General Meeting
Tuesday, December 10th, 2019
Annual Holiday Gathering with Fly Tying
Please join us at our next General Membership meeting on Tuesday, December 10th featuring our annual Holiday Gathering with Fly Tying. The action starts at 7:30 pm at the American Legion Hall, 137 New Market Road in Dunellen, NJ.
As in past December meetings, we invite our talented CJTU fly tiers to demonstrate their patterns, techniques and general prowess to other attendees. So if you are one of these tiers, bring you materials and tools and be prepared to show off.
First, we want to encourage those who have never tied a fly to get started. So please invite any friends, neighbors, spouses, family members, significant others or whatever that fit this category to the meeting or come yourself and one of our excellent instructors will provide guidance in tying a first fly. Tools and materials will be provided. And if you are inspired by what you see, sign up for the fly tying courses that CJTU will be sponsoring starting February 2020.
Second, for existing tiers who have questions about a particular pattern or technique, bring the relevant hook and materials and your own vice and tools and our instructors will guide you in answering your questions. Could it be that none can help? We doubt it. But maybe you can wipe the smug confidence off their faces to the delight of all attendees.
Finally, for those who never have or never will tie flies, we invite you to share social interactions with other Chapter Members. A few surprises may be in store too (I think that RSVP from Santa arrived ;)), so come on down and have a great time.
Fly Tying Materials Sale
In addition to our fly tying activities, we will be hosting an estate sale of sorts for long-time member Harvey Roberson who past away recently. His family donated his fishing and fly tying equipment, allowing us to use it as a fundraiser for the chapter. Please consider coming out to the meeting and perhaps make a purchase. You will be paying tribute to a great friend of Trout Unlimited and helping out your chapter at the same time!
Tuesday, January 14, 2019
Tom Gilmore Presents
“ New Jersey Fly Fishing Dream Season”
New Jersey has 158 streams and almost 1,000 miles of trout production water, 41 are managed as Wild Trout Streams. Lake trout reproduce in two of our reservoirs and landlocked salmon are stocked in five of our coldwater lakes. North Woods species like walleye, northern pike and muskies are available in numerous lakes and reservoirs. Our lakes continue to produce trophy size bass and pickerel. Our shad fishery is the best on the east coast. Our beaches and bays provide excellent fishing for stripers and blues. Our inshore small tuna fishery is back in full force. Our offshore boats continue to produce record numbers of white marlin, bluefin and yellowfin tuna. Tom will look at all of these species and the “hot spots” to target them with a fly rod.
In addition to being an accomplished environmentalist, Tom is an avid fly fisherman. He has fly fished around the world for over 50 years. Tom has recorded the details of landing over 12,000 game fish on a fly rod. He is an accomplished author having written numerous articles and recent completed his sixth fly fishing book, Flyfisher’s Guide to New Jersey Coldwater, Warmwarter and Saltwater. His first book, False Albacore, was published in 2002, his second book entitled, Tuna On The Fly, was published in the Fall of 2006 both by Countryman Press. Tom’s third book a Flyfisher’s Guide to the Big Apple was published in 2011. Tom’s fourth book Flyfisher’s Eastern Trophy Tailwaters was published in late 2014, which was followed by Flyfisher’s Guide to Pennsylvania was published in the fall of 2016. His most recent work, Flyfisher’s Guide to New Jersey’s
All four of his trout guides were published by Wilderness Adventures Press. Tom is a well know fly fishing celebrity haven giving over 150 programs on fishing for almost all of our North American Game Fish.
Meeting Location
American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ
Meeting starts at 7:30 PM - Non Members are always welcome!
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President’s Letter
It is hard to believe another year is winding down. As we find ourselves amid another holiday season, trout fishing is not on the minds of most anglers. For the few of us that fish all year long, December is a great time to be on the water if you like solitude and don’t mind the cold. It is pretty easy to be comfortable on the water at this time of year. The key is choosing the right type of clothes and layering them properly. By having roomy wading boots that will allow for a light liner sock and a heavier wool sock and wearing a pair of merino wool long johns under a good pair of fleece wading pants, I am quite comfortable in my breathable waders. Above the waders, the system is the same, dressing in layers of merino wool and lightweight, warm synthetic fleece, topped off with a windproof/waterproof shell. Be sure to avoid cotton clothing at all costs. If cotton gets wet or even damp, and it is sure to on a fishing trip, it will not only not keep you warm, but it will rob you of the precious body heat. One final word on dressing for winter fishing. Don’t forget a hat and gloves. While regular gloves are too clumsy to use on the water, a pair of fingerless wool or fleece gloves will do the trick. Cold hands are the only problem I experience during my winter fishing trips. Having fleece-lined handwarmer pockets on your waders is a blessing as you can take a break now and then to warm up those fingertips! Throw some hand warmers in those pockets and your golden! Give yourself a break from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and spend a few hours on your favorite trout stream!
I hope to see many of you at our December general meeting. Our December meeting is our annual fly tying meeting, but there will be plenty of things going on for the non-fly tiers as well, so please join us. Things will kick off around 7:30 with pizza and soft drinks. If you are a fly tier, please bring out your vice and join us. We will have plenty of extra vises, tools, and materials on hand if you don’t want to go the bother of lugging out your stuff! I have it on good authority that Santa made an early delivery to CJTU headquarters. There is a good chance if you come out to the meeting, you may be going home with something that you can use on your next fishing trip. We are going to have a few other surprises on hand as well!
Going forward into the new year, we are going to be working hard to get more people involved in Trout Unlimited. Why not bring a friend to the meeting with you. Starting with the December meeting, anyone who brings a guest will get a free ticket for our meeting bucket raffle! At the December meeting, the raffle will include a fly rod!
In addition to our fly tying activities, we will be hosting an estate sale of sorts for long-time member Harvey Roberson who past away recently. His family donated his fishing and fly tying equipment, allowing us to use it as a fundraiser for the chapter. Please consider coming out to the meeting and perhaps make a purchase. You will be paying tribute to a great friend of Trout Unlimited and helping out your chapter at the same time!
Our show season is right around the corner, and as usual, we will be looking for help at our tables. As always, we will find a way to reward you for your efforts. I will announce our incentive program at our next meeting as there are still a few details to be worked out. We will be collecting names at this meeting for the first of the two shows in January, the NJ Outdoor Sportsman Expo in Edison NJ. The show dates are January 9-12, 2020. Please consider giving us a few hours of your time to help spread the word about Trout Unlimited and the work we do to improve the habitat of our trout streams. If you decide to help out, even for a few hours, you will receive a free pass to the show!
In closing, I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year!
Tight Lines
Bart Lombardo
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News & Events
Volunteers Needed!
Burnt Mills Dam Removal and Restoration Project
As part of the Burnt Mills Dam Removal and Restoration Project - Volunteers are needed this Saturday, December 7th, to help plant 3,000 native willow and dogwood cuttings at the former Burnt Mills Dam site on the lower Lamington River in Somerset County between Bedminster and Branchburg. Organizer Brian Cowden (bcowden@troutscapes.com, cell 201-230-3383 ) plans to be on site by 8am Saturday December 7th to oversee volunteer efforts. Volunteers should wear appropriate clothes for working outside, but waders are not needed. A hammer or hand sledge hammer may help in some areas, but most of the willow and dogwood cuttings can be shoved into the soft ground without need to hammer them in. Although 3,000 cuttings sounds like a lot of work, Brian recently did 550 cuttings by myself in about an hour and a half.
For directions, use: 11 Milnor Road, Bedminster, NJ. There is parking along Milnor Road (please ignore the no parking signs as we have permission to park for the project). With help, this will go quickly. The site was just visited and we can push the cuttings into the ground as the ground is not yet frozen there.
2020 CJTU Fly Tying School
Free to all Students
Beginner and Intermediate Classes
Dates: February 12, 19 & 26 & March 4, 11 & 18, 2020
Time: 7:30 to 9:30 PM
Garden State Outdoor Sports Show
January 9 through 12
The New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center
Edison, NJ
The Fly Fishing Show
January 24 through 26
The New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center
Edison, NJ
Burnt Mills Dam Removal Completed
By Nick Romanenko
A huge transformation occurred in late October when an old concrete grist mill dam, dating back to the 1800’s, was removed and heavy stream restoration work done on the Burnt Mills stretch of the Lamington River. The dam removal was a partnership between Raritan Headwaters, which owns an 11 acre preserve that surrounds the site, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture NRCS, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with site work conducted by Trout Scapes River Restoration.
The dam, an industrial ruin from a bygone era, lay in a shallow river plain collecting sediment and redirecting stream flow (creating an outside channel that and led to flooding in the surrounding Milnor Road-Cowperthwaite Road neighborhood). The restoration work realigned the river to it’s historical configuration and now has at least two new deep pools and numerous riffles that foster natural stream flow and dramatically improve wildlife habitat, especially for fish. Even a few days after excavation equipment left the site it looks like a darn good fishing hole for the future!
Brain Cowden, recent president of RVTU and co-owner of Trout Scapes River Restoration, is very pleased with how the week long work went “This project accomplished far more than the obvious dam removal; it protected critical habitat protection for rare species, allowed the bank to be lowered to better allow floodplain access in high water events, created numerous vernal habitats, and restored native anadromous fish habitat which will be important when the final dam downstream of this former dam is removed.”
Dr. Kristi MacDonald, science director for Raritan Headwaters, explains that “The partnership between RHA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service was key to the success of the project. The engineering plans and most of the funding were covered by these agencies and we had their biologists helping with project development and oversight. RHA stepped in to provide monitoring of the turbidity during the in stream work, which was required to ensure survival of the endangered and threatened freshwater mussel species. In addition, RHA’s work to monitor the benthic macroinvertebrates, chemistry and habitat prior to dam removal will be continued post-dam removal and will provide data on the success of the project. This will help provide support for initiating future dam removal projects.
“RHA’s mission is to protect and restore aquatic resources in the Upper Raritan region. Dams disrupt the flow of rivers resulting in sedimentation, higher water temperatures and lower oxygen. They can affect the health of aquatic ecosystems in a variety of ways including loss of cold water fish and other aquatic organisms, impediment of fish migration, and potentially harmful algal blooms (HABs) when nutrients accumulate in impounded areas. In the case of the derelict dam at Burnt Mills, water was diverted into a new channel where the dam was breached mid-1900s, resulting in erosion of the banks, loss of trees and floodplain habitat, and flooding of the adjacent neighborhood with major storms. Removal of the dam and other stream restoration activities that took place in and along the stream, including bank improvements and creation of riffles and deep pools in the river, will result in better water quality and habitat for stream organisms including benthic macroinvertebrates and fish”.
CJTU, in partnership with other New Jersey TU Chapters, has volunteered member hours in the past to remove invasive species at Burnt Mills, and volunteers will be needed for continued restoration work, such as planting of willows along the banks and future erosion prevention projects. The rewards for the environment and the recreational opportunities that will provide for the public are to be celebrated. As MacDonald remarks “The Burnt Mills Preserve is a favorite spot for recreation including swimming and fishing. The area is stocked with trout by NJDEP. These activities will continue and should be improved, given we expect fish will survive longer in the area and there are deep swimming holes easily accessible from the bank. We hope to see a greater diversity and abundance of fish”.
Help CJTU when you shop during the Holiday Season!
CJTU is now part of the Amazon Smile program. By clicking through to Amazon with the above link, CJTU will receive a small percentage based on your purchase.
Fly of the Month
Galloup’s BWO Nymph
Tied by Bill Ninke
Kelly Galloup’s BWO Nymph adds to the patterns of September and October as flies which are not spinner imitations but which have a “spinner-like wing” of synthetic fibers as a key part of their construction.
Kelly ran a fly shop in Traverse City, Michigan for many years. He now owns and manages the Slide Inn, a combined Fly Shop and cabin complex located on the Madison River in Montana. While in Michigan he explored and documented, via books and DVDs, many new streamer patterns and approaches to streamer fishing. He probably is best known for his large streamer patterns. In Montana he has added exploring and documenting new patterns for and new approaches to nymph fishing. Being right on the river, he thoroughly tests everything. So, when Kelly speaks we all should listen.
Kelly has a few quirks. He ties all his nymphs on dry fly hooks and uses no on-hook weighting. He puts weight on the tippet.. Thus his nymphs are free to move in the water column. I’m mostly with him on this point. Further, he only uses Danville 6/0 wine colored thread. This practice started when he first became a commercial tier and he wanted his flies to have an identifiable signature. I’m not with him on this but use different color threads on my nymphs, though I do use Danville 6/0 olive thread more than any other.
Most of his BWO pattern is pretty conventional and you should be able to tie the pattern from the materials and instruction listings. The one distinction is the addition of an X-wrapped bunch of UV Pearl Ice Dub fibers at the back of the thorax. Matt Grobert stayed at the Slide Inn this past season and discussed this pattern with Kelly. Matt reports that Kelly’s adamant that only 12 fibers be used. These fibers fold back when the nymph is fished and Kelly claims represent gills. I’m not sure that the trout see them this way. Look like emerging wings to me. But I can’t argue with the success of the pattern. It’s the best-selling mayfly nymph pattern in his Shop.
Since many Chapter tiers will be demonstrating at the meeting this month, there will be no special pre-meeting tying demo for this fly. However, if you’d like to see the fly being tied you can watch Kelly himself tie it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5NcVSeI6-s
Just be patient if you watch. He eventually does tie the fly.
Click here for the recipe!
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