It is with sadness that we announce the passing of Wolf River TU Chapter President Chuck Valliere. Chuck was a constant, friendly presence at trout events and gave a great deal of his time, energy and expertise to the Vets on the Fly program. There will be a Celebration of Life on August 7, 2023. Details are below.

Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Location: Rex’s Innkeeper (Restaurant)
301 N Century Ave
Waunakee, WI  53597

By Topf Wells

Justin Haugland, Senior DNR Fisheries Biologist, has published an interesting report on the Pine River in Richland and Vernon Counties.

My takeaways from Justin’s assessment:

1. Wow. This is a big watershed with lots of streams. Justin and his crew had to work hard to cover all this water and the analysis must have taken a lot of time and thought.
2. This report will interest anglers because Justin describes some streams with large populations of trout that are not well known.
3. His key recommendation is extremely important for SWTU, other chapters, TU DARE and other conservation organizations like BFF to pursue. Justin strongly recommends that easement authority be created or expanded for a number of streams in order to better protect and improve them and to increase angler access. One such stream is Fancy Creek and its tributaries. It’s stuffed with trout, browns in Fancy and brookies in the headwater tribs. It has only two small easements and one would have to have the agility and stamina of an orangutan to fish one of the two. I’ve driven the full length of Fancy for years longing for easements. When I finally had the nerve to ask a landowner and walked to his pasture, a Holstein bull awaited me (no fishing there).

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By Topf Wells

I was preparing to fish my favorite stretch of my favorite Columbia County trout stream but demurred when I reached the creek.  What happened, I wondered.  Where I was used to stepping onto a nice patch of gravel with a prospect of pleasant wading and fish eager to eat dry flies, I found a mess: big stretches of sediment topped by dense clumps of aquatic vegetation.  The small amount of current that showed was shoved under overhanging clumps of reed canary grass topped by wild parsnip. I went elsewhere but wondered if I wasn’t becoming a bit of a wuss. Read More