March 2019

General Meeting

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Tim O’Neill

“Shad Fishing 101”

A look through the different Shad species we have available to us. Gear and techniques will be discussed as well as fly design.

Tim is the founder and owner of O'Neill's Fly Fishing, an online community dedicated to all aspects of fly fishing culture. www.oneillsflyfishing.com He began fly fishing at the age of 10. During the following 3+ decades, his passion for the sport carried him through many parts of the industry including: retail sales, commercial fly tying, lecturing, seminar teaching, and guiding. Currently he operates O’Neill’s Fly Fishing as well as being the owner of the Nor-vise fly tying system. www.nor-vise.com Tim’s fly fishing exploits have been written up in publications like “Out and About Delaware” and “Delaware Today” as well as being interviewed for NPR radio to discuss fly fishing. He considers himself an educator first and gets the most pleasure in helping others learn more about this great sport. When asked what his favorite fish to catch is, his response is always the same: “the one on the end of my tippet.” Please feel free to contact him to discuss all things fly fishing at tim@oneillsflyfishing.com

Pre-Meeting Fly Tying Program

Fly tying is a wonderful companion activity to fly fishing. We offer a Beginners Class every year for those who want to get started. For further progress, CJTU's six week Intermediate Class serves the needs of those willing to make a strong commitment to advancing their knowledge and skills. But what about those who don’t want to or can’t make such a commitment.

As a broadening of our Chapter’s educational offerings we are launching a new pre-meeting program this month aimed at those in our Chapter who have interest in a specific pattern or technique mentioned in the Fly of the Month. Some may be interested in a pre-meeting session only once or twice a year. Others may be interested every month. Or there may be no interest.

We don't really know at this time so we're going to start and see what happens. So come at 7pm this coming Tueday if you are interested. Bill Ninke will be demoing the techniques for tying the Baetis PT nymph featured as the March Fly of the Month. Other Chapter tiers are welcomed to contribute future presentations.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Agust Gudmundsson

“Fly Fishing Montana on the Cheap”

Montana, the last best place. Unfortunately for many anglers it is a far off and exotic place to be visited after winning the lottery. But in reality, it is within almost everyone’s grasp, and for a surprisingly reasonable amount of money.

Agust Gudmundsson has been a CJTU member since 1987, and has been visiting the Big Sky state since his first trip with Bill and Andy back in the 1990’s. Join him as he explains how to make a Montana fishing trip an affordable reality. He’ll also give a preview of what’s happening in F&W back here in New Jersey.

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Andrew Moy - Swinging Flies from a Spey Rod for Salmon and Steelhead

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

Meeting starts at 7:30 PM - Non Members are always welcome!

President’s Letter

As usual, March has provided us with some interesting weather. There have been three snowstorms since the beginning of the month and it is only the third! I was planning to free up a day this week and hit the river, but by the looks of things that may not be happening. When all this snow melts it is going to bring the river levels up again, just when things were starting to look good. Even though this has been a mild winter I’m looking forward to Spring.

March is usually a quiet time for Central Jersey Trout Unlimited, and this year is no exception. The only event we have going on this month is the March Madness Fly Tying. Rahway River TU sponsors this annual event which is held to tie flies to support fishing events for Project Healing Waters, Wounded Warriors, and Casting for Recovery (a women's breast cancer recovery group). We will have a number of our members attending this event.

The event will be held at the Pequest Trout Hatchery on March 24th 2019 from 10am - 4pm. Each participant is encouraged to tie a dozen flies to donate to the cause. Lunch and gift bags are provided and there is usually a raffle to win prizes. It is a great opportunity to meet other local fly tiers and learn new things as well. Even if you cannot make it please consider donating a dozen flies to support this good cause. Email Jay Rathore at supradesi@gmail.com if you have questions about donating.

The lack of activity in March will give us a chance to catch our breath, for there is a lot going on in April. For starters trout season opens on Saturday, April 6th. I am sure everyone is looking forward to getting back on the water!

Our annual Musky Clean Up will take place on Saturday April 13th. CJTU will be working to clean up the Point Mountain tract of the Musconetcong River. We are looking for volunteer support for this clean up. You can read the article in this month’s Main Stream for additional information.

We have two shows that we are attending late in the month. On Saturday April 27 we will be at Rutgers Day at Rutgers University. We will be giving free fly casting lessons and spreading the word about all the good work Trout Unlimited is doing in New Jersey. On that same weekend we also hope to have a table at the Pequest Hatchery Open House. It will be tough to staff to events at the same time but we are going to work hard to make it happen. It you can volunteer your time at either event please reach out for me at president@cjtu.org. We have a program in place to reward members who volunteer for chapter activities. At our April meeting we will be giving away four $25.00 gift certificates to those folks who helped us at our January shows. We want to give back to those that give to us!

We have some great speakers lined up for you for the rest of the year. Attend our general meetings to check them out. Meetings are on the second Tuesday of the month. Meetings start at 7:30pm for a little socializing. Pizza, snacks and beverages are usually on hand. The business portion of our meeting begins at 8:00pm and our guest speaker goes on immediately after. I hope to see you there.

Tight Lines
Bart Lombardo

News & Events

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Musconetcong River Cleanup 2019

April 13, 2019

This year marked the 27th Spring Clean Up on the Musconetcong River is set for April 13, 2019.

As we do every year, Central Jersey Trout Unlimited (CJTU) members cleaned up the Point Mountain TCA section

River clean-ups are an excellent opportunity to help reconnect and restore our trout streams.

I encourage members to participate in the cleanup, your work will directly improve our rivers and at the end of the day feel the accomplishment of restoring a small stretch of stream.

Lou Digena

March Madness Fly Tying

Pequest Trout Hatchery

Sunday, March 24th, 2019

NJ Trout Season Opens

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Rutgers Day

April 27, 2019

Pequest Open House

Saturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28, 2019

Fly of the Month

“Kinsey’s Spring Creek Baetis PT Nymph”

Tied by Bill Ninke

Bill Ninke will be demonstrate the techniques for tying the Baetis PT nymph featured here starting around 7:00 pm before the Tuesday, March 12th meeting.

Frank Sawyer, who worked as the Riverkeeper on the Wiltshire Avon, a Chalk Stream in England, first designed the Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN) to imitate several species of very small nymphs common to his stream. He used just two materials, fibers from the tail of a cock pheasant and fine reddish copper wire. The wire served as the “tying thread”, the body ribbing, and thorax weighting. Nymphs in many U.S. Rivers are generally larger than in Sawyer’s stream which led Al Troth, dean of the Beaverhead River before his passing, to create the American Pheasant Tail Nymph. He still used pheasant tail fibers but incorporated wire only as a body rib. He further added lead wire and peacock herl for the thorax and assembled the entire pattern using conventional thread tying techniques. This month’s pattern by Lee Kinsey, a Livingston Montana guide, continues the evolution of the PTN. Kinsey mostly follows the Troth pattern but wraps black wire to form the thorax with no lead or peacock herl. This is more akin to the original Sawyer tie. I’ve added a variation in tying in, wrapping, and reinforcing the body which I learned from local NJ tier, Matt Grobert. Finally, I’ve changed the way the wing case is tied in and tied off to give a fuller and darker wing case.

Kinsey’s pattern is designed to be fished upstream to non-elevated trout in the famous Spring Creeks of the Paradise Valley, just south of Livingston MT. Much holding water in these creeks is three feet deep or under. So a small foam micro indicator is attached at most 2 to 3 feet above the nymph. The weighted thorax brings the nymph quickly to near the bottom. Complete strategies for fishing this pattern and less-weighted variants are detailed in John Mingo’s book, “Rainbows of Paradise “. You’ll find these strategies revolutionary and useful in small PA limestone creeks, like the Little Bushkill and Monocracy, and in larger tail water in both the East and West. I’ve used them with great success in fishing the Missouri below Craig, MT

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