To conserve, protect, and restore North America's cold-water fisheries and their watersheds |
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Hello members of Old Pueblo Trout Unlimited. The new year is off to a good start. OPTU continues with monthly meetings alternating with member outings.
Following is an invitation to events scheduled for Spring. We have a speaker for Wednesday March 1. The topic of the presentation will be fishing and stream restoration in New Mexico. As you know, we are meeting at the Randolph Community Center at Broadway/Alvernon. Please plan to attend early, we filled the room at the last meeting.
The Native Wild Trout Conference is scheduled for Thursday April 06, at the Arizona Game/Fish Department in Phoenix. The information for this event is attached. This will be the 14th annual event. This Conference is both educational and rewarding. Anglers benefit from the information on conservation and fishing in Arizona. The Headquarters for the AZGFD is an excellent site for this event. It is located on the far Northside of Phoenix, so plan for extra travel time. The complex has excellent shooting and archery facilities. There is boating and fishing on Lake Pleasant near the facility.
Please consider joining us at this event. You may consider a carpool with other Anglers from southern AZ. This Conference is well worth your time and attention. You will find the information and fellowship rewarding. Remember, our theme for 2023 is “Get Involved”. These presentations are an excellent opportunity to improve the fishing and conservation efforts in Arizona.
Stay informed this year. OPTU is planning on some informative/fun/exciting events this year. Hope to see you on the Stream.
Mickey Fletcher, OPTU Board.
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March 1st: Meeting at the Randolph Community Center
March 6th: Fly Tying with Jeff at Randolph at 6pm
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Tentative Schedule for 2022-2023 |
MAR 1 - Meeting
APR - Outing
MAY 3 - Meeting
JUNE - Summer Vacation
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March 2023 Meeting
Kent Johnejack
March 1st 6:30PM - 7:30PM
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Our speaker for the March 1 OPTU Meeting is Kent Johnejack, an OPTU member. Kent is a civil engineer and hydrologist with over 25 years of experience in environmental permitting, mine closure, and remediation of mining-impacted watercourses, both domestically and internationally. He has completed several short courses on stream restoration. After leaving the corporate consulting world at the end of 2021, he established his own company to work part-time on mining environmental auditing and, hopefully , some of the rest of the time on stream restoration projects with TU…just as long as there is still time to go fishing!
The presentation will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Randolph Community Center on Alvernon south of Broadway.
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Hope everyone is doing fine. Here are some tidbits going on in the Conservation world. Remember the Heritage fund? It was voted on in AZ to take lottery money and use it to improve State parks. Well the last few years there haven’t been much improvements because the AZ legislature has been taking the money to put in their general budget. There is a bill presently in the legislature to bring the money back to the Heritage fund. I don’t know about you but I use the AZ state Parks a lot for camping and fishing, they are gems in our state. Just south of Tucson is Patagonia State park with a fantastic lake. I also go to Fool Hollow in the White mountains to camp and fish, as well as Deadhorse State Park near Cottonwood and Roper near Safford. Let’s hope the Heritage fund succeeds!
On February 2 I attended a lecture on the effects of tires on trout. Apparently every tire is made up of 2,000 chemical which are proprietary and no one knows the full ingredients. They do use a chemical that when mixed with water creates a toxin. This toxin gets into our waters through rain runoff and into our streams that are close to roads. I remember an issue similar t Oak Creek where runoff was getting into the creek and killing trout. At the time it was unknown what caused it but the city of Sedona created bypass water routes to avoid stream dumping. Yea for Sedona. Conservation groups are working with tire manufacturers to solve this issue.so farTire manufacturers are cooperating.
I attended a meeting on February 14 with the NFCT group to discuss the Arizona Native Fish 5 year plan. Several topics affected Trout. There are presently illegally stocked goldfish in Frye Mesa Reservior. Line catching was attempted to not much success. A new plan is being worked on to rid the lake of these invasive species. Frye Mesa is presently a Gile Trout water in the Pinalenos.
In the Cave Creek Watershed, it’s been determined to deem it Gila Trout water. This is in the Chiraquawa National Monument near Wilcox. The creek is flowing on the North fork and contains small Rainbows. The plan is to convert it toGila Trout.
Marigilda creek in the Pinalenos is now 3 years with Gila Trout. This contains two lineages of Gila Trout from NM Whiskey and Diamond creeks. A tributary of Marigilda will get a restoration of Roundtail chub, Native.
AZGFD are researching the possibility of trout in the following Chiriquawa creeks, West Turkey, Rucker Canyon, Rock Creek, Big Creek, Jesus Creek, Gaudy creek. More to come.
Ash creek in the Pinalenos is being discussed as a future Gila Tout creek.
I will be attending the Native trout convention in Phoenix in April. I’m hoping to come up with a plan of possible workdays for OPTUout of that Convention and possible other topics mentioned in this article.
Our monthly urban lake cleanup continues at Lakeside and Kennedy. This is accomplish with supplies donated from Tucson Clean and Beautiful. Please support this monthly effort by volunteering. Lakeside, 3rd Saturday of the month 8am. Kennedy 4th Saturday of the Month 8am. Dates subject to change; check the OPTU Facebook page for updates.
Until next month, Jeff Collins
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Jeff is hosting lake cleanups at Kennedy and Lakeside Lakes, hope to see you out there!
Every third Saturday at Lakeside, time TBD by sunrise
Every Fourth Saturday at Kennedy, time TBD by Sunrise
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Lie and Tie fly tying meetings to be held the first Monday of every month. This will be held at the Randolph Recreation Center, same place as our regular meetings. 6pm-7:30pm. We will take a period off during June, July and August for summer travel and put your flies to use.
Each meeting you’ll receive a packet of materials for that evening's flies, enough for about 3 flies each including proper hooks. You will also receive, at the beginning of this program, a notebook binder containing instruction on tying the fly and fishing the fly. Material packets and updates will come monthly at the meetings. At least that’s the plan now, lol. This article and updates will appear in this newsletter monthly.
Please bring your vise AND basic tools. OPTU will have vises and tools to borrow for beginners just getting started. If you are new to tying or a green beginner, please plan on getting there at least 15 minutes early for orientation.
Here is the tentative schedule, I’ll try and match flies seasonally:
March: Chironomids and midges and their life cycle with discussion
Red Chironomid, Zebra midge, emerging midge, midge cluster
April: Life cycle of Stonefly and discussion
Kaufman Stone, yellow Sally, Stimulator
May: Life cycle of Mayfy and discussion
Mayfly nymph, Comparadun, parachute dry( maybe Klinkhammer)
Summer off
September: Terrestrials and discussion
Foam flies- hopper, dragonfly, ant
October: Life cycle of Caddisfly and discussion
Larvae, emerger, deer hair Caddis
November: Scuds, Damsels nymph and Dragons nymph and discussion
December: Attractors and discussion.
Hares ear nymph, Adams, Prince
-Jeff Collins
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Life Cycle of a Midge
Midges appear mainly in Stillwater’s. They are also prevalent in Tailwater and can be a major food source for Trout. Rarely do the appear in Freestone creeks and rivers. They have three stages, Larvae, Pupae, and flying adult. In Tailwater they will normally be very small, hook sizes 16 through 26. The opposite in Stillwater lakes, hook size 10 through 18. In Arizona look for 18-22 in Tailwater and 14 through 18 in Stillwater. Some Spring creeks flow slow enough to harbor midges, like Silver creek near Show low. A Tailwater like Lees Ferry would have 18-22. Lakes in Arizona would have 14-18. Northern lakes in the US they grow larger, 10-14. In lakes, midges are fished under an indicator to predetermined depths. When fishing dries I would advise fishing a tandem dry like a Royal Wulff size 12 to see the position. Same in Tailwaters, The larvae and pupae are fished dead drift.
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Our midge Larvae is not in your book Essential Trout Flies; it is a pattern that I came up,with from fishing with guides and reading several articles. The original was tied from fine Korean threads,but I found Coats and Clark All Purpose thread makes a good substitute. We’ll use white and color with various color permanent marker. The technique is what makes the fly, with twisting to create different body parts. |
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Our pupae is basically a zebra misgender tied with different color thread and gold ribbing, a bead and breather tubes. It is basically the Tailwater version of a general midge. The Stillwater versions can be intricate and many Stillwater midge experts have boxes of their pattens. It’s in our book.
Our dry will be a cross between a midge cluster and Griffins knat. Also in our book.
References- “Essential Trout Flies” by Dave Hughes. Pages 114-115 & 76-77. For in depth look at Stillwater Chironomid or “buzzers” patterns check out Makflies on YouTube. He is by far the master for lake chironomids. Also an Orvis book called “Guide to Stillwater Trout Fishing” by Phil Rowley, is a bible.
Materials- for Larvae use Coats and Clark All Purpose thread. All other materials are listed in your book.
Chironomid- body is entirely Coats and Clark thread
Frostbite(zebra midge)- body is thread ,thorax is peacock herl, rib is wire, bead head poly yarn is breather tubes.
Griffins Knat- body is peacock herl, hackled with rooster neck feather.
All materials can be purchased at Dry Creek Outfitters except Coats and Clark thread, Walmart and or craft store.
Hooks on EBay(Sierra hooks) or JStoddards.
Peacock herl at Dry Creek or JStoddards.
NEXT MONTH IS THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE STONEFLY
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Fly tying instructor Jeff, also Teaches Project Healing Waters |
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We had an outing at Lakeside Lake on February 1st, and will be sending out information on our next outing soon. |
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A must see 3 1/2 minute video, just released, provides an overview of the Arizona program with testimonials from the students and teachers on the positive benefits they received from the program. The video can be seen on www.aztic.org.
Steve Reiter is the OPTU TIC chairman. If interested in the TIC program to spread the word or to volunteer, contact Steve at sreiter4@cox.net
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Checkout Jim Strogen's latest article in the Payson Roundup.
AZ TU has a new website with lots of great information about public policy, conservation and more. Check it out at the link below.
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Arizona Game and Fish Department Headquarters
5000 W. Carefree Highway, Phoenix, AZ
April 6, 2023
9:00a.m. - 4:00p.m. (AZ)
Sponsored by AZGFD and Arizona 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.
The conference is attended by those interested in meeting, networking, and developing future plans to promote restoration and management of native and wild coldwater fish species in Arizona and New Mexico. Over 155 individuals attended the last in person conference and represented more than 50 agencies and organizations involved in water conservation and management, trout recovery and habitat enhancement.
* Keynote Speakers
* Southwest Native Trout Strategy and Projects
* Apache Trout Recovery Challenges, Delisting & Plans
* Gila Trout Recovery Challenges & Plans
* Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Recovery Challenges & Plans
* Glen Canyon Dam / Lees Ferry: Updates & Management Plans
* Legislation Affecting Conservation & Recovery Plans
* Conservation Awards for Distinguished Service
* Hosted Lunch
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Watch conservation from the skies in "Romeo November"
Nick Gann
February 23, 2023
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TU partners with Lighthawk and American Rivers to highlight three conservation projects helping to recover the Colorado River Basin.
Providing water to 40 million people, countless wildlife and the region’s economy, the Colorado River is truly the lifeblood of the American Southwest – and it is drying up, quickly. Decades of drought, climate change, and increasing demand for water have left the river unable to meet all the region’s needs. Lake Powell and Lake Mead are at rock bottom levels and wildfire has devastated forests across the West. The need to address these issues through collaboration and focused effort has never been greater.
... Continue reading on tu.org
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Nor-Vice and bobbin with extra spools, a Renzetti vice, lots of dubbing and hackle materials, a box full of hooks of various sizes. It is enough to get anyone started with tying or add significantly to anyone who already ties.
$300.00 for everything
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Guide Chase Harrison recently got his outfitters license after guiding 10 seasons and started Missoula Guided Fly Fishing. He's looking to attract new clients and offering a $100 discount on guided fishing trips in western Montana. Specifically the Bitterroot, Clark Fork, Blackfoot, and Missouri rivers.
This is for TU members only. $550 per day. Let him know if you have any questions, he can be reached at 406-529-1200.
Chase Harrison Outfitter: 53584
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