Meeting Attendees
Mike Beachy, Don Fiwek, Leonard Gustin, Bob Hagin, Jim Phillips, Justin Phillips, Brandon Rasler, Carlisle Roose, Lee Troyer, Court Walker

Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the June meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports
Mike reported fishing for 9 hours on Sunday, June 10th and catching 11 browns and 11 rainbows. Water
temperature in the Little Elkhart was 68 degrees and 63 degrees in the Rowe Eden. Mike also found a
dead 16” brown in the meadow that looked like it had been stabbed by a heron.

Treasurer’s Report
The balance is $9,714.96. There are currently no payables outstanding.
Don reported that the 12 month CD has rolled over.

Thank You Letter
Don reported that he had received a thank you letter from Mary Smith for our donation to Reel Women
– Reel Men.

Indiana Gaming Commission
Form CG-22 due by August 15th. There was a question whether we had already filed this report or not.
Mike and Don will follow up.

Beginning Fly Casting Class
A beginner fly fishing class will be held on August 27th and will be limited to 5 participants. Charlie Ray
will be the instructor. Court Walker, Carlisle Roose, Bob Hagin and Don Fiwek signed up for the class.
There is still one opening. Don will be the host of the event, which will be at Riverbend Park.

Web Site
Brandon reported that there are a number of new updates to the web site. The newsletter went out
within the last couple of days.

Indiana on the Fly
The date for the event in 2012 is Saturday, January 7th. We have been asked again to be a supporter.
There is no fee for this but it puts our name on the official supporter list. Booth rental for non-profit
organizations is $200. The headliner this year is Beau Beasley.

Middlebury RiverFest
The Middlebury RiverFest will be Saturday, July 16th from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM at Riverbend Park.
We will be putting up a canopy with a display. Lee will bring several casting hoops and yarn flies.
Volunteers are to bring waders and nets to assist in the flotilla event to catch the toy boats drifting
down the river. Lee, Brandon, Mike and Bob H. will be there.

Youth Fishing Contest
The youth fishing contest will be at The Essenhaus on August 13th. LECTU volunteers are Brandon, Mike and Lee.

River Work Days
The first work date is July 23rd. We will meet at Riverbend Park at 8:00 AM. We will reschedule the
August 13th work day to August 6th due to the Youth Fishing event. In addition, we will have a work day on September 17.

Thank You Letters
Mike sent out thank you letters to the Spring Outing donors.

Adopt-A-Trout
There was a discussion on the prize for the Adopt-A-Trout raffle for 2012. Among items discussed was
another rod and reel or possibly a guided trip. Justin stated that he can get 40% off Sage. TU gets
discounts on Winston and Orvis. Mike will check on some pricing.

Trout Catch Reporting
Jim Phillips spoke about our catch rates per hour declining 20% for brown trout based on data between
2008 and 2010 and referenced a book on trout biology and studies of trout in streams and the impact
of stocking trout in streams where wild trout are established. He states that we need to feed the fish
in the Little Elkhart catch and release section to provide both the stocked trout and the resident trout
with necessary nutrients during times of competitive stress, to increase the chances of mutual survival.
Discussion followed concerning stocking methodology and feeding issues.

Brandon Rasler quoted some statistics from our catch rate database for 2011, which shows a catch rate
per hour for brown trout increase of 65% for 2011 over 2010.

No further action was taken.

Next Meeting – August 10, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library.
Lee Troyer – Secretary

Meeting Attendees
Mike Beachy, Brandon Rasler, Bob Roth, Lee Troyer, Leonard Gustin, Court Walker, Carlisle Roose

Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the May meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports
During the SJRVFF Trout 101 on the Little Elkhart, one of the participants that caught a 19 inch brown.  All the participants caught trout that evening.

Treasurer’s Report
Don Fiwek was not at the meeting, so there was no Treasurer report.

Beginning Fly Casting Class
A beginner fly casting class will be held on August 27^th and will be limited to 5 participants.  Charlie Ray will be the instructor.  Court Walker and Carlisle Roose signed up for the class.  It is believed that Bob Hagin and Don Fiwek will also want to sign up for the class.  That only leaves one opening.

Cabela’s
Cabela’s asked us recently to do a fly casting demo and to teach fly casting on June 11^th.  This was insufficient notice and we declined.

Correspondence
Mary and Bob Smith of Indianapolis sent us a thank-you note on the spring outing we had. We are receiving calls from the outing attendees about the river conditions due to all the rain lately.

Brown Trout Stocking
Mike will check with Crystal Springs in Michigan to see if they will be a source for our trout stocking next year.

Donation to ECC
A check for $250 was presented to John Law at the SJRVFF meeting in May.

Web Site Update
Brandon reported that we will be adding a page to our web site to feature flies for the Little Elkhart. Please email a picture of your favorite pattern to communications@lectu.org.

Spey Casting Clinic
Lee reported that he thought that SJRVFF will be bringing the instructors back from Ohio for a Spey Casting clinic.

Thank You Letters
Mike will be drafting thank you letters to the outing contributors.

Indiana Gaming Commission
We need to re-apply for our gaming permit for next year’s outing.

Work Day
Our first work day of the summer is Saturday, June 11^th.  We will meet at Riverbend Park at 8:00 AM.  Due to the high water, we will be unable to do any in-river structure improvement.  Instead, we will focus on cutting trails along the river to make fishing access easier.  Bring gloves, long pants and any tools you have for cutting weeds, including nettles.  We will not be going into the river so waders are unnecessary.

Barbless Hook Resolution
Lee Troyer made a motion that the LECTU club encourages the use of barbless hooks when fishing the catch and release area and that we state that on our web site.  Pinching down the barb is considered a barbless hook.  The motion was seconded by Bob Roth and the motion passed.

Next Meeting – July 13, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library.

Lee Troyer – Secretary

Meeting Attendees
Mike Beachy, Bob Hagin, Brandon Rasler, Bob Roth, Lee Troyer, Don Fiwek, Chris Miller

Outing Recap
Our annual spring outing was held at Riverbend Park on Saturday, May 7. There were about 55 people in attendance. The highlight of the outing was a presentation by Chris Wood, President of Trout Unlimited. Our chapter presented him with a jacket with the LECTU logo on the back and his name on the front. It was well received.

Don Fiwek will fill out the after event gaming permit documents. Mike will prepare a letter thanking those who donated for the outing.

Review of outing activities is as follows:

• We need to re-print the Adopt-A-Trout tickets to get the correct information on them.

• The Charlie Ray fly casting demo was a positive.

• The fly casting course was a bust and will probably be discontinued next year.

• Setting up a separate table with the raffle items under a separate canopy was good. Last year attendees sat around the picnic table with the items, restricting access.

• Don Fiwek felt he could have used some help in collecting money so that he could be relieved at times, rather than being tied up for the entire outing.

• The silent auction was good. It is believed that it raised a lot more money than letting those items be a part of the general raffle.

• The river access tour is always a popular event as was proven out again this year. Chris Miller had a large van and he still had to give two tours.

Next year suggestions:

• It would be nice to have a door prize. Every attendee gets a ticket when they sign in for a

drawing for a door prize(s).

• We need to think about ways of improving the way revenue is handled in order to minimize the

efforts and still get the accounting by revenue source that we want. Lee reported that he was able to run a tab on all purchases this year and then pay with a check at the end of the event. However, this was simply a one-off accommodation. It was pointed out however, that it is human nature to spend more money if you can charge items and pay for them all at once, rather than to reach for cash every time you buy a raffle ticket, silent auction item, etc. Club members are to give this some thought for next year.

The outing for next year will be May 5th.

Donation Support
It was moved and passed that we donate $250 to the Elkhart Conservation Club towards their trout rearing program. This check will be presented at the upcoming May SJRVFF outing. It was also moved and passed that we donate $250 to Casting for Recovery.

Apparel
Mike stated that we only have 6 blue and 6 yellow hats left.

NEITA Meeting
Mike attended the NEITA meeting. He reported that they work closely with the state DNR. Mike also found out that there is a proposed slot limit for smallmouth bass state wide where those measuring between 12 and 15 inches have to be released.

TU Board of Directors
Mike announced that since the State of Indiana does not have a TU Council, we can actually nominate someone for the TU Board as a grass-roots nomination.

Fly Casting Class
Charlie Ray is willing to put on a fly casting clinic at our location. The cost would be $5 per person. For his beginner class, he limits the class to 5 participants and the class lasts for 3 hours. His advanced class is limited to 2 participants at a time and lasts for 1.5 hours. He has limited availability this summer. Two open dates are June 4 and June 18.

Lee also announced that the instructors from Ohio that held the Castapolooza at Leeper Park would put on a spey casting clinic for approximately $500 for 5 participants.

FlyMasters of Indianapolis
They are now an Orvis Gold level dealer. As such, they are willing to put on a fly fishing 101 clinic. More on that later.

River Cleanup
We will have river cleanup work dates as follows:

June 11

July 23

August 13

September ???

We will meet at River bend Park at 8:00 for the cleanup dates.

Chris Wood stated that there is grant money available for stream improvement projects. He can provide resources to assist in the filing of applications for these grants. As this would probably require permits from the various state agencies, we may want to think about teaming up with SJRVFF who is well versed in the permitting process.

Meeting Program
Dave Arrington had to cancel his presentation this month due to the fact that his company had an opportunity with a Canadian Airport that was having bird strikes. He left immediately for that airport.

Next Meeting – June 8, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library.

Lee Troyer – Secretary

Leonard Gustin called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees
Leonard Gustin – Bob Hagin – Brandon Rasler
Bob Roth – Lee Troyer – Wayne Andrews
Don Fiwek – Bill Myers – Penny Myers
Tom Cripe – Court Walker

Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the March meeting will be addressed at the May meeting.

Fishing Reports
Mike Beachy caught 7 browns and 1 steelhead and 12 trout on Oliver.
Wayne Andrews caught 5 browns.
Sandy Troyer caught an 18” brown on the Little Elkhart.

Treasurer’s Report
Current balance is $9,641.71

Adopt-A-Trout
Sales are slow. We have raised $820 thus far not counting money turned this evening.

Orvis Trout Days
Traffic was slow. We sold 2 adopt-a-trout raffle tickets and 1 river guide.

LECTU Brown Trout Stocking
Testing has been completed by the hatchery and the results, expected by April 7, have not yet been received. Once those results are received, Mike Beachy will be notified and he will then apply for the stocking permit. Currently we plan on stocking the second week of May but that is flexible based on the testing results and the permit process.

NEITA is getting their brown trout from West Virginia this year.

Communications
Brandon reported that the newsletter is at the printer.

Spring Outing
Cabela’s will be donating some reels. FlyMasters will be putting our outing on their web site and also sending us some merchandise. We purchased 3 rods and reels from Temple Fork at a deep discount. Total cost is $410. The check for the gaming license has cleared, which the application was submitted on March 25th. Mike Beachy will follow up when he returns from Colorado. Lee requested a check for $297.46 for Hoogie’s Sports for the hats and the jacket for Chris Wood.

The assignments for the outing are basically the same as last year.

There was a discussion about publicity for our May outing, especially since Chris Wood will attend. Brandon will write a press release for the newspapers. Some of the members will contact other fly fishing clubs.

May Meeting
The program will be Dave Arrington, rescheduled from the March meeting.

Next Meeting – May 11, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library.
Lee Troyer – Secretary

Mike Beachy called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees
Mike Beachy – Leonard Gustin – Bob Hagin – Doug Moore
Brandon Rasler – Bob Roth – Lee Troyer – Don Fiwek
Wayne Anderson – Chris Miller – Wyatt Miller – Bill Myers
Penny Myers

Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the February meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports
Mike Beachy caught 5 browns and 1 rainbow on 13 February and caught 1 brown on the 19th.

Treasurer’s Report
Total Assets as of March 09, 2011 is $9,283.64. Received a rebate from Trout Unlimited in the amount of $490.50. No report of the BY-Laws, reviewing the current By-Laws to confirm that they conform to the TU national template

Adopt-A-Trout
Indianapolis Fly Casters donated $250 to LECTU to support our brown trout stocking program. To date have sold 64 tickets will need to push the sale of these tickets at the next SJRVFF meeting. Since the Elkhart Conservation Club stocks the Little Elkhart with brown trout each year, there was a discussion about a possible donation from LECTU to support their stocking program. This will be dependent as to how well we do on our Adopt-A-Trout raffle this year.

LECTU Brown Trout Stocking
All the necessary permits have been filed. However, the permits will not be approved and finalized until the final test results are completed from our trout supplier, Cedar Brook Farms and submitted. Testing results should be available in April. Ordered 400 Browns 7 – 9 inch but will be charged for 8 – 10 inch.

Communications
The newsletter for April will be short, will drop the feature fly and just publicizes the Spring Outing add the location, time and the schedule of events and raffle items (to be completed by Mike B.) and to promote the feature speaker: Chris Wood CEO and President of Trout Unlimited. Mike Beachy to complete the ‘Flyer’ for the Spring Outing to include the schedule of events and raffle items and provide this information to Brandon to be incorporated into the April newsletter.

Spring Outing
Donations for raffle items are being received from the individuals and companies who received the letter seeking donations except for FlyMasters of Indianapolis. Discussed breaking out the high dollar items and holding a separate venue for these items – bucket table, will discuss at the April in more detail. We need to get someone to demonstrate fly tying. Suggestions were to ask Eric Wroblewski or John Mangona. Chris Miller donated a Sage TCX Model 590-4 with a 3850 CF reel for the outing Mike suggested that more emphasis be put into the casting course participation this year. No fishing guiding this year will be done. The river access tours have always been popular and we will continue to offer them this year. Mike Beachy will consider putting on a talk, similar to what he does at other clubs.
Chris Wood CEO and President of Trout Unlimited will be the featured speaker. Everyone committed to the same responsibilities as last year. Next year when having the Adopt-A-Trout raffle tickets printed add the Location – Riverbend Park, Middlebury, IN Lee Troyer will order 20 caps for the outing in red with a contrasting color for the logo. Caps are $10/each. To have just the logo applied to a garment the cost would be $5.00. Lee also suggested that we have a jacket with our logo as a gift for Chris Wood when he attends our outing.

Cabelas Spring Days
Bob H and Leonard were their on Saturday, March 5; Mike B, Don F and Bob H were their on Sunday, March 6. A total of nine (9) tickets were sold in the two (2) day event and a few guides. Lunch was provided by Cabela’s Raffle License The ‘Qualification Application’ for a raffle license has been submitted to the state for approval. The ‘Annual Raffle License Application’ has been completed and waiting for the ‘Qualification Application’ to be accepted and then the ‘Annual Raffle License Application’ will be submitted.

Fly Casting Lessons
Discussed Charlie Ray doing a fly casting clinic 4 hour beginning clinic; time 10-2 1 ½ hour advance clinic after the beginning clinic Subjected dates are June 4 and June 18, which are both Saturdays.

Middlebury Parks River Fest
Mike Beachy and Lee Troyer are part of the River Fest committee. The River Fest is scheduled for July 16th, time 8 am -2 pm. They want to create a scale map of the Little Elkhart. Daragh Deegan will do a stream shocking demonstration. Nancy Brown will talk on aquatic insects. A number of other activities are also being worked on.

NEITA Meeting
Mike will be attending this meeting at 7 pm on the 18th March in Ft Wayne at the St Joe Athletic Club. This club is not a catch and release club. Found a new source for Brown ‘s

Gary Borger Chapter of TU
Scott Foster wants us to put on a program for their chapter. They are located on the North side of Chicago and primarily focus their fishing on Wisconsin.

April Meeting
Leonard G to preside over the meeting This meeting will be used to finalize the plans / responsibilities for the Spring Outing.

May Meeting
The program will be Dave Arrington presentation.

New Business
Mike to order 1,000 copies of the ‘River Guide’

Next Meeting – April 13, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library.
Bob Hagin – Minutes Recorder for the March 2011 meeting (by default).

Meeting adjourned at 8:27 pm

Mike Beachy called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees:
Mike Beachy, Leonard Gustin, Bob Hagin, Doug Moore, Brandon Rasler, Bob Roth, Lee Troyer

Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the January meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports
Mike Beachy caught 5 browns on Super Bowl Sunday, with three fish measuring 16”, 17” and 19”.

Treasurer’s Report
No report as Don Fiwek is on vacation.

Adopt-A-Trout
SJRVFF donated $500 to LECTU to support our brown trout stocking program.

Since the Elkhart Conservation Club stocks the Little Elkhart with brown trout each year, there was a discussion about a possible donation from LECTU to support their stocking program. This will be dependent as to how well we do on our Adopt-A-Trout raffle this year.

Wayne Andrews completed most of the application for the gaming permit application from the state. Don Fiwek needs to finish it up. They also are asking for a copy of our meeting minutes from the last five years. Lee will get those to Mike B.

LECTU Brown Trout Stocking
All the necessary permits have been filed. However, the permits will not be approved and finalized until they gat the testing results from our trout supplier, which is Cedar Brook Farms. Testing results should be available in April.

Communications
Mike reported that the newsletter is ready for publishing.

Spring Outing
Letters have been sent out seeking donations for raffle items.
We need to get someone to demonstrate fly tying. Suggestions were to ask Eric Wroblewski or John Mangona.
Mike suggested that more emphasis be put into the casting course participation this year.
We will not be doing any fishing guiding this year.
The river access tours have always been popular and we will continue to offer them this year.
There was a discussion about offering casting lessons/pointers. Charlie Ray would be a good resource for that.
Mike Beachy will consider putting on a talk, similar to what he does at other clubs.
Chris Wood will be the featured speaker.
Mike asked if everyone can commit to the same responsibilities as last year.

Cabelas Spring Days
Bob Hagin and Leonard will attend on Saturday, March 5.
Mike B and Bob Hagin will attend on Sunday, March 6.
Mike B will call Steve Mack to find out the hours that we will need to be there.

Middlebury Parks River Fest
Mike Beachy and Lee Troyer are part of the River Fest committee. The River Fest is scheduled for July 13th. They want to create a scale map of the Little Elkhart. Daragh Deegan will do a stream shocking demonstration. A number of other activities are also being worked on.

Gary Borger Chapter of TU
Scott Foster wants us to put on a program for their chapter. They are located on the North side of Chicago and primarily focus their fishing on Wisconsin.

March Meeting
The program will be Dave Arrington.
Lee Troyer will not be able to attend this meeting and someone else will need to take meeting minutes.

New Business
Lee Troyer reported that we can get our logo put on apparel at Hoogie’s in Goshen. Brandon will get our logo to them. Caps are $10/each. Lee will order 20 caps for our outing. The color will be red with contrasting colors for the logo.

Lee also suggested that we have a jacket with our logo as a gift for Chris Wood when he attends our outing.

Next Meeting – March 9, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library.
Lee Troyer – Secretary