www.cjtu.org

April 2020

General Meeting

Due to COVID-19, all group activities have been cancelled through June!

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

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

President’s Letter

I hope this letter finds you healthy and safe. Our world has become a much different place in the short span of a month! COVID-19 has affected all of our lives, and it has undoubtedly impacted the operations of Central Jersey Trout Unlimited. With the health of our members our prime consideration, we have suspended all physical operations through June of this year. At the end of June, we will re-evaluate the conditions on the ground and decide on how best to move forward. For those of you that had pre-paid for our annual BBQ, a refund check will be mailed out to you shortly.

Does all of this mean that we will be resting on our laurels while we wait things out? Certainly not! We are currently exploring ways that we can keep engaged with our membership and possibly provide everyone with a little entertaining distraction while we are cooped up at home. We are in the process of working out the details of delivering some virtual content in the weeks to come. This could include some live fly tying events using platforms like Facebook and Instagram Live or perhaps using an online meeting platform like Zoom or Google Meet. We are also considering holding a virtual meeting in May, complete with a presentation! Stay tuned!

Enjoying the great outdoors is certainly a good idea during these trying times as long as you use a little common sense and employ solid “social distancing” practices. This Saturday would have been the traditional trout season opener. “Social Distancing” and “Opening Day” (at least in NJ) are two phrases that would not work well together. As a result, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife decided to open all trout waters to catch and release fishing on April 1st, with the standard regulations going into effect on opening day. While this was initially a welcome change for anglers looking to break their self-isolation and get a little outdoor time, it was relatively short-lived. A recent Executive Order from the Governor has closed all state forests and state and county parks. Also, many municipalities have closed their parks and public spaces as well. This action will severely restrict access to many trout stocked and wild trout waters. As of this writing, all NJ Wildlife Management Areas remain open, but that may be subject to change as we move forward through this crisis. If you are considering heading out to a wildlife management area to fish, keep in mind many others may have the same idea. This could make proper “social distancing” a problem. Someone recently shared a photograph with me showing one of our more popular fishing access areas jammed packed with vehicles. Conditions like this undoubtedly contributed to the decision-making process to close our parks and forests.

Perhaps a better idea is to do what I’m doing. Instead of traveling to a popular trout stream and risk exposure to other people, I am fishing close to home on warm water lakes and ponds. I have yet to cross paths with another angler, and I am getting in some quality outdoor time, which has been great for my physical and mental health!

In closing, I wish that all of you safely navigate these challenging times, and I look forward to a time in the future when we can all meet face to face to discuss our passion for protecting and conserving our coldwater fisheries.

Stay Safe,
Bart Lombardo
CJTU President

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Fly of the Month

McFoam Ant

Tied by Bill Ninke

Since Chapter Meetings are on hold as the pandemic plays out, I’ve chosen for this month’s fly a simple pattern that needs no pre-meeting tying demo to explain. It is my first original pattern, dating from the early 1980s, and fished often and successfully to this day. You can probably tie this fly after just looking at the three different views in the above photo. All you need is a hook, thread, strip of foam, and a hackle.

The story line for this fly starts when I read Art Lee’s 1982 book "Fishing Dry Flies for Trout on Rivers and Streams" touting the effectiveness of the McMurray Ant, a pattern originated by Ed Surryn of McMurray, Pennsylvania. I was regularly fishing the Beaverkill River at that time and bought a few of the flies at the Beaverkill Angler fly shop in Roscoe to try. They were indeed effective so I decided to make some copies on my own. After all, the fly is just two sections of small round balsa wood threaded on a piece of monofilament and painted. Once paint is dry the central monofilament is tied to a hook and a hackle wound over the monofilament. Sounds simple doesn’t it.

But I kept splitting the balsa cylinders in working the monofilament through them and it took forever to build a nice fly. There must be and easier way to get the same effect, I thought Enter now my interactions with John Betts, my first fly tying instructor, who at that time was promoting building flies with a plethora of synthetic materials including a closed-cell foam called Evasote. John gave me a sample of this foam in color white in 1/8” thickness. I cut this into 1/8” wide strips, colored them black with a Sharpie, and tied them on a hook to produce a pattern as shown in the photo. Seemed an easy to tie equivalent to Surryn’s pattern to me. And my fishing tests confirmed equivalent results.

At this time sheet foam had not yet made an appearance in craft stores and fly material suppliers had no sheet foam offerings. Sheets of closed cell foam were available only for commercial use. So, to support my ant pattern and to start further investigations into foam based patterns, I had to buy foam in 4ft by 8ft (yes that’s feet) pieces from a commercial source, US Foam Corporation. Of course I had to have not only white but sheets in black, yellow and orange. I still have and use what I bought back then. Over time craft foam has become widely available in stores like Michaels and Walmart and can be used for this pattern but I prefer the original material. Evasote is currently available in small pieces from Rainy’s.Fly. Wapsi Craft Foam seems to be the same as Evasote and is also readily available.. So material sourcing is now easy.

I mentioned this fly as an original pattern. I was living in Holmdel NJ at the time of origination but the Holmdel Ant didn’t have much of a ring so it became and remains the McFoam Ant. With the appearance of many types of foam over the years in small package sizes, many tiers have recreated the same fly. But, I believe I was the only one who at the time who was crazy enough to buy 4ft x 8ft foam sheets from a commercial supplier which could be used for thousands of flies just to tie a few dozen flies a year. So, I stand by my claim.

The fly is hard to see, particularly in riffles. In recent years I’ve added a spot of fluorescent chartreuse T-Shirt paint to the rear body to help my aging eyes track the fly. Otherwise the pattern is unchanged for nearly 40 years. Still works great in rivers and ponds. Try it.

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