Here we are again, nearing the end of another year and the holiday season is wrapping up. Many of our chapter-related programs have had reasonably successful runs. There have been several stream water quality monitoring sessions; luckily only one event was cancelled due to high water. Several log jambs were removed, Phase 3 of the in-stream habitat improvements at Pimtown Road is being planned, and we had a major clean-up effort at 18 access points along the Mad River. Additionally, we held our first Annual Meeting since 2019, i.e. before the start of the Pandemic. The Trout in the Classroom program, Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing program, and our TU Teens program in Gallipolis also had great years. On the other hand, as much as we tried, we couldn’t get the quarterly chapter meetings going again and the Mad River Gala planned for November also fell by the wayside. We also have failed in our attempts to fill vacancies within the ranks of our Board of Directors -- we need a Vice President and Secretary. We also need an Adopt-A-Bridge Coordinator, Public Relations Coordinator and Youth Programs Coordinator. We also could use help with website maintenance. Anyone interested in filling any of those open positions may feel free to contact me at rkhurni52@gmail.com. Many of our members are also involved with The Mayfly Project, Ohio Women on the Fly and Casting for Recovery, so if you're interested in learning more about those programs and how you can help, you can visit their websites or social media pages.
Looking forward, the B.U.F.F. show is coming back after a two-year hiatus. The 2023 Greater Cincinnati Fly Fishing Show will be from 9am until 4pm on Saturday, February 4. As usual, the show will be at the Oasis Golf Club Conference Center, 902 Loveland-Miamiville Road, Loveland, Ohio. The headliner this year will be George Daniel. Taking over from Joe Humphreys (for whom the program is named), Mr. Daniel is the current instructor of the program which was started by George Harvey in the 1930’s. The Mad River Chapter will have a booth set up in our usual location so stop by. Admission is $10 and free for kids under 12. See www.buckeyflyfishers.com for additional information.
We are going to have the Mad River Gala in conjunction with our Annual Meeting. The event will be held in the evening of Saturday, April 22nd at the Simon Kenton Inn, 4690 Urbana Road, Springfield, Ohio. After a brief business meeting, there will be a cash bar, fly-tying demonstrations, and a delicious meal, followed by a couple of presenters, including Kiki Galvin and Sarah Hippensteel Hall. We're also planning to have a really big raffle.
Our speaker, Kiki Galvin attended Reel Women Guide School in 2002, and then returned to Northern Virginia, where she has been guiding in waters near and far ever since. Her motto is “Don’t be misled when you can be Ms. Guided.” Kiki is a former President of Chesapeake Women Anglers, has served as Vice President of her Trout Unlimited Chapter in Northern Virginia, and has volunteered for Casting for Recovery since 2001 and for Project Healing Waters since 2007.
Our speaker Sarah Hippensteel Hall believes that water is a critical element for community health and prosperity and communities who enjoy their rivers are more likely to protect their water. Sarah will talk about the importance of water and particularly the Mad River.
Many of you have graciously allowed us to hold on to your admission fees since the original Gala was cancelled back in 2020 and we really appreciate that. We also have all of the raffle prizes that were assembled at that time and we hope to get even more donations of raffle prizes. Additional details will be made available as they are finalized. For now, please save the date. We’re hoping for a big turnout. It would be a great start to the new year.
I hope everyone gets a chance to visit “Steelhead Alley” or gets a chance to fish the Mad a few times over the winter.
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 :)
SAVE THE DATE -- April 22, 2023, 6pm
Mad River Gala
Simon Kenton Inn, Springfield, Ohio
Chapter volunteers picked up brown trout eggs from the Ohio Department Of Natural Resources, London State Fish Hatchery and delivered them to schools in the Mad River Chapter.
Stream Water Quality Monitoring Results by Don Dean and Joe Nagel, TU Mad River Chapter
On October 15, we conducted our last monitoring session on the Mad River for 2022. This was by far one of the biggest turn-outs we have ever had for our late-season session. A heart-felt “Thank you!” to all who came out and braved the chilly north wind we experienced that morning.
Here are the scores:
Rt 36 .......................... 34
Rt 29 / Kings Creek ... 40
Watson Property ........ 36
Pimtown ..................... 33
Mac-O-Chee .............. 32
West Liberty ............... 29
(The above numbers are values for a Pollution Tolerance Index rating. The higher the number, the better. Though the particular scale we use gives an “Excellent” rating for any value that is 23 or above, we believe this scale is probably low.)
As for our results, they were similar to those we recorded in August. We found bugs in every category, but perhaps not the variety of species we had hoped for. Of the bugs found, a good portion of them were caddis, which we would expect for this time of the year.
To temper the above numbers, here are Don Dean’s initial comments on his Level 2 analysis performed at West Liberty Park:
“The Level 2 ranking at West Liberty Park was 5.46 or GOOD, on a scale of 0 (best) to 10 (worst). The problem is diversity …
Mac-o-chee Cr. is really silting up. I tried to wade under the bridge and got stuck in the muck and struggled to get out.”
NOTE: The Credible Data Program classifies surface water monitoring performed by watershed groups, state agencies, schools, local volunteers and other organizations. The Mad River Chapter primarily monitors at Level 1 to give us a general understanding about the health of the river. Recently, we been monitoring at Level 2 at a few of our regular locations.
Level 2 was designed with watershed groups in mind. Level 2 data can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of pollution controls, to conduct initial screening of water quality conditions, and to promote public awareness and education about surface waters of the state. Level 2 groups are often in the position to perform the valuable function of monitoring long term surface water quality trends in a watershed (where Ohio EPA may not have the resources to frequently revisit a particular area).
Conservation Corner Take care of the stream and the fishing will take care of itself
Conservation Work on the Mad Continues
This Fall, most of the work centered around addressing down trees and litter cleanup. We were hoping to continue honeysuckle removal and in-stream habitat improvement at Pimtown, but it will have to wait until 2023.
WE ALWAYS NEED VOLUNTEERS! Contact Tom Allen at ptallen111@insight.rr.com. We also will post events to our Facebook page.
For the future of the watershed, sustaining the existing riparian zones and restoring the impacted areas on the mainstem and tributaries is an especially important issue to address. It is going to take a long term, coordinated effort and it begins by working with the landowners; as a part of building collaboration and cooperation, there must be respect and understanding of their needs with a variety of options to encourage them to protect and restore these areas. Also, we will need to have cooperation and collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies, groups and organizations, elected officials, community and local business leaders. Andrew Warnick, Student and Boy Scout from Columbus, Ohio contributed the following article about his efforts to protect the Mad River through his Eagle Scout project. Thank you to Andrew and his boy scout troop for their efforts!
Mad River Helped by Eagle Scout Project
My name is Andrew Warnick from Troop 262 in Columbus, Ohio. This Fall I completed a multi-day Eagle Scout project on Mad River. I chose to make the river the subject of my project because my dad and I go fishing on the Mad sometimes, and excessive litter seriously detracts from the experience. I love nature, and it’s very frustrating to see its beauty disregarded by others.
The project was split into two days for logistical purposes. The first day, I gathered some friends and family and we canoed down 5 miles of the river, picking up trash along the way (Birchbark Canoe Liverywas generous enough to let us borrow their canoes). It took us a good 5 hours or so, and it was cold, but we managed to gather ten trash bags full of garbage, not to mention several sizeable pieces of scrap metal including the bottom half of a lawnmower. Two weeks later, I carried out the next phase. At the Route 36 bridge, there is a trailhead that starts a path along the river. Before the project, this trail was overgrown with weeds and branches, plus an invasive species of honeysuckle. That afternoon, I gathered a new group and brought weed wackers and pruners and cleared about 200 yards of the trail, picking up trash as we went. The trail is now much wider, with fewer obstructions.
We were able to make a real difference in those two days, and it’s really nice to have something to be proud of. It wasn’t always easy, but with the right mindset and resources, we were able to create an experience on the river devoid of the distractions of chip bags and beer cans.
Conservation Work on the Clear Creek
There still is a lot of work to protect Mad River and improve the quality of the watershed and ultimately the trout fishing experience. But, Clear Creek is another stocked trout stream in the geographic boundaries of our Chapter that deserves our support. Clear Creek is a tributary to the Hocking River and part of the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks system. Thank you to ODNR-DOW for stocking catchable rainbows and to Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks for conducting stream restoration. Mitch Farley from Coldwater Consulting, LLC provided the following:
Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks manages 5,470 acres of land that comprise Clear Creek Metro Park in Hocking County. Approximately seven miles of Clear Creek flow through the park. Clear Creek represents the only stream in the upper Hocking River Watershed in full attainment of Warmwater Habitat. However, lower Clear Creek receives a substantial amount of sediment input from the upper Clear Creek’s agricultural land use. Compounding this sediment input locally within the lower Clear Creek Watershed are severe bank erosion areas, which deposit additional sediment into Clear Creek during flooding and storm events, embedding cobble and riffle areas and potentially impacting overall stream aquatic life uses and diversity.
Coldwater Consulting, LLC assisted Metro Parks with the design and implementation of a restoration project along four segments of Clear Creek. The project involved removal of two failed concrete access crossings, which were catching debris and impeding stream flow. Removal of these crossings restored the free-flowing nature of Clear Creek and enhanced natural fish migration and movement. The project also included channel realignment at two sites, totaling approximately 1,250 linear feet, to restore the meander pattern and prevent downcutting and lateral migration. The streambank at the four locations was restored to a stable slope with a rock toe, erosion control blankets, and plantings consisting of native herbaceous seed, shrubs, and trees.
An Afternoon at Clear Creek Metro Park by Bryan Warnick, Member, Mad River Chapter
I grew up in Utah, and learned to love the mountain valleys and free flowing trout streams. Even though I am now firmly a creature of the Midwest, and I love the green woods and meandering rivers of Ohio, part of me misses those mountain valleys. This is one reason why I love Clear Creek Metro Park. The little valley there is rocky and intimate, reminding me somewhat of the water I grew up fishing. In November, I took my two sons there to fish. It was a beautiful, sunny day, right before Thanksgiving. The river had just been stocked with rainbow trout of moderate size – the perfect opportunity for my still-novice sons to catch some fish. Given the recent stocking and the cooler weather, I suspected the fish would huddle together in deeper pools, and the trick would be finding them. After scouting around for a suitable hole, we started to fish, and lucked into a large school of trout right away. The fish were frisky and greedy. They ate everything: egg patterns, Pat’s Rubber Legs, Hares Ears, and Pheasants Tails. They seemed to prefer to eat sub-surface, but also rose to some dry flies. They seemed to prefer bigger dry flies, like the Chubby Chernobyl, rather than smaller, mayfly-like imitations. To be sure, it wasn’t technical or challenging, at least once we found the fish, but it was great fun to feel the tug, to strip them in, and to remember those mountain valleys of my youth.
Fly Recipe: Pat's Rubber Legs
Hook: 3X-long nymph hook (here, a Dai-Riki #710), sizes 4-12. Weight: .015 lead-free wire. Thread: Black, 6/0 or 140-denier. Tails and antennae: Black Spanflex or similar.
Body: Black-and-coffee Variegated Chenille, medium. Legs: Black Spanflex or similar. Adhesive: UV-cure resin. Head: Tying thread. Tools: Plunger-style hackle pliers.
Articles Needed!! I 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 me at pamallen@tumadriver.org; it's that easy :)
