February 2011

News & Events

General Meeting - Tuesday, February 8, 2011

CJTU “Fly Tying Night”

Our February monthly meeting is going to be a little different. Instead of our usual guest speaker We are going to be hosting a night of fly tying. Members from our chapter will be sharing their knowledge of the art of fly tying. If you are a fly tier or thinking about getting into this fascinating hobby this is going to be a great night out. CJTU members will be sharing their favorite patterns and fly tying techniques.

At this workshop you will be able to ask questions of the tiers or even sit down at a vice and get hands on instructions. This event is open to everyone, the more folks we can get to attend the better the event will be. We probably have over a dozen fly tiers that have committed themselves but we can accommodate many more.

If you are a fly tier I encourage you to bring your vice and some materials and join us. Please don't feel you need to be an expert tier to join in, beginners and novices are encouraged to participate. In fact one of the best ways to learn, is to tie along side an experienced fly tier. We will be setting up around 7:30pm and will have an abbreviated business meeting at 8:00 then settle in for a night of fly tying.

CJTU Fly Tying Demo

Efingers Sporting Goods
Saturday, February 12, 2011

Due to a change in management at the NJ Outdoor Sportsman show, Central Jersey had an entirely new location at the Raritan Expo Center this year. After decades of being located in the middle row of the Expo Center, both CJTU and the casting pond were moved towards the back near the animal demos and shows. Fortunately our concerns were for naught, as the show has been expanded with more vendors and the foot traffic we got from families attending the various shows made this another very successful event for CJTU.

We did quite well selling raffle tickets for (another first for us) a choice between a starter fly rod or spinning rod & reel that we gave away on the last day of the show. Barry Russo was super busy selling flies all weekend and brought in a sizeable chunk of cash into the CJTU coffers. Ozzie was wowing folks with his underwater videos, the live trout in the aquarium  held up nicely all weekend, and that foot traffic with families kept our members busy helping kids to tie their own fly.

President’s Letter

February 2011

I have been hearing a lot of complaining about the winter weather this year. There have been above normal amounts of snow and cold temperatures, but I am loving it. Granted, I am not getting out fishing as much as previous winters. In fact I have only been out once since the beginning of the year, but I am getting in a lot of fly tying time and my fly boxes were in desperate need of replenishment. All this snow and ice should mean that we can expect normal possibly even high spring time flows in our area streams and rivers. We have had some low water years in the past and low water is typically bad news for our wild and hold over trout populations. So the next time you have to go out and shovel the driveway or scrape a 1/2" of ice off your windshield remember all this water is slowly seeping into the ground and is good for our fish.

Last month old man winter caused us to cancel our general meeting. Hopefully most of you got the word. In the event we need to cancel a meeting due to inclement weather or some other unforeseen event we will attempt to get the word out in several ways. We will sent out an Action Alert via e-mail to everyone who receives this news letter. So if you are reading this, you will receive an e-mail advising you that the meeting has been cancelled. We will also post a prominent message on our homepage at www.cjtu.org in regards to the cancelled meeting. Finally we ask that if you receive a message about a meeting cancellation make some phone calls to your friends who may not have access to the internet and advise them of the situation.

Since our fly tying night never took place due to the cancelled meeting we decided to push it back to February. So this week's meeting will feature a fly tying workshop. A dozen or more of the chapter's best tiers will be on hand showing off their skills and will entertain any questions you may have on this topic. If you are a fly tier you are welcome to bring your equipment out and join us. This will be a great opportunity to learn from some great tiers or get some insight into some "secret" local patterns. We will be setting up a little early and will not have our normal business meeting beforehand.

We spent last week stuffing envelopes with this year's fundraising raffle. The letters have gone out and some of you may have already received yours. This year we are giving away four days of fishing on the Delaware River with guide Ben Turpin. This trip will include guided float trips on each day, lodging, meals and even your flies. All you will need is your own gear and the appropriate fishing licenses.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped out at last month's shows. We raised a record breaking amount of funds mostly in part to our fly sales and rod and fly raffles. I want to thank everyone who has tied flies for our shows and our raffle prize. I would like to recognize a few of our members in particular. First is Leon Cheeka who supplied about half of the flies in our raffle prize. A lot of members came forward with flies and my original plan was to continue collecting flies from members for several months thinking it would take that long to fill the box. Thanks to Leon we had it filled by December and were able to sell raffle tickets at both area shows. Leon has also supplied most os the vast number of flies that we sell at our shows. Secondly, I would like to recognize Barry Russo who has made it is personal mission to break records in fly sales each year. This year he did it again! I would also like to thank everyone who takes time out of their busy schedule to help up us set up, take down and man the booths at these events. But there is one individual who is really responsible for making all this happen. That man is Dick Turse. Dick has been the chapter president for as long as I can remember and served several terms as president in the past. Dick is responsible for making all of the arrangements for these events and also coordinates all of the chapter's fund raising activities. The chapter would have a hard time existing with out the dedication of these individuals.

Thats all i have for now. We have some great presentations lined up for the rest of this year so I encourage everyone to get out and attend our monthly meetings. It is always a great evening out, especially during this time of year. With a winter like this one talking about fishing may be as good as it gets unless you are an ice fisherman!

Bart

Fly of the Month

“Tuxedo Nymph” by Bart Lombardo

Tuxedo Nymph Click here for the recipe !