Notice of GRTU Chapter Meeting, Saturday April 25th
Location – CRCC Building, 125 Mabel Jones Dr., Canyon Lake, TX 78133
Agenda:
9 AM – Social Hour
10 AM – Business Meeting (election of directors, bylaws updates)
11 AM – Speaker Mick McCorcle – Mckittrick Creek and National Leadership Council news
12 – Catered Lunch
12:30 Ladies Only Seminar
1 PM – GRTU Board Meeting
Past President Mick McCorcle to Speak at April Chapter Meeting
Our speaker at the April meeting of GRTU will be past Chapter President Mick McCorcle. Mick will be speaking on two topics: the current status of efforts to return Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout to McKittrick Creek in far west Texas and also on his current role as Chair of TU’s National Leadership Council. “I’m looking forward to returning to a GRTU chapter meeting,” said Mick, “and appreciate the opportunity to address my fellow chapter members about this exciting project and my new role as NLC Chair.” Mick is a retired psychologist and management consultant, so don’t come to the meeting expecting him to help you catch more trout. As a psychologist, though, he can probably help you with your feelings if you don’t catch any trout.
Mick currently lives in the Dallas area and has been a member of TU since 1997, joining the GRTU Board in the late 1990s before moving to Chicago in 2000. While up north, Mick was able to fish the Driftless Area of Wisconsin and led stream restoration efforts on several streams as President of the Lee Wulff TU chapter in Chicago’s western suburbs. “Being in an established TU chapter up north gave me an opportunity to learn how important it is to have conservation as a meaningful part of a TU chapter’s activities,” said Mick. “I was also able to fish on the Michigan streams where TU got its start in 1959 and learn of the rich heritage of TU.”
Upon returning to South Texas, Mick was quickly put to work in GRTU and became the Chapter President in early 2004, serving until 2007. He was elected the National Leadership Council Representative for Texas in 2007, then elected to the TU Board of Trustees in 2009, where he chaired the Organization Development Committee. Mick was then chosen as the Chair of the TU National Leadership Council last fall. “It’s been a great privilege to serve TU’s members here in Texas, both in GRTU and nationally,” said Mick. “I’ve had a lot of fun promoting our chapter and our unique fishery as I travel around the country. Few people would ever guess that we have trout in Texas, much less a Top 100 trout stream and the possibility of native trout.”
Mick has fly fished from the canals of south Florida to the Pacific Northwest to Alaska and the Arctic and from Hawaii to the Texas Gulf Coast to Lake Texoma to the upper Midwest and the Rocky Mountains, pursuing trout, salmon, stripers, reds, specks, bass, carp, buffalo and a whole list of exotics, including peacock bass and, most recently, trevally and trumpetfish. Consequently, Mick loves to tie all kinds of flies, for trout, salmon, warmwater and saltwater. He’s been tying flies nearly 20 years and regularly donates boxes of flies for raffles and charity auctions. Mick is also a Trustee and former Executive Director of Casting for Recovery and a past chair of the Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Freshwater Fisheries Advisory Committee.
Trout Unlimited Mid-South Regional Meeting in Branson, MO - March 7
You are invited to the Mid South Regional TU meeting, to be held at Chateau on the Lake in Branson, MO. The meeting is open to all TU members (you don’t have to be a chapter officer to attend) and includes quite a lineup of interesting topics. Here’s a link to the agenda: http://www.tu.org/sites/default/files/2 … Agenda.pdf
Most of the participants will also be fishing either Friday or Sunday and local TUers and guides will be available to help you find the best spots to fish and the best flies to use. You can go here to register: http://www.tu.org/get-involved/national … al-meeting
Cost for the event is only $35 and includes a full day of seminars and a dinner hosted by the Missouri Council of TU. You’ll need to make lodging arrangements separately by calling Chateau on the Lake, so tell them you are with TU to get the discounted rate of $129/night.
We’d love to have you join us and learn about the great things other chapters and councils in our region are doing.
TEXAS FRESHWATER FISHING HALL OF FAME TO INDUCT FAMED ANGLER, CONSERVATION ORGANIZATION
ATHENS—The angler who caught the first entry into Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s ground-breaking big bass angler recognition program and the organization responsible for Texas having a year-around rainbow trout fishery will be inducted into the Texas Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in June.
To be inducted is Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited (GRTU), the largest Trout Unlimited chapter in the nation with more than 5,000 members. GRTU has been the driving force behind the development of a year-round rainbow trout fishery on the Guadalupe River, listed as one of America’s top 100 trout streams in 2013. TPWD studies show this fishery has an annual economic impact of $1.9 million on the local economy, but GRTU’s contributions go much further. The organization maintains a leadership role in conservation and development of public access to the fishery.
GRTU leases access points along the river from landowners and businesses and uses fees from anglers to pay the lease fees and purchase approximately 12,000 pounds of large rainbow trout for stocking into the river each year. These fish become public property and are available for anyone to catch. GRTU also funds scientific studies of the fishery and supports a number of educational programs for young people, including Trout in the Classroom and Trout Camp. The organization also contributes to such programs as Casting for Recovery, Reel Recovery and Project Healing Waters. GRTU also supports conservation efforts nationwide, working with other Trout Unlimited chapters.
Wanted – Old GRTU Newsletters!
We are trying to fill the gap in some of our archives of older newsletters. We have one from 1979, then a gap for all the 1980s. If you have newsletters that you would allow us to borrow to scan in to our archives, please contact me via email at president@grtu.org.
Thanks!
