive 8:15 AM. 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM *Lunch provided at park while sharing stories* Guides will take groups of students to streams around the Rushford area to trout fish.
This September, Reel Recovery will be hosting another Midwest retreat for men living with cancer in the Wisconsin Driftless Area. Tom Sather from the WI Clearwaters Chapter, and Bruce Maher and Scott Wagner from the WI Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter are teaming up to host a Reel Recovery Retreat for men living with cancer at the Oxbow Hotel, Eau Claire, WI from September 4-6, 2024. Reel Recovery is a national non-profit organization that conducts fly-fishing retreats for men living with cancer. Reel Recovery's mission is to help men in the recovery process by sharing with them the healing powers of the sport of fly-fishing, while providing a safe, supportive environment to explore their personal experiences with cancer, with others who share their stories. Retreats are offered at no cost to the participants and are led by professional facilitators and expert fly-fishing instructors.  |
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