Rocky Mountain Flycasters and Trout Unlimited

Upcoming Events

The Annual Fly Fishing Expo Returns

February 15, 2012, Wednesday from 5:30–9:00 p.m.

Nearly two dozen professional and experienced tiers from our region will converge in Fort Collins for this annual event to demonstrate their fly tying skills and share tips on tying and fishing with their special flies.

Every year, well over 100 people attend the RMF Fly Tying Expo.
 
This year the Expo will be even larger and better. See the details.

Some of the nearly two dozen tiers from 2011

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Dates set for Youth Fly Fishing Camp

RMF’s Youth Fly Fishing Day Camp has set the dates for the 2012 program. The camp will run six consecutive days July 30 through August 4. This is an excellent opportunity for youth (ages 14-18) to learn indepth fly fishing skills. See our 2012 Day Camp page for more details.

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River Restoration Project

Rocky Mountain Flycasters-Trout Unlimited is partnering with Wildland Restoration Volunteers (WRV) to conduct a substantial stream improvement project on several miles of the North Fork of the Poudre. The project has been conceived, planned, and will be managed by the fisheries staff of the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest and Pawnee National Grasslands (A-RNF & PNG). It is located in the Canyon Lakes District and along the course of the North Fork west of its confluence with Killpecker Creek and on the way to Deadman Hill. The project is scheduled for August 25th and 26th, 2012 when stream flows are conducive for in-stream work.

To become involved in this “rock-rolling” project, see our volunteer page, read the full article, and contact Conservation Chair Dave Piske.

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Latest Additions

A Great RMF Holiday Party

The Rocky Mountain Flycasters’ Holiday Party at C.B & Potts this year was a terrific success. The food was delicious, the fly trees full, the rod was a 4 weight, and the packages were stacked with care. The best part—was the company of other fly fishers. What a great group.
 
And then, there was the gift exchange. For some of us, the highlight of the evening is the catching of the famous fish lamp. What a joy to see it emerge from the dark depths and leap into the air, making every effort to wriggle free. Some lucky person gets to take the fish home and enjoy it for a full year. Of course, some fly fishers prefer to catch and release.

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Colorado Redistricting Reflects No. Colorado Environment

Recent redistricting will better reflect Northern Colorado. Clean Water Action’s input helped with decision. See the conservation article.

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Lee Evans calls out
raffle winners

2011 Guest Night with Bill Edrington

What a terrific meeting November 16th with our guests, Bill Edrington, and Connor Murphy! We had a great turnout of members and guests to hear Bill discuss “Fishing the Season of the Arkansas”, Connor Murphy talk—all too briefly—about tournament fishing, and finished with coveted prizes from the raffle table. Read what President Lee Evans had to say in the President’s Beat.

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Rocky Mountain Flycasters Bylaws Update for 2011

Lee Evans and Dave Piske of Rocky Mountain Flycasters’ (RMF) board have been working to update our chapter bylaws so that they are more consistent with those of national Trout Unlimited. At our September General Meeting, designated a Special Membership Meeting, the 2011 revised version of the bylaws were adopted by a unanimous vote by the members present. As noted previously, the most significant change was directed by the membership at the May meeting to allow the president to serve three (3) consecutive terms, instead of only two (2) (Article V section 3.) We also added paragraphs defining Education Programs and Nominations (Article VI section 4 F and G.)

The revised Bylaws can be viewed as a downloaded PDF file or as a page on our web site.

Thanks to Lee, Dave, and the membership for helping us to clarify our Bylaws.

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Fishing Line Collection

Fishing line receptacle Fishing line can be a life threatening problem for wildlife. Animals can easily become entangled and trapped in discarded fishing line and hooks, making it impossible for them to feed or escape predators. With this in mind, Fort Collins government has installed line and hook collection containers in at least seven Natural Park Areas along the Poudre River. These depositories are located at Arapaho Bend, Kingfisher Point, McMurry, North Shields Pond, Prospect Ponds, Riverbend Ponds, and Gateway Park natural areas.

Contents of line collection container Rocky Mountain Flycasters has partnered with the City to provide collection assistance for the containers. Collected line is then sent to a recycling center where the plastic is recycled into underwater fish structures, park tables and benches. On August 6, 2011, Bruce Rosenthal, RMF member, emptied the collection container at Gateway Park. He removed yards and yards of line, along with hooks, lures, bobbers, containers, and lead sinkers. Even though the collection container specifies that no generic trash is to be put in the containers, more than half the volume was empty water and soda bottles, food wrappers, and other things without description.

Bruce says that it takes about two hours a month to make the rounds and make the collections. If you would like to provide Bruce some vacation time or help spread the work load, contact to work out arrangements.

For information from Fort Collins about the program, please see http://www.fcgov.com/news/?id=3683.

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Trail maintenance party along the overlook trail Aug 6

Are we having another ****gate?

In our case, we did! It a party at Gateway, as in Gateway Natural Area. This year Rocky Mountain Flycasters committed to work with the city of Fort Collins in helping to maintain trails overlooking the Poudre River at the Gateway Natural Area. The August TrailGate Party was a good time. The next party was September 10 and there was again be ample time to look for fish in the area. See more information.

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Dennis Cook with Outstanding Volunteer Award and Outstanding Youth Program Award

Flycasters receive awards!

At the Annual Colorado Trout Unlimited Rendezvous in Redstone, Colorado, our chapter received two awards. The Outstanding Volunteer award was presented to Dennis Cook, Youth Outreach Chair for his many hours of dedicated volunteer work. A second award was presented and received by Dennis Cook for Exemplary Youth Education Program. Both awards are very well deserved, Dennis.

The Rocky Mountain Flycasters’ River Conservation & Fly Fishing Youth Day Camp will run for six days at the end of July and can use adult mentors for many of the sessions. Plan now for the 2012 Camp.

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Are you a Sustaining Donor? Sustaining Donors are members of Trout Unlimited (TU), non-members, and businesses who recognize that without this kind of community support our Chapter can not adequately protect, conserve, and restore Colorado’s cold-water fisheries and their watersheds. Sustaining Donors are recognized at various levels. Contributions are greatly appreciated and we acknowledge sustaining donors in multiple ways. Find out more.

The Flypaper newsletter

The January 2012 issue of The Flypaper newsletter is available now. You can sign up to receive it online by using our signup form or by sending a message to our Flypaper editor. You can also download a pdf version of the newsletter from the newsletter page.

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What else? Want to find out more about what Rocky Mountain Flycasters does in our area? Take a look at the About Us page and download the brochure we prepared.

More on our Current Calendar

Behnke-RMF Research Fellowship

Rocky Mountain Flycasters continues to support the Robert J. Behnke-RMF Research Fellowship. We need to raise money through donations for each year's fellowship and we are seeking additional donations. Read more about the fellowship and you can use this Donation Form to make a contribution. This fellowship helps a Colorado State graduate student with research and honors the continuing contributions being made by Dr. Behnke.

Rocky Mountain Flycasters’ Exclusives

Stop cross-water contamination!

Whirling disease. Dydimo. New Zealand Mud Snails. Chytrid fungus. These are very real threats to our waters. If you follow some very simple, inexpensive procedures, you can help curb the spread of these diseases. See Common Sense Disinfection Procedure by Phil Wright.

Inexpensive Wading staff

Are you as "sure footed" as you would like to be? Are you ready for the spring run-off? The raging spring torrents can quicky take your feet from under you. It could be that you might need a wading stick. Here's how to build one out of inexpensive/used materials. Phil Wright put together this helpful HOW-TO (pdf 412 KB) so you can have your own hand-crafted wading stick.