President's Letter

Matt Jennings
April 7th, 2008

Well here it is GBTUer's, Spring! Sure it didn't jump right out of the gate, but it is here. The first Steelhead has taken a fly, and the first Brown Trout has been fooled by a dry fly. For GBTU the change of season has come in with a flurry of activity, and a plenty of exciting opportunities for those who want to participate.

Thanks to everyone who has helped make this year a success already. Thanks to Bob Long Jr. for filling us all in on where to fish along the lakefront. Let me know when we're going Gobi fishing. To those that planned and went on the awesome trip to Arkansas, the fish were great but the people who went were better. To those new members we met at Bass Pro Shops, and those that twisted their arms till they agreed to help out the cause, thank you. Thanks also, to all our board members who are doing their jobs with great aplomb, you make us all look very good, and people are noticing all your "troutly" toil. In the near future GBTU has many things going on including a membership meeting April 10th that will have our good freind Andy Gulya coming and talking about his efforts to restore and protect the waters of the Driftless Region that are in Illinois. Many of you have asked me about this and for years there has been great confusion and misinformation about whether or not these waters even existed, now Andy will help clear it all up. We also will have a presentation from the four members that attended the Project Planning Weekend in Westby. There will be some special raffles, and refreshments for those that come straight from work. From April 11-13th we are having our Spring outing to Fennimore, Wisconsin. It should be a blast, and it's almost filled up. Hopefully, this year we can hit some hatches, can you say" Little Black Caddis?" On April 19th GBTU is really spread thin, and needs your help. We are participating in a workday up on the Milwaukee River, with lots of other groups. Please come out and support the cause and help cleanup a river that has right up the road and has great fishing. You could even learn some new places to fish. We also, are going to be participating in The Spring Classic Fly Fishing Weekend at the Bass Pro Shops in Gurnee by tying flies and getting the word out about TU's mission. We could really use some help here from 10-4. Some of our members are also going to Michigan to help plan this summer's Illinois Council Youth Camp. So, please help out where you can, even if it's just for a couple hours, or just come by and say, Hi! Keep your eyes open for things going on throughout the summer, including a special sit down dinner meeting in June, that should bring back some old memories. We are also planning some outings during the summer, and a fund-raiser in the Fall.