Recent Posts

Posted in Citizen Science Rock Run

Rock Run Water Test Results for February

Linn Run February 1, 2025
Linn Run February 1, 2025

The citizen scientists were out on a cold Saturday morning collecting water samples at the mouth of Rock Run.

Air Temperature: 26° F
Water Temperature: 34° F
Linn Run Flow: N/A
Linn Run Discharge: 4.66 ft³/sec
pH: 6.7
Alkalinity: 4.8
Conditions: High and Clear

Melting snow and rain brought up the flow which usually brings the alkalinity down but it was only down slightly from January. Although 4.8 is still considered low alkalinity, we no longer are noticing downward spikes of 1.5 with high water.

Soon we will begin testing the headwaters of Linn Run before and after placement of limestone sand there.

Posted in Fishing
Posted in Trout In The Classrom

FTTU Volunteers Help with TIC Egg Packing

Fish Egg Packing Crew
Fish egg packing crew
Eggs Ready To Go
TIC trout eggs ready to ship. FTTUers stand out in their blue FTTU shirts.

One week after helping get the Trout-in-the-Classroom trout food packed and shipped out to schools, FTTU volunteers returned to Benner Springs Hatchery to assist with packing the fish eggs.

That’s right, live trout eggs are packed in ice and shipped out to over 400 schools across Pennsylvania. Our guys have plenty of experience with this having helped out for several years now.

Students learn about a Coldwater ecosystem by raising trout from eggs in a classroom aquarium. The fish are released into a Coldwater stream as fingerling trout at the conclusion of the school year.

Posted in Trout In The Classrom

FTTU Volunteers Help with TIC Fish Food Shipping

FTTU Volunteers
FTTU was represented by (L-R) Rick Yaksic, Brian Zimmerman, Ron Rodgers, Bill Somogyi and Rick Lynch.

On January 8th, 2025, five FTTU volunteers traveled up to the Benner Springs fish hatchery near State College to help pack and ship trout food out to Trout-in-the-Classroom Schools all across Pennsylvania.

Did you know our state has the largest TIC program in the nation with 460 participating classrooms? Look at all those boxes!

Next week, the guys will be back to help with packing up the trout eggs.

Ron Rodgers and Rick Lynch
FTTU's Ron Rodgers and Rick Lynch
Filling TIC Food Box
Ron Rodgers loads up a box of TIC trout food
Group Shot of all Volunteers
FTTU made up a high percentage of the total number of volunteers. What would they do without us!
Posted in Citizen Science Rock Run

Rock Run Water Tests 1.4.24

RockRun_1.4.25
Denny Hess and Ron Miller collect water samples from Rock Run on January 4, 2025

“Neither snow nor rain…” the saying goes. The FTTU citizen scientists kicked off the new year on a bitter cold day at Linn Run State Park. Several inches of snow and 16 degree temperatures greeted the testers making conditions difficult for conducting water tests.

The Results:
Air Temperature: 16°F
Water Temperature: 31°F
Linn Run Gauge: 1.87′
Linn Run Discharge: 4.66 ft³/sec
pH: 7.1
Alkalinity: 5.4

Posted in Citizen Science Rock Run

Rock Run Water Tests 12.4.24

Rock Run Ice

Here’s the results of Rock Run water tests from the last month of 2024.

Air Temperature – 35° F
Water Temperature – 36.5° F
pH – 7.0
Alkalinity – 6.7

Linn Run Gauge – 1.87′
Linn Run Discharge – 4.49 ft³/sec

Good to see Rock Run and Linn Run back to normal flows.

Here are the final results of another year of water quality testing at the mouth of Rock Run.

Final pH Chart 2024

Posted in Youth Education

Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp

Rivers Conservation Camp Logo

The 2025 Rivers Conservation Camp is now accepting applications for the 2025 camp.

The early acceptance period is open now through December 31, 2024.

The camp runs from June 15-25, 2025 at Messiah College in Grantham, PA (near Yellow Breeches Creek).

FTTU is interested in sponsoring at least one student (ages 14-17)  from our area to attend the camp.

For more information visit
 http://riverscamp.com

If you know of an area youth interested in attending the camp, contact FTTU at info@forbestrailtu.org

Posted in Fund Raising

Congratulations Raffle Winners!

Here are the winning numbers drawn Thursday evening November 21 for our Autumn Special fundraiser

5624
4420
2378
5576
2406
3355
5940
3495
5868

It came down to the wire but we beat our old record of 843 raffle tickets sold by one with 844 tickets sold for our annual autumn fundraiser.

The deal was for us to draw a winning number for each 100 tickets sold but we decided to round up and draw nine winners and donate $600 to the Westmoreland Food Bank.

The winning numbers are listed to the left. The winners have all been contacted. If you have a voicemail from Forbes Trail Trout Unlimited, call back right away, you may be a winner!

Thank you for making this another successful fund raising event.

Posted in Chapter Business

Officers and Directors Elected for 2024-2025

A new slate of Officers and Directors was elected at FTTU’s Annual Meeting on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.

FTTU’s officers for 2024-2025 looks a lot like last year’s. Larry Myers is back by popular demand as President, Rick Yaksic returns as Vice President, Ron Rodgers retains the duties of Treasurer and Scott Minster is back as Secretary.

Returning Directors include Rod Cross, Bill Somgyi and Milt Claney. The newly elected Directors are Barb Hauger, Dan Ferguson and Brian Zimmerman.

Barb, Dan and Brian replace outgoing Directors Angie Schultheis, Hank Balles and Doug Yocabet.

Many thanks to Angie, Hank and Doug for their service to the chapter.

In other news, Michelle Dunlevy has agreed to take over as chair of the Diversity Committee now that Angela Schultheis has taken the responsibility of Education Committee chair.

Welcome Michelle!

Officers 2024
Officers (L-R) Monty Murty, Past President; Larry Myers, President; Ron Rodgers, Treasurer; Scott Minster, Secretary; Rick Yaksic, Vice President
Directors 2024
Board of Directors (L-R) Dan Ferguson, Brian Zimmerman, Rod Cross and Bill Somogyi. Not Pictured, Barb Hauger and Milt Claney.
Posted in Fishing Veterans

Some More Photos From the Vets and First Responders Fishing Outing 10.5.24