Meeting Minutes

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

Mike Beachy called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees

Mike Beachy, Don Fiwek, Leonard Gustin, Wayne Andrews, Dolle Bloss, Bob Hagin, Bill Myers, Penny Myers, Brandon Rasler, Lee Troyer

Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the December meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports

Mike Beachy reported that the Little Elkhart has been fishing well with a number of browns caught in December.

Treasurer’s Report

Don Fiewk reported a balance of $8,297.14.

Indiana on the Fly

The LECTU chapter set up and manned a booth this past weekend at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds for the Indiana on the Fly event.  This is the second year our chapter has participated in this event.  We had more visitors to our booth than last year, which may be somewhat due to our location being next door to Joe Humphreys.  We sold $520 in Adopt-A-Trout tickets, 3 hats and $35 in river guides.

Mike suggested that we have some business cards printed for our chapter.  Mike gave out quite a few of his personal cards this year.

By-Law Revision

Don Fiwek is working on our by-law revisions in his spare time.

LECTU Brown Trout Stocking

Mike Beachy will start the process for obtaining the necessary permits for our trout stocking this year.

Adopt-A-Trout

Mike had tickets available for club members to start selling.  As stated above, we got a good start on sales at Indiana on the Fly, selling $520 in tickets.  We were reminded that we are not allowed to sell tickets inter-state over the web or through mail solicitation.

Wayne Andrews will work on the application for a gaming license from the state for our raffle.  The application has a $50 fee associated.  First, you need to be a qualified organization and need to fill out an application to become qualified.  Once qualified, you then need to fill out an application for a one-day gaming permit.  After the event, you need to provide financial information to the state.  They will then use that information to determine your fee structure the following year.  Thank you Wayne for taking on this task.

Communications

Brandon will work on a winter newsletter.  We need to promote Adopt-A-Trout as well as the date for our spring outing.  Brandon will also do a fly-of-the-month article for the newsletter.

Spring Outing

Fly tying demonstration – Mike will see if Tim Scott or Jeff Stanifer are available.

Raffles:                Cabelas (Steve Mack)

Temple Fork Outfitters (John Bueter) – Mike Beachy will contact

FlyMasters (Ian Anderson) – Bob Hagin will contact

Brookhaven Lake – Mike Beachy will contact

Orvis – Mike Beachy will contact

The Indiana Fly Casters club told us last weekend that they will promote our spring outing in their newsletter if we send them the information.

Christmas Hams

The hams have been delivered and were well received.

Cabela’s Spring Days

Cabela’s wants us to participate in their spring days this year.  It is scheduled for March 5 – 6.  Bob Hagin and Leonard Gustin will attend on Saturday.  Mike will attend on Sunday and put on a program.  We will sell our Adopt-A-Trout tickets, river guides, and have a raffle consisting of items donated by Cabela’s.

Middlebury Parks River Fest

LECTU has been contacted by the Middlebury Parks Dept. asking us to not only participate in their second annual River Fest this year, but to also possibly take a larger roll going forward.  The Park Dept. is interested in leveraging the Little Elkhart as a trout stream, which is a fairly rare resource for the State of Indiana.  We have been invited to attend an organizational meeting on Thursday, January 13 at 7:00 PM.  Lee and Mike will attend.

New Business

There was some discussion about an effort to open a portion of the Little Elkhart for canoeing.  This would require some log jam removal, which if done improperly, could be detrimental to the stream.  We believe we need to stay close to this inititive so that we can have input to any stream activity.

Next Meeting – February 9, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library

Lee Troyer – Secretary

Mike Beachy called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees

Mike Beachy, Don Fiwek, Leonard Gustin, Wayne Andrews, Doug Moore, David Witt, Greg Witt, Lee Troyer

Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the November meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports

Mike Beachy assisted the Elkhart Conservation Club in releasing their brown trout in area streams on November 27^th.  ECC kept their trout longer this year, thus they were larger than in past years.  Approximately 6,000 trout were released in the Little Elkhart, Rowe Eden and Solomon Creek.

Treasurer’s Report

Don Fiewk reported a balance of $8,225.43.  Don also reported that he paid for the Accident Insurance through TU that was discussed at a prior meeting.

By-Law Revision

Don Fiwek stated that he reviewed the new by-laws from Trout Unlimited which clarifies a number of items.  Don will use these as a reference to revise our chapter by-laws and present it for a vote at a future meeting.

LECTU Brown Trout Stocking

Mike Beachy reported that he has ordered trout for this year’s stocking.  He ordered 400 7 – 9 inch and 100 11 – 13 inch trout.

Adopt-A-Trout

Tickets have been printed and are the same format as last year.  Mike has also purchased an Abel reel to go with the Winston rod that he won last year and is donating back for this raffle.

Mike received a communication from Beverly Lane of TU National cautioning us not to sell raffle tickets out of state through either mail or Internet solicitation because of federal issues.  It was also questioned whether we need a state gaming license for our raffle.  Wayne stated that their DU Chapter went through the process and will try and get details.  Mike will also check the IN.GOV web site.

Indiana on the Fly

We will again have a booth this year at Indiana on the Fly in Indianapolis.  Mike received the booth agreement from Patti Beasley.  The booth cost is $200.  The event is January 8^th at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds.  Mike built a 9’ 6 wt. Forecast fly rod to donate for a silent auction.  We also have a new display board donated by Cabela’s.

We will again sell our hats and T-shirts as well as our guides and Adopt-A-Trout tickets.

Planned attendees are Don Fiwek,  Bob Hagin, Leonard Gustin, Mike Beachy and Lee Troyer.  Mike will reserve rooms.

Spring Outing

The date is May 7^th.   Chris Wood (President of National TU) has expressed an interest in attending our spring outing this year if he can fit it into his schedule.

We need to start thinking about who we can get for demonstrations, speakers, etc. for our spring outing.  Last year we had Jeff Stanifer doing European nymphing techniques and Tom Park tying soft hackle flies.

Kalamazoo Valley TU Chapter

Mike Beachy and Chris Miller attended a meeting at the Kalamazoo Valley TU chapter recently featuring Chris Wood, President of Trout Unlimited.  Mike presented him with a LECTU hat and T-shirt and discussed our chapter.  He expressed interest in attending our spring outing this year if he can work it in his schedule.

Christmas Hams

The hams have been purchased.  Mike will deliver them to the Little Elkhart land owners.

Daragh Deegan

Daragh stated that they are doing a fish barrier inventory on the Little Elkhart.  They will then do a study to determine whether it would beneficial or detrimental to remove those barriers.

New Business

No new business

Next Meeting – January 12, 2011 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library

Lee Troyer – Secretary

President Mike Beachy called meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Members in attendance: Wayne Andrews, Mike Beachy, Don Fiwek, Leonard Gustin, Bob Hagen, Eric Wroblewski

Meeting minutes from September 8, 2010 were approved as submitted by Secretary Lee Troyer.

Fishing Reports: Special Guest Neil Ledet, Indiana DNR Regional Fisheries Biologist was on hand to join in on the Fishing Report discussion. Mike Beachy reported catching many small brown trout in the four to five inch range this year and spotting spawning redds this fall. Photos were shown as evidence of natural reproduction. Neil was in agreement that there is more than likely some natural reproduction of brown trout in the Little Elkhart. Neil was given a copy of our trout fishing statistics from 2008 and 2010. Neil relayed that it is okay to continue with LECTU’s brown trout stocking program without submission of any type of formal proposal. Neil also suggested that the State may be taking another look at its trout hatchery program to possibly including brown trout rearing in addition to the rainbow trout and will keep us posted on this issue. Neil commended LECTU on our brown trout stocking program. He suggested that we stay with 500 browns annually for the catch and release area because of length of this section.

Neil then fielded questions on Indiana Fisheries. Discussions included budget cuts, staffing issues, steelhead and salmon runs, Asian carp, boat launches and other miscellaneous issues.

Solomon Creek Project: Mike Beachy reported that on Friday September 10^th he removed a small log jam from Marilyn Hodgson’s property on Solomon Creek as she had requested and installed two metal Catch and Release signs at the County Road 33 Bridge. The plastic C&R signs that the State provided had been torn down and the local DNR Conservation Officers had requested that we install metal signage replacements.

Youth Education: On October 5^th Mike Beachy put on a fly fishing program for the Elkhart County 4-H Youth Fishing Club. Charlie Ray provided a teaching outline and material hand-outs. Contacts were made with the Clubs leaders and they requested LECTU be on hand at the Clubs summer farm pond outing next year to allow the 4-H members an opportunity for some hands on fly fishing.

Indianapolis Fly Casters: On October 13^th Lee Troyer and Mike Beachy represented LECTU in presenting a program to the Indianapolis Fly Casters FFF Club on LECTU and the Little Elkhart River. The Fly Casters were really interested in the history of the Catch and Release waters. They wanted to know how it was accomplished and what it has done for the trout fishery. $60 dollars were raised through the sales of “Fishing Guides” and the IFC donated $200 towards our Brown Trout stocking fund in return for the presentation.

Indiana on the Fly: Saturday January 8, 2011 is the date for Indiana on the Fly fly fishing show in Indianapolis. LECTU once again will be traveling to Indy to have a booth. Patty Beasley has agreed to give LECTU a discounted rate provided we contribute to the program. The suggestion of providing youth casting instructions during the show by our members with the assistance of Charlie Ray is being looked at.

Communications: The summer/fall issue of Trout Lines went out however Brandon Rasler reported having trouble with the Trout Unlimited e mail service getting to all our members.

Treasurers Report: Treasurer Don Fiwek and President Mike Beachy have completed the Annual Financial Report for T.U. National. Don reported that he also has filed the IRS form required for not for profit status. Don reports that at the end of our fiscal year LECTU brought in $672.55 over expenses and presently has a balance of $8075.

Bylaws: T.U. National has requested that all T.U. Chapters revise their bylaws to conform to the national template. Don Fiwek had revised our bylaws last year utilizing the national template therefore we should be okay however Don will review our bylaws compared to the information sent by National to make sure we comply.

Insurance: National T.U. has offered accident insurance to local chapters and requests that if the chapter does not have insurance coverage presently to get some. The cost for the T.U. insurance is $110 per year. Don Fiwek made the motion that LECTU purchase the insurance through the National T.U. and Bob Hagen seconded it. With little discussion the motion passed. Don will fill out the paperwork, submit the form and mail in the premium.

Annual Spring Outing: May 7^th is the date for the LECTU Annual Spring Outing. Brandon Rasler will contact Middlebury Parks Department to reserve Riverbend Park for the event.

Adopt-A-Trout Fund Raising: President Mike Beachy is going to donate last year’s Adopt-A-Trout Winston fly rod back to LECTU to use again this year as the Adopt-A-Trout raffle prize. The rod was retained, unused since last year’s drawing specifically for this purpose. Beachy was the winner of the drawing. A new Able reel has been ordered to accompany the rod for this year. Mike will have raffle tickets printed in time for the January Indiana on the Fly show.

Christmas Ham Donation: Christmas Hams will be ordered again this year by Wayne Andrews, as an offering to the property owners along the catch and release section of the Little Elkhart River. We are at the mercy of these property owners for access to the stream and we want to show our appreciation to them for allowing fishermen access. Good relations with property owners can never go far enough. The C&R section of the Little “E” is the heart and soul of our fishery and LECTU has to do everything it can to assure access is provided to our membership.

Mike Beachy called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees

Mike Beachy - Leonard Gustin - Brandon Rasler

Bob Roth –  Lee Troyer

Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the July meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports

Mike Beachy reported that he caught a 22 1/2 “ brown.

Lee fished last Friday and caught two browns.

Treasurer’s Report

There was no Treasurer’s report as Don Fiwek is in the hospital.

C&R Signs for Solomon Creek

Mike Beachy has the signs ready to install.  Lee will try and help getting this installed.

Indiana on the Fly

Still waiting to hear from Patty Beasley about getting a discount for the show this year.

Youth Education

Scheduled for October.  Waiting to hear from Marc Gantt.

Indiana Fly Casters

Mike will give them a presentation October 13^th.  This is the same evening as our LECTU meeting.  We will decide next month if we want to change our meeting schedule.

Dave Arrington

Dave Arrington will be at our December 8^th meeting.  He is making good progress on the Little Elkhart project and he has received funding for another three years.  He has also completed the invertebrate study and will share it with us.

Neil Ledet

Neil Ledet (DNR Fisheries Biologist) will be at our November 10 meeting.  We will have trout catch data ready for yearly comparison.  We will discuss our stocking program as well as discussing the possibility of the state stocking browns.

Summer Newsletter

We will try and get a summer newsletter out soon.  Items to include are as follows:

September is our annual meeting

Data on catch and release rates

Middlebury Riverfest

Middlebury fishing derby for kids

Hunter safety

Fly of the month – Mike Beachy

Middlebury Fishing Derby

The Middlebury Fishing Derby for kids will be Saturday, August 14 from 9 AM to 11 AM.  Lee, Mike and Brandon will volunteer to help measure fish.  We are to meet at the covered bridge on the Essenhaus property.

Middlebury Parks

Mike spoke with Tom Enright as to discussions at the Middlebury Parks Board meeting.  They discussed the idea that we brought to them about stocking the pond at Riverbend Park for kid’s catch and release fishing.  They were open to the idea.  We will make a point of discussing this with Neil Ledet to determine that if bluegills escape into the Little Elkhart during high water, if there is any negative effect.

Tom Enright also mentioned that there is a group that wants to make the Little Elkhart canoe accessible.

Cabela’s

Steve Mack of the Hammond Cabela’s store assisted us in one of our river clean-up projects.  He stated that Cabela’s is having a family weekend on August 28 and invited LECTU to set up to sell memberships and do a raffle.  Cabela’s can provide raffle items.  This is a high traffic event.  Leonard Gustin will attend and man the table.

River Work Project

We have completed work at four different sites for a total of ten volunteers spending eighty man hours.

Bob Roth reported that he has been approached by an Amish individual about a log jam on Rowe Eden causing flooding on his property.  He is erroneously blaming LECTU because of our catch and release on the Little Elkhart.  Bob will get with him to find out the exact location and see if our chapter can assist with the log jam removal.

Mike stated that there is a log jam by Marilyn Hodgson’s property on Solomon Creek.  We will look at it to see if we can help with that.

New Business

Adopt-A-Trout Raffle rules – This was brought up at last month’s meeting.  Since there was light attendance this month, this will be tabled until next month’s meeting.

September Officer Elections

A slate has been proposed as follows:

President – Mike Beachy

V.P. – Leonard Gustin

Secretary – Lee Troyer

Treasurer – Don Fiwek

3 Year Board Member – Bob Roth

Next Meeting – September 8, 2010 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library

Lee Troyer – Secretary

Mike Beachy called the meeting to order.

Meeting Attendees

Mike Beachy - Don Fiwek - Leonard Gustin

Bob Hagin - Jim Phillips - Brandon Rasler

Bob Roth - Tom Taylor - Lee Troyer - Don Bates

Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the June meeting were approved.

Fishing Reports

Mike Beachy reported that he fished CR 10 to CR 35 a couple of weeks ago.  He took a few smallmouth and also a couple of rainbows and one brown in the lower section.  Mike also caught 13 browns last Sunday with one being 20 inches.  They were hitting an olive nymph.

Brandon and Lee both fished yesterday and they each caught one rainbow.

Correspondence

Keith Edwards from Cincinnati inquired about the Little Elkhart and where to fish.  He ended up catching one rainbow and one small brown.

Patty Beasley of Indiana on the Fly also inquired.  Mike steered her to a section of the catch and release.  No report yet.

Treasurer’s Report

Don Fiwek reported our balance at $7,961.73.  He has taken out two CDs.  One is for $3,000 with a 5 year and 11 month term.  The other is for one year at $2,000.

C&R Signs for Solomon Creek

Mike Beachy has the signs ready to install.  He would like some help in getting this completed.

Indiana on the Fly

Mike spoke with Patty Beasley about getting a discount for the show this year, considering we are a non-profit club.  She will get back to us.

Youth Education

Scheduled for October.

Indiana Fly Casters

Mike will give them a presentation October 13^th.  This is the same evening as our LECTU meeting.

Dave Arrington

Mike left a message with Dave Arrington about putting on another program for our chapter at a future meeting.

Middlebury Riverfest

We did receive the two fly casting outfits.  We had a few hoops set up for target casting and a few attendees came over to make some casts.  Attendance was fairly good, considering this was the first year for the event.

Cabela’s Store in Hammond

They have expressed an interest in helping with our river cleanup project.  They will send six workers for the July 31^st. work date.

Dar Geegan Fish Shocking

Dar conducted the fish shocking at the Middlebury River Fest.  A number of species were captured including three brown trout.  Dar has volunteered to do a shocking study for us at no charge.  The members had some reservations as to the effects this could have on the trout.  Dar had indicated that when large browns are shocked, occasional it can have a negative effect.  There have been instances where it broke the spine on the fish.  It was felt that the information gathered by such a study would not add significant data to what we already know and we believe it is not worth the risk.

Catch and Release Maps

Mike provided a detailed map of the catch and release area.  Brandon put it in color.  This will help in discussions when referring to certain parts of the river.

River Work Project

June 19^th, the club removed the log jam on the Little Elkhart at US 20.  July 17^th is another work day.  We will work in the woods from the “tornado bend” and work upstream to the “cut through”.  Mike purchased a come-a-long and some chain to assist us in moving large logs.

New Business

Our three years are up for stocking brown trout into the Little Elkhart.  We will have to re-apply for additional stocking.  A motion was made, seconded and passed that LECTU will pursue efforts to continue our brown trout stocking program into the foreseeable future.

Saturday, August 14^th, will be a kid’s fishing derby at the Essenhaus.  We have been asked to provide volunteers to assist with counting fish caught and measuring the fish.

There was some discussion about stocking the pond at Riverbend Park for kid’s fishing.  There was some concern that the pond could flood and wash these fish into the river.  Tom Enright will bring this up at the Middlebury Park Board meeting.  It was suggested that we send a representative to the Park Board meeting.  Mike will check into it.

There was a discussion held regarding the development of a professional Little Elkhart River habitat restoration plan in cooperation with the Middlebury Parks Department.

Jim Phillips brought up the ethical propriety of LECTU officers and directors winning the raffle for Adopt-A-Trout.

Next Meeting – August 11, 2010 at 7:00 PM at the Middlebury Library

Lee Troyer – Secretary