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Welcome to the very first edition of the TU Madmen’s newsletter “Mad River Drift.” This is a new venture for the Board and we are pretty excited about it. We’ve realized that keeping the Madmen membership informed as to what was happening with the Chapter and on the Mad had been pretty much dependent on the members seeking out the information themselves by visiting the website and/or our Facebook page. With the introduction of the “Mad River Drift,” we are taking a more active role in keeping our members informed.
Initially, the newsletter will be issued quarterly. If all goes well and we find that it’s being well-received, we may at some point go to a monthly format. The newsletter will be posted on the TU Madmen website, linked to our Facebook page and sent out electronically to all Chapter members who have allowed us to send them emails. There will be no hard copies printed or mailed out via “snail mail.”
Regular features will include announcements of upcoming meetings and events, results of past meetings and events, a “Match the Hatch” fly recipe, a Chapter member’s fishing story, and a message from me. There will also be a one-off report or story included in each issue that will highlight one of the Chapter’s various programs. We encourage all Chapter members to submit their favorite Mad River fly recipes and/or fishing stories to PamAllen@tumadmen.org. We also encourage comments and suggestions for improving the newsletter; it is truly a work in progress.
Your Board of Directors has been really busy since the start of the new year and we certainly hope that you have noticed. We have had changes in the make-up of the Board with some folks leaving the Board, new members coming on board, various people taking on new roles, and the creation of a few new positions in an attempt to spread out the workload and improve our leadership.
We are still seeking volunteers to fill a few positions on the Board. We need a Vice President, Secretary, Youth Coordinator, Public Relations Coordinator, and Social Media Coordinator. If you have an interest in serving on the Board in one of these positions, please contact me or any of the other Board members via the Contacts tab on the website. And as always, we need volunteers to assist in our stream monitoring, river clean-up, Trout in the Classroom, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing and habitat restoration programs and events.
Tight lines everybody!
Rick Hurni, President
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Nearly fifty members gathered for our annual meeting on April 13, 2019 at Bogey’s at Rocky Lake just south of Springfield on State Route 68. This was the first meeting we’ve held in a venue such as this, which offered the availability of food and drink. It seemed to have worked out well and we will no doubt have future meetings/events at Bogey’s and similar venues throughout the Madmen Chapter’s geographic area.
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Katie Johnstone
Hello TU Madmen community! My name is Katie Johnstone and I am excited to announce I have joined the Board as the Women’s Outreach Coordinator.
I have been fly fishing for a little over a year and have been immersing myself in the fly fishing community. I have met and fished with several women throughout Ohio, and hope to bring the women of TU Madmen together through social events and stewardship projects.
So far we have kicked off one project through the women’s initiative. The women in the chapter have adopted the Watson property access area on Upper Valley Pike/Sullivan Road as part of the Adopt-a-Bridge/Stream watch program. We will be working to keep this area free of litter and enjoyable for fishing.
Please keep an eye out for emails about upcoming fly tying events, social events, meet-ups, and the Adopt-a-Bridge/Stream program that the women will be in charge of. If you are on Facebook and want to stay connected there, please consider joining the TU Mad(WO)men group (women only).
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Cleanup photos courtesy of Mad River Outfitters
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We were fortunate to have blue skies and high spirits as we set to comb the banks and give our beloved river a good once over during the Spring cleanup on May 11th.
In cooperation with Mad River Outfitters, Birchbark Canoe Livery allowed us access to their recently beautified livery, which was a perfect setting for us to spread out without parking conflicts. We certainly appreciate them letting us use their property that day! Although we decided to keep the boats, rafts and canoes moored due to river conditions, our crews were kept busy on the banks.
We had about forty people helping that day, including several youth and some in their golden buckeye years. A considerable amount of rubbish was rounded up and deposited in the roll-off container provided by Birchbark. Mad River Outfitters generously covered the cost of disposal. All said, the river was coming off the winter months rather clean, a direct result of the hard work we have been putting in over the last several years.
TU Madmen provided a solid cookout for the those that contributed their time that morning. Burgers, veggie burgers and hot dogs were scarfed as we discussed some of the more colorful findings of the day.
Participants included members from the TU Madmen Chapter, Central Ohio Fly Fishers, Buckeye United Fly Fishers, Miami Valley Fly Fishers, Ohio Trophy Trout Hunter and more. Mad River Outfitters had a film crew on hand to document our efforts and owner, Brian, joined in the cleanup. And, local fly shop Reel Fly Rod came forward with giveaways.
All said, a wonderful day with some great river stewards! We hope you will join us in the Fall!
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Ten years ago, the first Trout in the Classroom programs got a start with two schools in the Cleveland area. The Madmen Chapter started the following year and quickly became the most active Chapter in Ohio. This year we have 12 schools in our Chapter area and 38 in all of Ohio. New this year we have provided both brown trout and rainbow trout, allowing the students to compare the behavior and growth difference between the two types of trout. Also new this year, Jeff Davis has been helping with distribution of eggs and general participation in the program.
The following are the schools and the teachers currently active in TIC in the Madmen Chapter area: Benjamin Logan High School (Spencer Reames), Benjamin Logan Elementary School (Bruce Smith), Benjamin Logan Middle School (Anthony Elsasser), Graham Elementary School, 3 tanks (Emily Shreve), West Liberty/Salem Middle School (Trisha Havens & Carrie Smith), Northwestern Middle School (Anthony Frabota), Southdale Elementary School (Dan Palmer), Fairbanks Elementary School (John Thomas), Miami Valley Career Technology Ctr. (Joe Beringer), Upper Valley Career Ctr. (Jim Metz), Wellington School (Nami Stager), Medina Middle School (Kelly Simmons). Be sure to contact me at troutman4209@gmail.com if you know of a teacher that is interested in raising trout. It is a rewarding experience for the students and a great way to introduce them to growth and development of trout, water chemistry and the whole watershed environment.
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Hook: 1X short Dry Fly Hook
Body: Dry fly Dubbing (tan, gray, olive, brown, black)
Wings: Goose Biots tied over the back
Collar: Fine elk or Deer Hair
This is a fairly easy fly to tie once you get the hang of setting the biot wings. Start by dubbing a sparse body up to the three quarter mark on the hook shank. Remove one biot from a left and right goose pointer feather and line them up in your hand so that the curve of each feather is downwards pointing. Tie them on the top and slightly too each side of the hook. You can now add a bit more dubbing to your thread and cover the thread area where you wound the biots onto. Finally, take a small amount of deer or elk hair and stack the tips even in a hair stacker. Spin the deer hair with your tying thread completely around the shank of the hook and whip finish. You should extend the tips around one half to three quarters of the way towards the bend of the hook. Now, cut the tips off of the bottom portion of the fly so that only the tips on the sides and top are left. Finally, cut the butts of the deer hair off short near the hook eye.
This caddis dry gives a really good silhouette to picky fish. If you look at a live caddis, you will notice that in most cases the body is generally short and the wings extend a good bit behind the body. They actually have a small profile on the water from the fishes view. This fly really shines when you fish slow moving pools or tailouts.
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