Free to Members of the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Volume: 18 Issue: 4 July 2003

July Program: CMCTU’s Projects, How can you get involved? Many of you are aware of the fact that our local chapter of Trout Unlimited is known for it’s pro-jects and membership involvement. Here is your opportunity to learn more. The July General Membership program this month is dedicated to those volunteers who cre-ate and maintain this reputation. A Representative from Volunteers of Colorado will be presenting information on the restoration of the Gill Trail in Cheesman Canyon, it’s pro-gress, plans and condition as well as how you can get involved in this project. Dave Leinweber will be presenting on the Boy Scout Flyfishing merit badge, the scout work schedule, the need for volunteers to help a scout learn about flyfishng and gain the oppor-tunity to earn the badge. July 22nd 7:00 PM (6:30 PM Social )

Retired Enlisted Association 834 Emory Cir.

Riffle Talk

President’s Piece Dan Snow The Gazette’s (and the Community’s) Loss If you haven’t heard already, Karl Licis has retired from his position as the Outdoors Writer for the Gazette. As of this time, the position hasn’t been filled yet, but whoever takes the role on will have a tough act to follow. Karl knew his way around the local fishing and hunting areas. His articles were always entertaining (although some-times a little vague when it came to directions) and the accompanying pictures in many cases ended up on my cubicle walls where they would provide moments of relief from the workday. I don’t subscribe to the Gazette, and my decision to buy the Sunday edition was tied directly to Karl’s articles. Karl’s articles were definitely worth the price. Even though he was and is not a member of Trout Unlimited, he consistently advocated conserva-tion-based approaches on trout issues (and wild-life in general). He was an ally throughout the Eleven Mile Canyon regulation battles (for which he took a lot of heat) as well as on the issue of icefishing at Spinney Reservoir. His writing advo-cating common sense when it comes to the re-source (limit your catch as opposed to catching your limit, don’t fish when the water’s too hot, etc.) became (and continues to become) more and more appropriate as Colorado continues to grow.

We hope that a conservation oriented voice will inherit Karl’s Sunday slot. And Karl, you’re welcome at our meetings any time.

Especially if you finally clue us in on those secret spots.

Table of Contents

President’s Piece……………..…………..1 July Program…………………...………….1 Eleven Mile Canyon ………………………2 Riffle Talk …………………………………..3 An Old Friend ……………………………...4 Game Thief ………………………………...5 Friends of CMCTU…………………………6 An Interview with a Board member………7

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Eleven Mile Canyon Clean up day Pete Gallagher of the USFS has asked us to help clean up the Canyon. WE were asked because The upper part of Eleven mile canyon is catch and release only due to the efforts of our own chapter CMCTU. Dan Snow played a very important part in getting that part of the canyon designated and the fishing in the entire canyon is much better off for the efforts. Workday will start at 9 am meeting at the entrance to the canyon. (We do not have to pay.) Those that want to carpool will meet at the SW corner of the Wal-Mart parking lot on 8th St at 8am. Lunch, soft drinks and water will be provided so I will need to know who will be participating. I sug-gest that you bring your own drinking water too. We will probably break up about 3pm so there will be plenty of time for those who want to stay and try out their expertise. Friends are welcome too! I just need to know who and have a count the Fri-day before. (July 18) What to Bring: Appropriate clothing hat and sunscreen Water as mentioned above Waders if you have them. (There will be plenty to do out of the water) Gloves: to pick up trash. Hope to see you all there! It should be a fun day. If you have questions, call or e-mail me. Bill Burd 719.590.6615 bjeagle@worldnet.att.net

Eleven Mile Canyon Water Tem-peratures are a concern. The water temperatures in the South Platt as it flows through Eleven Mile canyon are becoming a concern to the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter. Rather than just talk about it we would like to do something about it. We are looking for volunteers to go fishing and while there record water tem-peratures at some designated locations at spe-cific times of the day. For more information or to volunteer e-mail Dan Snow at: dan.snow@peterson.af.mil or call: 719-687-9576 Through the auspices of the US Forest Service and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, this chapter is on the front lines of restoration in the fire zones. We could use your help to restore what the fire has destroyed. Please volunteer some of your time by contacting Bill Burd at 590-9199 or E-mail Bjeagle@worldnet.att.net. Clean out that closet! Bring your stuff to the next meeting or contact Richard Luce at 531-5353 or E-mail RDJL1514@aol.com for a pick up. Thank-you.

3 Riffle Talk Published by the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of

Trout Unlimited Board of Directors 2002-03 Home Work President: Danial Snow 687-9576 556-3704 VP Development Rick Luce 227-0398 531-5353 VP Membership Carl Roberts 392-8082 VP Pojects William Burd 590-6615 VP Publicity Ken Brown 667-0506 337-4213 VP Communications Allyn Kratz 632-6489 635-5694 VP Special Events Joe Szeles 685-3177 DIR at Large Pat Coady 442-0548 278-2006 DIR at Large Ben Carlson 598-5460 DIR at Large Brian Kuchynka 494-8352 473-0000 Secretary Nick Daley 447-0262 636-3780 Treasurer Barry Blackman 488-3660 Raffle master Mike Dunn (non Bd) 634-6818 We solicit reader’s contributions in the form of guest editorials, fly tier’s corner, letters-to-the-editor, cartoons, jokes, etc. ALL materials are subject to editing. We prefer text submissions in any PC format on a 3.5 diskette, which will be returned. Photo-graphs and other graphics should be of sufficient resolution and contrast that they can be printed as-is. The fastest way to con-tact the editor is by e-mail to allynk@adelphia.net. You can also send your contributions to: Riffle Talk Cheyenne Mountain Chapter, Trout Unlimited P.O. Box 458 Colorado Springs, CO 80901-0458 Subscription Rates: Non-members of CMCTU can subscribe to "Riffle Talk" for $15.00/year. Please make your checks payable to Cheyenne Mountain Chapter, Trout Unlimited, and mail to the above ad-dress. Advertising Rates: TU Members: Advertise your used fishing equipment or other items in these pages; up to five lines, 5.00/issue ($1/additional line). Commercial Rates: Half Page $80/issue $385 - 6 issues Quarter Page $30/issue $150 - 6 issues Eighth Page $15/issue $80 - 6 issues Supporter Page$10/issue $50 - 6 issues DEADLINE for contributions and change of ads is the first of the month of the current newsletter printing. Riffle Talk is distributed in January, March, May, July, September, and No-vember. Members receive postcards in alternate months. RIFFLE TALK is a non-profit publication of the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Website: www.cmctu.org

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Cheyanne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited Patch available For only $7.00 you can display your Member-ship to the world. An eight color cloth patch for sewing on to your fishing vest. See any board member.

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An Old Friend By Richard Luce I visited an old friend yester-day. During last summer's fires and drought, it was rumored that he had expired. I didn't want the stories to be true, since I had known him for over 20 years. He had recently overcome prolonged poor health and overuse to become a steady producer. His very existence had been threatened numerous times over the years, even by poisoning! I was in denial throughout the fall and win-ter without so much as a short trip to see the truth for myself, until yesterday. Fortunately, my visit wasn't to a gravesite, as I had been led to believe. My relief was in finding a moving, bubbly stripling instead of a dry old coot. My friend, Beaver Creek, was flowing, and not a sere streambed. It appeared that he was somewhat the worse for wear from the drought. The streambed in many places is now grass and muellen-covered, where formerly cold water held sway. The volume of flow now leaves many previously trout-friendly holes too shallow to shelter fish. The stream's few beaver ponds, however, hold back deeper water, and I thought they might hold some trout. Without too much hope, I eased up to the lower pond and peered through the bare willows and dead grass of last sum-mer. The clear pond looked unnaturally placid, not a ripple or current marked the surface. Then it hap-pened, the unmistakable rise-form to an unseen in-sect. A joyous shock ran through me; the patient lives! He is weak, but not yet ready for the boneyard. I had been fishing the Arkansas and made the side trip to pay my respects to what once had been on this local creek. I only had a 5-wt rod with me; too much, I thought, lying on the pond's bank. Condi-tions dictated a 2- or 3-wt at most, with a 12-ft 6x leader, but my instincts were to go with a small dry on my ratty 8-ft leader. Below the beaver dam, I threw a short cast with only a couple of feet of fly line landing just above the dam.The leader unfurled and hit with way too much force, sending out warning rip-ples everywhere. Spooked him, I thought. The sud-den take by the 10-inch Brown was more of a gift than earned by any skill I might have brought to the

game. Still, it proved that my sighting in the pond was of a trout, a trout in a supposedly dead stream system. Not all bodes well for the future of Beaver Creek. The drought might yet claim this stream, which flows down from the south side of the Pike's Peak Massif. Long ago, the lower section of this creek, confined to a pipe and directed into Brush Hollow Reser-voir, used to flow through private ranches to the Arkansas River, and has been only a memory for more than a generation. Its bare streambed marked with dead trees is all that remains of its past course. This desolation is what I expected to find on the upper creek. Instead, I found a flowing, gurgling stream that still retains its mountain heritage. I also saw the recent installation of a shiny new red watergate and a newly excavated irrigation ditch. This installation makes the point that, in a drought, any and all water rights to a stream's water come into play. Surely, I thought, having dodged last summer's drought bullet, the stream would have a chance to recover with this year's better snowpack. It would appear, however, that what little boost in flow the creek might get will be divertd into the ditch to irrigate a valley field. Continued on Page 5: Old Friend

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2436 South Academy

Continued from Page 4 : Old Friend We can only hope that, like the drought, this in-dignity can also be overcome by the meager flow of Beaver Creek. This story is all too common in Colorado today. Due to the drought, dewatering of streams in this state because of our water laws is happening more often than ever before. If you wish to have your voices heard about this, contact your local representatives (for ad-dresses see CMCTU.org), and join and support your local TU Cheyenne Mountain Chapter with a new membership and sustaining contri-butions. An old friend will thank you.

Some CMCTU members pick up trash on the ex-posed areas around Eleven Mile Reservoir as part of our efforts to improve the coldwater resource.

Operation Game Thief Board members of the CMCTU have received a number of reports of people bait fishing in the re-stricted area of Eleven Mile Canyon as well as

people harvesting trout from these same waters. If you see this occurring you are asked to get a description of the poachers and their vehicles, with license number, their activities and location and date and time. Once the information is ob-tained it may be called into the Division of Wild-life’s Operation Game Thief hot line at (800) 332-4155. Tips can also be e-mailed to game.thief@state.co.us. The Division of Wildlife takes poaching seriously. Poachers steal wildlife from people that enjoy watching them and legitimate hunters and anglers. And it’s not just game animals they’re after - endangered and threat-ened species also are killed by poachers.

Interested in becoming more Involved?? The CMCTU Board positions are for one year ending in September. Maybe you should con-sider becoming a Board member for your local chapter.

FRIENDS OF TROUT UNLIMITED CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN CHAPTER Support The Colorado Businesses That Support Us!

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Arrowhead Ranch“South Park’s Finest Fly Fishing!”

Scott & Lois Saunders(719) 448-0267

1221 Hermosa WayColorado Springs, CO 80906

e-mail: rssriparian@adelphia.net cell: (719) 660-4532

Private, Exclusive, Membership Only!Lodging, 4 Large Lakes and 7 miles of the South Fork

of the South Platte River west of Hwy. 285!

Mission Statement Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited The Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited strives to conserve, protect and restore cold-water fisheries, resources and their watersheds. THIS IS ITS SOLE MISSION. THESE GOALS ARE TROUT UNLIMITED’S REASON FOR BEING! To achieve these goals, to participate in this mission, Members: 1. Support and promote fisheries and water-resource policies that further these goals. 2. Work actively on conservation projects, volunteering labor and expertise, often in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service and

Colorado Wildlife and conservation agencies. 3. Seek to influence the decisions of such agencies as well as those of wildlife commissioners, legislative committees and elected

officials in general. 4. Foster ethical and sensible conservation practices among users of the cols-water resource. 5. Attend the regular membership meetings of the Cheyenne Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited. 6. Elect to the Chapter’s Board of Directors members who will provide direction and strong leadership. 7. Contribute financially to build and maintain the Chapter’s fiscal stability.

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Membership Meeting Membership Meetings are the FORTH TUESDAY OF EVERY MONTH JANUARY THROUGH OCTOBER!

An Interview with a CMCTU Board Mem-ber Name: Nick Daley Secretary Tell a little about what your position on the board en-tails. The Secretary is responsible for keeping the minutes of all of the meetings of the organization, particularly the Board of Direc-tors monthly meetings. In addition, the Secretary is responsible for keeping records of the Chapter except those relating to membership and specific financial reports. Tell of some of the things you have done on behalf of the CMCTU. Over the dozen or so years that I have been a member of TU, I have worked on numerous pro-jects including the design and construction of the chuck wagon and the restoration of Trout Creek. I am particularly interested in our educational pro-jects for kids and find our participation in the Manitou Springs Huck Finn Kid’s Fishing Day and the Handicapped Fishing Day at the Cross D Bar Ranch to be very rewarding. Tell of any goals you have for yourself this year as a Board member. Our website is a major accomplishment and I

would like to thank Pat Coady for his outstanding effort and achievement in creating the site. The website is the perfect means to distribute our newsletter, and to greatly reduce the Chapter operating expense, I would like to see a total transition from mailing hardcopies of the news-letter to publishing it only on the website. Talk about some aspect of your interest in fishing cold-water species that is special to you. (Favorite rod, species, location, experi-ence, flies) I find it very challenging matching wits with an animal that has the brain the size of a pea. Al-though the fish usually wins, the opportunity to catch and release a trout in one of Colorado’s clean, cold-water streams is an unparalleled ex-perience. Talk about your interest in conservation of the cold-water resource. Trout Unlimited has given me the opportunity to assist in the conservation of our cold-water re-sources for my kids and the future generations. When you see Nick say “Hi” and “Thanks!”

Cheyenne Mountain Chapter Trout Unlimited P.O. Box 458 Colorado Springs, CO 80901-0458

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE

PAID Colo. Springs, CO Permit No. 202

Volume: 18 , Issue: 3 Published Bi-Monthly Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, & Nov/Dec

For over 40 years, Trout Unlimited has been America's leading trout and salmon conservation organiza-tion, dedicated to conserving, protecting, and restoring coldwater fisheries and their watersheds. Whether we're planning and building stream improvement projects, working with government to protect our rivers and

streams, or teaching young people the importance of protecting wild fish and their habitat, TU members are actively engaged in preserving our vital natural resources

Next Membership Meeting July 22nd 7:00 PM (6:30 PM Social )

Retired Enlisted Association 834 Emory Cir.

East of Murray & South of Galley—BIG BLDG. Across from UPS! No Charge—Come early for a good seat, Come All and bring the kids too.

Renew you membership through the Chapter Every Membership renewal that is sent in by the local Chapter results in a $5.00 rebate to the Chap-

ter. It’s Easy. Every step is the same except where you send your application and check.

Send to: Cheyenne Mtn. Chapter TU P.O. Box 458

Membership in CMCTU means Volunteers