Pages 1,2,5,6 - Cherry Creek Anglers

www.cherrycreekanglers.org
Volume 1, Issue 4
Nov-Dec ‘05
Texan MAKES SPLASH IN
DENVER fishing community
About eighteen months ago,
like a southwestern dust
storm, Mel Davis blew into the
Denver fishing community —
and it may never be the same
— and “That’s a good thing!”
Mel soon heard that Trout
Unlimited was seeking leadership
to reactivate its chapter in
the eastern and the southern
Denver suburbs. That challenge
was all he needed to
hear — despite being a warmwater
fisherman from Dallas.
Mobilizing volunteers is nothing
new to this mountain of
energy; he’s a “make something
happen” kind of guy.
And indeed something has
happened. Last September
Trout Unlimited’s new Cherry
Creek Anglers Chapter #474
was officially chartered. It
principally covers the areas
that include Aurora, Centennial,
Parker, Lone Tree, Castle
Pines, Castle Rock, Elizabeth,
Kiowa and numerous other
interim ‘burbs — thus it’s
name derived from the historic
Cherry Creek that flows
through and near these communities.
Mel has become a familiar
face at all Denver Metro fishing
functions, Trout Unlimited
and Federated Fly Fishers
alike, as well as all the tackle
retailers, and fishing lakes and
parks staffs. Mel ‘never met a
fisherperson he didn’t like’,
and in his brief startup he has
developed a network of
friends and colleagues like
possibly no other local person.
Mel says, “The challenge now
is to get more people involved
CCA President, Mel Davis
with leadership roles in the
chapter. Right now, a Membership
Director is one of
our key positions that needs
filled.”
Members interested in chapter
leadership should contact
me by phone at (303)
927-1872 or email at
chcreekanglers@aol.com.
Inside this issue:
CCA Logo Contest 2
World Record Pike 2
CCA Board News 2
President’s Message 3
Events calendar 3
Membership Form & Info 4
Jin Choi — Fly Fisher 5
Alpine Angler, Ernie ….. 5
Trout Unlimited 6
Cherry Creek Anglers 6
Chris CrosbY: TU Silver trout awardEE
Chris Crosby
Early this year, CCA member Chris Crosby
received the prestigious Silver Trout for 2004.
We wanted to give Chris the recognition
among our members that he richly deserves.
The Silver Trout Award (and trophy) recognizes
outstanding volunteer service to Colorado
Trout Unlimited over a long period of
time.
Chris Crosby was one of the first Council Presidents
of CTU in the early 70’s, and has been
in the forefront of every major water issue
since the Woody Creek section of the Roaring
Fork was declared catch and release in the late 60’s
or early seventies. Since then he has actively supported
CTU through many self-initiated lobbying
efforts. Chris works tirelessly at lobbying the DOW
and our Wildlife Commissioners. He has also been
one of the few people to enlist members of other
fishing groups, bass, walleye, etc. to help fight water
quality issues.
As well as a big picture activist, Chris has always
supported TU at the chapter level, and worked actively
to help revive the East Denver presence of TU
now chartered as the Cherry Creek Anglers Chapter.
Thank you, Chris.

P AGE 2
Contact Cherry Creek Anglers.
(303) 927-1872
T HE CHERRY CREEK CAST
NEW CHAPTER LOGO CONTEST
Cherry Creek Anglers is having a contest to
select a new chapter logo for use on the
website, in club emails, newsletters, flyers,
press releases, communications stationery,
and for silk screening or sewing onto
chapter shirts, hats and other items. Members
must submit entries before the December
31st deadline, and each member
may submit up to two entries. A committee
will evaluate all entries and recom-
Winner: Trout wood carving by fish sculptor Larry Winslow
mend several to the Chapter Board, and
the Board will select the new logo. TU
members from other Colorado Chapters
and evaluation committee members may
also enter logo submittals. Contest results
will be announced at the January 12 th
membership meeting.
The winning design will receive an original
trout sculpture hand carved by local artist
Larry Winslow. Two honorable mention
designs will each receive a fly box of flies
hand-tied at our recent tying clinic, plus a
free day fishing at Lake Carol Anne.
Computer designed logo submittals, or
hand drawn designs that are complete,
clearly and neatly drawn and show all
colors, will be accepted. Rough sketches
may not qualify.
Graphics of proposed logos must be able
to be produced cost effectively for the
various intended use applications, so beware
of overly detailed designs having
thin lines, many colors or color gradients.
Hon. Mention: Hand-tied flies & a free Lake Carol Anne Day
In some instances the committee may
require a design to be modified so that it
will meet graphic requirements to qualify.
Email or U.S. Mail your designs to Dennis
Cook at coloradocooks@comcast.net or to
6019 N. Belmont Way - Parker, CO 80134.
Questions may also be answered by email,
or by phone at 303-841-3612.
World record pike comes to cca
Barry Reynolds was the program guest
speaker at CCA’s October 13th meeting.
While there, he presented the CCA
Board with this 33-lb. 8-oz. world-record
northern pike he caught at Lake Nejalini
in North Manitoba in July 1994.
Barry’s record for the12-lb class tippet
category still stands.
After being displayed for years at Front
Range Anglers and in his home, this
trophy now resides in the Lodge Room
Cherry Creek Anglers needs your help.
Rebuilding and sustaining a successful
new chapter requires the effort and
support of all our members. Aurora
Anglers, our previous chapter, had
once been very successful, but eventually
just a few dedicated men found
themselves doing everything. The
Board cautioned the membership then
that they wouldn’t continue that way,
but not enough others volunteered, so
the Board finally dissolved the chapter.
at Gander Mountain where CCA meets.
Barry has also caught two world-record
pike in other tippet class categories, and
in August 2005, in Alaska, he caught a
521/2” pike with a 23” girth, but has not
recorded it for competition.
Barry is a renowned alternative fly fishing
enthusiast who has authored four
books and has two more in progress.
His 13-week fly fishing TV-series will air
beginning December, 2006.
CCA BOARD NEWS
Right now our Board needs leadership
and people to help with the membership
role. This involves welcoming
new members, inviting new members
to attend meetings, and some new
member development. Job-sharing
this position can make work light.
People who are interested in the legislative
area are also needed — where
we presently have nobody working,
and also with conservation projects
where we lack sufficient involvement.
Barry, left, presents his record pike to the CCA Board.
We can also use people to help identify
and commit monthly meeting program
speakers.
Decide how you might like to get
started. You’ll be surprised how much
more enjoyment you gain from your
leadership involvement.
Talk with Chapter President Mel Davis
about your interests. Mel’s email
address is chcreekanglers@aol.com and
he can be phone contacted at (303)
927-1872.

V OLUME 1, ISSUE 4
P AGE 5
JIN CHOI — FLY FISHING “LIFER”
Newsletter back issues can be accessed at the Cherry Creek Anglers website
www.cherrycreekanglers.org
Jin Choi tying at the CCA November Fly Tying Clinic
ration projects in RMNP, and he now
serves on our CCA Board as Education
Director.
About a year ago Jin became an entre-
Jin Choi literally lives fly fishing. A graduate
of CSU, where he took up fly fishing
on the Cache La Poudre River, he majored
in Natural Resource Management
with emphasis in Fisheries and Aquatic
Entomology. Shortly after graduation he
became the fly fishing buyer at Jax Sporting
Goods in Fort Collins, followed by a
period as a fishing guide on the Gunnison
River and its famous gorge. Here a
client invited him to the Cayman Islands
to work in his resort as Activities Director
which included guiding clients fishing for
tarpon and bonefish. In the summer of
2004 he was hired as the Fly Fishing Specialist
at Gander Mountain Sports, and he
continues doing private client guiding.
Jin has been involved with TU since the
late 90’s, at the Fort Collins Chapter, and
also the Estes Park Chapters where he
worked extensively with greenback restopreneur
and formed a venture that is closely
networked with fly fishing guides and shops.
He plans to initially fill a niche in the Rocky
Mountains, and eventually nationally and
much wider. Named Fly Currents, Jin’s vision
is for his www.flycurrents.com website to
become the ultimate information resource fly
fishers will want to check for reliable conditions
and local knowledge before traveling
to other locations. Check it out!
WANTED! ROD BUILDER S
Cherry Creek Anglers is planning a custom
graphite rod building class in Jan/Feb with
Fultz Rod Co. If you might have any interest
in attending, please contact Mel Davis at
chcreekanglers@aol.com or 303- 927-1872
so we can plan space and work on one or
more suitable availability dates. Information
will be posted on the CCA Chapter website
at www.cherrycreekanglers.com.
ALPINE ANGLER: ERNIE OETTER
You don’t have to get up early in the
morning to go fish the high alpine lakes
with Ernie Oetter; he fishes mid-week to
accommodate his business schedule, and
believing the best fishing is in the evening
he departs at about noon! Then, after a
three-hour drive and about a two-to-three
mile hike, he fishes and hikes back out in
the dark and gets home about midnight.
He says, “The late day sun is my edge”.
In the warm months Ernie does this
about twice weekly, and has for years. It
began in his youth with his dad, on trips
he fondly recalls, and dad now 78 still
accompanies him on short hike-ins. He
hasn’t always fished just the high lakes as
he does now, but is convinced that too
many of today’s fisherman won’t or can’t
walk over 50 yards and so one can’t cast
beyond 50 feet, so the rivers are too
crowded.
Recent advent of the GPS has made it
much easier to locate jeep access trails
and reduce the hiking lengths, and he
has been able to locate and enjoy many
new locations. Sometimes in the spring
and fall he snowshoes in and out from his
jeep. Although he’s never encountered a
bear or lion, he has seen tracks, and admits
that occasionally in the dimming
light or darkness a chill runs up his spine!
He rarely sees other people, and enjoys
the sense of adventure and solitude in
pristine settings. He says the lakes settings
are a means to his ends to capture
the whole experience … but that he likes
to catch fish too, and does with only few
exceptions.
Surprisingly, Ernie appears to be neither a
fitness addict nor a technical fly fishing
enthusiast. He relates many uphill hardbreathing
rests and rummages through
“I believe the 50:50 Rule, and that’s
what drives me to the backcountry lakes.”
Ernie Oetter
his fly box picking out the flies he likes
by appearance (mostly darker shades
and about size 18 the smallest) from
familiarity rather than by names. I saw
among them some adams, caddis, wulff
& coachman, and also some red worms,
ants and assorted streamers & buggers.
Ernie says that for him, buying flies is
like “buying hope”.
Ernie’s favorite equipment consists of a
9’, 6-wt fly rod with a 9’ leader and 5x
or 6X tippet, and also an 8’ fly rod with
a spinning reel and bubble rig. He explains
that his fly choices get larger as
the light fades, and he relates various
lake fishing lore he has gleaned from
his successes. Depending upon the
terrain, he says stealth is sometimes
necessary. In recent years he mostly
catches cutthroats, though in past years
rainbows were most common.
Ernie has been generous to Trout
Unlimited. He owns Panache Catering
and the Terrace Gardens Event & Conference
Center, and has made the facility
available for CTU and the CCA and
Cutthroat Chapters several times recently
for an auction and fly tying clinic.
In addition, he also has donated a
guided alpine fishing trip to the raffle.

The Cherry Creek CAST is edited & published bi-monthly.
Dennis Cook, Editor
Phone: (303) 841-3612
Email: coloradocooks@comcast.net
TROUT UNLIMITED
Trout Unlimited’s mission is to conserve, protect and
restore North America’s trout and salmon fisheries and
their watersheds. TU accomplishes this on local, state
and national levels with an extensive and dedicated
volunteers network.
Embrace-A-Stream is TU’s conservation program that
provides financial grants to chapters to support such
grassroots projects as waterway reconstruction, aquatic
habitat restoration, sediment reduction and watershed
preservation.
TU’s national and regional offices employ professionals
who testify before congress, publish a quarterly magazine,
intervene in federal legal proceedings and work
with its 142,000 volunteers in 450 chapters nationwide
to keep them active and involved in conservation issues.
Cherry Creek Anglers, with over 400 members, was
formed in 2004 from its predecessor Aurora Anglers
Chapter that originated in 1985. We are among Colorado’s
eighteen TU Chapters with over 8,000 members.
THE CHALLENGE! Do you feel like you’re constantly
in a big pressure cooker — on a treadmill and can’t get
off?
How many times have you said to yourself, “If only I could
relax more ...”
THE OPPORTUNITY! This can be your big chance
— an easy and enjoyable step toward slowing down that
rat race and restoring the sanity you’re missing.
Cherry Creek Anglers are a laid back bunch that can help
you kick the stress habit. Meet people who are already
doing what you lament wanting to do.
Cherry Creek Anglers meetings are open to everyone, so
bring a friend!
Enjoy fine programs by well-known (and yes, even some
famous) guests, and maybe you'll also win one (or more)
of the great fishing raffle prizes.
Come join us. We're all about making new friends and
fishing buddies, and having fun!
God didn’t put trout
in ugly places!
We’re on the web!
www.cherrycreekanglers.org
Cherry Creek Anglers meets monthly
on the 2nd Thursday, at 7:00PM in the
Lodge Meeting Room
at Gander Mountain Sports in Aurora.
Cherry Creek Anglers — Trout Unlimited #474
6019 N. Belmont Way
Parker, CO 80134
TO: