Allegheny Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited

Sorry for the delay in getting this issue out. Summer travel got in the way. Here is all the information updated covering from the banquet to our October meeting.

Annual Fundraiser
60 yrs of conservation. Our annual fundraiser was a huge success. It was a fun-filled event with some of the best prizes we’ve had in years.

We had State Representative Michael Armanini who presented a certificate from the PA Legislature. Congressman Glen GT Thompson sent a citation from the Congressional Record outlining our many accomplishments over the past 60 years. Wildlife Leadership Academy executive director Sara Muller attended and spoke of the opportunity for the area youth to attend the Academies many schools. The Chapter donated $1000.00 to the Brookies school to
help with their efforts.

A special rod raffle was sponsored by Rodney Chiodo in memory of his cousin Mike Chiodo who was a long-time member of the chapter and supporter. Thank you to the family!

Our annual raffle was won by Larry Shepler and Dave London sold the winning ticket and received $100. 2nd prize was won by George Campbel who was present and 3rd prize went to Kegan McMonigle.

Next year’s event will be a the Bellamauro in Reynoldsville PA on April 10th, 2027.

Al Gretz Golden Reel Award 2026
This years recipient was shocked when announced, but was well deserved. Marty Hrin was selected for his years of support and recruiting many of the young people to help with our tree plantings and other projects.

Membership Meetings
Our February meeting was a great program that featured Mike Komara who spoke about spring trout fishing in Pennsylvania. All in attendance said that they learned something new to take with them.

March, we had Eric Null from PATU to talk about what Trout Unlimited is doing in PA. It was a very interesting meeting and hope to have him back at some point.

Our annual Chapter joint picnic with Iron Furnace at the Walter Dick Park in Brookville was on May 20th . A good time was had by all who attended and a fair number of fish were caught before and after dinner.

We held a beginners fly-tying class in Punxsutawney. We had 5 students. Thanks to all who made this a success.

Our weekly fly-tying roundtable was held at the Social Hall of Christ the King Manor. We had steady attendance with a lot of room for more to join us next year.

Our next membership meeting will be September 17th.

October’s meeting is one not to miss. In addition to our election of officers and directors, we will have Joe Clark who is a fly-fishing guide and instructor for Trout Youth Fly Fishing. He will be giving some timely information on fishing for steelhead. See below for more information about Joe.

All our meetings will be held at the Social Center of Christ the King Manor, 2 Cottage Lane in DuBois, 3rd Thursday of the month.

Environmental News
Our president set up a meeting with the Mayor of DuBois and some board members discussing cleaning up the Sandy Lick Creek. There have been many changes since we last visited this and it may be possible to go and clean up the mine drainage. As Dr Blakeslee use to say “let’s get the red out.”

Members of the chapter once again participated in the clean up at the Tannery Dam in DuBois in April. We had a good turnout of members and others helping and collected several bags of trash.

On May 4th we once again held the clean up of the Dr Blakeslee Memorial Forest in Medix Run. In addition to cleaning up the trash we removed many bags of invasive mustard weed.

Our Environmental Day with the DuBois Middle School was cancelled this year due to the Boy Scout Camp Mountain Run being sold. We worked on trying to find a different venue but ran into too many constraints. Hopefully we can find a way to hold this in the 26-27 school year.

Elections
As stated, earlier October is our election for Officers and Directors. All have said that they will serve another term, the slate is as follows:
President- Jimmy Lattmier Vice President- Dave London Secretary/Treasurer-George Kutskel
Directors terms expiring in 2029
Jon Altemus, JR Dwyer, Matt Marusiak, Rich Ferrara

We also have a vacancy that expires in 2028 if you’re interested, please come to the October meeting.

PA Fish and Boat News
By now many of you have heard the big change coming next year with the minimum size of trout being changed to 9”. This change should be good news for our native brook trout. It will have a positive impact on all our wild trout. The commission stated they and the co-ops do not stock many trout under the new size limit; it should not impact anyone who likes to keep a few for dinner.

Joe Clarks Bio:
Joe has guided for central PA trout and Lake Erie Steelhead for 9 years. He is presently the northeast coach for the United States Youth Fly Fishing team and has coached in the 2025 and 2026 Youth World Fly Fishing Championships. He is also a Fulling Mill signature tyer and inventor of the “Popsicle indicator dry fly.” With a background in competitive fly fishing, Joe specializes in modern and innovative techniques for trout. Joe has been “living the dream” traveling from stream to stream in a camper van truly immersing himself in the sport and lifestyle of fly fishing.

Mark your calendar as I’m sure this will be a great program on October 15th

59^th Annual Fundraiser

On April 12^th we held our annual fundraiser at the DuBois VFW. 120 people attended and from the feedback it was a success. The prizes this year were among the best in years with the highlight being the Blackstone grill along with a pizza oven and a 40” tv. The rod raffle had 9 prizes this year along with two special rod raffles and a special knife raffle. Kudos to Kelly Williams for chairing the fundraiser again this year. There are a lot of behind the scenes work to make the evening special. We would like to thank our sponsors for the special fly rod, reel and line along with a sponsor print both from Spitzer Subaru/Chevrolet GMC in DuBois. Color TV from Karen Yanek At Home Reality. There is a lot of behind the scenes work to make the evening great. In addition to these many of our members stepped up to provide some fantastic prizes for the bucket raffles. We offer a BIG THANK YOU to all who helped with setting up and soliciting and donating prizes. The annual ticket raffle that all our members received in the mail was also a success with the winners being:

1^st prize $500.; Dave Miller with Bruce Miller receiving the $100 bonus for selling with winning ticket.

2nd prize; $200 Ryan Ishman

3^rd prize; $100 Sharon Malloy

The food was also very good, and the facility was great, and we have booked it for next year, which will be April 11, 2026. Mark your calendar and be sure to attend as this will be our 60^th anniversary of the chapter and we will make it special for all attendees.

Congratulations Dave

This years Golden Reel Award recipient was Dave London. Dave has been involved in the chapter for a very long time serving on the board during the late 80’s into the 90’s and took a break to earn a living and now in semi-retirement has not only rejoined the board but took on the Vice President position as well as meeting coordinator. He is chairing the Punxsutawney Elementary School Environmental Day. Not only does Dave join an elite group of fellow TU’ers but also marks a father son duo as his father Edwin was a past recipient for our highest honor.

DuBois Cleanup Day

We’ve all heard that when it rains it pours. Well, this year due to Easter on the Earth Day weekend the cleanup day was the same as our fundraiser. We have done this every year for the past 5 or so and it looked like this year was going to be a miss. We reached out to Samantha Snedden to see if she could chair this event as all the board members that had helped in the past were not able. She agreed and thanks to her and her family along with Brad Haines they were able to continue the tradition. We have always cleaned up the area around the Tannery Dam. Samantha attended the Wildlife Leadership Academy last year and has become a youth leader. Thank you, Samantha.

Dr Blakeslee Memorial Forest Cleanup

Mark you calendar for May 5^th to lend a hand with our annual cleanup of the parking lot and trails in the forest area. This is an annual event, and we usually have some help from the PA Wildlife Habitat group and is chaired by our own Matt Marusiak from the Western PA Conservancy.

Fly Tying Roundtable and Classes

Both wrapped up in March and were a success. Attendance at our roundtables was off a bit from past years but still the people who attended enjoyed the camaraderie along with getting some flies tied. Our class graduated 5 students after 6weeks. Most likely our class next year will be held in Punxsutawney if a location and interest is found. Stay tuned for details.

Fly Fishing Club

The DuBois Middle School Fly Fishing Club will be wrapping up the school year with our outing at Camp Mountain Run on May 2^nd. Each year we take the club to the lake at the camp for a afternoon of fly fishing. We provide lunch as well as all the flies and rods. If interested in helping that day call George Kutskel at 814-371-9290. We have several already on board to help the kids catch fish on flies, but there is always room for some more. We did some fly tying at school this year thanks to Dave Kemitis for lending a hand the kids were able to learn to tie basic caddis larva and a mop fly.

Environmental Day

Once again we will be hosting the 8^th grade at Camp Mountain Run on May 16^th. We will have members from National Trout Unlimited on hand to electroshock the stream, collecting macros, fishing, habitat assessment, and invasive species. We will once again have the Brockway FFA student on hand to help where needed. As with all our events involving young people to help you must have your clearances which are free to receive. For details on how to get them email the chapter at amctu036@gmail.com

Punxsutawney Elementary School’s day will be Tuesday May 27^th from 8:30 until 2pm. This is a fun day with the students and is held at the school grounds. Dave London is chairing the day this year if interested email the chapter at the address above.

Picnic Time

We have two opportunities for you to eat some good food and meet some great people this year. May 21^st we will join the Iron Furnace Chapter for a picnic at Walter Dick Park in Brookville. As we have done in the past the chapter will provide the meats and Iron Furnace will provide drinks and place settings. All you need to bring is a dish to pass and your fly rod to catch the evening hatch. We will be eating around 6pm and not to worry if its raining as we will be in the pavilion near the parking lot.

Our second picnic will be July 13^th at Bendigo State Park. If you’ve never been here this is a great venue. There is an inground pool for swimming as well as some of the coldest water in the state for those who would rather go fishing. We provide all the food and if would be great to see more of our members attending one or both of these FREE events.

Facebook and Social Media

We had an issue with our Facebook page earlier this year and now have a new page along with more people able to add content. Kelly has provided a QR code to help load the page for your convenience see below. Also check our website for updates on chapter happenings www.amctu.org