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May 19, 2010 - Our TU meeting on Wednesday May 19 will be at 7:00pm in the Goodwin Room in Moody Student Center at Hollins University. I have attached a map for those that are not familiar with the Hollins campus. The Moody Student Center is building #20 on the map. Allan Saunders from Craig County Middle School and Perry Manning from Andrew Lewis Middle School will give us a report on this years TIC program in their respective schools. In addition we would like a report on the fishing in Catawba Creek on the Roanoke Cement property from anyone that has fished it this past week. Hope to see everyone there. Jack

Fishing in Catawba Creek on the Roanoke Cement Co. property will be permitted starting May 10th. I have attached a sign for you to print to be placed on the dash of your vehicle when parked in designated parking area. Here are the rule as agreed to by Roanoke Cement Company and Roanoke TU. Current the only access to the farm and parking will be at the hunt club parking #11. You can walk through the gate across the road from the parking area. Be sure the gate is closed and secured. We are not allowed to drive on the farm. Coming from the cement plant go past the Andy Lane parking, you will see a pull off on the right. There is space for 2 to 3 cars to park. Place attached sign on the dash of your car while you are on RCC property. You must have your TU membership card on your person while on the property. Be prepared to show it if confronted by RCC employees. You must schedule your trip on the Catawba Calendar on the Roanoke TU website. Open Catawba Calendar Sign-in: jack@roanoketu.org use password Jack email out Password:.......... Click on: "Create Event" On the "What" Line type in your name Then select the date you wish to fish. Click on the "All Day" box. At this time you are only allowed to schedule a full day trip. Click on "Save" to save your name to the calendar on the date requested. Click on "Sign Out" Final Step: Pull up Calendar again to be sure your name posted to the date desired. Once two members have posted their names to a particular date, that date will be full. A maximum of 2 TU members or 1 TU member and 1 guest are allowed on the property at any time. This means if you take a guest you are using both TU slots. So make sure you put your name and your guest's name on the calendar. A maximum of 1 fish per day per person can be kept. This limit is in effect until June 30th or until otherwise specified by RCC. No alcoholic beverages are allowed on RCC property or in the parking area. Please follow these rules and be respectful if approached by a RCC employee. Remember we are guest of Roanoke Cement Company and fishing on their property is a privilege they have extended to us. Good fishing, Jack

You do not want to miss our meeting on Wednesday April 21. Dr. Kevin Kelleher and Dan Phlegar will be presenting a video of their trip to the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. This should be an informative and entertaining introduction to this alpine fishing paradise.

We will also have the latest updates on the Gathright turbine, tree planting along the Roanoke River in Salem and along Glade Creek in the Town of Vinton and the latest on the trout stocking in Catawba Creek. The meeting will start promptly at 7:00pm in the Goodwin Room in Moody Student Center at Hollins University. I have attached a map of the Hollins campus for those who are not familiar with it. The Moody Student Center is building #20. Hope to see you there. Jack

Our chapter has reserved a fishing trip to the Harrisonburg, VA area for June 12. At our last chapter meeting in March our guest speaker was Colby Trow . Colby and his brother are guides and owners of Mossy Creek Fly Fishing in Harrisonburg, VA. www.mossycreekflyfishing.com. Colby gave an outstanding presentation on fishing opportunities in the Valley area around Harrisonburg, VA. His knowledge of the area and love of fishing and the environment was obvious. They offer guided day trips on private water. These trips are geared for the novice fly fisherman. The trip is for 8 fisherman. Each person will fish both streams. Four per guide. $75 per fisherman The trip is scheduled for Saturday June 12, 2010. The chapter scheduled this trip on Saturday to give our working members and opportunity to ....GO FISHING. Let George Kesler know if you are interested keslerfamily@cox.net

We will be accessing 2 stretches of Mossy Creek each over 1 mile long. We will be fishing 4, 5, 6 weight rods there depending on whether we fish dry flies or streamers. We will also be fishing 2, possibly 3 stretches of Beaver Creek. We just picked up another stretch of Beaver last week that is over half a mile. Even if we only fish the 2 stretches of Beaver we currently have now, we will be fishing over 1 mile of water there and we also have 1/2 of a mile of Spring Creek if anyone is up for a challenge. We can fish 3 or 4 weight rods on Beaver Creek. If a stretch is not fishing well we also have the ability to fish River Valley Farm. All of these pieces of water are only 1-2 miles apart from one another. We completed a trip yesterday with FFV. The group of 8 had a great time. Everyone caught good numbers of fish and we didn't even touch all the water we had available. Basically we can meet at Hardee's in Bridgewater in the morning at 8AM. We will then split into 2 groups of 4. Brian will take 4 and I will take 4. We will fish different stretches of water in the morning, meet and have lunch together and then hit new stretches of water in the afternoon. Everyone will have a chance to fish 1-3 stretches of Beaver Creek and at least 1 stretch of Mossy Creek. This is like a "sampler" of all of our killer water we reserve for our guiding clientele. Anglers can expect to catch brook trout from 4-17 inches, rainbows from 4-25 inches, and browns from 4 to 24 inches. You can decide if the club wants to handle lunch or if each angler wants to bring their own coolers. We typically have extra drinks and water bottles for the day. If you can, try to carpool to limit the number of cars if possible. This will allow us to transfer easily from 1 farm to another without worrying about parking availability. Brian and I will be willing to 'donate' a few flies to the cause from our own boxes. However, if anglers would like, we can put together some small fly selections for the day. We will also recommend certain patterns before our trip. Let us know if you have any other questions. Colby Trow, Mossy Creek Fly Fishing

We have reserved one of the 8 slots to be given away in a drawing at our meeting on April 21st.. To have your name entered into the drawing all you need to do is participate in the tree planting along Glade Creek in the Town of Vinton on Saturday April 17th 8:30am to 12:00 noon. Every member who participates will have their name entered into the drawing. If you can participate in the April 17th planting, please let me know by responding to this email. We need an accurate count of volunteers in order to plan lunch and manage the project. Jack

I am please to report that the Glade Creek project has moved into phase 1 which will consist of a riparian buffer between Tinker Ave. and Glade Creek in the Town of Vinton. We will be planting trees on April 17 from 8:30am - 12:00 noon. There should be very little digging since there will be an auger on site to dig holes. Plus lunch will be provided for those that participate. We are asking for a total of 50 volunteers between our chapter, Orvis, Upper Roanoke River Roundtable and the Town of Vinton. So lets have a good turn out to show our support for this project. I have attached a link to a map for directions. Coming from 460 turn onto Gus Nicks Blvd and then right onto Vale Ave. NE. Follow it until it turns into Tinker Ave.. Then for vacant lots on the left. Hope to see you there. Call Jack with any questions and to sign up. Jack

With 8 volunteers showing up, the cleanup went very well. Following coffee and munchies provided by Anke the crew spread out and finished in about one hour. There was plenty of plastic bags stuck to tree branches from the recent flooding along with the usual plast and glass bottles, aluminum cans, one tire and a few odds and ends. Since the water flow was too high to get in the river we may have to wait and make some excursion to the opposite bank at some other time to haul down a few large section of tarp and plastic. The cleanup participants consisted of Bill Bainter, Hans Loberg, Anke Loberg, Richard Pitts, Dick Taylor, David Vecellio, Jack Ward and Barry Whitt.

The next fly tying session will be on Thursday March 25 at 7:00pm. It will be held at my house at 7769 College View Court in Hollins Court. For those who have not been to my house before click the link below for a Google map. Come down Williamson Rd from Plantation Rd past the entrance to Hollins University the entrance to Hollins Court will be the next street on your right. Come to the top of the hill and take a right onto College View Court. My house will be the left drive way at the back of the cul-de-sac. Bring your fly tying equipment and the beverage of your choice. If you do not have fly tying equipment come anyway. We will have equipment for you to use. Jack

If you signed up to sample a stream or streams for the VTSSS. We will be sampling on April 24th. I will be holding a training session once I get the sample kits. In the mean time I need you to go to http://swas.evsc.virginia.edu/VTSSS-2010/Survey.html click on Volunteer Sign-Up and then Sign-Up Table and select a stream from Botetourt County or Craig County that you would like to sample. Send me the stream name and ID number so I can up-date the sign-up sheet. Jack

The next meeting of the Roanoke Valley Chapter of TU will be Wednesday 3/17. We will be meeting in the Goodwin room in the Moody Student Center at Hollins University. Our speaker will be Colby Trow one of the owners of Mossy Creek Fly Shop in Harrisonburg. Colby's presentation will be on fishing the trout streams and spring creeks of the Shenandoah Valley and Shenandoah National Park. We will also have updates on TIC, VTSSS, Glade Creek, Catawba Creek and the latest on the Gathright turbine project. Jack

We had a great turn out of members and fisherman to help with stocking. Ernie delivered us 1200 brown trout with several in the 2-4 pound range. Marvin suggested to all those waiting fisherman to assist and they sure came through for us. It was really nice having the extra help as we had to carry buckets to the river from the road. Thanks to all those unknown fellow fisherman for their hard work and great help! The TU volunteers consisted of Bayes Wilson, Jon Wilson, Joe Nawrocki, George Kesler, Jack Ward, Marvin Huffman and David Vecellio. We also had some of the fellows come down from Green Hill Park to help us finish up. Even with the water up the fishing proved to be very good for me!!

Roanoke River Stocking, Green Hill Park, Friday, March 12, 2010.

We had a nice turnout of TU volunteers, some veterans and some rookies for the spring stocking. We started at 9am when Andy arrived from the Paint Bank hatchery with about 500-600 browns ranging from 9 to 17 inches, nice combination. The weather was overcast, but no rain and we were done about 10 am. Due to snow melt and some rain the river flow was close to 600cf/s, too high to distribute the trout towards the opposite bank like we usually do. The TU volunteers consisted of Bill Bainter, Dick Cole, Bob Crawshaw, Bob Jenkins, Anke Loberg, Hans Loberg, Mark McKinney, Dan Phlegar, Richard Pitts and Wysor Smith. Thanks to all, great job.

Friday, March 12, 2010, 9:00am Stocking, Delayed Harvets sections, GHP and Salem.

1. In GHP we will start at the first parking lot on the right, just past the park entrance.

2. In Salem, we will start at the beginning of the new greenway at the Apperson bridge.

The speaker for the Feb. 17th meeting of the Roanoke TU Chapter will be Scot Smith a biologist with DGIF. His presentation is based on a 2 year study by DGIF on the Smith River. He will be reporting on the wild Brown Trout population as well as the Rainbow stockings. If you currently fish the Smith, or plan on fishing it in the future, you do not want to miss this meeting. Several of us from Roanoke traveled to Martinsville in December to attend the Smith River Chapter's meeting to hear Scot's presentation. You will be surprise to hear what he has to say. We will also be reporting on our latest plans to work with Roanoke Cement in developing a fishery on Catawba Creek on their property. As well as the latest on the Glade Creek and the Gathright hydro projects. So come join us 7:00pm at our new meeting location in Moody Hall on the campus of Hollins University. Directions can be found on the Meeting Link. Moody Hall is building #20 on the map. Jack

Karl is requesting assistance with the upcoming TIC release. Click here to read.

Meetings are held on the campus of Hollins University the third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm. The meetings typically consist of a business session, a presentation or workshop, and open discussion. We will be meeting in the Goodwin room in the Moody Student Center. You can park in any vacant space. The Moody Student Center is #20 on their map.

I am starting up the fly tying sessions again. The first one will be held at my house on Thursday Jan. 28 at 7:00pm. Bring your vise, hooks and what ever material needed to tie your favorite fly. My address is 7769 College View Court. I live just down Williamson Rd. from the entrance to Hollins University.

Roanoke Cement has ask the Roanoke Chapter of Trout Unlimited to partner with them in developing Catawba Creek on their property as a trout stream to be enjoyed by their employees and the members of Trout Unlimited. We have arranged visits to the stream on Wednesday Jan. 27 and Saturday Jan. 30 to determine if this is viable. We will meet at gate 3 of the plant on Catawba Road at 10:00am on both days. Roanoke Cement needs to know how many plan to attend. So if you plan to visit on one or both of these days please email Robert Marek at RMarek@titanamerica.com. Jack

Shawsville Middle School Hatchery Trip - October 14, 2009. Click here to read story and pictures.

Trout in Troutville - It's a Natural, click here to read story that ran in Fincastle Herald.

The fall Roanoke River stocking will take place Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 - Click here to view pictures and story.

FALL CLEANUP, ROANOKE RIVER, GREEN HILL PARK, SAT, OCT 3, 2009 Click here to see picture and story.

The annual fall Cleanup of Roanoke River and river banks in Green Hill Park will take place along with the general Fall Waterways Cleanup arranged by the Roanoke Clean Valley Council.

Annual Man Hour Log Form for reporting volunteer hours worked - Click Here for Excel Format link.

Short Story by our famous writer Dick Taylor - Click here to read, you will enjoy.

Click here to for more past archives.

Roanoke River Stocking, Green Hill Park, Friday, March 12, 2010.