www.cjtu.org

November 2021

General Meeting

All meetings will be virtual on the Zoom platform through December 2021!

We will be having a virtual meeting on Tuesday, November 9th at 8:00 pm. We will be using the platform ZOOM to conduct this meeting. The link below can be used for all meetings through December 2021.

General Meeting

Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Matt Delorenzo - Fly Fishing In The High Peaks

November's presentation will be “Fly Fishing the High Peaks,” with Matt Delorenzo. Join Matt while he talks about fishing in the Adirondak region and all it has to offer.

As many of you Ausable anglers know, Matt, a guide and manager for the Hungry Trout, grew up in the fishing business working his fathers charter service on the trout rich waters of Western New York. He has been a licensed guide for close to two decades and is an organized and professional. Matt prefers backcountry brook trout trips and fishing heavy pocket water. He is also a very productive fly tier, who pumps out detailed patterns. Matt is an Army combat veteran and also Hungry Trout's head hunting guide, he is very passionate about hunting with his French Brittanies “Louis and Patton”. Matt is a highly requested guide for a reason, he finds the fish. Known for digging into his secret stash of custom bugs and his over-organized fly boxes, he always has the fly for the job and is willing to go the extra mile for his sports. Matt loves Brook trout no matter where they are found. Small streams, lakes, ponds or puddles he will chase them there. He’s been known to find a few other big fish as well.

Look at some of some of Matt’s experiences at: https://hungrytrout.com/.../01/guide-profile-matt-delorenzo/

Tuesday, December 7, 2021
Tim Flagler – Night Fishing

When the sun goes down the activity on the stream goes up. Join us when Tim Flagler explores this special time to be on the water. There will be tips, techniques and things to look for that’ll help you to catch more fish in these sometimes difficult conditions.

Tim, a videographer and fly tier, is the owner of Tightline Productions, L.L.C., a video production company located in Califon, NJ. Although Tightline produces video programs over a wide range of topics, their specialty is fly fishing. Almost every week they produce a new fly tying or “how to” video which appears not only on their Vimeo and YouTube channels but on Midcurrent and the Orvis fly tying blog as well. These videos often get picked up by other sites too, including Frankenfly, Chiwulff, The Limp Cobra, Globalflyfisher, Gink and Gasoline and Wideopenspaces, just to name a few. Many of the tying videos take the viewer well beyond just the tying of the fly and show what it looks like underwater, what natural it represents and how it can be fished.

All meetings will be virtual on the Zoom platform through December 2021!

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

Meeting starts at 8:00 PM - Non Members are always welcome!

President’s Letter

As we move towards the end of the year and look forward to the Holiday celebrations, we can again be grateful for what we have accomplished. Despite the challenges of the last year and a half, member attendance at meetings is up and steady, new members have become engaged, speakers have been interesting, informative and entertaining.

In the last few months of the year we have several events on which to focus and participate. On Saturday, November 6th, the Fly Fisher(man) of the year event is being held at the Raritan with the One-Fly event being held on Shannon’s Private Waters. One of our new Directors, Michael Marucci, has graciously volunteered to represent CJTU in the contest. We will all be rooting for Mike! There will also be a “reservation only” lunch, for $25, which you can sign up for at shannonsprivatewaters.com. Chapters have generously donated items for the Auction. Proceeds go to support the efforts of the NJ State Council.

On November 13th CJTU will be one of the TU Chapters collaborating at the Lopatcong Creek Tree Planting. Members will assist in planting 30 large balled trees along with 70 smaller trees and shrubs. You can find out more information from our website or Facebook page. Let’s volunteer at Lopatcong Creek and make a difference!

TU has begun a selection process of the rivers to “identify a shared set of wild and native trout conservation priorities in our state using both scientific assessment and expert (chapter, agency) knowledge”. Each Chapter will participate in the process. Keith Fritschie, our TU NJ Upper Delaware Restoration Coordinator, will lead a series of 3 meetings on November, December and January to facilitate the process of selecting the priority waters. I am proud to announce that our newest Director, Dan Calligaro, has agreed to represent CJTU throughout the project.

For those members who will use Amazon.com during the gift giving season please remember to support CJTU by using AmazonSmile. When you make your purchases using AmazonSmile it does not cost anything extra and Amazon donates 0.5% of your eligible purchases to CJTU. Details are on the website. Help support CJTU!

We are very pleased that Trout in the Classroom (TIC) is back. Our TIC Coordinator John Wester along with other members assisting him, have already dropped off the eggs to our schools. Children and teachers were happy to see the members of our TIC Team!

Please remember to refer fire, police, medical personnel, veterans, EMTs and frontline workers to tu.org/service for a free TU membership. Acquaint them with the work that we do and invite them to a meeting! Let’s thank them for their service!

We are pleased to inform you that CJTU will again have a booth at the Edison Fly Fishing Show. The FF Show will be held January 28th, 29th and 30th. CJTU needs volunteers to staff the booth. Please check your calendars and volunteer to help out. It needn’t be for the whole day, start out by volunteering for 2-4 hours. We need people to talk about CJTU and sell raffle tickets. This is especially important in a time when in-person fundraising at meetings is rare. The Chapter needs your help!

Thank you for all that you do to support the TU Mission in New Jersey!

Marsha Benovengo,
Interim President,
CJTU

News & Events

Volunteers Needed for Lopatcong Tree Planting
Saturday, November 13th 9:00 AM

Please Help Us Live Out the Trout Unlimited Mission in New Jersey!

“To bring together diverse interests to care for and recover rivers and streams so our children can experience the joy of wild and native trout and salmon”

This project is a perfect opportunity to live out the TU Mission in New Jersey by collaborating on this real conservation project.

This is one of the most important events for Chapters to participate in throughout New Jersey.

Let’s come together to make a meaningful and lasting difference for New Jersey’s wild fish and the Lopatcong Creek. Show your support by stepping forward and volunteering! We need you!

Lopatcong Creek Tree Planting Saturday, November 13th 9AM

Lock St., Phillipsburg, NJ Parking at 40.69034, -75.15837

Contact Keith (keith.Fritschie@tu.org, 570-335-5735) with questions or to RSVP

Bring good boots, work gloves, and dress in layers. If you are comfortable crossing shallow water in November, bring a pair of waders or hippers, and if you have a favorite shovel, feel free to bring it.
Pizza and water will be provided for lunch: bring your own AM coffee.

We will plant ~30 large balled-and-burlapped trees and 70 #7 trees and shrubs in our first phase of tree planting on this lower section of the Lopatcong Creek restoration project. The purpose of these trees/shrubs is to reestablish a riparian canopy and increase shade, particularly on western and southern banks. Subsequent plantings (dormant cuttings) aim to stabilize the re- graded streambank. Volunteers will help remove packing material from trees, dig holes for smaller material, get trees into holes, backfill earth onto trees, and run 5-gal buckets from the creek to newly planted trees.

The lower Lopatcong is dominated by cold groundwater flows, providing an excellent wild brown and stocked rainbow fishery easily accessed by Phillipsburg residents. In addition to alleviating downstream fine sediment issues, we anticipate this project will encourage greater use of the middle Lopat by the wild brown trout population and subsequently the anglers who seek them out.

12th Annual NJ Fly Fisherman of the Year Event
Saturday, November 6, 2021

As summer comes to a close and the water temperatures begin to fall, it is with great pleasure that we announce New Jersey’s 12th Annual NJ Fly Fisherman of the Year event. Our goal, as always, is the promotion of New Jersey fly fishing. The format will be a One-Fly Contest on November 6, 2021 at Shannon’s Private Waters at the Raritan Inn Bed & Breakfast, Califon, NJ. We are proud to showcase nearly a mile of private waters on the South Branch of the Raritan River as the site for this event. A fully restored 1850’s barn will house the displays and presentations. The event is sponsored by The Raritan Inn and Shannon’s Fly and Tackle.

Each NJ Trout Unlimited chapter is invited to select one (1) member each to participate in the event. There is no cost to enter, and the day will include informal presentations such as casting demonstrations, entomology presentation, reading the stream, stream enhancement- case studies and South Branch restoration plans.

The day’s events will be bisected by a pre-registration only lunch @ $25.00, silent auction at noon in support of the NJ State Chapter of Trout Unlimited. An awards presentation immediately following the finals will be held on the back patio of the Inn. To join the lunch Register here. Arrival and sign in will begin at 7:30 AM with an orientation at 8:00 a.m. and the start of fishing scheduled for 9:00 AM to 11:30 a.m. Initial contestants will be cut to three finalists competing in the afternoon rounds.

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Use the link above to access amazon.com and help support CJTU

AmazonSmile is a simple way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. AmazonSmile is available at smile.amazon.com on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones. When you shop at AmazonSmile, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added benefit that AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to Central Jersey Trout Unlimited.

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Fly of the Month

Martin’s Parachute Floating Nymph

Tied by Bill Ninke

I’ve previously reported my admiration for tyers who treat fly design as a problem solving exercise. Darrel Martin is one of those tyers. He has written two books and was the feature writer on fly tying for many years for the now defunct Fly Rod & Reel magazine. I met him at an International Fly Tying Symposium over 20 years ago where I watched him tie this Month’s pattern.

The problem he was attempting to solve is that in the early stages of a mayfly hatch trout are sometimes not taking the few floating duns but are taking the about to “pop” nymphs just under the surface. Bulges and flashes are indicative of this. So he wanted a “damp” nymph that held just at the surface. You might say you can just grease up a regular Hare’s Ear Nymph for this situation and indeed you can. But Martin wanted to insure the nymph wing case rode right in the surface in all sorts or flow conditions, something not always achieved with a greased Hare’s Ear. To achieve this he used a dry fly hook instead of a heavier nymph hook. And further he used a hackle parachuted around a poly yarn wing case with the fly tied in reverse. Tied thus the parachute hackle and the yarn hold up the hook bend, the heaviest part of the fly. Poly yarn is slightly less dense that water and floats. And the hackle fibers spread out parallel to the water surface also float.

I’m providing the materials list and tying instructions for a March Brown version of Martin’s nymph. But you can change hook size and dubbing colors to match other mayflies. I’ve made two slight materials substitutions to the pattern I saw him tie. The first is I use the newer Semperfli Poly instead of the Wapsi or Hareline Poly that he used. It’s got a slight crinkle in the fibers and seems to float a little better. Second, I use Haretron dubbing instead of regular Hare’s Ear. I like the sparkle from the added Antron fibers. The length of the hackle fibers can match the hook size or can be longer. I carry some with extra long fibers for use in turbulent runs.

Even with all the floating aids in the pattern, a little grease on the wing case and hackle fibers doesn’t hurt. Still it can be hard to see so I usually tie it on fluoro tippet as a trailer to a regular dry. Be sure to turn your cast over well so the nymph lands away from the dry. With this design the hook eye and attached fluoro are slightly under water giving no shiny surface tippet trail to spook a wary fish.

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