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It’s the 55th year for the Allegheny Mountain Chapter’s
Trout Kick-off Banquet!

Don’t miss out and don’t wait – make your reservations now! The banquet will be held on Saturday March 25, 2023 at the Falls Creek Eagles. We’ll have a buffet dinner and, as always, lots and lots of prizes!

Make your reservations by March 3 for a discount.

Seating is limited this year, please RSVP early!!!!!!!!

Final day for reservations is March 17.

You can make a reservation and pay with a credit card by clicking this button:

Or you can download a reservation form by clicking here and mail it with a check.

Are you or your company interested in being a sponsor? The Trout Kickoff is open to the public, and is a great place to connect with others who enjoy fishing and other outdoor recreation or simply value clean water. You can learn more about sponsorship opportunities by clicking on the sponsorship letter.

The Allegheny Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited is dedicated to protecting, conserving and restoring our local coldwater resources. We do this through habitat improvement projects, water quality monitoring, stream assessments, and education and outreach. Your generous support makes this happen!

All are welcome to attend the banquet.
There will be fun and games for all ages!

2023 Fly Tying Roundtable

Come to the Penn State Campus DEF building January 12th at 6pm room 202. Meet and share your skills or learn a few new ones with other tyers in the area. Whether you tie or not does not matter. This is a great opportunity to share fish stories and techniques to help catch more fish.

If you never tied flies but would like to learn more about tools and materials will be available along with people willing to show you how. We will be holding these roundtables every on Thursdays till mid-March. This helps past the winter blues and be ready for fishing season in the spring. You can come each week or once or twice, these are not classes so if you only need answers or see a technique then that’s alright.

There is no charge or membership requirement to join us. We do ask that minor children be accompanied by an adult. Most nights will end around 8 or when everyone has tied all the flies they wanted for the night.

There will also be two sessions held in Punxsutawney starting on Monday January 16th. They will be meeting at Punxy Pizza the first week.

For more information in DuBois call:

George Kutskel 814-371-9290

For more information in Punxsutawney call:

Codey Schlemmer 814-952-5295

Board Meeting

Our annual re organizational dinner and meeting was held on November 3. Plans were started for our annual fundraiser and meetings for the coming year.

Membership Meeting

Our October meeting was held at the Lakeside Methodist Church. Our election of officers and directors was held and a full list of all can be found on the back of this newsletter. Members were able to hear from Phil Thomas from National TU give an explanation on their effort to add wood to many of our local brookie streams. It was good to learn the reason why some sections of our creeks are full of trees and how these benefits both the stream and the brook trout

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Our annual chapter picnic is on August 28th, 2022, at Bendigo State Park. We have reserved pavilion #1 for the day. This will be our fourth one and we need to know how many of our members plan to attend. The chapter has provided all the food and drink and to make it work we need to know who plan to attend.

Please email the chapter at amctu036@gmail.com or call 814-371-9290 and leave a message. We need to hear from you before August 15, 2022.

This is a very family friendly site with a swimming pool and great trout fishing. That’s right  – forget the drought! The East Branch Clarion is running high and cold!

As a bonus we invite the Jim Zwald Chapter so it’s a great time to make new acquaintances or renew old ones.

RSVP today!

Board Meeting

We held our meeting Thursday March 24th at the Lakeside Methodist Church. We welcomed our new Director Dave London back to the board. Kelly assigned tasks for all at the annual fundraiser to be held on April 9th. Codey gave out a list of dates for chapter activities up to September. A full list of these will be at the end of the newsletter. After the two years with little or no activities it feels good to be back to active mode. We wrapped up our fly-tying roundtable with our session on March 14th. We hosted boy scouts from Curwensville who were learning to tie a fly and catch a fish to earn their merit badge. Thanks to those in attendance lending a hand and helping these boys tie their flies. If you want winter to pass quickly, then mark your calendar for January 2023 when we will once again have the weekly fly-tying roundtable.

Membership Meetings

March 21st, we held our monthly membership meeting, and we were able to have Clearfield County WCO Justin Schillaci come give us an update of the upcoming trout season. We also had Dan Collins come to our February membership meeting with a presentation on his time working for Trout Unlimited. Chapter member Tony Kumitis came to our roundtable and gave a presentation on his work in Wyoming last summer for the Fish and Wildlife Department. The plan is to start back up with monthly meetings with the next two being a field trip and picnic before our usual summer break.

We joined with the Jefferson County Conservation District in applying for a Cold-Water Heritage Grant for Clover Run. The chapter looks forward to helping create a conservation plan and hopefully remove the remnants of the old Punxsutawney reservoir. We have not yet heard as to whether or not the grant was accepted and should hear shortly.

56th Annual Banquet

We had a fun debate on whether this was our 56 or 54 due to the loss of two years from Covid. Since the chapter started in 1966 and we have had some sort of fundraiser every year. I’m going with this being the 56th annual.

April 9th marked our annual fundraising dinner after a two-year break. We had a good attendance and was great to see everyone again after being shut in for so long.

Winners in our annual raffle (Yellow tickets)

1st Prize Gary Lyons $400

2nd Wendy Steele $100.

3rd Joyce London $50.

Congratulations to Rich Ferrara being awarded the Golden Reel Award this year at the banquet. Rich was honored with the work he has done with setting up our new shed and the presentations he has given on Euro nymphing and teaching fly tying.

If you missed this year, here is the save the date on next year. We will once again be at the Falls Creek Eagles the date will be March 25th due to Easter being the 2nd Saturday of April.

We will need some help in preparing for next year’s fundraiser, if you’re interested in lending a hand, please reach out to one of our directors. We really need to have help soliciting prizes and it’s never too early to start.

Dates to remember:

April 23rd Earth Day Clean up at the Tannery Dam in DuBois meet at the lake 8:30

April 23rd Family fishing event sponsored by the Chapter and Lakeside Methodist Church. Help needed to assist kids fishing. Meet at the Tannery at 10am

April 25th Chapter meeting at Cardiff mine reclamation. Meet at St Joseph Church in Force at 6PM

May 6 DuBois Middle School Fly fishing outing at the Tannery Dam

May 12 Cleanup at the Dr Blakeslee Memorial Forest in Medix Run. Meet at the parking lot on 555

May 14th DuBois Girl Scout family fishing at Camp Mountain Run. Help needed to assist the girls fishing.

May 18th Our annual picnic at Walter Dick Park in Brookville. Bring a covered dish to pass. Also bring your fishing gear.

May 20th DuBois Area Middle School Environmental Day at Camp Mountain Run

June 3rd Clearfield County Youth Field Days we host the macro collection for the kids always can use extra hands.

June 25th Jefferson County Youth Field Days Renlow Park. We host the kids fishing at the lake.

August 28th Chapter Picnic with Jim Zwald Chapter Bendigo State Park. We supply all the food

Some background on some of the above.

The April 25th meeting, we will be touring the old Cardiff mine site on Cherry Run in Force. The chapter donated $3000 to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to build passive treatment and replant the area as well as removing a large mound of red dog that was polluting Cherry Run which was unable to hold fish once it flowed into the old mine area.

May 12 We made a major donation to the Dr Blakeslee Memorial Forest to make this area happen and to keep it looking good, the chapter does a cleanup of the area removing dead trees that have fallen on the trails and clearing brush as well. It usually doesn’t take that long so there is time to fish either Bennetts Branch or one of the other streams in the area.

The youth events can always use additional help and it is very easy to get the clearances to work with children. Please consider helping us so we can maintain these very worthwhile events. The field days and the environmental day are very fun and easy to help with as you do not need to be an expert in any field just a willingness to help. .

May 18th and August 28th are chapter picnics and really a good time to just hang out with members share some stories or even cast a line.

As stated above the 18th the chapter will provide the meat and buns all we ask is that you bring a dish to pass. Since it is at the park on the North Fork in the fly fishing only section you are sure to have many fish to try and catch. This is a family event so pack up your children and bring your spouse or significant other for a fun night.

August 28th is our annual picnic with the Jim Zwald Chapter held at Bendigo State Park. We provide ALL the food for this event so all we ask is let us know you will be attending and show up. This is catered so it’s not the usual picnic fair. We have pulled pork, hot & sweet sausage, hot dogs, various salads, baked beans and of course deserts. We have reserved pavilion #1 which can seat 60. We know this is a little bit of a road trip, but it offers a swimming pool and trout fishing regardless of the weather due to being a tailwater fishery that never gets above 65.

The Allegheny Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited will be holding our monthly meeting on Monday March 21, 2022 at 7 pm. We will have Justin Schillaci, PA Fish and Boat Commission WCO for Clearfield Co. He will be updating everyone with changes to the upcoming trout season as well as answering questions many may have.

We will be meeting at Lakeside Methodist Church at 420 1st Street in DuBois. Please use the door across from the Tannery Lake.

It’s been some time since we were able to have someone from the commission come and speak to our group and would hope for a good turnout. As always please bring along a friend or two. If you have questions please email us at amctu036@gmail.com.

Join us every Monday through mid-March for our weekly fly-tying roundtables!

January 10, 2022 – March 21, 2022 
6PM – 9PM
Lakeside United Methodist Church
420 1st St.
DuBois, PA 15801

(Click the above link for a map)

Our popular weekly fly-tying roundtable is back!  Our 1st session will be on January 10th and will continue every Monday through mid-March.  We are meeting in the social hall of the Lakeside United Methodist Church next to the Tannery Dam in DuBois.  We are starting at 6pm and will run till 8:30 or 9pm.  This is open to everyone, and all ages so bring your children and either share some stories or learn a new pattern or technique.  We will have equipment and materials on hand so you can try tying before going out and buying a lot of equipment and not knowing how you may like it. If you have questions please email us at amctu036@gmail.com.

Save the date for the October 2021 Allegheny Mountain Chapter Membership Meeting!

October 21, 2021 7PM
Lakeside United Methodist Church
420 1st St.
DuBois, PA 15801

(Click the above link for a map)

Please plan to join us on Oct. 21st for our next chapter membership meeting.  In addition to a speaker, we will be having the election of officers and directors that evening.  This will be a great opportunity to learn more about local Allegheny Mountain Chapter projects and events.

Below is the slate of officers and directors nominated for 2021-2022 to be voted on that evening:
                                                                      Term Expires

  • President: Codey Schlemmer                        2022
  • Vice President: Matt Marusiak                       2022
  • Secretary/Treasurer: George Kutskel             2022
  • Director: Marty Hrin                                     2024
  • Director: Doug Wolfe                                   2024
  • Director: Tracey McAfoos                             2024
  • Director: Jon Altemus                                  2023

Kelly Williams, and Amidea Daniel, would like to extend an INVITATION to you, to attend the upcoming Virtual presentation we are providing to the Stanley Cooper TU Chapter.  With Stanley Cooper’s permission, we are inviting all TU chapter leaders/members, interested in learning how to get Women, Diversity, and Inclusion (WDI) programs started.  This presentation will share what the PATU WDI Committee is doing, sharing tips on how to get your own WDI programs started, sharing examples of successful programs, and more!

Stanley Cooper Sr. Chapter of Trout Unlimited is hosting guest Speakers – Amidea Daniel and Kelly Williams, to present on PATU’s Women, Diversity, and Inclusion work.

WHEN – OCTOBER 12, 2021    (7:30p.m.)

WHERE – Virtual via ZOOM meeting (LINK BELOW)

The Zoom Meeting consist of a short Chapter meeting, followed by a presentation from our guest speakers – Amidea Daniel (PA Fish and Boat Commission; PA TU Women, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee Co-Chair) and Kelly Williams (Clearfield County Conservation District; PATU Regional VP; and PATU Women, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee Co-Chair).

Through their presentation, Amidea and Kelly, will introduce us to PATU’s Women, Diversity, and Inclusion work that has been occurring over the last 3.5+ years.  They will share what other organizations/chapters are doing, ideas on how we can get started, and suggestions on how to sustain what we begin.  Diversity covers many avenues from age, gender, social and economic backgrounds, to ethnic, and family backgrounds, and much more.  Just as diversity is important for healthy stream ecosystems, so too is it important, for organizations like ours, in order to sustain the hard work, and dedication to the protection, conservation, and enhancement of the waters, and trout we love, and enjoy.

Topic:  October MTG  Stanley Cooper Sr Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Time: Oct 12, 2021 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 873 2131 7461

Passcode: 355478

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Looks like the dark days from the pandemic are behind us and life can start to return to a more normal routine. With that said we are having a Chapter picnic on August 28th at Bendigo State Park just north of Johnsonburg. We will be eating at noon and if the past is a good indicator there will be enough food for dinner as well. As was reported in the previous newsletter the Chapter is supplying everything except your attendance. We need a head count so we can let the caterer know how much food to supply.

PLEASE let us know if you can attend and how many people will be with you. You can email your RSVP to the chapter email at amctu036@gmail.com or call (814)371-9290 and leave a message. We need to hear from you by the 22nd of August. The Jim Zwald Chapter will be joining us as well so it should be a fun day.

Just some fyi on the site at Bendigo. The East Branch of the Clarion is right in the park and even though it is late August the water will be cold, and trout will still be there to supply some fishing to anyone wishing to give it a shot. The Park also has a swimming pool and a kiddie’s pool with lifeguards on duty. We have pavilion # 1 which can seat a large group under roof so weather should not be an issue either. If you are not into fishing or swimming, there is a hiking path that follows the river and loops back to the park.

Other Chapter happenings

President Codey met with PATU Council Chair Greg Malaska in May. In addition to getting together they also looked at some of our chapter projects. The annual fall meeting will be held in the Bedford area in September so look for additional details as they come out.

Members of our chapter met with the Western PA Conservancy and students from Indiana State University the last week in May to electro fish the Sandy Lick in the DHALO section that the habitat work was done last summer. Even with the hot weather and low flows that were common in late May many trout were still using the cross vain and some of the undercuts in this section. They also found many species of other fish as well.

We once again hosted the macro invertebrate station at the Clearfield County Youth Field Day at Camp Mountain Run in June. Big thanks to Doug Wolfe for chairing this station and to all those who helped.

Our 1st outing post pandemic was a picnic at Walter Dick Park in Brookville. We had a great attendance and a good time fishing and just catching up with all after a year of not meeting.

The Chapters fundraiser is back on the calendar for 2022 the date is April 9th at the Falls Creek Eagles. Mark, your calendar as this should be a BIG event since we have not held our fundraiser dinner for two years.

We should be starting to hold our monthly meeting starting in September if we secure a site. Our hope is that Penn State will allow meetings with the start of the school year. We also look forward to our weekly fly-tying roundtable starting in January. No word has been received if the DuBois Area Middle School will be holding their fly-fishing club or that the Environmental Day is going to be held. We will keep everyone posted as we progress into the fall season.