Welcome to The Muddy Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited's web site. Please explore and return often. Updates will be added as time permits.
Muddy Creek Trout Unlimited Chapter # 575
York County, Pennsylvania | ||||||
September 10th, 2011 - Workday
9:00am Cooperative NurserySeptember 17th, 2011 - Open House
Landowner Appreciation andMCTU Education Showcase11a - 4p at Co-op GroundsSept. 21st, 2011 - General Meeting
7:00pm Cooperative NurseryNominations of Officers andDirectorsOctober 19th, 2011 - Annual Meeting
7:00pm Collinsville F&G ClubElection of Officers and DirectorsNov. 16th, 2011 - General Meeting
7:00pm Collinsville F&G ClubMeetings are the third Wednesday of each month. Summer meetings are held at the Co-op Nursery, Winter meetings at the Collinsville Fish & Game Club.
Muddy Creek Trout Unlimited
Conservation Blog
Is it hot enough for you? As we enter our third heat wave for 2011 (a heat wave is considered when three consecutive days reach 90 degrees or higher), our minds wander from trout and toward vacations, the beach, pool or better yet air conditioning. Well, so to do the trout. They are searching the watershed for a thermal refuge. While I have not had the time to monitor temperatures in the watershed this summer I would imagine they are higher than last year. This is a tough time for trout. But it does give me time to reflect on the past season of fishing and our members volunteer efforts.
Over the last spring our volunteers cared for and stocked over 6,000 trout, harvested willow live stakes for the native plant nursery, planted live stakes, operated food stands on opening day, held a public forum discussing the impacts of the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania, renovated the Handicapped Area, put on a Handicapped fishing event, and planned for the Open House coming up in September. We have a small yet dedicated group who seem to be at every meeting. But for some reason our attendance never seems to eclipse 10 people total. We hope to improve that over the coming months. We would appreciate your help by attending and perhaps adding to our small group of go-getters.
One of the immediate tasks of this group involved the revision of our Chapter by-laws. As mandated by TU National every chapter in the country has to become compliant with the general framework provided in a “model by-laws”. As it turns out, our original by-laws are not far from this model and one evening in July a committee of four (Ron, Fred and Bob and myself) sat down and hammered out the differences, line by line. So we are now able to comply and keep MCTU chartered with TU National once we file the document in September. It is policy that the Chapter membership at large be given notice to review and comment on these changes. So if you have an interest in reviewing the new MCTU by-laws, check our website or contact one of our leaders for a copy
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As you try to stay cool for the balance of the summer, consider the opportunities that lie ahead for MCTU. We have the Red Lion Street Fair in August, The Open House in September, and the incubator program that will begin to ramp up in September. These are all important efforts for our Chapter. All of these efforts require volunteer support. But more importantly in the coming months we have Chapter leadership nominations and elections. We certainly could use a few more hands to spread out the burdens of running this chapter. My tenure as President is expiring soon. Our interest is to add some new life and ideas to the annual business the chapter does. We cannot do that with the same seven or eight folks trading titles. We need you to help make this happen.
In September we will have nominations for the Executive staff and up to four Directors; for Three, Two and One year terms. Leadership roles must be held by Trout Unlimited members in good standing. Directors are required by the by-laws to participate in at least six (6) meetings per year. These can be round table or email votes. Its not a tremendous responsibility but one that is vital toward our success and diversity. Often times an organization becomes stagnant and loses potency when the leadership remains the same for a number of years. We are looking for that new blood to revitalize our chapter.
Last year at the Annual State Council membership meeting our chapter was ranked at 47 of 51 in the state for membership retention. Considered a “struggling chapter”, we are asking you to offer ideas and support to help change that status.
Yours in Conservation,
Maurice
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Prior blog entries.
Winter is winding down (I hope) and Spring is around the corner. It was evident after a 50 degree day and the fi rst stocking of the C&RFFO area. In high and stained water seven dedicated volunteers floated 800 brown and rainbow trout the length of the fly area. These fish provided by the PF&BC ranged from 10”-14” and should provide some fine fi shing this spring. Thanks to Fred Wilt for organizing the float stocking that we all appreciate. Being my fi rst time in chest waders this season I realized I had a leak in them...the big one at the top where the suspenders are. That’s right, I fell in!
Not much happened with the chapter over the winter beyond the typical business of raising trout at the nursery. They are coming along nicely, See the article by Fred Hess inside about our “lighthouse browns”. And lets not forget the fantastic volunteer effort each year of the streamside incubator program.
With bigger fish in the nursery we have a greater expense toward their rearing them, prices for feed went up and well, they eat more. So we have been scrambling for alternative ways to raise money and along comes our Lancaster Connection (Glenn Grimes, Jere Saxinger, John Kuhrman, Ric Horst and Barry Reinhart) with the donation of 7 Hand Crafted Fly Tying Storage boxes, they will make great auction items. Glenn Grimes also made us a couple more Shadow Boxes with hand tied fl ys in them. These items are real works of art. Consider purchasing them this spring to help with our fundraising efforts.
We are ramping up our spring time docket with some exciting events. Beginning with a clean up of the Handicapped Fishing Area, a North Branch tree tube removal and live stake harvest, and the Opening Day Food Stand sales. All of these will require your help to be successful. Consider volunteering for any or all of these events.
A Special Meeting event on Sunday March 13th at Gander Mountain at 2:00 pm where we will have David Sewak from TU National talking about the impacts of the Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction Industry in Pennsylvania we have all heard so much about lately. This is a presentation you don’t want to miss. The SCPA region although not directly impacted will have downstream concerns over water quality. And of course we all know how important the Pennsylvania Wilds are to our recreational fi shing interests. At the meeting we will have a special door prize drawing for a small donation.
Also around the corner either this spring or late summer we should be starting construction on the Pine Run stream restoration project. This 1,700 foot project will involve channel reconstruction, cross stream structures to provide some grade control, bank grading and rock toe, toe wood and many other fi sh habitat structures. It is an exciting design that in conjunction with the livestock fencing and riparian buffers will provide all the right qualities to improve downstream temperatures and habitat necessary to promote a wild fishery. MCTU has committed nearly $10,000.00 worth of plant material and volunteer labor for the riparian buffers. We are extremely grateful to the Watershed Alliance of York whose generousity to sponsor this grant for MCTU has made this restoration possible. But make no mistake, this IS MCTU’s project and our committment to the watershed through a dedicated volunteer effort will be necessary again soon.
That should be enough variety for anyone interested in helping MCTU to fi nd an event or project that peeks your interest and volunteer.
Yours in Conservation,
Maurice
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Can you believe it, Summer is over already. Seems like just yesterday we were shoveling 2 feet of snow to stock fish over the winter. So far this summer we have had a record number of dates with temperatures in the 90’s. Wow, that may be thrilling for the beach combers but not for raising trout. The good news is that the 500 trout we held over this summer are doing fine although we did have a relatively small die off due to a power outtage at the Nursery. In short order, we were notified by our friend in the neighborhood but by the time we had someone on the scene the power returned. We lost about 15 fish over the next week. It gave us pause and an opportunity to explore our emergency response plan. Gary Wolford, who notified us of the outtage, continues to be a concerned and engaged neighbor. Thanks Gary!
As I said this was a hot summer, after a period of five consecutive days in the 90’s and night-time temps in the 70’s I decided to check on the watershed and its trout. It was not a pretty picture. I took temperatures at 22 locations and found that even the best locations like Rambo Run were 70 degrees or above. While I only saw one dead trout, I did find over 100 resting in the cool flows of Spencer Run at the Fly area. Spencer was 70 degrees. The main creek was 80 degrees. Far too warm for trout. In fact this gave me some contrast to ponder the reports I had heard and experienced for myself earlier in the spring. As several members and guests of the website communicated, the catch rates of wild trout vs stocked trout in the watershed was tremendous this spring. This after a winter that seemed to not give up many trout at all with wild characteristics. However, once the season started the catch rates of wild trout soared into the 30-60% range. That’s right, up to 6 in ten trout caught were streambred. I can remember just ten years ago if you caught a handful of wild trout over the season you were fortunate. These reports left us very excited and encouraged about the future. Then the heat wave came. It will be very interesting to see what the fall catch rates will be for the Muddy Creek Watershed. I cannot wait for the temps to cool so I can begin campling the streams.
Since the last time we talked so much has happened, I will try to highlight it here. We raised and stocked over 7,000 trout, Planted over 1,300 plants in Felton contributing 200+ hours to the stream project there, updated our plant nursery by planting over 450 white oak acorns, installed a cross-rock vane at the Nursery to replace the deteriorating jackdam. This project was a partnership including the PF&BC who donated the stone and helped us get the permits, Ecostruction, LLC who provided the heavy equipment and expertise to build the structure properly and Gary Wolford who donated his back-hoe services that helped us with the clean up and grass planting after the project was finished. In addition MCTU volunteers got a chance to roll rocks, get dirty and come away with a real sense of accomplishment.
After a year like this we earned a break. So with the property cleaned up we decided to have an Open House as our venue for the WAY Watershed Weekend on September 25 th. The primary goal is to thank the landowners who graciously open their land to fishing and help us with our conservation mission. This event will also give us an opportunity to display our accomplishments and our appreciation to the volunteers by sharing a day of camaraderie. So mark your calendar and don’t miss the Open House on September 25th. We hope to see you there.
Yours in Conservation,
Maurice Chioda
President - MCTU
