Bryan Mathie, Chair of the Conservation Committee has put together a list of Allegheny County and local watershed organizations that share our focus on stream preservation and improvement, Click here for the list, Find an organization near where you live and join up. Bring their ideas and practices back to the Chapter. Bryan is the go=to guy on this end. Click here to email him.
John Hayes has nicely summarized the current status of PFBC’s new “Strategic Plan for Management of Trout Fisheries in Pennsylvania”. You’ll enjoy the update. Click Here for John’s article. Click Here for the Strategic Plan per se.
Sue Lympany is the First Place Winner of the 2020 Stream Clean-up Contest and will receive a gift card worth $200 at International Angler. Drew Richards is the Second Place Winner and will receive a gift card worth $100 at International Angler. There were only two entries in the contest this year, so Third Place and $50 will have to wait until a future contest. Congratulations to the Winners and to Bryan Mathie, Chair of the Conservation Committee. Read Sue’s narrative by Clicking Here and Drew’s by Clicking Here.
You’ll remember a similar post from earlier in the Spring before COVID-19 shut us down. Now a new date has been set, and the opportunity to comment extended:
On July 20th and 21st, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will meet in Harrisburg to discuss upgrading protections for 73 Wild Trout Streams and 5 Class A streams. If approved, this change will ensure the future health of clean water in these streams and allow these populations of wild fish to continue to thrive. For more information, CLICK HERE.
A missing letter in the email contact for the recent Stream Clean-up Contest has resulted in a GLITCH: no entries were received by the cut-off date (May 17, 2020). However, several members have contacted us with questions. “What about my entry?”. To be fair, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline to May 30, 2020. So, if you attempted submission during the April 17 – May 17 period, PLEASE RESUBMIT. Send your submission to bryan.mathie@sbcglobal.net and to President@pwwtu.org
Conservation Chair Bryan Mathie challenged members of PWWTU to get out and clean up part of a stream. Prizes were offered for the largest collection of trash. Bryan and his family even provided an example of how to do it. Unfortunately, no other chapter member entered the contest. If you thought about doing a stream clean up but decided not to, please share your thinking. Contact us at President@pwwtu.org.
Bryan Mathie, with the help of his family, collected an amazing amount of trash from the banks of Neshannock Creek last week (see photos below). All this in one afternoon! Bryan, it must be admitted, found time to capture a number of Neshannock brownies on a caddis emerger pattern during the trip. Three bags of trash and what looks like a computer carry full of old shoes, etc. define the haul. The Mathie’s efforts put them in the lead for this week’s prize. Remember, deadline for this week’s entries is Friday, April 24th at 5 pm.
Aren’t you just dying to get out of the house and do something useful? Here’s an opportunity to do just that: a contest to see who can collect the most litter from a local stream. Contest runs from April 17th to May 17th. Winners will be announced May 22. Grand Prize is a $200 gift certificate from International Angler that can be used to purchase a nice fly rod. Prizes go 4 deep. Many thanks to Bob Phillips and International Angler for their support of PWWTU and the contest. CLICK HERE to read about the contest and get the rules and a list of prizes. Social distancing of course, but take the family…it all counts and could be nice mucky fun.
APSC has cancelled most of it’s events this Spring. A possible exception is the Dan Wagner Memorial Kid’s Fishing Tournament at North Park on May 2nd. Click here to see the schedule. Contact: Gary Franceschina by email.
OK, I challenged you to take a stream walk in order to become familiar with a local stream and to pick up trash. Just you and your immediate family, not a large group. Well, I decided to put on my boots and explore the tiny tributary to Saw Mill Run that starts a hundred yards from our house. An adventure ensued. Click here to learn more about it.