Hello everyone. Hope you all had a great summer and a pleasant Labor Day weekend. My message for this quarter’s newsletter will be brief.

At the Annual Meeting last Spring and in the June issue of Mad River Drift, it was stated that we intended to begin holding quarterly meetings and that we intended to finally have our first ever Mad River Gala in November. Well, due to unforeseen circumstances, the Fall quarterly meeting date has passed and the Board has decided to postpone the Gala (again…). We will endeavor to hold a Winter quarterly meeting if we can work out the details. The Gala will be re-scheduled to Spring and will coincide with Annual Meeting, which was our intent all along up until that darned pandemic decided to disrupt everyone’s lives for a while. That being said, we really need help from a few volunteers to help with planning the event. If you have some time to spare and would like to help our beleaguered Board, please contact either me or Pam Allen and let us know how you can help or ask us how you can help.

On a happy note, it’s been announced that our very own Tom Allen has been selected to receive the 2022 Lifetime Achievement award from the Greater Dayton Partners for the Environment. Tom will be honored at the Partners for the Environment Fall Awards event on September 21. Next time you see Tom, please be sure that you congratulate him and thank him for his “passion, dedication and unwavering enthusiasm for the Mad River, groundwater protection and watershed programs” plus all of the other work that he has done for our river over the past 40+ years. There’s always a need for volunteers to assist with our on- and off-stream efforts and we’re still looking for Chapter members to fill several Board positions. Please contact me at rkhurni52@gmail.com to see how you can help out. In the meantime, there’s fishing to be done so…

Tightlines Everybody!

p.s. Articles Always Needed!! Pam could use your help with future newsletters. If you've been on a fishing trip, or have something else you'd like to share, like a fly recipe, we'd love to hear about it. Write an article and send pictures to her at pamallen@tumadriver.org; it's that easy :) 

Woohoo! We survived the storms and had a great final outing on July 23, 2022 at Briarwood Sporting Club (www.briarwoodclub.com) in Bellefontaine. It was the perfect place to celebrate everything the boys had learned and accomplished this year. When the storms blew in, the boys were glad to see the fly tying kits and eagerly used the fly tying desk in the Loafing Lodge to tie up a few flies!

The Mayfly Project’s (www.themayflyproject.com) mission is to support children in foster care through fly fishing and introduce them to their local water ecosystems, with a hope that connecting them to a rewarding hobby will provide an opportunity for foster children to have fun, feel supported, and develop a meaningful connection with the outdoors.

The Columbus Project served 4 boys in 2022 and held 5 sessions between March and July. Each session had a specific focus on different aspects of fly fishing such as casting techniques, conservation, fly patterns and tying, handling of fish, etc. During the final session the boys were given their very own setup with a rod, reel, line, flies, and bags. The goal is to give these kids everything they will need, including the equipment, skills, knowledge, and confidence to get back out on the water whenever they can to continue developing their passion for the sport. We have several Chapter members who are volunteer mentors with the Columbus Project. There also is an active project in Cincinnati. If you want to get involved or make a donation, feel free to contact the lead mentors directly. Columbus Project -- pamelasallen@gmail.com; Cincinnati Project -- e.schwartz702@gmail.com. For questions about Briarwood, feel free to contact Drew McCartt at drew@briarwoodclub.com 

TU Teens and Beyond

by Shannon Mayes, TU Teens Advisor, Mad River Chapter 
and Hunter Cook, TU Teen Graduate

  
Thoughts from Shannon: Hunter Cook joined TU Teens when he was in the sixth grade, 7 years ago. Since then, Hunter has become quite the fly fisherman. Hunter's skills developed so quickly that he helped me guide other students on the banks of many streams including the SoHo River by the time he was 14. Hunter and I fished many bodies of water in several states during his junior high and high school years. It seemed fitting that we end his senior year and celebrate graduation with a bang on a trip.
 
For Hunter's graduation present I decided to take him west for some memorable fly fishing. We decided on Wyoming! We traveled to a small area called Wapiti, Wyoming, 20 miles west of Cody; there we stayed in a cabin that was fantastic.  

We traveled west 35 miles to go into Yellowstone National Park. The park was open but very busy because half of the park's roads were closed due to flooding. We decided to fish elsewhere.

We fished most of our time on the North Fork of the Shoshone River, where we caught many large rainbow trout, a few cutthroat trout and several mountain white fish. The average rainbow was somewhere around 18 inches - - these were quality fish!

Later in the week Jamie Eggers, Hunter and I traveled across the Beartooth Mountain pass to reach an elevation of 11,000 feet. At approximately 10,400 feet we fished brooks, sloughs, and lakes for wild brook trout and even caught a few wild cutthroats!

As we packed up for the long journey home, I did some tallying of daily catches. The final reading was 3 fishermen caught 264 trout/mountain white fish in 5 and a half days! Hunter had a great trip and I cannot wait to go back!

Thoughts from Hunter: Yellowstone National Park -- A place that seems unreal when you read about it in magazines or see pictures of its incredible landscape. It's a place I've always dreamed of going, fly-fishing beneath the numerous mountain ranges of the area.

This past summer, I was able to do just that. As I graduated from high school, I knew my time at home was becoming limited, things would be changing very quickly and my free time dwindling down. So as a gift for my high school graduation, I was able to fly fish in this incredible place with two of my great mentors, Shannon Mayes and Jamie Eggers.
 
We planned this trip primarily to fish inside of Yellowstone. The Yellowstone River, Clark's Fork, and the Lamar River were all on our radar. After 1800 miles of driving, we discovered fishing inside the park would not be an option; we had to look elsewhere. As we drove to the East Entrance of the Park, we followed The North Fork of The Shoshone River for many miles. This river is ranked a Top 10 Freestone River in the country. We fished with 0x leaders, much different than what we were used to on the East Coast. We were fishing nymphs and big streamers, strikes were few and far between. The fish we were catching were trophies, we caught plenty of 21-inch Rainbows. We also caught many Mountain Whitefish, another native species of the area. 

Then we did something I never could've imagined, we drove to Beartooth Mountain pass, a rugged and mountainous stretch of highway connecting Cooke City to Red Lodge. We were told the brook trout fishing was impeccable here, and we were not disappointed. At 10,000 feet above sea level, we caught hundreds of the most colorful and aggressive brook trout I've ever seen, putting even the best East Coast Brookies to shame. These fish were hungry, and they were not afraid to eat anything. Most fish were caught on dry flies; I even stripped my dry fly in the lake to entice them. As we were moving up to fish the lake where we would ultimately catch the majority of these fish, we were hiking some pretty steep country. As we reached the lake, a near perfect scene opened up in front of us. This beautiful lake was tucked perfectly underneath the immense, snow peaked mountains, and the small stream we had been following had opened up to form a beautiful riffle that looked like a fisherman's paradise. I crouched as I walked up to the hole, and casted my Elk Hair Caddis at the top of the seam. I watched as a 10-12 inch fish came up and ate the Caddis. I figured this was a really nice brook trout, but in fact, it was a native Yellowstone Cutthroat. I quickly netted the fish, got a picture, and watched as it swam off to its remote home again. Catching this fish at 10,000 ft. and on a dry fly was pretty incredible.

The diverse wildlife, rugged landscape, and incredible fishing of this region make a truly unreal combination. It's a place I would go to every year if I could. I'm very thankful for this opportunity, and I hope more people can experience this in their lifetime. The places I was able to see in TU Teens will forever hold a place in my heart. I hope to be able to continue guiding and inspiring younger kids out there so that they can see places like this for themselves, and feel called to protect them for future generations.

 

Hook           Streamer/Nymph, size 2-8
Thread        Black 6/0
Weight        Lead wire
Tail              Black goose biots
Rib              Black Larva Lace or equivalent
Abdomen   Black rabbit dubbing
Wing case  Three turkey quill segments
Thorax        Black rabbit dubbing
Antenna     Black goose biots
Head          Black rabbit dubbing and thread

1. Tie-in thread at middle of hook shank and wrap back to over the barb of the hook. Now wrap a short length of lead wire to cover the middle half of the hook shank. Then wrap the thread over the lead wire to cover it while forming thread ramps at both ends of the lead. Once you have covered the lead wire with thread and created the ramps, take a pair of pliers and flatten the lead wire on the top and bottom of the hook shank to create a wide lead body. Wrap the thread back to hook bend. You may optionally apply cement to lead wire if desired.)
2. With the thread, create a small thread “bump” over the hook bend. This will cause the biots to flare outward when tied in.
3. Now select two Black goose biots and tie them in, one on each side of the hook bend tight right behind the thread bump. Bind down the butt ends back to the lead weight. Trim off excess biot butt and return thread to the tie-in point. The biot tail length should equal the hook shank length.
4. Tie-in 4-5” length of black Larva Lace ribbing over the hook bend at the biot tie-in point. Trim excess butt of the larva lace. Return the thread to over the hook bend.
5. Dub the thread with dubbing and wrap a tapered dubbed abdomen to just past the middle of the hook shank. Remove excess dubbing. Wrap the rib forward in evenly spaced turns over the abdomen. Tie it off and trim the excess ribbing.
6. Select a mottled turkey quill that has been treated with Dave’s flexament, fixative, or similar material, and cut three wing case segments, each equal in width to the hook gap. Cut or burn the tips of the segments to a stonefly shape. Trim the bottom of the segments square.
7. Holding the wing case segment so that it folds over the abdomen, tie-in one segment shiny side up at the end of the abdomen with the shaped end extending back to mid hook shank. Use only two or three tight wraps. Make sure the segment is centered on top of the hook. Trim off excess segment butt and return the thread to the segment tie-in point.
8. Dub the thread and make several wraps forward, forming the first part of the thorax. Ensure that the dubbing wraps cover the thread wraps binding down the wing case segment. Remove the excess dubbing.
9. Repeat step 7, folding the wing case segment so that the formed tip reaches to the mid-point of the previous segment and folds over the thorax segment that you just dubbed. Use several tight thread turns to bind down the segment. Ensure that the segment is centered on top of the hook. Trim off the segment excess and return the thread back to the segment tie-in point.
10. Repeat step 8. Ensure that there is sufficient room for another segment and a large head.
11. Repeat step 9. Ensure that the segment tip reaches back to the mid-point of the previous segment. Wrap the thread to just behind the hook eye.
12. Select two black goose biots and tie them in as antenna behind the hook eye, one on each side of the hook shank. The hook eye should cause them to split. The antenna length should equal the hook shank. Trim off biot butts and wrap the thread back against the wing case.
13. Dub the thread and make 2-3 wraps forward to behind the hook eye forming a large head. Ensure that all thread wraps are covered. Remove excess dubbing and form a small thread head right behind the hook eye. (You will probably have to cover some of the dubbing, but that’s okay.)
14. Whip finish, cut thread, and apply head cement. Brush the dubbing on the sides of the thorax.

Fly Recipe courtesy of Miami Valley Fly Fishers
Instructions by Bill “Woody” Woodward
Photography by Bob Cain