Visitors to this year's Oktoberfish Silent Auction may have noticed the large number of bamboo rods available.  Six of these rods, plus two graphite rods, are from the John Bush Collection.  John has been a passionate fly angler and conservationist for many decades.  He, his brother, and a group of their friends from across the Midwest were aficionados of fine bamboo rods, and got together every year to fish them.  With the inevitable passage of time, their rods wound up in John's possession.  John recently moved into an assisted living facility in Cedar Rapids, and was looking for a home for these rods.  Hopefully a home where they would be fished frequently, and could contribute to cold water conservation.  John's daughter Kendra got in touch with TCTU Chapter Member Paul Algren, who organized for them to be donated to TCTU.  Thank you, John, Kendra and Paul!
Bid generously, and, if you are the lucky winner of one or more of these special rods, tight lines!

by Jim Sauter
Greetings from TCTU Streamkeepers.  Welcome to October.
 
"Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with people who are doing something you don't believe is right."  Jane Goodall, English Primatologist and Anthropologist, April 3, 1934- October 1, 2025
 
Let the dialogue continue as we strive to make a difference preserving our cold water resources and fisheries.  
The TCTU Streamkeepers are winding down our season as we monitor streams until the end of October.  Once the temperatures start creeping below 0 degrees C, the accuracy of some of our tests diminish.  We continue taking water temperatures, salt tests, and water clarity testing, but this is done on a much more random basis through late fall, winter, and early spring months.  Our "official" 2026 monitoring season will start up again next April.
Our Streamkeepers are ending the season with a "SPLASH."  We have already set a new single season record of 111 monitoring observations for 2025, and we still have the rest of October.  Last year we had a total of 75 observations, so we have already exceeded that number by 36 observations.  This data is added to the Izaak Walton League Clean Water Hub and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency databases.  This gives us  the bigger picture about what is happening in our streams in Minnesota and beyond.
To add a bit of excitement to our monitoring efforts as we conclude the 2025 season, we have launched the September/ October Splash.  During this time, we are challenging all Streamkeepers and TCTU members to get out there and make some observations.  You can help TCTU characterize the water quality conditions and identify stream disturbances throughout the 8 targeted TCTU streams and beyond.  

by Bob Luck
After a couple of years of drought, we finally had some big rain events this year in the Metro area.  No 50-year floods, but there were a couple of 3-4" gully washers that overflowed the banks, toppled trees and reconfigured the streams.  Whenever I meet somebody on a stream after one of these events, the talk turns to what we lost: a pool that nearly always had rising trout is now a featureless run; a narrow, boulder-filled run that was perfect for nymphing is now a wide, shallow riffle; a riffle that teemed with fish during the caddis hatch is now clogged with sand.  Objectively, a flood will typically create just as many good new fishing spots as it destroys, but we anglers don't see it that way.

Fact Sheet and photos for a 3-night stay at a cabin on fabulous Trout Run