December 2009

News & Events

General Meeting - Tuesday, December 8, 2009

John Wester and Larry Gove will be presenting an introduction to center pin fishing after the Flea Market. This short demo will include rigging, casting, fighting and landing your fish, along with recomendations on where and when to fish for steelhead, browns and salmon.

CJTU December Meeting Flea Market

We will be hosting our fishing flea market at the beginning of our December 8, 2009 General Meeting. This is an oportunity for many of you to clear out that unused or surplus equipment.

The market will start at the earlier time of 7 pm, allowing us to also have our usual speaker presentation. We have a lot of fun and great deals when we run this market, so come early and don’t miss out! The details can be found here..

Fly Tying School 2010

Registration for the 2010 session is now open!
You can sign up at the general meeting on Tuesday
Get more information here!

Fly Tying Demo

Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010
Efinger Sporting Goods
10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Holiday Tying To Everyone

by Stuart Shafran

As part of the new CJTU community outreach program we will be holding a fly tying demonstration at Michael's Craft Store of Bridgewater. The event will be Saturday, December 12th, from 9am until 2pm. Our program will emphasize only patterns tied from materials found in the store. Our goals are to promote TU, increase membership, and to attract new students for the winter tying classes.

The demonstration tables will be featured at the front entrance. We will be greeting every shopper that comes in, so volunteers are required to brush their teeth and wear clean shirts. Holding this event in the middle of their holiday shopping season will guarantee us a large crowd. The store manager, who's father is a fellow angler and tyer, hopes this is the first of many programs from CJTU.

Credit for this event should be given to Jay 'Fishy' Fullum. He has held many such programs near his home in Albany, NY. During his last visit with us he complained how his busy schedule prevents him from participating more in these fun events. With his permission, several of Fishy's award winning patterns and variations will be on display. Wonderful friend and teacher that he is, he is always incouraging us to make his patterns our own...and to have fun!

Michael's is located between Route 28 and Patriot Stadium. For directions or to participate contact Stuart Shafran,

2010 Shows

by Dick Tutse

As usual we will be participating in two outdoor shows in January 2010. The first is the Garden State Outdoor Sportsmen's Show which will be held on Jan. 14-17, 2010 at the NJ Outdoor Convention and Exposition Center at the Raritan Center in Edison, NJ. We have participated in the show since its inception in the early 1980's. While it is not a fishing show per se there are displays for most kinds of outdoor activities and we have the largest booth next to the casting pond. We are changing our booth this year to attract more people and have some new surprises for the folks. If you are not participating in the show try to visit us some time during that weekend. As far as participation you are invited to help in one way or another. We are particularly in need of flies, especially pheasant tail and gold-ribbed hare-wing nymphs of all sizes. Please bring them to the Dec. and Jan. meetings. Also we need fly-tying instructors for the kids during that weekend. This is a very important part of the show and we are always short of help. Please contact me at to volunteer.

The other show is the annual Somerset Fly-fishing Show held on Jan. 22-24 at the Garden State Exhibition Center in Somerset. We only have a small booth in the lobby so we do not need volunteers to work the show. But you can come and sit in with us to rest your weary legs, spread fishing gossip and just say hello at any time during the show.

One more activity for January will be our annual fly-tying clinic held at Efinger Sporting Goods in Bound Brook. It will run from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010. This is during the 20% (30% for TU members)-off sale on fly fishing materials and equipment during the month of January at the store. Come and join us and get some great buys. Hope to see you guys as we design and display some new flies for the coming season.

Larry Gove in the pursuit of steelhead

President’s Letter

December 2009

Well the holiday season is upon us once again. I love this time of year but it does cut into the fishing time. Instead of hitting the streams, the weekends are filled with putting up decorations, cutting down Christmas trees and entertaining. I’m not complaining but I need to find a way to get back on the water before it gets hard.

Speaking of cold weather, when it’s too cold and nasty to fish it’s a perfect time to engage in my second passion, fly tying. Right before the Thanksgiving holiday, many of us attended the International Fly Tying Symposium, in Somerset, NJ. Myself and two other chapter members even attended a fly tying class. Johan Klingberg from Sweden gave a class on Czech Nymph patterns that was excellent. If you interested in learning how to tie flies your in luck. Next month we start our fly tying classes. We run programs for all skill levels, from beginner classes to workshops for experienced tiers. The classes start the third Tuesday in January and will run on the third and fourth Tuesdays of the month January through March. You can sign up at our December and January meetings or get additional information from our website. We will also be hosting two fly tying demonstrations in the upcoming months. The first one will be on December 12 at the Michael’s Craft Store in Bound Brook and the second one will be at Efinger Sporting Goods on January 9th. Efinger’s will be running a fantastic sale on fly tying supplies during this demo so come out and see us and stock up of needed supplies.

Next month CJTU will have a presence at two area shows. The first event is the The Garden State Outdoors Sportsman Show at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison NJ (January 14-17). At this show we are in desperate need of volunteers to help man our booth. Specifically we need folks that are willing to assist us in teaching fly tying to the children. . You do not need to be an expert tier! If you can tie a Wooley Bugger you can help out! We also need folks to donate flies for us to sell during the show. I want to take this opportunity to thank those of you have already given us flies. The second show will be the Fly Fishing Show at the garden State Convention Center in Somerset NJ (January 22-24).

We have been knocking around a few ideas for fundraising this year. We will be sending out our annual raffle next month. It will be a TU 50th Anniversary package with a rod, reel and a bunch of other goodies. In addition we a looking into bringing back our annual banquet or maybe even hosting a golf tournament. For prizes to give away at these event we would like to ask our members to donate services. We have had offers for everything from guided fishing trips to refinishing of antique furniture. If you think you have a service you can provide please contact one of the board of directors or shoot me an e-mail.

The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public forum to discuss freshwater fisheries culture, research, management and recreational angling in New Jersey on Saturday, December 5 at the Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery in Warren County. The forum will begin at 10:00 am. Topics will cover all aspects of freshwater management, including both warm-water and cold-water fisheries. This year's forum will also include a new poster style session highlighting 2009 field sampling and fish culture activities, as well as license purchasing trends. The new format should encourage open discussions between anglers and professional staff from the Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries, who will be on hand as well. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to share your views and recommendations regarding freshwater fisheries management in New Jersey!

Please remember that our December meeting is also our annual flea market. If you have any gear you are looking to get rid of bring it to the meeting. All we ask is that you donate a small portion of the proceeds back to the chapter. Set up will be around 6:00pm and we will open up an hour early at 7:00pm. In addition two of our chapter members will be giving a talk on center pin fishing. Have no idea what that is? Come out to the meeting and find out! Don’t miss it! Hope to see you there.

Tight Lines,
Bart Lombardo

You can contact Bart at

Fly of the Month

This month we have an interesting pattern from Bart Lombardo

I picked up this recipe for a caddis larva pattern from Johan Klingberg. Johan is a fly tier from Sweden who was one of the featured tiers at the Fly Tying Symposium over the weekend. This a great looking pattern that will sink like a rock. It will be an excellent pattern to fish with the Polish\Czech nymphing method. What made this pattern unique was the method in which the dubbing was applied to the hook shank to give that deep segmentation. Click here for the recipe !

Pequest Programs 2009

We have been informed that Pequest will once again be shutting its doors on weekends with the upcoming voluntary furlough days that Governor Corzine is imposing. Sorry for any inconvenience but all weekend programs are being cancelled.