President’s Letter–September 2018
Members and Friends:
We have wrapped up a busy and productive spring and summer of Youth Education Programs, Conservation projects and Fundraising, and with our fiscal year ending September 30, we are setting our budgets and formulating our plans and objectives for our new fiscal year.
The critical component to achieving our goals will be member involvement and engagement in the form of volunteering time and energies.
One of our objectives during the past few years has been to expand the proactive nature of our various committees and encourage the committee chairpersons to develop and execute activities consistent with our strategic plan.
To this end, our Committee Chairpersons need volunteers to periodically step up and assist them. It could be as simple as a singular event or activity or assisting on a more regular and consistent basis.
Below I have listed our current Chairpersons and their respective committees.
I am asking ALL our members and friends to review the list and if an area appeals to you please contact myself or the Chairperson for more information on the committee’s activities and needs.
Finance/Accounting—Jack Potts
Membership—Ken Krueger
Fundraising—John Snyder
Communication/Publicity—Jim Schmiedeskamp
Conservation—Dave Carlson
Youth/Adult Education—Marv Strauch
Women’s Initiative/Events—Carol Hennessy
Meeting Programs/Events Planning—Willie Beshire
Endowment Committee Chair—Fred Hodge
Leadership Development Committee Chair—Lisa Gilmore
These individuals can be reached by visiting our website’s “Leadership” page. If you haven’t visited our website, please check it out at: obtu.org. Each Committee Chairperson is listed along with their email address to request contact or more information. Or you can call me at 630-939-3471.
Our Chapter—the Oak Brook Chapter of Trout Unlimited—is well positioned to continue making a difference in the lives of numerous young boys and girls in the Chicago area and coldwater streams in Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Only through the efforts of all our members will we achieve our goals.
Respectfully,
David Lunardini
Chapter President
Fly Fishing Author Jason Randall To Speak October 17
Ever wonder what it would be like to take a fishing trip with the country’s best anglers? Author Jason Randall fishes with fly fishing giants such as George Daniel, Landon Mayer, Lefty Kreh, Ed Jaworowski, Ed Engle, Gary Borger, and Joe Humphreys and shares their top nymphing techniques, flies, and tactics in his latest book “Nymph Masters: Fly Fishing Secrets From Expert Anglers.” The book is currently available on Amazon.com.
Jason will be our featured speaker at the October 17 membership meeting, at 7 p.m. at the Canterberry Room in the Oak Brook Recreation Center main building. Guests are welcome.
Jason covers everything from rigging flies, reading the water, casting, and fighting fish as he travels the United States, from Pennsylvania to Alaska, in his quest to learn the methods of the masters. He last spoke at an Oak Brook TU meeting in February 2017.
Jason Randall is a resident of Woodstock, Illinois and a member of the Lee Wulff TU Chapter. He has been an outdoor writer for the last 12 years with feature articles appearing regularly in American Angler, as well as Fly Fisherman, Eastern Fly Fishing, Northwest Fly Fishing and many other outdoor magazines. He is a veterinarian certified in fish health and medicine and is also a member of the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association and the Society for Freshwater Science.
His first book, Moving Water: A Fly Fisher’s Guide to Currents was released in 2012. It studies the effect of current on trout, their prey species and presentation, where vertical layers of current create drag and requires adjustments to improve nymph fishing success.
His second book Feeding Time: A Fly Fisher’s Guide to What, Where and When Trout Eat, was released in August of 2013. It focuses on matching your fishing strategies to the trout’s feeding strategies, especially when targeting large trout.
In 2014, the third book in the Fly Fisher’s Guide trilogy was released. Titled Trout Sense; A Fly Fisher’s Guide to What Trout See, Hear and Smell, it offers anglers an opportunity to know more about the quarry they seek.
Free Introductory Fly Tying Workshops
OBTU is sponsoring a series of free introductory fly tying workshops for both its members and the general public on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shops Bolingbrook store on the following dates:
October 9
October 23
November 6
Fly tying equipment and materials will be provided. There will be 12 participants per class. Sign up today by contacting Lisa Piggott, Bass Pro Shops, at 630.296.2702
Bass Pro Shops is located at 709 Janes Avenue, Bolingbrook.
Volunteer for October 13 Coldwater River Watershed Macroinvertebrate Study
Oak Brook TU members will return to the Coldwater River near Alto, Michigan on October 13 to continue the four-year macroinvertebrate survey as part of a Michigan Clean Water Corps grant which commenced in 2014.
The study will take place Saturday, October 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the meeting location at the Tyler Creek Country Club in Alto, Michigan.
As with the past spring and fall surveys, audit teams will be formed, and each team will visit one of five sites along the Coldwater River or its major tributaries. Each site will be observed for any physical changes since the June audit. Then samples will be taken by volunteers using D-nets from the various habitat types within each site. Samples will be collected into large pails before each team returns to our base at Tyler Creek Country Club where we will identify and count everything collected.
Volunteers need to bring their waders.
The Saturday morning activity is usually followed by a cookout and the opportunity to do some local fishing. Drive time from Chicago to the Tyler Creek Country Club is about 3.5 hours.
To volunteer for the October 13 Coldwater Study, please contact Marv Strauch at your earliest opportunity if you plan to be attend.
E: [email protected]
M: 708-638-1318.
Youth Fly Fishing Classes Completes 14th Year
Oak Brook TU completed its 14th year of Youth Fly Fishing classes, instructing 63 boys and girls. As in the past couple years, five monthly classes were conducted at the Sagawau Environmental Education Center of the Cook County Forest Preserves near Lemont. Actual outdoor flyrod casting instruction and fishing was at nearby Horsetail Lake.
“The word is definitely out on the OBTU Youth Fly Fishing program,” said Marvin Strauch, Education Chair. “In addition to the normal registration from Chicago and the suburban area, we had attendees from Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Tennessee, and even California. Those from far afield were Boy Scouts looking to earn their fly fishing merit badge.”
This program could not exist without the enthusiastic support of our volunteer members. We had 25 volunteers helping out; many of these volunteers not only acting as fishing mentors, but also presenting one or more of the programs segments.
Special thanks go out to: Miguel, and Mirella Alvarez, Ted Bernhard, Wally Bock, Willie Beshire, Steve Carlson, Art Cottrell, Lisa Gilmore, Fred Hodge, Dan LaFave, Mike Lesiak, Dave Lunardini, Dale MacDonald, Greg Prosen, Brian Ross, Bill Thoms, Tom Wilhelm, Phil Young, Stan Zarnowiecki, and Frank Zbylski.
“As we look forward to another successful year in 2019, we hope to hopefully draw more participants from our Trout in the Classroom schools, and to draw more girls,” said Marvin Strauch. “Of course, we can always use more volunteers, as it takes 8-10 volunteers to conduct a class day. Please consider volunteering for next year and join in on the fun of passing your knowledge of fly fishing and the conservation mission of TU to another generation.”
Marvin Strauch Discusses “Trout in the Classroom” on August 26 Radio Program
Marvin Strauch, OBTU Youth Education Chair, was the featured guest on Mike Nowak’s 1590 AM Sunday morning radio show on August 26. Marvin and Joe Lentino, a Burroughs Junior High School teacher whose class has participated in the program since the 2013 school year, discussed the chapter’s “Trout in the Classroom” program and Trout Unlimited’s coldwater conservation mission during the show’s 10:15-11:00 a.m. segment.
Listen to the Mike Nowak podcast of this segment.
