April 2022 TO CONSERVE, PROTECT, AND RESTORE NORTH AMERICA'S COLDWATER FISHERIES AND THEIR WATERSHEDS View as Webpage

Board of Directors Officers President: Mickey Fletcher mfletcher15006@gmail.com Vice President: Eric Ferguson admin@az-tu.org Secretary: Sarah Herndon Treasurer: Bryan Eto Conservation Chair: TBD Project Healing Waters Program Lead: Jim Owen Youth Programs Chair: Steve Reiter sreiter@cox.net Membership Chair: Steve Reiter Diversity Chair: TBD Social Media: Eric Ferguson Other Board Members Dennis Jennings, Scott Koktavy Newsletter Editor: Eric Ferguson Address: Old Pueblo Trout Unlimited 51985 E River Road, Suite 201 Tucson, AZ 85718

Contents: New and Important Programs Conservation Fishing Events

New and Important

The New and Important section includes the president's monthly message, fund raising items and news about recent developments that effect fishing and conservation.

President's Message

Greetings Arizona Anglers: Welcome to Spring 2022. The Old Pueblo Trout Unlimited has just completed our first “Outing” event for 2022. On Saturday March 19, members attended a workday/fishing day at Parker Canyon Lake. The weather was perfect for our event. Several new members attended which turned out to be their first Outing with OPTU. We had a great time meeting family and friends of our organization. See attached photograph. The day started with our members walking the shoreline and picking up trash located around the lake. We all gathered for a hearty lunch around noon. This included good food and friendly conversation. Some of our members went fishing after lunch, others just enjoyed the scenery and the beautiful lake view. The OPTU Board is planning another event in May. One of our traditions is to honor our military veterans who are members of OPTU. The event in May will be to celebrate the service of our military veterans. This program is called; Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing (PHWFF). OPTU has an active group of veterans who participate in a variety of outings and events throughout the year. Plans for the May event are still being worked out. Please stay tuned in April for the specific details on the event. Watch for information in our “E-mail Blast”. The location of the event is planned for Parker Canyon Lake. It should be a fun day of fishing, food and fun. OPTU is planning to return to In-Person meetings in September. May will be our last event until then. Please keep up with out Quarterly Newsletter over the summer. We can post outings, information, events and items for sale. Hope to see you at the Lake in May. Watch for details in your email. Mickey Fletcher, NEW ADDRESS: mfletcher15006@gmail.com or telephone me anytime at 520-349-1774. Mahalo

Programs

The Programs Section below covers our regular scheduled programs and our outreach programs.

Monthly Meeting

There will be no monthly meeting in May, but keep an eye out in your email for details on the May outing at Parker Canyon Lake. The Native and Wild Trout Conference will be occurring next week (virtually) on 4/21/2022. The Zoom link for the conference hasn't been sent out yet, but we will send it out as soon as it's posted. Below is some more info on the conference. 13th Annual Native and Wild Trout Conference - Virtual April 21, 2022  7:00p.m. - 8:30p.m. (AZ) Sponsored by AZGFD and AZ State Council of Trout Unlimited   The Native and Wild Trout conference is attended by those interested in learning the current and future status of native and wild trout in Arizona. Our mission is to spark the interest of developing future plans to promote, restore and manage these native and wild coldwater fish species. This conference, which was previously held in-person, will take place as a virtual event. Premiering for one night, live presentations will be given and a Q&A session will follow. The whole virtual event will be recorded and made available on the AZ-TU website for later viewing. See schedule of presentations below.  Presentations (4/21/2022):  -Welcome: Ty Gray, AZGFD Director  -Welcome: Julie Carter, Aquatic Wildlife Branch Chief -Apache/ Gila trout population and habitat update: Zach Beard, AZGFD Native trout and Chub Coordinator -Lee's Ferry Fishery update: Jan Boyer, AZGFD Fisheries Biologist -Brown Trout incentivized harvest: Jeff Arnold, NPS Fisheries Biologist  -Live Q&A with Presenters

Trout in the Classroom

Trout in the Classroom has a brand new website! You can check out the site at https://aztic.org and check out the following presentation https://vimeo.com/649234229 from November for more information about the program and the new website.

Casting Practice

OPTU Teams with Dry Creek Outfitters to host a casting practice every Saturday at 8:00 am, at Ft Lowell Park. Everyone is welcome regardless of skill level. Most days there is extra equipment and experienced casters to help out beginners. 

Project Healing Waters

OPTU was awarded the Club Excellence Award from Project Healing Waters. The CEO of Project Healing Waters, Todd Desgrosseilliers, presented the award to our board, Robin Marsett, and several of our members in Project Healing Waters. OPTU has earned this recognition with our ten year plus support of our local program. An extra special thanks goes out to Robin Marsett, Jim Owen and Joe Fagan for helping to kick start OPTU's work with PHWFF, and for their continued support. They have all put in a great amount of time and effort into helping Project Healing Waters, and have had a tremendous impact on many lives. Bryan Eto, Joe Vitelli, Whitey Kuebler and many more have also helped PHWFF immensely, and we are all extremely grateful for their great work and accomplishments. A big thank you also goes out to all of our PHWFF members. We thank you for your service, and are looking forward to continuing to support PHWFF for many years to come.

Conservation

CONSERVATION:  We had a successful cleanup day at Parker Canyon Lake for our first conservation outing of 2022. Thanks to everyone that came down and helped out!

Fishing

This section contains information on outings, upcoming trips, fishing reports and fishing tips.

Outings Update: Old Pueblo Trout

We had our first outing of the year in March, and will be sending out info for our next event in May soon. It was great to see everyone in March, and we are excited about getting our outings going again. If you have any ideas for future outings, we would love to hear from you.

Tips and Tricks

Check out the Orvis Fly Fishing Learning Center and Podcast Orvis Learning Center Orvis Podcast Tim Flagler's Tightline Productions, learn about fly tying and more Tightline Productions

Arizona Game and Fish

Fishing Section (license, rules, etc.): https://www.azgfd.com/fishing Stocking Schedule: https://www.azgfd.com/Fishing/StockSchedule  Latest Fishing Report: https://www.azgfd.com/category/news/

New Mexico Game and Fish

Click here for New Mexico fishing information

Fishing Report

If you have anything to report send it to Eric at admin@az-tu.org and we'll include it next month.

Nothing new to report this month.

Fishing Adventures

If you have any interesting fishing adventures to share, please email them to admin@az-tu.org

Events

No events scheduled at the moment

For Sale

Ross Saltwater V - reel w/ 2 spools and backing. Very good/excellent condition. Perfect for 9-11 wt rods. - $100 Rob Gillette robgillette@comcast.net 520-909-8588

Calendar Press Button Below for OPTU Calendar

The calendar will be updated when events resume.

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