Coulee Region Trout Unlimited - Summer 2025 Activities
- Jason G. Freund
- Apr 27
- 7 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
Since I have a forum to raise awareness, I thought I would use it to let people know what our Trout Unlimited Chapter has going on this summer. Like every volunteer organization, we can always use more volunteers. Please join us!
Summer 2025 Activities
Click on links to navigate to that event.
Coon Creek Confluence - May 3rd - Westby Rod and Gun Club
While last year's inaugural event did not have the greatest of weather, it was still a great event. We tied flies, had Blake making spinners with kids and adults alike, gave away a ton of fishing rods, and shared the CRTU message.
This year, the Confluence will be at the Westby Rod and Gun Club's property along county highway P. It is hosted by the Coon Creek Community Watershed Council, a farmer-led watershed group that is doing great work in the basin. The Watershed Fair begins at 11 AM and runs until 4 PM. The fair hosts a number of conservation organizations - like Coulee Region Trout Unlimited and TU-Driftless Area Restoration Effort (DARE) - and state and federal partners. There are games and other events for kids and a number of vendors of local products. Our chapter will give away rods and reels provided through funds from our chapter and other generous sponsors.
The event is free and open to all, however tickets to the Mollie B show are $25. More information at their Facebook event.
Sculpin Day - May 17th - Maple Dale Creek WDNR Access
This is an event hosted by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Native Fish Coalition in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin La Crosse. We'll be on Maple Dale Creek on May 17th from 10 to noon with lunch to follow (see poster for RSVP address).
Sculpin are an important part of coldwater communities and their distributions in the Driftless Area are poorly known and understood. Evan Sirianni is a Master's student working on a sculpin distribution project with Dr. David Schumann and myself. This event is a kick-off to his summer of fish and habitat sampling of 60 stream reaches in the Kickapoo River watershed. Sculpin ranges are likely quite different than they were pre-European settlement as agriculture greatly altered Driftless Area watersheds. This project aims to determine their current distribution, features that correlate with their presence or absences, and aims to assist in ongoing reintroduction efforts of Mottled Sculpin (Cottus bairdii) and Slimy Sculpin (C. cognatus). For more about sculpin and how to imitate them, I wrote a post about them a year(ish) ago and check out the Facebook event.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Stan - see the poster for details.
Annual Spring Picnic - May 21st - Coon Valley Park
The Coulee Region Trout Unlimited annual picnic is an event open to all - but please use the Facebook event to RSVP to give us an idea of how much food to buy (pretty please!).
This is a laid back event - no speakers or programs like our other meetings, rather it is a chance to hang out and talk trout. We do not host membership events in the summer - we'd rather go fishing - but we do host a number of youth events (see below). The picnic is a chance to wind down for the season and think about the fishing season to come.
This event - like our membership events - is the third Wednesday of the month (May 21st). We will provide food - likely burgers, brats, and hot dogs and the accompaniments. We will have people that can help you learn to cast a fly rod, read the water, or just talk about fishing and where to give it a go in the Coulee Region. We'll be at the new upper shelter at Coon Valley's Veterans Memorial Park and will begin serving food a little after 5:30 and will do so until about 7 PM. Join us!
Please RSVP to the Facebook event so we can plan for food.
Wisconsin State Council Meeting - May 31st - Avalanche
The Wisconsin State Council of Trout Unlimited holds their annual spring meeting in the Driftless Area each year and in recent years, it has been at the West Fork Sports Club in Avalanche. The meeting starts at 9 AM and runs until 1, 2, or later depending upon how talkative we all are. Lunch is provided.
This is a great opportunity to see what the State Council does and how they spend their money. One of the ways that they spend their money is to support WDNR land purchases - which hopefully soon will include frontage on the West Fork and Seas Branch, just downstream of the West Fork Sports Club.
Driftless Drive-In Fly Fishing Show - June 6th - Richland Center
This is a Driftless Angler event that we will be at again this year. Last year was the inaugural year and it was A BLAST! I am looking forward to this one again - and if you didn't go last year, you NEED to go this year. Last year, it was a Thursday night, being on a Friday should help it be even more successful this year. Like last year, it is at the Starlite 14 Drive In, Richland Center WI.
Before it gets dark, there will be vendors, informational booths - like ours, and games available. It will start at about 2 PM and the film festival will start when it gets dark. The movies were interesting and diverse and the setting can not be beaten.
Food and beer are available to purchase on site. Get your tickets from the Driftless Angler or buy the day of. For more information, follow the ticket link and the Driftless Angler on Facebook for updates.
Coon Creek Trout Fest - June 21st - Coon Valley Park
Coon Creek Trout Fest is an annual event hosted by the village of Coon Valley, Coon Valley Business Association, and Coulee Region Trout Unlimited. Weather permitting - which has been a bit of a "crap shoot" in recent years - the chapter stocks Coon Creek in the park with a $1,000 of Rainbow Trout.
In addition to the kids fishing, we have fly casting, fly tying, a talk about conservation in the Coon Creek watershed, and we will hand out a number of door prizes including fishing rods, tackle boxes, and other fishing-related prizes. It is a great event for the family and a chance to learn to trout fish.
Last year, we were moved inside because the outside was rather wet and muddy and Coon Creek was not in safely fishable shape. But we had a great time tying flies, giving out (non-permanent) tattoos, educating about "bugs" and other trout foods, and talking conservation. Hopefully the weather works in our favor this year!
La Crosse Youth Outdoor Fest - July 12th - Pettibone Park
Youth Outdoor Fest is hosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Fisheries Center, La Crosse Parks, Recreation & Forestry, Fox 25/48, Genoa National Fish Hatchery, and Friends of the Upper Mississippi in La Crosse. Last year we were moved from Pettibone Park to Veteran's Freedom Park due to flooding.
Youth Outdoor Fest is FULL of activities. There is something for every kid. We'll be teaching fly casting and fly tying but there is everything from learning how to identify birds, furs, and plants to a ride on a burro. The event will cover a few acres and has a huge variety of things to do from young kids to high school aged students.
The event runs from 10 AM to 2 PM.
STREAM Girls - August 9th - West Fork Sports Club (Avalanche)
STREAM (Science, Technology, Recreation (fishing!), Engineering, Arts, and Math) Girls is a relatively new program that Trout Unlimited partnered with the Girls Scouts to create. Our chapter has hosted an event for about 5 years now thanks to Shannon who put the event together the first year.
We have hosted this event at the West Fork Sports Club and thank them for their hospitality. I did not attend the event for the first time ever this past year due to a friend's annual gathering that same weekend. But also because I know the event is in good hands.
STREAM Girls is, in my opinion, the most fun events that we host each year. Not only is it fun but the curriculum is well-thought-out and does a great job of introducing the STREAM Girls to a variety of tasks and information. We host the event over a single day which keeps the girls moving between stations and keeps them engaged.
If you have a daughter or know a girl that is between about 6 and 14, this is a great opportunity to get them engaged in the outdoors. On occasion, we receive a comment about how this is only available to girls and they are right but there are good reasons for that. This event came to be because of a volunteer that came to us with the idea and put the program together - you can do the same.
I'll update this post with more information and registration links when I have them.
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