History

Our chapter was founded in the summer of 1988, when a small group of local anglers gathered at Hanover, PA’s Green Spring Gun Club for our first meeting. Lead by our founder and first President, the late Doug Emlet, we slowly gained momentum during a rather modest beginning. In those days, it wasn’t unusual for us to ‘pass the hat’ at meetings just to cover the cost of the room. Back then, our home stream was still a relatively unknown, stocked put-and take-fishery. One of our first activities was ‘float stocking’ (pictured) - evenly distributing the fish from a floating box over the entire length of the stream.

We’ll never know if spreading the fish out like that gave them a better chance to survive and eventually create a wild, self-sustaining population, but we like to think we at least helped a little. We also began to tackle our first stream improvement projects, relying on donated logs and stone to construct deflectors and other in-stream devices to mitigate erosion. Over time, as our stream and its wild trout population began to mature, so did our chapter. Membership grew, and a few fundraising banquets began to pad our coffers a little. We began to network and build relationships with landowners, municipalities, agencies and other partners and many of those relationships remain today. A lot has evolved since then: the sport of fly fishing, the science behind stream restoration, the objectives of Trout Unlimited and more. We’ve also faced some challenges, like the construction of a sewage treatment plant in the Codorus watershed and some threats from large scale ag operations. Through it all, we’ve done our best to respond, adjust and adapt, and we’ve racked up some nice accomplishments and great memories in the process. Our creek and our chapter have persevered, and we look forward to many more years of rewarding work, with good fishing as the payback. We would like nothing more than for you to join us and get involved - we’re willing to bet you’ll enjoy it!