Mark your calendars!

We have several events coming up in the next several weeks.

1. The Conservation Congress Hearings will take place on Monday, April 14 at 7:00pm. This is a VERY IMPORTANT meeting and we need to have as many members of our organization as possible show up to vote. You do not have to stay for the entire meeting in order to vote; if you wish, you can just show up and fill out a ballot and leave. We are urging that you vote YES on Question 36 regarding the issue of special regulations on the Prairie River. This is presented as an issue for Lincoln County, but it will have an indirect effect on all special regulations on trout streams. The DNR is being asked to establish a policy with regard to the Prairie River that will leave special regulations in place long enough to conduct scientific evaluations of the stream sections, or whether they will instead ease the regulations whenever there is political pressure to do so. If you want additional information on this question, please call or email me.

Congress Hearing locations:
La Crosse Onalaska High School, Field House, 700 Hilltop Place, Onalaska
Vernon Viroqua High School, 100 Blackhawk Drive, Viroqua
Monroe Sparta High School, Auditorium, 506 N. Black River St., Sparta
Crawford Crawford County Courthouse, Court Room, 220 N. Beaumont Road, Prairie du Chien
Juneau Olson Middle School, Auditorium, 508 Grayside Avenue, Mauston

2. April 16 Chapter meeting will feature Todd Fuller speaking on Surf Fishing in Mexico for Rooster Fish. Social Hour begins at 6pm; presentation at 7pm at Forest Hills. Anybody is welcome to attend.

3. Please join Trout Unlimited for a press conference on April 14 to announce the results of a study on the economic impacts of angling in the Driftless Area of southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin, northeast Iowa and northwest Illinois. The study was conducted by NorthStar Economics, Inc.
April 14, 9:30-10:30am, Piggy’s Restaurant (ballroom), 501 South Front St., La Crosse

4. We will have a planning meeting on April 16 to get the Venture Crew program started. This is a new collaboration with the Boys Scouts of America to introduce young men and women (ages 14-20) to trout fishing and conservation. We will hold the meeting at 5pm at Forest Hills (just before our monthly chapter meeting). If you are interested in volunteering to help with this program, please plan to attend this meeting, or let me know that you want to be involved so we can get the necessary paperwork filled out. Our first meeting with the Venture Crew will take place at Mormon Coulee Park (east side) at 3:00pm on Saturday, April 19.

5. On May 15 & 16 the Norskedalen Nature Center will host its annual Spring Environmental Education Days for kids from area schools in grades 5 and up. They have asked if our group will do some presentations on one or both dates. The presentations could involve casting demos, fish identification, and/or stream habitat. Please let me know if you would be interested in helping with this event. I need to know by the end of this week (April 11) so I know whether we have enough people to schedule us for the event.

Chapter Report:

Elections were held at the November meeting. Eric Rauch was elected to serve as Vice President; Rick Kyte and Bob Hubbard were elected to serve another term as President and Treasurer, respectively.

During the November meeting we discussed the possibility of teaming up with the Gateway Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America to support a Venture Program dedicated to fishing and conservation. Venturing is an activity open to young men and women between the ages of 14 and 20. As the plans develop, we will be looking for volunteers to help with this program.

In November our chapter received a $500 gift from Spring Creek Partners to be used on the Hornby Creek restoration project. Spring Creek Partners is a program that raises funds for stream restoration projects in the Driftless Area. If you are interested in donating to the program, contact Eric Rauch, our chapter’s conservation project coordinator, or visit the Spring Creek Partner’s web-site at www.springcreekpartner.org.

More fur, feathers, and fun times

The fly tying demonstrations will be conducted at Gander Mountain on January 19 and February 16. People are welcome to stop by to take a look at what we are doing, sit down, chat with us for a while, and learn some new flies. See you there! Photo courtesy of Cy Post.

Post-flood Stream Report It will be some time yet before any-one is able to measure all of the effects to area trout streams from the recent floods, but so far it looks like the fish have survived, the insects have resumed their hatches, and most of the struc-tures are still intact. Mat Wagner, from the Driftless Angler fly shop in Viroqua, reports several area streams with major changes, in-cluding collapse of stream banks and new channels being formed, though few lunker structures appear to be washed out. The smaller tributary streams without large slopes next to them suf-fered the least damage. He also noted that mayflies and caddis are hatching, and nymphs can even be found clinging to the bottom of rocks that were scoured clean on top. The improvements on the section of Mormon Coulee Creek near Justin Road were completed just a couple weeks before the flood, and yet despite considerable runoff from the cleared banks, the stream itself appears to be in good shape.

Coulee Chapter Receives Gift Our chapter recently received a generous gift of $2,000 to be used on Hornby Creek. The donors are Olaf Borge of rural Vernon County, Betty C. Borge, of Cambridge, Wisconsin, and Sigrid B. Brooks of Chicago, Illinois. The project, which will include both maintenance and development to be done by the Department of Natural Resources, is scheduled to begin this fall or next spring.

Olaf Borge presents checks to Coulee Region Chapter of Trout Unlimited

	4-H Super Saturday, Super Success Thanks to all the members who volunteered to help out with 4-H Super Saturday at Esofea Park on April 14. Cy Post organized the volunteer members from the Coulee Region chapter. Even though the fish didn’t cooperate, the 125 kids who showed up had a great time.
A successful and happy angler!

Jeff Moore is asked the question: “Are you sure you know how to catch fish?”	Steve Mach urges patience . . .and more patience.

Up Next: Hornby Creek

Since the completion of the Mormon Coulee Creek Restoration last year, our club has been looking for another project to take on. After consulting with Dave Vetrano and Jordan Weeks of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, we chose to devote our energies to developing a stretch of Hornby Creek, a feeder stream of the South Fork of the Bad Axe.

At our May meeting, the club voted unanimously to provide the DNR with up to $6,000 for this project. Thanks to Eric Rauch for obtaining grant monies and to Bob Hubbard and all the volunteers at our last banquet who allow us to continue to fund projects like this one!