Winter Fish Camp 2024 Highlights

by Caitlin Collins

A group of 32 anglers gathered this past weekend for TCTU's annual Winter Fish Camp at Whitewater State Park. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and that made for great fishing. Over 3/4 of the group caught a fish -- a MUCH higher total than we saw last year! We had a few first-time anglers in the group, and a couple of them managed to snag a fish as well

In addition to the fishing, the group ate well, too. Thank you to the 8 participants who entered the event's chili cookoff, and congratulations to our 2024 winner, Sally Noll. Sally's white chicken chili is the stuff of legend, and it has brought her the chili crown two years in a row!

Lastly, thank you to all of the people who donated time and material goods to make this event such a success. Those include:

• Kristy Malecha for co-planning the event with me and leading all meal planning and cooking for the event. It's a huge amount of work, but she makes it look easy year after year.
• Monta Hayner for sharing her hard-earned winter fishing wisdom and casting instruction with the group on Saturday morning. Her presentation definitely helped our catch rate!
• Paul Johnson and his daughter Holly for hours of fly tying demos and instruction on Saturday along with the generous donation of a few fly boxes.
• Vaughn Snook of the Minnesota DNR for a trout anatomy lesson (live dissection!) and update on the work done in the Driftless region over the past year.
• Mel Hayner of the Driftless Fly Fishing Company for donating an Orvis beginner rod/reel/line setup as a prize at the event. It went to a new angler who went straight out and hooked a fish on it Saturday afternoon! 
• Cabela's for a generous donation of fly fishing rods, nets and other gear that was super helpful for both new and experienced anglers

I hope to see all of you on the stream this winter, and I hope you'll mark your calendars for the next one: December 5-7, 2025