Please note that unless otherwise indicated, all monthly chapter meetings are held in Rm 130 in the Research Services building on the OARDC/Ohio State University campus, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster OH. Chapter meetings are held the second Monday of the month from September through May, starting at 7:15 PM. Doors open at 6:45 PM, so come early and meet up with friends and catch up on what’s new.

Room 130, Research Services Building, OSU/OARDC, Wooster campus.

The Research Service building is the first building to the left of the main entrance to the campus. There is parking on the south and east sides of the building.

Event: September 2019 Chapter Meeting

Date: 9/9/19 Time: 7:15-9:00 p.m.

Program will focus on the upcoming October fly fishing clinics and recruiting members to help novice fly anglers to cast a fly line, tie flies, and stock and fly fish Apple Creek for rainbow and brown trout.

Skip Nault will give a brief presentation on “How to best fool a trout: designing effective fly patterns.” This is a presentation planned for the last January but could not be given because of troubles with the audio-visual system.

Event: Litter Cleanup of Apple Creek

Date: 9/14/19 Time: 10:00 a.m. until noon.

Details: We will meet at the Kiosk in Grosjean Park, Wooster. July brought flooding rains to the Apple Creek watershed with over 5 inches of rain. Apple Creek at Grosjean Park went way over its banks with 4-5 feet of water in the parking lot. Trees, branches and trash (including over 100 tires, refrigerators, washing machines, mattresses and much more) from upstream were deposited along the stream and riparian zones in the park. The City of Wooster has brought in heavy equipment to remove the big stuff. Left behind will be bottles, cans, toys, and all sorts of stuff. This is what we will focus on.

So come prepared to walk through the park and wade the stream for a couple hours with us. The City of Wooster will provide trash bags and an ATV to haul litter once collected. We want the stream to be in good shape when we stock trout in October and hold our Fly Fishing Classes for novice anglers. We will appreciate help from all volunteers, members, friends and family.

Trees and brush piled up along Apple Creek after flood.

Event: October 2019 Chapter Meeting and Annual Meeting.

Date: 10/14/19 Time: 7:15-9:00 p.m.

Details: The meeting will start with business followed by an election of new officers and Three new board members.

The speaker will be L.R. “Skip” Nault whose topic is “An entomologist’s Perspective: insects as trout food and models for fly tying and fishing.” Nault is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University and has served as President of the Entomological Society. His expertise was in terrestrial insect pests of crops but has expanded to aquatic insects since taking up fly fishing 20 years ago. Trout feed on many more insects than caddis flies, mayflies and stoneflies, including beetles, ants, grasshoppers and many more species that fly fishers can imitate with their fly patterns.

Event: October stocking of Apple Creek at Grosjean Park in Wooster

Date: 10/16/19 Time: 10 a.m. until noon.

Come prepared to wade Apple Creek and stock rainbow and brown trout over a one mile stretch of the stream in Wooster’s Grosjean Park. We will meet a little before 10a.m. at the Grosjean Park kiosk. In addition to transporting trout to the stream we will pick up litter from the stream and surrounding area. Bring along family members and friends. It’s a lot of fun watching the trout swim off to their new home in the stream.

Event: Wounded Warriors Fly Fishing

Date: 11/8/19 Time: Noon until 3 p.m.

Each fall we call upon 15 members to assist providing fly fishing lessons for the Wounded Warriors organization, veterans of conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the middle east who have suffered physical injuries and mental stress. The lessons are given at the Ohio Division of Wildlife hatchery at Castalia, on Cold Creek.

October 10, 2017, CFRTU members instructed Wounded Warriors to fly fish on Castalia’s Cold Creek.

Event: November 2019 Chapter Meeting

Date: 11/11/19 Time: 7:15-9:00 p.m.

The featured speaker is Smithville’s Dan Rice, the author of the recently published “A Naturalists Guide to the Fishes of Ohio.” The coauthor of the book is Brian Zimmerman who provided all of the color publications of fish covered in the book.

Event: November stocking of Apple Creek

Date: 11/16/19 Time: 10:00a.m. until noon

Place: Grosjean Park in Wooster

This will be the second fall stocking of Apple Creek. Approximately 400-500 good sized rainbow and and brown trout will be stocked in Apple Creek.

A net full of trout emptied into transport buckets.

Event: December 2019 Chapter Meeting

Date: 12/9/19 Time: 7:15-9:00 p.m.

Our featured speaker is Dan Herms, from Davey Tree Expert Company, whose topic is “Climate Change and Arboriculture: As the Earth Warms, Trees Feel the Heat.” The discussion following Herms presentation will include impact of global warming on cold water fisheries.

Herms retired from the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University as professor and chair of the department in 2018 to assume the position of Vice President for Research and Development for Davey Tree Expert Company. He has conducted pioneering studies on the ecology of tree pests including the Emerald Ash Borer, an introduced beetle that is quickly killing Ash trees in the Eastern U.S. His studies also focused on interactions between trees and insects, and he was a member of the OSU Climate Change Outreach Team. He now heads all research and development for Davey Tree, the world’s largest full service tree care company.

The earth has warmed markedly since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Most of this warming has occurred over the last 40 years with impacts on flora and fauna that are already apparent and are predicted to intensify. This discussion will examine patterns and causes of this warming, climate change projections for the rest of this century, and impacts on biodiversity including distribution and abundance of trees, insects, and other species.

Dan Herms with his first trout caught on a fly.

The CFRTU Chapter is always looking for speakers for our monthly meetings. Please Contact Us for suggestions for speakers on fly fishing, conservation of aquatic resources and related topics.