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May 2019 |
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General MeetingTuesday, May 14, 2019 Erik Barton
Influenced by his father, Erik started fishing when he was four years old. Previously an avid bass and muskie fisherman, it wasn’t until the age of ten when he started to transition into the fly fishing genius that he is today. After his first year of trout fishing on the Musconetcong, he couldn’t help but notice how effective fly fishing was for the fishermen around him. It was then that he asked his father for his first fly rod. Within a few short minutes of getting down the basic fly cast, Erik landed his first fly caught fish.
Since that day, fly fishing has encapsulated Erik’s life. Every available weekend has since been spent fly fishing with his father on streams near and far, whether it be locally on the South Branch of the Raritan or on the numerous wild trout streams throughout the Great Smoky Mountains. Although some of Erik’s favorite fishing is for big wild brown trout on the West Branch of the Delaware or on one of Pennsylvania’s fine trout streams, his preferred stomping grounds are found on the Salmon River in New York. Catching big steelhead on a swung fly is truly his forte.
When he’s not fishing, Erik can be found tying some of his favorite flies. Erik specializes in all kinds of salmon and steelhead flies, ranging from big, weighted intruders for winter steelhead to small spey flies for Atlantic Salmon. If he’s not tying he’s either doing research on anadromous salmonid locations or research on reptiles, one of his other favorite hobbies. Pre-Meeting Fly Tying ProgramAs a broadening of our Chapter’s educational offerings we are continuing a new pre-meeting program 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. So come at 7pm this coming Tueday if you are interested. Bill Ninke will be demoing the techniques for tying the "Double Sparkle Soft Hackle" featured as the May Fly of the Month. Tuesday, June 18, 2019CJTU Picnic Meeting
Don't forget to get in on this year's B-B-Que Meeting on Tuesday June 18th, 5 pm at the American Legion Hall 137 New Market Road in Dunellen, NJ. Just $ 10 gets you all-you-can eat with soft drinks, and the very reasonable cash bar is always available inside the hall. Buy your tickets at the General Membership Meeting this Tuesday, May 14th, or contact John Wester at johnnwester@gmail.com. Remember that June 18th is the third Tuesday in June!Meeting LocationAmerican Legion Hall
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President’s Letter
April was a busy month for us. We attended two events (in the same weekend!) and were involved in two stream cleanups. Our first event, Rutgers Day, is usually our most successful event of the year but attendance was a little off this year. Although we had dry, sunny weather, we were plagued with nearly gale force winds. I believe that kept some of the crowds at home. We were also at the Pequest Open House, and the volunteers that staffed that event reported good attendance despite the rainy weather. My thanks go out to all of the volunteers that made these two events happen. Thanks also go out to everyone that helped out with our stream cleanups. We managed to clean up the Point Mountain tract of the Musconetcong River and Anderson Brook one of its tributaries in the same day! On May 4th CJTU attended the Trout Fest in Califon NJ. This is a new event that has been steadily growing in popularity. Featured at the event this year was an overnight family campout, a fishing derby for the kids and a one fly fishing contest as well as a casting competition for the adults. Winners of the One fly and the casting competition each received a brand new fly rod! CJTU volunteers organized the casting competition, and everyone who put the course through its paces enjoyed it! Unfortunately, I will not be in attendance at our next general meeting. A few CJTU members and friends will be heading up to Maine to enjoy some fishing for landlocked salmon and smallmouth bass! I will be happy to share our adventures with everyone at our annual BBQ next month. We ditch the format for our June meeting, fire up the grill and kick back and relax! Please consider coming out to join us. You can find all the details in this month's Mainstream. Please also check Mainstream for more information on our annual banquet this fall. Our banquet committee is hard at work planning this year's event. This is a night out you will not want to miss! That's all I have. I have to get my gear sorted, my bags packed and a few more flies tied for my Maine trip.
Tight Lines |
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News & Events
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/23-7355313 Use the link above to access amazon.com and help support CJTUCJTU 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 Casting & Fishing ClinicFriday, June 7, 2019
Call for volunteers. We'll be signing up members at our next meeting on Tuesday, May 14th who can help us run a Fly Casting & Fishing Clinic For Beginners at the Pequest Hatchery on Friday June 7th (from 10 am to 2 pm). We'll be opening up the clinic to the public shortly, but will need to limit the number of folks we can enroll depending on our volunteer corps. Thanks. Musconetcong River Cleanup 2019April 13, 2019
This year marked the 27th Spring Cleanup on the Musconetcong River, which took place on April 13, 2018. As we do every year, Central Jersey Trout Unlimited (CJTU) members cleaned up the Point Mountain TCA section. There was an exceptional showing from CJTU members, Scouts, parents, and residents cleaning up the river from Lake Hopatcong State Park to Finesville, NJ.I was very dazzled with the turnout, especially from our members this year. The stream banks and road were cleaner than the previous year; I think it's from the closed Point Mountian bridge. In addition to cleaning up the Point Mountain TCA section, we cleaned up Anderson Brook, a tributary of the Musky, as part of the Anderson Brook Restoration Project. More work is planned on this stream in the future. Remember to practice, "Pack it in, Pack it Out - Leave no trace." Lou Digena 
Rutgers DayApril 27, 2019
Pequest Open HouseSaturday and Sunday, April 27 and 28, 2019CJTU representatives were at the Pequest Open House last weekend, doing outreach with the public. Great to see so many families with children in attendance! 
Califon Trout FestSaturday, May 4th, 2019CJTU was well represented at last Saturday's Califon Trout Fest. The kids fishing derby was a success and CJTU president Bart Lombardo laid out a great casting course, with the winner receiving a Loomis fly rod. 
Fly of the MonthDouble Sparkle Soft HackleTied by Bill NinkeBill Ninke will be demonstrate the techniques for tying the "Double Sparkle Soft Hackle" featured here starting around 7:00 pm before the Tuesday, May 14th meeting. 
History is replete with recounts of tying and successfully fishing soft hackle fly patterns. What experienced fly fisher hasn’t heard of and fished classics such as the Partridge and Orange, Partridge and Yellow, Partridge and Green, or Snipe and Purple. These simple patterns are constructed of a silk floss body and a wound collar of a soft game bird feather. The silk, when wet, gives a soft translucence to the body and the feather fibers undulate around the body when the fly is retrieved or swung or even dead drifted. A small dubbed thorax is often included to flare out the feather fibers and give the fly a slightly more complicated silhouette and action. Since these patterns have been around for a long time and have proven effective why fuss with any changes. I give two reasons. First, the silk flosses have become very difficult to obtain and, second, many new synthetic materials have recently come into existence that have interesting properties that might make the patterns even more effective. I took the first step toward this month’s pattern a year ago when I did a search for soft hackle flies and came up with a listing by Orvis for a Sparkle Soft Hackle. Their pattern still has the floss body but used Ice Dub for the thorax instead of the more traditional Hare’s Ear. Then I reasoned that if a company as steeped in tradition as Orvis was willing to change a classic maybe I should give their changed pattern a try. So I tied and tried their pattern and it worked very well not only for trout but also for warmwater species. Finally I reasoned that if substituting one synthetic material for a natural one worked well why not substitute another synthetic material for the silk floss. I wanted the same translucent properties as the floss but also wanted to introduce segmentation and taper. For this I chose Powercord, a round stretchy synthetic cord used in bead crafts. This cord comes in various diameters but for size 12 patterns the 0.8mm diameter version proved optimal. There are other stretchy beading cords, most notably Stretch Magic, but I like the color intensity of Powercord best. Simply winding the cord produces segmentation and varying the tension as you wrap gives some taper but not as much as I wanted. So I found a way to heat and stretch a short section of the cord to give considerable taper. The cord when wrapped over a similarly colored thread produces a really sparkly body. So the sparkle of the body combines with the sparkle of the Ice Dub thorax to yield the Double Sparkle name. The collar hackle of partridge or hen saddle remains since nothing synthetic is quite the same. I feel trout certainly like my updated patterns as well as if not better than the classic originals and, further, that bass and panfish certainly like them better. The added sparkle is a big plus for warmwater species. So give these variations a try and I think you’ll concur. In the following tying description I introduce some tying techniques that are not widely known. So if you don’t recognize rope dubbing and thumb nail slide, come out to the pre-meeting demo and you’ll leave enlightened. Click here for the recipe! |
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Central Jersey Trout Unlimited’s Supporters
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I hope each of you has had an opportunity to get out and wet a line since the season opener. The rivers are in prime shape and have plenty of water, maybe a little too much at times. Don't be dismayed if rain and high water postpone a fishing trip as all this water will be a blessing in a few months when our summer weather finally comes around. This spring has been a cool, wet one, which creates prime conditions for our cold water loving fish.
