New Meeting Location, November 2nd Meeting Presentation, Membership Dues and Some Hot Iceland Fish Pictures

Just want to begin with a brief reminder that the Badger Fly Fishers’ (BFF) meeting on Wednesday, November 2nd will be at our new meeting location the Thirsty Goat restaurant, 3040 Cahill Main, Fitchburg.  Here is a link to the Thirsty Goat’s website.  Our meetings will be in a quiet room which will seat 50 people and includes a small bar serving multiple refreshments.  The Thirsty Goat offers excellent and affordable food.  The presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. with dinner and conversation at 5:30 p.m.  Visitors and guests are always welcome.

The November 2nd meeting presentation will be made by Dick Dragiewicz on “Save the Menominee River Update”.  Dick has been fishing since early childhood.  For nearly 20 years he’s enjoyed river smallmouth bass fishing primarily on the Milwaukee and Menominee Rivers.  His streamside conservation work has included trout stream improvement programs, electro shocking for warm water species, river clean ups, signage installation, etc.  For the past 15 years Dick’s focus has been on protecting the Menominee River and Lake Michigan’s smallmouth bass and walleye fisheries from the resulting pollution a proposed

metallic sulfide mine would produce.  The Menominee River, Lake Michigan, and the local environment continue to be threatened by the proposed Back Forty mining project.  The former owners of Aquila Resources, Inc., wanted to develop the Back Forty as an open pit metallic sulfide mine, but nothing went according to their plans.  After spending more than $100 million over 20+ years they had nothing.  Faced with the possibility of going out of business they sold the company to Gold Resource Corporation (GORO) a Denver, Colorado based mining company.  GORO hasn’t provided much information on its plans for the Back Forty mining project but it has said that a feasibility study will be completed in the Fall of 2022 and production will start in 2025.  Before starting any mine site construction GORO will need to obtain five unconditional mining permits.  The Coalition to Save the Menominee River has made arrangements to have each of the five permit applications professionally reviewed and analyzed.  These reports will be used to convince the State of Michigan that the Back Forty mine should not be built.

The Badger Fly Fishers are meeting once again and thus membership dues will need to be paid starting with the 2023 calendar year.  Dues payments made now count towards membership through December 31, 2023.  The dues of just $20 support the great speakers we have at our meetings and the other membership benefits outlined on our website.  Here is a link to the membership form for you to complete and mail to Bill Engber.  The mailing address is at the bottom of the form.  You can also pay your dues at one of our meetings.  Thank you for your continued support of the Badger Fly Fishers!

The following below are a few pictures of some gorgeous Atlantic salmon caught last month by Bill Engber and Steve Born while fishing in Iceland.  If you would like to share a picture of a fish that you caught, please send it to this email address (badgerflyfishers@gmail.com) and the Buzz will periodically post the pictures on our website.  Enjoy and take care!

Cordially,

Buzz McFly

The following is a list of the future bimonthly BFF meeting dates:

1. January 4, 2023 – Dan Donovan.
2. March 1, 2023 – Tim Landwehr.
3. May 3, 2023 – TBD.

The following is a list of the future bimonthly Wisconsin Smallmouth Alliance (WSA) meeting dates:

1. December 7, 2022 – Hunter Dorn.
2. February 1, 2023 – Pat Ehlers.
3. April 5, 2023 – WSA Auction Fundraiser.