Give us a hand to raise money for conservation and youth education.We need two volunteers to gather and prepare photos for a slide show during our auction. The slide show would include images of all our work throughout this past year. The photos will need to be gathered from various people on the board, for which we will provide the contact info. The slide show will include photos from this year's youth camp as well. We will also provide a large screen. Please contact Sharon Lance at 303-694-3409 or at stlance@comcast.net.
August lake trip
Richard Pilatzke and Gary Thompson will be leading an August chapter trip to Silver Dollar Lake. This is a hike in lake off Guanella pass that is located at 12,200 feet elevation. The trailhead is at 11,200 feet and the distance to the lake is 1.6 miles. We will leave from the South Suburban Board of Realtors parking lot at 6:00 am on Saturday, August 20th. We are starting early due to the common thunderstorms on Guanella. Participants should bring water, a good hat, sunblock, camera, bug spray, and any other necessities, but remember that you will be carrying everything you bring for 1.6 miles. Silver Dollar has greenback cutthroats, the trail is open , and the lake is fishing well, according to Your Fishing Partner in Idaho Springs.
Looking for a volunteer for the auction
We need some help for the upcoming auction. The Chapter is looking for someone to help us put together a powerpoint slide show of our projects from the last year and highlight some of the bigger items we will have in the auction. We would provide all the images, we just need someone to put them together into a simple slideshow.If you are interested leave a comment below or send me an email nick (at) nibydesigngroup.com.
South Platte River Clean Up Successfully Completed!
July 23rd, 2011
Twenty one intrepid volunteers from our chapter along with two from CUSP (Coalition for the Upper South Platte) braved sunny 90 degree weather to clean up an 8 mile stretch of the South Platte River north of Deckers, CO. Thanks to all the folks who participated to make this our best turn out for 2001! Enough trash was collected to fill a pickup truck!The BBQ lunch of brats, hamburgers and cheeseburgers along with cool refreshments was enjoyed and appreciated after a hot morning of trash removal. Many thanks to Doug McFarland who organized the project and prepared the BBQ!Again, we could not accomplish these important conservation and restoration projects without the support of our TU chapter volunteers.Thank you to the following participants!Peter Kohler Loren Kohler Don Cushing Bill HoneyfieldDuane Van deVentner Jim Rasmussen Derek HankinsJohn Aaron Ray Carney Bob MillerSusan Miller Alan Whitehead Jim Klug Kent HigginsChris Burros Richard Pilatzke Jim Stranahan Bob DiCarloDoug McFarland Jordan Pogue Mike Pogue
Each of our volunteers earned a raffle ticket making them eligible for our 2011 Cutthroat Chapter Conservation Volunteer Recognition Award Raffle to be held at our annual auction. See our website, www.cutthroatctu.org for details! Hope to see you at our August 20th Gill Trail Project!It is good to know the river is healthy, lots of bugs!
Crystal Lake damsels
About 7 intrepid members of Cutthroat chapter and one FFFer made the two plus hour trip to Crystal lake outside of Leadville on Sunday, July 10th. They were rewarded with a bountiful callibaetis hatch and a dynamite damsel emergence. Almost everyone caught fish on adult damsels and many other patterns, mostly dry flies. There was a little weather, as a thunderstorm quickly blew through.Fishing was great both before and after the storm. As a result of the great fishing, the trip on Wednesday, July 13th is returning to Crystal Lake instead of Hayden Meadows Reservoir. Hayden is receiving a huge influx of cold Arkansas River runoff and this is detrimentally affecting the hatches
Colorado TU Youth camp
Check out this YouTube video of a Pueblo youth trying to make a difference.
Horse Creek Willow Planting May 21st.
Many thanks to all who came out on Saturday May 21st. for the Cutthroat Chapter's first willow planting event to Horse Creek. Our chapter teamed with The Coalition for the Upper South Platte and a Girl Scout Group from Colorado Springs to plant over seven thousand willows this day. Cutthroat members John Aaron, Dereck Hankins, Bill Honeyfield, Alan Whitehead,Loren and Peter Kohler, Tom Brown, Martin Prazak and his son, Darrell Sederstan, Allen Avinoff and his son, John Stadnick, and Doug Hodus. I apologize if I have missed anyone.
Horse creek is the result of the joining of West Creek (plus Trail Creek) and Trout Creek. The drainage encompasses the area North of Woodland Park, joining the the main stem of the South Platte at Deckers. The 130,000 acre Hayman fire of 2002 devastated the Horse Creek drainage and continues to deliver sediment to the South Platte River following thunderstorms. Surprisingly, there is much life in Horse Creek and the original bottom shows in many places. We found small trout and lots of bug life in Horse Creek. Also lots of trash -- a car battery? Much work needs to be done here and the Coalition for the Upper South Platte has a plan to do it. Come join us on our Hayman Fire Remediation projects. Be the first in our chapter to catch a trout out of Horse Creek or Trail Creek.
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HORSE CREEK ALONG HWY 67
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CUTTHROAT MEMBER WITH WILLOWS
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JOHN FINDS A NEW BATTERY
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ALLUVIAL FAN - A RIVER OF SEDIMENT FROM THE FIRE.
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GREEN DRAKE NYMPH
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CRANE FLY LARVA
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CUTTHROAT CHAPTER
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July Lake Fishing Trips
Richard Pilatzke will host two lake fishing trips for Cutthroat Chapter and Front Range Fly Fishers in July. On July 10th, a Sunday, we will go to Crystal Lake in the upper Arkansas drainage. We will meet at 7:00 AM at the South Suburban Board of Realtors Building and proceed from there. Crystal lake is easy to fish from shore or you can bring a float tube or pontoon boat. On July 13th, a Wednesday, we will go to Hayden Reservoir, also in the upper Arkansas drainage. We will meet at the same time and place as the first trip. This lake is fishable from shore or in a tube or pontoon. Both lakes have good to excellent callibaetis mayfly hatches and both lakes have an excellent damsel hatch. These trips are planned specifically to catch these hatches in full swing. For more information, contact Richard Pilatzke at 303-979-8425 or at rhpiscator@aol.com.
Even More Willows Planted on Horse Creek
Thirteen volunteers from our chapter and four from The Art of Living in Boulder along with Coalition for the Upper South Platte workers participated in our third 2011 successful Restoration project. The work was performed along Horse Creek (which flows into the South Platte at Deckers) at the base of an alluvial flow which dumps tons of granite sediment into the creek (and the South Platte) with every rainstorm in the area. Over 4,100 native willows were planted in key areas along the stream banks to help prevent further erosion and block the sedimentation flow downstream. This project marks the third willow planting for the year and to date we have assisted in the planting of over 15,000 willows! Congratulations Volunteers!
The weather cooperated with a beautiful day for working outdoors. The workers were treated to a "gourmet" lunch compliments of the Cutthroat Chapter. The work was completed by 1:30 in the afternoon leaving ample time to fish the Deckers area. Many thanks to our hard working volunteers who contributed to the success of this project:
Richard KloetzliJim RasmussenJim KlugMarti KlugJay KlugKatelyn KlugMike MyersOrion VogelerBill HoneyfieldSteve SmithDave AndersonAlan WhiteheadGary GialleaEach of our volunteers earned a raffle ticket making them eligible to participate in our Conservation Volunteer Recognition Award Raffle to be held at our annual auction. See our website for complete details. And there are many more opportunities to help out throughout the year. Our next project is scheduled for August 20th. We will be doing river clean up along the South Platte near Deckers.
2010 Carp Slam Winners to Speak in June
The speakers at the June 21st membership meeting will be Tyler Kendrick and David Luna of Discount Fly Tackle in Denver. Tyler and David will be speaking about fly fishing for carp. Carp are a misunderstood and under-appreciated freshwater gamefish. Carp present many challenges to a fly angler. Learning how to effectively catch carp will open up numerous new possibilities for fly rodders. Tyler and David, the winners of the 2010 Carp Slam on the South Platte River in Denver, will present information on carp behavior and habitat, tackle recommendations, and general angling tips and secrets.The timing for this month's speakers couldn't be better. With the 2011 Carp Slam coming up on August 27th, you'll want to gleen all the tips and techniques you can from Tyler and David.And as I mention every month: Don’t forget new members and first-time attendee’s get a free ticket in our monthly raffle for a gift certificate and/or flies. See you there!Our monthly Chapter meeting is held on the third Tuesday of every month at 7899 S Lincoln Ct, Littleton, CO at 6:30pm.