Run, Fish, and Give Back -- Driftless Flyathlon

Hi, friends!

In October, I'll be competing in the Driftless Flyathlon, a trail running and fly fishing event in northeast Iowa. Participants carry fishing gear on course, catch and photograph a trout on an official ruler, and earn time bonuses for the size of the fish caught. Participants also raise money and promote awareness of cold water habitat and regional restoration projects. Event founders and organizers call it "conservation through recreation." 

This year, money raised will support the purchase and permanent protection of riparian corridor and floodplain forest along Spring Branch Creek in Delaware County, near Manchester, Iowa. 

I'm very excited for this event, but I need your help. If you're able and if this sort of thing interests you, please consider donating to my fundraiser. For the first ten donations of $30 or more, I'll send you a dozen of my favorite dry flies for trout fishing in the Driftless and the Northwoods, flies that have a permanent place in my small, extremely curated fly box after consistently good fishing in a number of places. These are durable, buggy, fishy flies that I tie for my own use. I'll include six patterns, with at least two of each. 

You can read more about the Spring Branch Creek Project at https://www.inhf.org/what-we-do/protection/springbranch. 

Here's some additional information from the event organizers:

The Driftless Flyathlon is part of a series of races that started in Colorado through the non-profit Running Rivers. The race, however, is a fundraiser for cold water conservation projects in the state of Iowa. 

Over the past 8 years, we have fundraised over $121,000 and helped to fund significant projects at Yellow River State Forest and Northeast Iowa. 

We're proud to announce that the latest project we're sponsoring is the Spring Branch Creek Project, a 192-acre property in Delaware County adjacent to the Manchester Fish Hatchery. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation reached out in May to ask if we'd be interested in helping out in the fundraising effort. Some details: 

•  More than 4000 feet of Spring Branch Creek runs through the property and provides premier fishing opportunities for wild and stocked trout. This project area buffers the “Middle” and “Lower” spring sources that supply about 1000 gallons per minute of fresh water to the hatchery where trout are produced for stocking across Iowa. 
• Iowa DNR Fisheries Biologists have found that Spring Branch has one of the best populations of wild Brown Trout in Iowa with exceptional numbers of large trout. The stream also has native Brook Trout and Slimy Sculpin, a Species of Greatest Conservation Need. 
• Protection of this upland and floodplain will help improve the quality of water flowing through the hatchery and maintain existing fishing access on the 3/4 mile stretch that flows through the property. 

The Driftless Flyathlon donated $25,000 toward this project in late May of 2026! If you go to the project website, you can see that it is 62% funded already!