Vaughn is NOT a member of Trout Unlimited and if he was at one point, it’s been a long time. Considering his position, the primary reason he’s not a member is because he could be falsely and cheaply accused of being in a position of conflict of interest. Beyond, I can assure you Mark, and everyone else reading this, that he is not “best buds” with any current or PAST board members of Hiawatha including the other name you dropped. It’s highly unfortunate that anyone would feel the need to randomly name-drop and likewise malign the hard working individuals of our DNR fisheries department in a selfish motive to undermine their efforts at providing more fishing opportunities to local anglers.

So what if the word of regulations proposals was first thrown out on Hiawatha’s newsletter!? Conflict of interest? Big fat ‘whatever’. Our newsletter goes out via mail and email to hundreds of current and past TU members and is also viewable to anyone who wants to visit hiawathatu.org. If anyone’s got their undies in a bunch over something like that, they’ve got too much time on their hands.