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May 2011 |
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News & EventsGeneral Meeting - Tuesday, May 10, 2011Don Bastian
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Everything I Promised, And More!By Stuart Shafran
Stu and the crew at the Musky CleanupI used to think there were only two things in life that were inevitable, death and taxes. Unfortunately, trash along the banks of our streams, rivers, and roadways of our densely populated state makes three. Fortunately, there are those of us who are fed up with the sight of empty bottles, cans, and coffee cups and choose to do something about it. On Saturday, April 16th, volunteers from Trout Unlimited chapters, Musconetcong Watershed Association members, local residents, church groups, scouts, students, and teachers participated in the Annual Spring Clean Up along the Musconetcong River and tributaries. Our small army of three dozen volunteers from Central Jersey TU, Boy Scouts, and Hunterdon High School honor students managed to collect twelve tires, thirty bags of trash, and twenty bags of recyclables. We started along Shirtz Road covering the much neglected tributary to the river, then went into Hampton Boro Park. We then worked along River Road covering all the fishing access areas and parking lots up to the Point Mountain Preserve. We even collected trash along Route 57 just past Pemwell to Beattystown. Pretty impressive for one morning. Our small band covered more river that day than in the previous eight clean ups. The good weather held up just long enough to finish the clean up and afterwards the MWA provided lunch at the River Resource Center in Asbury. I promised good weather, laughter, and lunch. We had it. The T-shirts and snacks were a bonus. Hope to see you all again next, and more! 
More photos from the cleanup can be seen here! |
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Point Mountain Stockingby Rich Post
Rich Post and the Musky stocking teamOur most recent stocking at the Musconetcong Point Mountain TCA was on April 29. Two new volunteers Fred Simonson and Allen Kessel along with Dan Rodriquez from TU's North Jersey chapter were on hand to help out. All of us are registered NJWCC volunteers. As we have stressed in our past general meetings it is important that all those who want to volunteer for any NJ state sanctioned stream restoration projects or stocking programs must register with The NJ Fish and Wildlife Division. It was good to see that a good number of applications were picked up, completed, and returned to us for submission. Since ample help was available the 200 to 250 (one 4x4 load) brown trout were evenly distributed from a point above the first good run below the old building foundations to the last rapids in sight of the bridge. There were about four large trout in the 4 to 5 lb. range that were spread out as we moved down river. All the fish appeared to be in real good shape which allowed us enough time to transport them throughout the entire lower section. All had a very enjoyable morning discussing various fishing tales before and after the stocking. If more members become involved in our TU projects, it just makes it easier for us to complete them successfully. Fred and I fished for several hours afterwards with limited success. The Musky was just a little too high to be really fishable. Hope you enjoy the photos. That's Dan holding one of those big browns with Allen looking on. 
More photos from the stocking can be seen here! |
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President’s LetterMay 2011This spring is turning out to be a cool, wet season. Great for the trout, not so good for the trout fisherman that does not want to fish in the rain or deal with the high water. If getting wet and the fear of drowning is not enough to keep you the off the water you'll find fish and lots of them. All this water is a good thing and personally I would like to see the trend continue. The more water in the system the better the chance of good hold over populations through the warmer months of late spring and summer. A down side to all this high water is some of the classic insect hatches of early spring become lost opportunities. The insects always find a way to come off and replenish their populations but adverse water and weather conditions may impede fishing. On some rivers traditional insects like Hendricksons made their usual appearance and on other waters they were noticeably absent, but rest assured they came and went as usual. This past April we had our annual cleanup of the Musconetcong River. We noticed an increase in volunteer turn out from CJTU which was great to see. Thank you to all of our members who came out on a rainy morning to help clean up our waterways. We are looking for volunteers for a fly fishing class we are giving for the Millstone Watershed Association on June 25th. This will be our first endeavor with this organization and we are looking forward to it. I have commitments from a half a dozen people so far, but I can use a few more instructors. Don't be scared away by the term "instructor". If you can show some one a basic roll cast and overhand cast you'll do just fine. The group we hope to instruct are beginners and we are set up to deliver a presentation on the basics of fly fishing. What we need are a few more volunteers to work with individuals one on one with their casting and hopefully the landing of their fish. We will be conducting the lessons on one of the association's warm water ponds. I'll have more details in the next issue of MainStream. If you are interested see me at next week's meeting or drop me an email at president@CJTU.org. Fundraising was a big topic at our last director's meeting. We will be discussing some of the ideas presented at this month's meeting. I look forward to additional feedback from the general membership on this topic. I am confident that we can get our fundraising efforts back on track despite the poor economy. Our Point Mountain stocking program received some new volunteer help last month. Over two hundred and seventy five trout were stocked in this stretch of river by our volunteers. We have two more stocking dates in May if anyone is interested in helping out. Reach out for Rich Post or myself at the next meeting and we can give you all the details. We also have a event coming up in June on the Rutgers campus where we are giving casting and fly tying demonstrations. I'll be speaking more about it at this month's meeting. Before I wrap things up I want to mention that our June meeting will be taking place on the THIRD TUESDAY instead of the second Tuesday. Please make a note of the change. That's it for now I hope you get a chance to enjoy some of the fine fishing there is to be had this spring, just bring your rain jacket!
Tight Lines, |
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Fly of the Month“Delektable Lil' Spanker”
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Click here for the recipe ! |
