Well it seems that we MAY be returning to some sort of normalcy. After more than two years without any in-person indoor meetings, the Mad River Chapter Board held its first meeting since early March of 2020 on March 27th of this year. The Chapter then held its 2022 annual meeting on May 21st at the Van Dyke Club just outside of South Vienna.

Attended by just 25 members, we still considered it a great start as those in attendance were very engaged. Lasting just under three hours, we ran through the required Chapter business items, followed by reports on associated activities outside of official Chapter activities and a report on Ohio State Council activities. We then were addressed by John Ritter, Ph. D. - Professor of Geology at Wittenberg University. His presentation "The Mad River: Geomorphology and Hydrology of an Exceptional Coldwater System" was a real eye-opener. Turns out that our Mad River is really quite unique in all of North America. There was a raffle to close out the meeting that included some pretty nice prizes and netted $660 to add to our treasury. To learn more detail, minutes of the meeting will be posted for your review once they get finalized. Here is a link to the Accomplishments Report.

Other signs of a return to normalcy are that we plan on re-starting the quarterly Chapter meetings and we've re-scheduled the first-ever Mad River Gala for Saturday, November 5th of this year. You surely recall that after months of build-up, that event was cancelled just two weeks before it was to take place in March of 2020. We have already reserved the Simon Kenton Inn for the event and we still have all of the raffle prizes squirreled away. We will have a great speaker for the event to go along with the good food, good drink and good company so please Save-the-Date. There will be announcements and details for both the quarterly meetings and the Gala sent out as they are developed.

The first stream water quality monitoring event of the year was cancelled due to high water. The next monitoring session is scheduled for this Saturday, June 25th. If you can make it to the session, pleased do so and bring a child, grandchild, friend or two. In addition to our normal Level 1 monitoring (counting bugs), we will be introducing Level 2 protocols which will give us a better understanding of what’s happening with the river.

One thing that has been challenging is access to our website. Since changing the Chapter's name to the Mad River Chapter, there have been some issues regarding access to our new website. It is out there though you may be directed to the old Madmen website where you will receive a message that the site can't be found. The new URL is http://tumadriver.org . If typed in correctly (Not in a Google search.), you should be able to access it. If it looks like the old website, don't worry; it's a work in progress.

For those of you who didn't know, our very own Tom Allen was honored by Ohio Outdoor News magazine as its 2022 Person of the Year for his 40-some years of working to improve the quality of ground and surface water in the State of Ohio as well as his continued efforts working on behalf of the Mad River and the Ohio Eastern Brook trout. There was a gathering at Nocterra Brewing Company on March 24th to celebrate the event. In attendance were some of Tom's past co-workers, past and current Ohio officials, fly anglers, friends and family. Great food, (of course) great beer, lots of stories, and even a music video by The Steel Wheels entitled "Mad River Song". Congratulations and THANK YOU once again for all you do Tom.

So, we are trying to get back to normal. Hopefully, we can keep things going and things can keep getting better. Keep your hopes up and your fingers crossed.

Tight Lines 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 :) 

by Pam Allen, Mad River Chapter Membership Director and Newsletter Editor;
Board Member, Ohio Scenic Rivers Association

The Ohio Scenic Rivers Association (OSRA) needs people who care about Ohio's State Scenic Rivers and other waterways to become members. If you fish for steelhead or lake-run smallmouth in the Conneaut Creek, Ashtabula River, Grand River, or Chagrin River, THAT'S YOU! If you paddle or fish in any of the other 11 designated wild, scenic or recreational rivers and want to keep them that way, THAT'S YOU! If you want to help protect any of Ohio's other high-quality streams, THAT'S YOU!

Please join our efforts and become a member today! You can sign up online at www.ohioscenicriversassociation.com  All those who join (or renew their membership) before the Annual Meeting will be entered in a chance to win a high-quality inflatable kayak kit valued at $900 from Smithfly Designs. The drawing will take place at their Annual Meeting on July 25th at Battelle Darby Creek Metropark in Galloway, Ohio.

 

The Driftless
Ah . . . the Driftless. What is it? Where is it? Is it worth the drive?
by Rick Hurni, President, Mad River Chapter 

  
The Driftless is a vast area of the Midwest that encompasses northwest Illinois, northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, and most importantly to trout fishers . . . southwest Wisconsin. It was never covered by ice during the last ice age and therefore lacks glacial deposits, also termed Drift. Its landscape is characterized by steep hills, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and Karst geology with spring-fed waterfalls and thousands of miles of cold-water trout streams, many of which have been improved. From central Ohio, it’s a 10 hour drive each way to Viroqua, the epicenter of Wisconsin's Driftless area.

For years, my fishing buddy Tom and I have been intrigued by this mysterious area of the Midwest but were always intimidated by the sheer vastness of it; there's so much water, so many streams. How would one know where to go, which rivers to fish, what about access? If it rains on your trip, would it be fishable? It's smack-dab in the middle of America's dairy land. Aren't most of the streams meandering through pastures and feedlots? Could you end up driving 10 hours each way and not even have the opportunity to wet a line because a bit of rain turned every stream off-color?

Every year for the past 20 years or so, Tom and I would head out west to fish for two weeks. Our western trip last year was probably the least satisfying of all the trips we've made. Scorching heat, low water levels, high algae levels, too many people, and the worst flying experience ever. It took us 23 hours to get from Columbus to our final destination in Last Chance, Idaho. Enough! We were ready to give the Driftless a try, but how do we begin to figure it out?

We've made forays into unknown (to us) fly fishing destinations before, but almost always were able to do enough research to make the trip successful. Using the same methods as we used for earlier trips, we began by searching for YouTube videos of people fishing the Driftless, of which there ended up being quite a few. The ones that looked the best to us were on various streams in Wisconsin. We purchased the Wisconsin Gazetteer and a book titled Map Guide to Improved Trout Waters of Wisconsin (Second edition). We downloaded the Wisconsin DNR fishing maps for Crawford, Grant, La Crosse, Monroe, Richland and Vernon Counties. We reviewed the fishing regulations and license requirements. 
(Amazingly, they offer a first-time buyers rate on fishing licenses. $25 for an annual non-resident license plus $10 for a trout stamp). We called The Driftless Angler, the only actual fly shop in the area, to pick their brains. We consulted with our friends on a couple of fly fishing forums to seek their advice.

After all of that, we decided that Vernon County would be the base of our operation with Viroqua being the only town of any size in the county. We decided to go the week before Opening Day to avoid the chance of crowds. We searched VRBO for suitable lodgings and found a cabin out in a valley with, low and behold, one of the improved trout stream meandering through it. It was available for our week, so we snagged it.

We drove out on a Sunday to avoid traffic. We avoided going anywhere near Chicago to avoid that mess. We arrived in late afternoon and unloaded the car. After driving all the way, I was beat so I decided to take a nap. Tom decided to walk across the road to wet a line. I heard Tom clomping around downstairs when he got back and I inquired, "How many did ya catch?" His reply, "I landed five and lost a few more. Didn't fish upstream more than a 1/4 mile."

He was beat by then as well so we went to town to visit The Driftless Angler to buy a few local flies and to get one of their really great maps; We ate dinner at Pacifico Mexican Grille (which is apparently the only restaurant in the county that's open after 5:00 p.m.). We drank some bourbon on the front porch overlooking the valley and listening to the birds, the stream, and a few unusual sounding critters; then hit the rack.

We decided to fish "our" stream the next morning and did quite well; landed about a dozen each then decided to search for some other streams on our list that were close by. We found some of the streams, but they did not look promising; they were just so "skinny." We drove around and saw the sights, i.e. lots of cows.

Tuesday morning greeted us with overcast skies and a light drizzle. The forecast was for more rain in the afternoon so we high-tailed it out of there to fish before the rains came. After about an hour's drive, we accessed one of the bigger rivers on our list. (Big being a relative term; the stream averaged maybe 15 feet wide with runs that were 6 feet wide and pools that were maybe 30 feet wide.) We started out in the rain but it never came down hard and we saw no ill effects on the water clarity. By late in the afternoon, we had covered about three river miles and landed an estimated 75 brown trout between us. We saw a total of two other fishermen that day, but they appeared to only be fishing near their car in water that we had fished hours before. The weather cleared up as we drove back to the cabin to cook dinner and have a beer. After dinner, we retreated to the front porch for rum and cigars and the lovely view below.

 

Mike Palatas, TU Mad River Chapter Stream Project Co-Leader, fished this fly in the Driftless Area; it fishes the Mad River really well too!  Mike fishes it swung, dead drifted or on a slow retrieve. It works good solo but he usually makes it his trailing fly on a two fly rig. This is a copy cat fly of one by the same name sold at Mad River Outfitters.