A Message from Your President
Heath Tiefenauer
Hello Fly Fishers International,
Hello and welcome to the April edition of Streamline. We hope this edition of Streamline finds you well and in good spirits.
In March we had to suspend or postpone many of our events, most notably our spring Fundraising Banquet. As we move into April, we’ll continue to support community health by postponing or canceling club events. Our April meeting at Hardesty library is canceled. The Lower Illinois River Cleanup scheduled for April 18 is likely to be postponed as the current health situation unfolds. We hope current concerns will be alleviated, but we remain committed to the health and safety of our friends and supporters and will postpone if necessary.
For some of us, when fishing, 6 feet is already a little too close. Social distancing should come naturally to some of us. Somehow, that doesn’t really translate to everyday life. Keeping our distance doesn’t mean we can’t stay connected. We have a lot of great content at www.TU420.com and there’s always activity on the TU420/Tulsa Fly Fishers Facebook page.
Luckily, fishing is a great option to support community health, maintain your own health and there are plenty of local ponds, lakes and rivers right in our community. Maybe we can’t get together in groups and have fun fishing, but we can still share our stories and photos. If you’ve been fishing or if can’t get out to fish and want to enjoy through others, head over to our Facebook page, share those photos and join the conversation. You’ll find plenty of like-minded people with similar interests.
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Details of all our activities are available on our web site www.tu420.com.
Tight Lines,
Heath Tiefenauer
President of Oklahoma Trout Unlimited & Tulsa Fly Fishers
Trout In The Classroom
Catoosa TIC Release on March 10th
Trout In The Classroom Program in Oklahoma: An Update
We were able to complete 3 fingerling releases on the Lower Illinois before spring break and COVID-19 resulted in social distancing. Wilson, East Central and Catoosa set their fingerlings free and participated in fly casting, fly tying and entomology lessons at the river. Since then, many tank leaders have picked up the fingerlings at the schools and release them in the Lower Illinois River finishing out the 2019-2020 TIC season. Thank you tank leaders for your help.
TU420 would like to thank The Williams Company, Kelly Bostian and the City of Tulsa Environmental Compliance for their participation in the Catoosa release and support of the Trout In the Classroom Program. TU420 looks forward to the upcoming 2020-2021 TIC program and the addition of new schools and tanks, hopefully in October 2020.
For more information on TIC in general, click on the following link:
... WWW.TROUTINTHECLASSROOM.ORG -
You can help the TIC program for next season by donating to:
Oklahoma Chapter of Trout Unlimited
P.O. Box 54108 Tulsa, OK 74155.
(Each tank costs @ $1,200 and annual upkeep around $250 each.)
Jim Mathewson for Scott Hood
Youth Education Coordinator for OKTU420
2020 Conservation Issues
Our Conservation Approach
The Oklahoma legislature is meeting virtually and many bills will not be heard or will be passed by virtual vote, possibly with little outdoor group input or oversight. We encourage you to take this trying time to reach out to your Oklahoma House and Senate representatives to thank them for their service to the people of Oklahoma and tell them how important the $1.7 billion Oklahoma recreational fishery is to you, retailer sales and city and state tax revenue.
CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE. Senate Bill 1742, is very concerning to us. It has passed the Senate and sits in the OK House awaiting a vote. Please call your OK House representative and tell them that this is a bad bill that isn't good for ALL Oklahoman's. SB1742, if not stopped, will allow unlimited high volume water well permits for industrial chicken grow houses using up to 1 million gallons each. There are no meters on the wells, no limit to the number of wells and there has not been high volume water with draw study of most aquifers that people have drawn their well water from for generations. These aquifers also feed our fishing streams. To make matters worse, it will allow one man to have complete oversight of all well water permits for the entire state of Oklahoma with little or no oversight. No other state has such a concentration of power over public waters. Clearly, this is a bad idea and must be stopped so proper studies can be done. It has already PASSED the OK Senate and now awaits approval by your OK House representative. Please call and tell your OK House representative that you are opposed to Senate Bill 1742. Vote NO on SB1742.
Find your representative here: http://www.oklegislature.gov/FindMyLegislature.aspx
There are other bills that we are following. However, until the state’s website is updated we can’t tell you the exact status at this time. We’ll alert you to bills of concern as the move through the process. Also, Representatives have been told to fast track or sideline bills so that they can adjourn early in May of this year. Voting may happen very quickly, or not at all on many bills of interest to us.
-View the Trout Unlimited national conservation page here https://www.tu.org/conservation/
Pat Daly
Conservation Chair
Did You Know ?
-Did you know that the Oklahoma Water Resource Board has bathymetric maps on 71 Oklahoma lakes and detailed, interactive maps and information on a total of 145 State lakes? This information is used for the State’s water resource management and is useful in determining water shed monitoring and management, fisheries management for stocking quotas, and to help anglers find sunken points, drop offs, mud flats and other features. Visit their website at: Bathymetric Maps for more information. The maps can be exported from their website and imported into your favorite mapping program or Google Maps.
-Did you know that the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has a web page set up for Tulsa Urban Fisheries? If you want to ‘wet a line’ but would like to stay close to home, ODWC offers a description of 13 Tulsa ponds complete with location, pond size, fish species and size ranges, regulations and amenities offered. Their site is a compilation of the record of the fishes in the urban area resulting from an intensive survey carried out between 1991 and 2004. Follow the link and click on the pond to find out the details: Tulsa Urban Ponds
Ladies-Only Fly Fishing Workshop Postponed Until Fall
Have you ever wanted to Fly Fish, but didn’t know where to start? Would you be uncomfortable starting a new sport when there are very few women on our local trout streams? Are you wondering how to start or what gear, flies, knots, or other equipment to use? Join in with a class specialized just for women taught by one of the most knowledgeable fly fishers in our area.
This is a completely hands-on workshop. Carolyn Parker, a certified FFI Casting Instructor, Orvis Endorsed Guide and Owner of River Run Outfitters in Branson Missouri will lead the class. There will be plenty of opportunity to learn and share with your classmates. All levels of Fly-Fishing experience are supported.
The workshop will include a morning of fly fishing basics instruction, a catered lunch, and an afternoon of fishing on a private trout stream. The classroom portion of the day will start at 9 a.m. at Chimney Rock Hollow Trout Fishery. Around noon we’ll break for a prepared streamside lunch. A board member from the Local Trout Unlimited club will be present at lunch to collect your feedback about what it might take to get more Women interested in fly fishing, conservations or participation in our local Trout Unlimited chapter. During the afternoon you will be able to practice the skills on the water over eager trout.
Participants will learn the basics of fly fishing, knot tying, rigging, entomology, how to read water, fly fishing etiquette and more. Participants wouldn’t need to bring a thing. All gear, breakfast and lunch are provided. Those who have a fly rod and want to bring it, can. Waders are not required.
Contact Kelly Brown for more information and to get your name on the list at kellyfishes@msn.com.
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April and Possibly May Meetings are Canceled But Watch for the Next Meeting Featuring Scott Hood
At the time of this publication it appears that TU420/TFF will not have a venue available and have canceled the April meeting and then, if still needed, the May TU420 meeting. Please check the TU420 website, our Facebook and future newsletters for changes in the meeting schedule. Scott Hood has promised to be available to talk about his experiences related to: “My Time With TU and the Current Status of the Lower Illinois River” in May should the library be available by then with all gathering and physical distancing restrictions lifted. Scott promised that it is a presentation you won't want to miss.
Trout Unlimited Chapter 420 and Tulsa Fly Fishers meet at Hardesty Public Library, 8316 E 93rd St Tulsa on the east side of Memorial Dr. and one block north of the Creek Turnpike. Doors open at 6 pm (open discussion and questions) and admission is free. Raffle and door prizes are presented at the end of the meeting.
Outings
April 18th - LIR Clean-up (tentative)
Time: 9:00 am
Location: LIR Upper Parking Lot below the dam
Please watch the TU420.com website and our Facebook page for changes in this date.
April is our time to give back to our Homewater with a clean-up event. April brings warmer weather and there’s always plenty of trash to be picked up. OKC’s 89’er chapter will join us. We’ll collect trash for several hours in the morning, enjoy a freshly grilled lunch at noon and spend the afternoon fishing the freshly cleaned waters of the Lower Illinois River
Contact:
Heath Tiefenauer at TU420outings@gmail.com
Youth And Adult Education
Upcoming Classes
Backwoods at The Farm - Fly Tying Lessons
- Fly tying lessons will be discontinued for the immediate future. Please watch upcoming Streamline, TU420.com and our facebook for changes in the schedule.
Other Education Resources
These HDTs (Hunker Down Times) create an excellent break to take advantage of Trout Unlimited and Fly Fishers International's educational opportunities that they offer on their websites. You can sit down with your spouse, kids or friends and introduce them to fly fishing, or add to your fly fishing skill set. A limited number of videos are available to non-members as well. Check out the links to these two sites.
https://www.tu.org/fly-showdown/
Are you missing your office NCAA Basketball Tournament brackets this year? TU and Loon Outdoors are providing a substitute for you. They have created a ‘Spring Fly Showdown’ that match up well known flies in a bracket format so that you can vote on your favorite fly. Check out the brackets and be sure to vote in each match-up as they occur over the next couple of weeks. Voters will be eligible to win great prizes from Loon, and those who vote in the final match will be eligible to win a Loon Complete Fly-tying Kit. So go ahead. Let your mind wander. Put yourself on the water or at the vise. Tell us … what’s the best fly on earth?
 FFI has provided a series called “Casts That Catch Fish”. This video series includes an introduction to casting, the roll cast, presentation casts and the reach mend with Carl McNeil as the instructor. FFI also has videos on fly tying, knot tying and comprehensive fly fishing skills many of which are also available to non-members. Click on the link to view their website.
FFI website click here: Casting
2020 General Meeting Presentation Schedule
Spring Monthly Meetings are canceled until further notice.
The Hardesty library, where we hold our meetings, is closed until further notice. Watch for meeting details on our Facebook page and in the next issue of Streamline.
Please provide Pat Daly, pat@cimtel.net, with any recommendations you have for fall fly fishing topics and guest speakers.
Kelly's Korner
My Thoughts On The Fly
The first fish I remember catching was a Pumpkin’ Seed – what we called them back then. That may have not been the first fish I pulled in, but it says something that they are remarkable enough I can remember the orange and turquoise as a 4-year old boy with my Grandad at the rocks at Wilson’s campground. Wilson’s is long gone, but those rocks are still there and I am certain Pumpkin’ Seeds are still being caught by kids using worms every summer.
A year later, when most kids were in Kindergarten, I spent my summer chasing Brownies in front of my Grandad’s place he had developed on the East side of the river. Kindergarten had not arrived in Proctor OK back then. I got by with this because my Grandad sat on his porch on a bluff about 30 feet above the river watching me terrorized anything moving on a long gravel bar. Most of the brownies were small, but their colors ranged from almost black to a yellow tinged light green. They would eat a madtom, crawdad or a hellgrammite almost any day of the week. I spent a lot of time chasing bait, according to my friends, I still do.
Directly across from my Grandpa’s porch was an old Sycamore tree in the water, where my cousins learned to swim. This was the one place in the river seriously over our heads. If we weren’t swimming or throwing rocks we would catch Warmouth, Goggle Eyes, Channels and Drum in those dark depths under the root ball.
My dad guided a number of Oklahoma politicians in a wooden Jon boat chasing Mossbacks and Line-Sides under the overhanging trees in the deeper holes. At the time, a small group of like-minded individuals that called themselves the Illinois River Booster Club were actively lobbying for a change in water laws, resulting in the river being classified as the first Scenic River in the state.
One summer there was a daily run down the river to check limb-lines for Channel Cats and Flatheads. We also tangled a number of smaller Longnose gar and Painted Turtles. Snappers and bigger Gar were usually not seen, but just the same usually blamed for the straightened hooks and twisted empty lines.
By now you might be thinking, what the heck is this story about? Well I have been considering how my planned fishing trips have changed, and think that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The names of the fish I catch have changed, but catching them is the same fun for me as when I was a River Rat. The places have changed but they are still beautiful places to fish. The trips in my immediate future will be different with new norms for socializing, however the 15 fish challenge seems like a good bet for a socially acceptable fishing activity this summer.
If you didn’t participate last year, the challenge is to catch 15 different species of Oklahoma fish and document the catch with a selfie posted on our TU420 page. The picture needs to be sufficiently clear for the judges to verify your catch. Even if you are so certain about which species is which, being on the internet, you will be guaranteed a minimum of a half-dozen experts on each post. Last year this turned out to be a lot of good-natured fun with a few of the smaller species a difficult catch. We kicked the contest off last May and expect to do so again this year if it’s safe to do so.
The fish in this story are featured in the 15 fish challenge along with some wildcard (WC) species. For the record, the “official” names are listed as well.
(1) Pumpkin’ Seed – Long Ear Sunfish, (2) Brownies – Neosho Strain Smallmouth Bass, Crawdads - Crayfish, Hellgrammite - Dobson Fly Larvae, Madtom - A small catfish species living under rocks in Oklahoma Rivers, (3) Warmouth – Green Sunfish, (WC) Goggle Eyes – Rock Bass, (4) Mossbacks – Largemouth Bass, (5) Line-Sides - Kentucky Bass (6) Channel Catfish, (7) Freshwater Drum, (WC) Longnose Gar, (7) Sandbass – Whitebass, (8) Stripers – Striped Bass, (9) Hybrids - Sandbass/Stripers, (10) Channel Catfish, (11) Drum (12) Crappie, (13) Red Ear Sunfish, (WC) Common Carp, (WC) Buffalo and (15) Rainbow Trout. Hope to see you in the Funny Pages!
Author Kelly Brown will be documenting his general thoughts in the coming months. If you see him at the next General Meeting, be sure to thank him for putting these projects together.
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