The board of directors tries to meet six times per year, or bimonthly.
At left: DNR District Fisheries
Biologist Steve Sendek
(second from r.) gives the Anglers board a status
report on an ongoing fisheries project on the
Au Sable's South Branch. Conservation
professionals are routinely invited to board
meetings to discuss common issues and concerns.
(1997)
The Board of Directors has scheduled the following meeting dates to conduct the business of the organization:
All
meetings begin at 10:00 AM EST(EDT) and are held in the Board Room at Gates
Au Sable Lodge (click on map at left to expand).
All members are welcome to attend. Non-members wishing to attend should contact Jay Gleason at jaywgleason@email.msn.com at least one calendar week in advance of the meeting. Members may request board meeting minutes by contacting secretary John Novak at cnovak@peoplepc.com.
A cleanup crew walks the Au Sable's main
branch in search
their quarry: cans, shoes and other debris. Photo: D. Sawyer.
On September 7, 2002, the Anglers of the Au Sable held its eighth annual clean up of the Au Sable River..
More than 200 volunteers were ready for work with Rusty's famous poking sticks and trash bags in hand.
Volunteers, divided into four- to eight-person teams, then put on their waders to walk more than 100 combined miles of river, filling bags with trash to be picked up by riverboats and canoes piloted by fly fishing guides and anglers. This year's clean up not only included the three branches of the Au Sable, but teams working the river between Mio Dam and Cummins Flats. On the Mainstream, crews walked ten different stretches from Burton's Landing to Camp Chicago. On the South Branch, sixteen sections were covered from Chase Bridge to the mouth and on the North Branch, seven stretches were cleaned from Dam 4 to Mac's Island.
Treasurer Pat Dwyer with some of the day's haul. Photo: D. Sawyer.
The Au Sable is enjoyed throughout the summer months by canoeists, tubers and fisherman. But debris such as bottles, cans, shoes, shorts, bathing suits, and other litter from overturned watercraft and careless visitors is an unfortunate consequence. As would be expected, the largest collection of debris was found below narrow runs where logjams trap misdirected canoes and other unguided watercraft. Toilets, sinks, small refrigerators, tires, and other junk were also removed from these waters. A seemingly unusual find was a note in an empty sealed wine bottle with a gold dollar coin taped to the bottom. Austin Andrus had signed the note asking the finder to send him a reply. Although Austin's address was not included, a call to father Bob who lives in the Grayling area provided the missing information along with the disappointment that the bottle only traveled about 2 miles. Maybe if Austin had placed the bottle in the river after the clean up, it might have made it to Mio, Oscoda, or who knows where.
The late Gates Au Sable Lodge guide Craig
Perry (r.) surveys the
"catch" he and his partner collected from the wading crews.
Photo: D. Sawyer
Giving the river a cleaning is one way to restore the pristine beauty of this precious resource. For crews and boat captains returning from the river, big burgers, fresh corn, potato salad, Gina Lyons' delicious cookies, and refreshments were available on the lawn outside the Lodge for the annual George A. Alexander Memorial Luncheon. Even the sun was shining at that point.
This annual event has become a very successful endeavor because concerned anglers have been willing to pitch in to haul out. Property owners along the river are also a huge part of the event, allowing access to the stream and guiding teams from point to point.
Local sponsors who provided their support were Waste
Management, Central Michigan Lumber, Dubois Lumber, Sysco Food Service, Larry
and Joan's Place, Fick and Son's, and Local
Color Brewery of Novi. Please let them know you appreciate their support.
Our thanks to Rusty and Julie Gates for providing the workspace at the Lodge,
for all the work in making clean up crew assignments and to countless others
who donated their time and money for a great cause.
“Clean-Up 2004” will be held the first Saturday after Labor Day weekend, September 11, 2004. Please plan ahead. To sign-up to clean a section of the upper Au Sable, please contact Rusty Gates at gator@freeway.net. Volunteers interested in the sections below Mio are asked to contact Kelly Neuman (contact information to be added soon).
The
Anglers holds its annual membership meeting each September. The purpose of the
Annual Meeting is to report on the year's activities, including projects, spending
and other matters. Approximately half of the 24-member board of directors' terms
expire each year (they were staggered at the organization's founding so a new
slate of directors would not be required to be proposed each fiscal year); candidates
to fill these positions are nominated by the Nominating Committee, which also
solicits nominations from the members in attendance. The slate of candidates
is then accepted and a vote is taken. At the conclusion of the Annual Meeting,
a brief board meeting is called for the sole purpose of electing offices, the
Executive Board, and setting the upcoming fiscal year's board meeting dates.
Picture (l. to r.): Director Dan Drislane
with former DNR Mio District
Fisheries Biologist Dave Smith, former Hunt Creek Fisheries
research Station chief Gaylord Alexander, and Dave Cozad
of Mainstream Resources at the Anglers' 1993 Annual Meeting,
the theme of which was "Stream Improvement and Water
Quality." Alexander and Cozad were two of the five speakers.
At left: Cover of 1995 Annual Meeting brochure.
Since 1988, the Anglers have regularly participated in the Michigan Fly Fishing Club's Michigan Fly Fishing Exposition. The two-day weekend event is held each year at the Southfield, Michigan Civic Center on Evergreen Road, just south of I-696 (map). Its a great way to reestablish contact with our members as well as expose prospective members to the organization. We also raffle a Winston fly rod and sell hats, patches and pin, as well as Anglers apparel.
The Anglers attended the 2003 event, which was held March 10-11. The booth was the most successful ever. We sold all 500 Winston Rod Raffle tickets this year. Please make a point of dropping by the booth to say hello at next year's event, scheduled for March 9 & 10, 2004..
At right (l. to r.): Dan Drislane,
Carl Glotzhober and Mike Fennell
work the Anglers booth at the 1991 Michigan Fly Fishing
Exposition. (Carl worked tirelessly for many years at the
Anglers booth. We wish him well in a well deserved retirement.)
If you're interested in helping at the Expo (or at another event), please contact Dan Drislane at ddrislane@globalbiz.net.
The Great Lakes Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers holds an outstanding three-day conclave each June coinciding with Father's Day weekend. The GLC summer conclave held at the DNR's Ralph A. MacMullen Conference Center on North Higgins Lake (map). This is a great event for the entire family, and the Anglers urge everyone to consider attending. The conclave is also a great way to introduce fly fishers to the Federation. The 2001 Conclave will be held on June 15, 16 & 17. For more information on the Great Lakes Summer Conclave, contact director Jim Schramm at jdschramm@oceana.net.
At left: Fly tying as an art form:
FFF President Keith Groty taking time out for one of the Conclave's more revealing
contests.(1992)
Please contact Dan Drislane at ddrislane@globalbiz.net.
© Copyright , Anglers of the Au Sable, Inc. All rights reserved. Last modified: June 28, 2004