Southern Wisconsin Trout Unlimited
Schwoegler's Park Towne Lanes 444 Grand Canyon Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53719
media release: Meetings are the second Tuesday of every month, at Schwoegler’s Bowling Alley, 444 Grand Canyon Dr., Madison, WI 53719. We meet in Schwoegler’s community room on the southern end of the building. The room is just off the southernmost entryway near the pro shop.
Typical Chapter Meeting Schedule
Come for dinner from 5:30-7, general pub style menu and a good opportunity to shoot the breeze and meet some people.
Chapter announcements/business follow from 7-7:30pm
Our speaker/presentation is from 7:30-8:30.
The range of presentation topics is wide and we have had some real notables, from local fishing, to the environment, to fly tying, to travelogues of exotic (and sometimes not-so-exotic) trips. The latest newsletter has details on the upcoming meeting topic.
We wish everyone a rewarding summer with time spent with family, in nature and chasing trout. We
will do a newsletter in July and then take August off … everything will kick back into gear with a September newsletter and
chapter meeting, which will revive the legendary Meicher Madness Auction. Watch for details and a call for helpers!
September:
The Meicher Madness Auction was one of SWTU’s most fun and profitable events for many years. Stopped by COVID it returns at our September 10 meeting at Schwoegler’s on Grand Canyon Drive.
Larry Meicher was a founding member of SWTU and a tremendous force for good in our Chapter and at State Council. Larry did everything for us, serving as an officer and board member, a fly tying instructor, a participant at work days, and always as a passionate conservationist. One of his many contributions to SWTU was the creation of the March Madness Auction. The Chapter would gather for a fun night of bidding on wonderful gear and trips and some unbelievable junk. Larry (aka Dr. Sausage) presided over the event as the Auctioneer Supreme. He could be serious and he could be silly, anything to drive up the bids and fill the Chapter’s coffers. At his passing we named the event Meicher Madness in his honor.
The madness and fun will be renewed on 9/10. Everyone will have some chances at some cool and highly usable gear and the proceeds will support all the Chapter activities.
Here are some needs and changes for this year’s auction:
Help. We need about a dozen folks to help at he auction itself: cashiers, folks to check in all the bidders, organizers of all the gear, and runners to make sure the bidders get the stuff they win.
Contact Topf Wells at topfwells@gmail.com if you can help.
No Junk. Traditionally members have brought in just about any gear they no longer had a use for. Along with great stuff, we must have received a hundred leaky waders and other equipment that had aged into oblivion.
That was sort of fun. But not this year, please.
The reason is in the five years since the auction was last held we have had a mountain of really good gear donated to the Chapter. Much of it from the families of deceased members or those who cannot fish anymore. This auction will be focused on selling those excellent rods, reels and other gear. We just won’t have the time this year to deal with junk.
Buyers. With all this gear, we need buyers who want or need fishing stuff. Lots of you might be like me. At last count, I have 10 fly rods, 3 working fly reels, and 6 spinning outfits. I’ll buy something at the auction but not sure what that might be. For those of our 800 members and friends who might be new to fishing, trout fishing or still gearing up, this auction is a golden opportunity to get some top notch fishing stuff at extremely reasonable prices. This will be a great meeting to invite a new member of the Chapter or a new angler.
Special Request. Trips and flies tied by our skilled fly tying members were the best sellers at all the previous auctions. Those fly tyers have been supplying flies for great causes and we had a bushel of trips offered at the Spring Fundraiser. But any trip or flies would be a most welcome addition to this year’s auction.
We’ll have more details on Meicher Madness in our September Newsletter. Please think how you could help make the revival of a fun event successful.