Trout Unlimited MINNESOTAThe Official Publication of Minnesota Trout Unlimited - November 2014 Exploring Our Habitat Work The Vermillion River Tying the Bullet Head Hopper Protecting Minnesota’s Trout Waters Got Trout? TIC in SE MN Book Review - The Royal Wulff Murders without written permisssion of Minnesota Trout Unlimited. Trout Minnesota of permisssion written without Scouting and TCTU Copyright 2014 Minnsota Trout Unlimited - No Portion of this publication may be reproduced reproduced be may publication this of Portion No - Unlimited Trout Minnsota 2014 Copyright Rock Creek Habitat Work Planning And Lots More! ROCHESTER, MN ROCHESTER, PERMIT NO. 281 NO. PERMIT Chanhassen, MN 55317-0845 MN Chanhassen, PAID P.O. Box 845 Box P.O. U.S. POSTAGE POSTAGE U.S. Non-Profit Org. Non-Profit Minnesota Trout Unlimited Trout Minnesota Trout Unlimited Minnesota Council Update MINNESOTA The Voice of MNTU New Leadership By JP Little, Minnesota Council Chair On The Cover elcome to the 2014 fall Min- nesota Trout Unlimited state- The face of the chapters across the The Manitou River tumbles through wide newsletter. Hopefully state and the State Council continues to Crosby-Maintou State Park in Lake W most of you heeded my suggestion in the evolve. Although we have a very stable County, MN on the Superior North spring newsletter to get out and take ad- senior leadership team in the State Coun- Shore. Photo by JP Little. vantage of the great trout fishing avail- cil (thanks everyone), we have added able in Minnesota. two new chapter presidents. Welcome to Micah Barrett as president of the Mid- As I write this article the trees are blaz- MN chapter and Jon Aspie as president ing with fall color in the backyard, and of the Gitche Gumee chapter. In previ- In This Issue yet the daylight hours are shrinking pre- ous columns I mentioned the continuing cipitously. Instead of casting a fly rod need to add new talents and thoughts to • Photo Essay on the Vermillion many of us will be picking up shotguns the TU leadership in Minnesota, and Mi- River. and rifles to chase ducks, pheasants and cah and Jon represent exactly that. deer. The four seasons of Minnesota • How to tie the Bullet Head are what make this a great place to live, Tight Lines! Hopper with Paul Johnson. work and play. • Opportunities for chapters to purchase flytying kits and signs! • Threats to Minnesota’s desig- nated trout streams and laws. Table of Contents • Updates on habitat improve- ment and educational efftorts Photo Essay - Exploring The Vermillion River................page 4 around Minnesota. TU’s National Leadership Council..................................page 6 • And Much More! TCTU Banquet Announcement....................................page 7 Book Review - The Royal Wulff Murders..................page 7 Scouting and TCTU.......................................................page 8 Join TU Today! Got Trout? Trout in the Classroom in SE MN.........page 8 Want to subscribe to this newsletter? Tying the Bullet Head Hopper....................................page 9 Join Trout Unlimited! See the back page for details or visit www.tu.org to Little Rock Creek...........................................................page 10 sign up. Chapter Fly Tying Kit Opportunuty...............................page 11 An Assault on Minnesota’s Water Laws ......................page 12 A New Sign for Minnesota Brook Trout.........................page 13 Trout Unlimited Minnesota is the offcial publication of the Minnesota MNTU Chapter News.....................................................page 14 Trout Unlimited. Issues are distribut- ed to all members of Minnesota Trout Reeling It In.....................................................................page 16 Unlimited chapters. Subscriptions are available by joining Trout Unlimited. See the back page for further details. Copyright © 2014 Minnesota Trout Unlimited. No Portion of this publica- tion may be reproduced without writ- ten permission from Minnesota Trout Unlimited. Advertising rate sheet available on re- quest. Send all editorial and advertis- ing correspondence or other inquiries to the editor: Carl Haensel 6614 McQuade Rd Duluth, MN 55804 [email protected] Send address changes to: Trout Unlimited, 1550 Wilson Boule- vard, Arlington, VA, 22209. Win-Cres chapter volunteers from the Garvin brook project in Southeast MN Volunteer effort is the heart and soul of MNTU and makes our projects possible. 2 From The Executive Director Enjoying the New Fall Fishing Season By John Lenczewski, MNTU Executive Director innesota trout fishing in Oc- many of you helped push through these tober! For years, many of us rule changes, it would not have hap- Mhave visited southeast MN pened without Steve’s leadership. in October to enjoy the beauty of trout valleys during peak color change. I can This October I found myself in the Root vividly recall sunny October afternoons River Valley with a few hours to spare. camping in Whitewater State Park. On a warm, sunny afternoon I found Bluebird skies, the oak hillsides ablaze the brook trout cooperative. I find that MNTU and large trout leisurely sipping small nothing recharges one’s batteries for the olive mayflies from the river’s surface. hard work of conservation quite so well Connections With the trout fishing season closed, as the electricity sent up the line from a the sight of these large surface feeding fat brookie or brown. As I released sev- Executive Director browns inspired campfire debates with eral outrageously colored, deep-bodied John Lenczewski my father over whether floating a dry fly brook trout I could not help but utter a [email protected] with hook bend cut off constituted “fish- “thank you” to Steve. 612-670-1629 ing”, since trout could not possible be www.mntu.org hooked or caught. With October trout now crossed off the bucket list, it is time to consider how I Thanks to the persistence of Steve Klotz, might slip out in November and Decem- Minnesota Council Chair Lanesboro Area Fisheries Supervisor, ber. JP Little we now can enjoy catch and release [email protected] trout fishing on southeast MN streams Tight lines, through October 15. And three state parks, Whitewater, Forestville and Bea- John TU MN Newsletter Editor ver Valley, are open year round! While Carl Haensel [email protected] 218-525-2381 Gitche Gumee Chapter Jon Aspie, President [email protected] 218-724-5014 Headwaters Chapter Bob Wagner, President [email protected] 218-586-2798 Hiawatha Chapter Carl Berberich, President [email protected] www.hiawathatu.org Mid-Minnesota Chapter A Vermillion River Brown Trout rests on the stream bottom after survey and sample work. Micah Barrett, President Read the Vermillion River photo essay to learn where to find them in this Metro trout stream. [email protected] Twin Cities Chapter Mark Johnson, President Editor’s Angle [email protected] 612-564-TCTU Settling in to Winter www.twincitiestu.org By Carl Haensel, Editor Waybinahbe Chapter ong before spring makes its way This is the game of the spring steelhead Rod Prusi, President back to Duluth, I will be wait- angler. Waiting and watching and scan- [email protected] Ling for steelhead. When the first ning weather forecasts. Trying to plan trickle of meltwater seeps down to the for the “perfect” day on the water that lower end of the Sucker River, some- comes only every so often. The rivers Win-Cres Chapter thing stirs in my mind and I march down have a promise when the steelhead are Joe Lepley, President to the edge. Down the snowy banks in them. A promise of strength on the [email protected] and the crumbling ice shelves. Down end of the line and a day brightened by a www.wincrestu.org the muddy south facing hills with last wild and unpredictable fish. year’s yellowed grasses. I watch the river, waiting. The river rises and falls, Help TU make more perfect days pos- Visit MNTU the ice shudders and breaks, one shelf sible on our North Shore rivers like the at a time. The river muddies and clouds Sucker, Stewart, Knife and many more. Online with silt. The big fish nose about the Get involved with MNTU and the Gitche first lower pool and find their way into Gumee chapter this winter. Plan to help the river, waiting for warmer water to out on the ground this next summer. www.mntu.org make their epic leaps upstream. If I’m With a little luck you might just find lucky I will catch one early, before the yourself standing in a river on the shore big melt. If not I will continue to wait. this next spring, waiting and hoping 3 Exploring Our Habitat Improvement: The Vermillion River A Photo Essay Dan Callahan Twin Citites Chapter Volunteers and MN DNR staff sampling the Vermillion River or the past six years, the Twin Cit- they have provided this local waterway. habitat improvement work. While we ies Chapter of Trout Unlimited have made an impressive start removing Fhas partnered with the Minnesota TCTU is ramping up work on a newly a jungle of invasive trees, there is much DNR and others to improve habitat in acquired DNR Aquatic Management more to be done with your help to trans- and along the Vermillion River. One of Area which includes nearly one and one form this riparian corridor. the Twin Cities metro area’s most threat- half miles of stream. In May and Oc- ened streams, its headwaters flow from tober 2014 more than two dozen TCTU Plan to take a weekend to explore the suburbs and business parks, through cul- volunteers worked removing invasive river this next season. There are pleny of verts and along highways. Still, it man- trees including buckthorn and box elder locations to get on the water and spring- ages to support a healthy wild brown from the river corridor. MNTU is also time is a great time to explore the wa- trout population, as well as a popular pursuing Outdoor Heritage Fund fund- tershed when prairie grasses are low and stocked trout fishery.