Trip Details:

Location: Wautoma, WI 

Accommodations:  Local motels, see below

Contact: Jeff Goad, jeffery.goad@gmail.com

 

Dates:  May 19th-21st, 2023

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This trip truly connects you to a place that was instrumental to the modern day concepts of famous conservationist like Aldo Leopold, Bob Hunt and Elward Engle! This is “the” chapter work trip where you have the opportunity to work shoulder to shoulder with our brother chapter, CWTU, in one of the many spring fed streams that make this area so special. Coordinating our work day is one of the most talented DNR crews in the entire country, under the enthusiastic direction of Shawn Sullivan. You’ll use the latest real world techniques to deepen, narrow or reinforce key portions of these famous streams. We make donations to many chapters, but the reward and satisfaction you’ll receive in the actual stream work is priceless.

 

Our hosts appreciate our donations and work effort so much that they not only feed us lunch after the Saturday morning session, but they share some of their favorite fishing honey holes. You’ll be able to toss dryflies to well-educated trout on the same gin clear waters as many members of “Le Shack” have done for decades. The chapter completes their salute to EDTU with another meal Saturday night that can only be described as fit for a “Gourmand”.

 

Stay: Lodging is at the cozy and historic family-owned Silvercryst Supper Club & Motel on the shores of Silver Lake, Wautoma, Wisconsin.

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At approx 3:15 hours away, it is an hour closer than the Driftless Area in Wisconsin.

 

Cost: Single $80- $100, Double $50-65

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​The Streams:

 

This popular fishing locale is notable for the pioneers of environmental preservation it has inspired. John Muir, though born in Scotland, grew up in the Sand Counties. Aldo Leopold penned his A Sand County Almanac in 1948 at the shack he retreated to here on weekends. The Almanac is required reading for all of us who care about how man and nature can live in harmony. In it, Leopold defines a land ethic, that "enlarges the boundaries of community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."

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The landscape is flat to gently rolling, with extremely sandy soil, created by the terminal thrust of Ice Age glaciers. Sand county streams run deep and gin clear. Some flow over a bed of gravel, strewn with boulders rolled south by the glaciers. Some meander over outwash sand and gravel, with silt margins, while others reveal stretches of sand alternating with pitches around boulders. A few, like the Little Wolf, rush downhill among rocks and over ledges.

Many of these streams hold significant numbers of trout. Water quality is so good that there is a natural reproduction of brooks, browns and rainbows. Historically, Wisconsin DNR shocking surveys have discovered as many as 7,000 adult trout per mile. This was extraordinary; today 2,500 can be expected. There are many, many miles of quality trout water in the Sand Counties.