Plus updates on the Meicher Auction and Other Events

We are pleased to welcome our speaker for Tuesday, October 14 – Kyle Zempel of Black Earth Creek Angling on trout fishing in Patagonia. It’s a legendary location with legendary fish (as the picture attests) … hear from a “local legend” on the services he now offers there and what to consider and expect from a trip to Patagonia.

Kyle created Black Earth Angling Co. (www.blackearthangling.com), a fly fishing guide outfit focused providing clients with one-of-a-kind fishing experiences. Kyle guides full time for Driftless trout and the diverse warm water opportunities of the Wisconsin River. Kyle has become well known for his guide work on the Wisconsin River, specifically “The Crash,” and his work with a camera in the field as a fly fishing photographer. His photo work has appeared in notable publications such as, The Flyfish Journal, Eastern Fly Fishing, The Drake, Fly Fisherman, Midcurrent.com, Hatch.com. Kyle has been lucky enough to fish in Mexico, Bahamas, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, and extensively throughout the United States. In 2025, he guided for Martin Pescador Lodge in Chile.

We hope you will join us on October 14. We gather, as always, at Schwoeglers on Grand Canyon Drive on Madison’s West Side. Dinner and drinks will be available starting at 5:30 p.m. with Kyle’s presentation following some brief updates at 7.

Schwoegler’s Lanes, 444 Grand Canyon Dr., Madison, WI 53719

Meicher Auction, Present and Future

By Topf Wells

Thanks to everyone who donated to, attended, and bought usually fabulous gear at the Meicher Auction at our September meeting. We raised $4900 (!) and lots of folks left laden with rods, reels, flies, etc. Local trout had best be prepared for the onslaught of these well equipped anglers.

The Board discussed the auction and some suggestions members have made. We’ve decided to switch the Meicher Auction back to March. Our next one will be in March, 2026. This was the most frequent suggestion and returns the Auction to its traditional time. We tried the September time to create an extra-attractive meeting after the summer hiatus. Our first September auction also coincided with our return to post-Covid, more normal activities. Our storage locker was overflowing since we had not held the auction for several years and we had to move lots of gear quickly.

The March time has several advantages. Occurring at the beginning of the season, buyers might think of the gear they’d really, really like to have for a new season. With our meetings in full swing and the weather not yet conducive to great fishing, we might draw a bigger crowd. We’ve not been able to offer guided trips at the September auction, probably because guides don’t have many or any openings that late in the season. While we don’t want to presume, perhaps a few guides will donate trips if they have a year to plan and schedule.

Stay tuned for more details. Perhaps the only drawback is that we’ll ask you to donate gear and then bid in 6 months, instead of a year. So look through the garage or basement with March in mind and daydream of the cool stuff you should have purchased at previous auctions (why didn’t I bid on Larry’s Pass Lake flies this fall?) and don’t miss the bargains this spring.

Speaking of Events

SWTU has held extremely successful Spring Fundraisers, Icebreakers and Banquets … but not recently. All of these have been fun, worthwhile and lucrative but we can’t host all of them every year. With some planning and volunteers, we can have a more regular schedule of these events as well as the auction. We probably don’t recognize how much we don’t gain if we forego these celebrations. The Meicher Auction is wonderful but with the biggest crowds and highly desirable gear and trips, the most we raised was about $7,000. We raised between 12-15K with the Spring Fundraiser and the Icebreaker approached 10. We made some money with banquets and, more importantly, they enabled us to honor members, partners and landowners.

Dyan Lesnik, the best Vice President ever, has agreed to chair a committee to plan how and when SWTU can begin to host some of these events again. To ensure that the committee has enough time, the Board has decided not to hold any other fundraiser next spring besides the Auction. Now we need folks to serve on the committee: please contact Dyan at dmlgriffin@gmail.com or at one of our meetings.

Clinics, Please Help

SWTU Casting Clinics are in demand. The next is on 10/14 at 1PM in Dane County’s Token Creek Park. Attending will be the 40-50 high school students from Sun Prairie’s Trout In the Classroom program. Earlier that day they will have released their trout and watched the DNR shock part of Token Creek. Next they want to learn how to catch the trout. That’s where we come in. We really need help on this one because our two key organizers of this clinic will be out of town. If you can help, just show up at the park about 12:45. A heads up that you’ll help would be appreciated but not necessary (email Topf Wells at topfwells@gmail.com). And we need someone to be the chief organizer.

The clinics fit into another category of SWTU activities. They are fun for members, free, and great outreach. The clinics, fly tying, rod building, picnics, and other outings fall are examples. Fly tying and rod building are well in hand because veteran experts and instructors are willing to teach and organize these year after year.* The others, however, don’t have the same consistent leadership and holding them is sometimes a bit catch as catch can.** The Board will address this topic and we might ask for another committee to plan and schedule these more systematically.*** Meanwhile, please help us at Sun Prairie.

* Let’s not take these folks for granted. Besides thanking them, let’s recognize that they’ll pass the leadership of these events on to other members. We have to offer that help when they request it.

** As in Sun Prairie on 10/14.

*** You can tell I spent too many years as an English grad student; I still love footnotes. There’s little to be gained in trying to create a bunch of committees all at once but matching our capacity and calendar with these important and fun events is a real need.