June 2011

News & Events

Remember, the June meeting is being held on the third Tuesday of the month

General Meeting - Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Brian Cowden
“Musconetcong Home Rivers Update”

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

Meeting starts at 8 PM - Non Members are always welcome!

Brian will be talking about progress to date on dam removals, channel restoration, tributary projects, and riparian buffer plantings.

Brian Cowden is on TU’s Eastern Conservation staff serving as the Coordinator for the Musconetcong Home Rivers Initiative in northwest New Jersey. He has been a life long conservationist active in causes related to New Jersey’s outdoor pursuits. His interest in conservation led Brian to become an active TU volunteer running Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program as state-wide coordinator. Later, Brian joined TU’s New Jersey state council as vice chair.

After 20 years in corporate sales, Brian joined the Eastern Conservation staff in February 2008. The Musconetcong Home Rivers Initiative is designed to work closely with landowners and non-profit, local, state and federal agencies, as well as performing public outreach and education to protect and restore the beautiful Musconetcong River and its tributaries in this 158 square mile watershed that drains into the Delaware River.

When not working in the “Musky”, Brian is known to follow his Brittany through the grouse and woodcock uplands or fly fish for trout or striped bass. Brian resides with his wife and daughter near the upper Musconetcong watershed in northwestern New Jersey.

Program Survey Request from Dick Turse

In an attempt to improve and liven up our monthly general meetings the Board of Directors has decided to ask for your help and advice. While slide shows presented by name speakers following a period of business has been our routine program for years it does present some problems. First, the speakers do cost big money frequently. Second, we have heard many of them more than once and the presentations often appear to be similar in nature from one speaker to the next. On the other hand many new members come for the first time and pick up much valuable information to use in their quest for knowledge. So we need to balance these ideas.

Nevertheless we would like to know what you, our membership. would like to see at our monthly meetings. I do not want to make a list of suggestions for you to vote on to see what you might want I would like you to tell me your ideas, thoughts, suggestions, complaints, and recommendations.. You can think along traditional lines or think outside the box. We, as Officers and Directors, want to enjoy the meetings as well as you and we sometimes get bogged down in what we did in the past. We need new thoughts and ask you to send them to me. Our website at present is not geared for surveys or suggestive input so please send your thoughts to my e-mail address, dickturse@optonline.net. I hope I hear from many of you but am also fearful of overloading my e-mail box so try to be short and concise with your comments.

President’s Letter

June 2011

This spring has been a cool wet one up to now. As I write this the thermometer is threatening to reach 100 degrees and we have been a solid two weeks without any significant rain. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come. I was hoping the cool weather and abundant water would extend our New Jersey trout fishing well into June. If this weather trend continues it may come to an end sooner than expected. We need to remind ourselves to give the trout a break during the warmer parts of the year. Generally, you should not fish for trout when water temperatures are 70 degrees or higher. Instead of trout fishing there are plenty of warm water and salt water opportunities available. Myself, I find it difficult to stay away from trout fishing, so I travel. Many areas to the north and west of New Jersey still offer first class trout fishing throughout the summer.

I want to remind everyone that we will not be meeting on the second Tuesday of June for our general meeting. Our meeting will take place on the third Tuesday at the usual time.

Throughout the day on Thursday, June 16th CJTU will be manning a table at the Sustainable Raritan River Conference at Rutgers University. At 4 pm we will be conducting a casting demonstration at the same location.

On June 25th we will be conducting a fly fishing seminar for the Millstone River Watershed Association, at their pond in Pennington New Jersey. The class will run from 10:00am until 3:00pm. We are still looking for volunteers to help out. If you interested drop me an e-mail and I will forward you the particulars.

Finally I would like to remind everyone that we do not hold regular meetings during the months of July and August. Our regular meetings will commence on the second Tuesday in September. I hope everyone has an safe and enjoyable summer.

Tight Lines,
Bart

Fly of the Month

“Golden Stonefly Nymph”
by Bart Lombardo

This pattern has been particularly effective over the last few weeks. Many of our local streams have seen an emergence of large stone flies in late May. Fish have been keying in on these large nymphs as they move towards the shore to crawl onto to the bank in the evenings to molt into winged adult stoneflies.

Click here for the recipe !