www.cjtu.org

October 2021

General Meeting

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

We will be having a virtual meeting on Tuesday, September 14th 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.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86184198571?​pwd=ZnNQTkVzMkRiR3d​jQm1xRUYrWm8vdz09

General Meeting

Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Ben Turpin - Guide Lesson’s

Ben Turpin’s Guide Lesson’s program was designed to help the average fly fisherman to take their game to the next level by learning how guides prepare for their day and execute their plan, From picking the best stream and selecting flies to presenting the fly with the perfect cast. It is all covered in Guide Lessons. Topics of discussion will cover casting and practice, presentation, fly selection, stream selection, approach and much more. When you start thinking and planning ahead like a guide your success rate will rise.

Ben Turpin has been building fly rods and guiding the Poconos, Eastern, and Central Pennsylvania for over 20 years. His home stream is the McMichael Creek, a tributary to the Brodhead, near Stroudsburg, PA, were he works as a stream manager and guide for the historic Pohoqualine Fish Association. When he’s not working at the club you can often find him guiding the Upper Delaware, Brodhead Creek, or the one of the many great trout streams of Eastern, PA. Ben has shared his knowledge of the Pocono streams for many years and in 2018 co authored Keystone Fly Fishing and wrote an article for Fly Fisherman Magazine on the historic Brodhead Creek.

When Ben is not guiding you can find him working in his rod shop or tying flies. If your interested in finding more information on fishing the Poconos with Ben and his fellow guides please check out www.BenTurpin.com

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

We hope that you are enjoying the beautiful days of Fall, and some Fall fishing!

Surely you all enjoyed the informative and enjoyable presentation/chat by our own Agust Gudmondsson, yes he will always belong to CJTU, on September 14th. His presentations are always full of hints, advice and tall fish tales. Agust is one of a kind!

Our Directors responsible for obtaining Speakers, Nick Romanenko and John Wester have continued to do a great job, for the latter half of the year! We have another great presentation to look forward to on October 12th. The well-known angler and teacher, Ben Turpin, will present his “Guide Lessons” program to us. It is “designed to help the average fisherman to take their game to the next level, by learning how guides prepare for their day and execute their plan”. Please check the CJTU website for more details and Zoom sign-on instructions.

As a sign of our desire to participate in Outreach and collaborate with other TU Chapters, CJTU again volunteered with the Ernest Schwiebert Chapter at the “Trenton River Days” on September 19th at Riverwalk Park in Trenton. We helped to get children and families acquainted with Fly Fishing and aware of conservation. Thank you to Tom Kapusta for representing CJTU.

On Sunday, October 17th at 10:00am the NJ State Council will hold its 4th quarter meeting, via Zoom. The Chapter President and Chapter Delegates of member Chapters are expected to attend.

On Saturday, October 23rd NJTU is supporting Peace NJ by helping with the “Reel Hackettstown” event, which is being held from 10am to 4pm, at Alumni Field in Hackettstown. The event is free. If you can help families learn the basics of casting (push button), retrieval and maybe catching and landing a fish along the Musconetcong, we could use your help! “We are also looking for volunteers who can 1) make sure donated kids’ reels/rods are rigged and castable before the event, 2) lead a fly casting demonstration, or 3) lead a fly tying demonstration. Please sign up to volunteer at: https://forms.gle/u43ManzQP3JgHH6UA .

On Saturday, November 6th, CJTU will again participate in the Fly Fisherman/Woman of the Year One-Fly Contest, on Shannon’s Private Waters. We are very pleased and excited to have Michael Marucci, one of our new Directors, representing CJTU at this event. Thanks Michael! There will be a Pre-Registration only lunch @$25 that will bisect the day’s event at 11:45am, in the barn at the Raritan Inn. And, the Silent Auction, which supports the NJ State Council of TU, will again be held during the day at this event, aided by donations from the NJTU Chapters and its members. If you would like to join us for Lunch please register at shannonsprivatewaters.com. Go to “Events” from the drop down menu, click “November 6” on the calendar, select “11:45am Lunch”, click on “Register”, followed by “Register for Event” then select “Lunch” and complete the form.

Please remember that the free one year TU Membership is still available through our Service Partnership program. This opportunity applies for police, medical professionals, veterans, firefighters, EMTs, and frontline workers. Help to say “Thank you” to these folks and get the acquainted with Trout Unlimited, conservation, the camaraderie of belonging to a TU Chapter and the stress relief of fly fishing.

We are expecting to hear some details of the Trout in the Classroom program resuming. CJTU is excited about participating and helping to educate the young people of the schools to which we are assigned. Keep an eye out for more details.

I am pleased to report that the East Jersey TU Chapter will celebrate its 50th Anniversary on October 13th at 7pm, at their meeting location at the American Legion Hall Pavilion in Rochelle Park. TU’s CEO Chris Wood will be present. I am pleased to attend this monumental celebration. If you would like to send a note of “Congratulations” to EJTU, please send them to their President Chris Henrickson at chenrickson@icloud.com

Thank you for all that you do for CJTU, to help in our conservation efforts to conserve, protect and restore the coldwater fisheries of NJ and invite and educate our communities.!

Marsha Benovengo,
Interim President,
CJTU

News & Events

Trenton River Days
Sunday, September 19, 2021

On Sunday, June 19, 2021, Central Jersey Trout Unlimited participated with the Ernest Schwiebert Chapter at the "Trenton River Days" festival held at the South Riverwalk Park along the Delaware River, near the Trenton Thunder Stadium. The primary focus was introducing festival attendees to fly fishing and the cold water conservation efforts of Trout Unlimited.

The event also featured canoe and boat rides, free food, live performances, hayrides, crafts and other fun! This was and in-person event with educational games and exhibits for hands-on fun. We had a steady stream of people through our area and many adults and kids were introduced to the fly rod and the concept of fly fishing.

Trenton River Days is a partnership of the Watershed Institute, Tulpehaking Nature Center at the Abbott Marshlands, The Alliance for Watershed Education of the Delaware River, Mercer County, Mercer County Parks Commission and the City of Trenton.

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.

Sign Up for a Free Membership!

Help CJTU when you shop at Amazon!

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Fly of the Month

Barr’s Emerger

Tied by Bill Ninke

I’d bet that almost all of you have one or more Copper Johns, the design creation of John Barr, in your nymph box. No wonder, it’s the number one selling nymph in the world. But Barr created many other productive patterns. This month’s fly is not well known but is my favorite of all his creations. I first learned of this pattern by reading an article by Barr in Fly Fisherman magazine in the late 70s. As I recall he was fishing a light cahill dry fly during a Pale Morning Dun hatch on Nelson’s Spring Creek outside Livingston Montana. He could see hatched duns floating by but the trout were totally ignoring his offering. Finally, late in the day, he hooked and landed one of the very cautious Browns. While unhooking this fish he noticed a few rather squashed up bugs in the trout’s gill rakers that weren’t quite fully developed duns but were beyond nymphs. We call these emergers now days. Anyway, in his motel room that night he used what he had in his portable tying kit to create a close as possible replica of what he had found. The next day he was, of course, very successful using his new design. Since then he slightly modified his original design to take advantage of materials and hooks he did not have in his kit.

His first tie was on a dry fly hook, a TMC 101, because that’s what he had. He now prefers a curved emerger or scud hook. He had no mylar originally but now incorporates a mylar flash back. He used brown hackle from the base of a saddle for the tail or nymph shuck.and still does. I believe antron yarn is a better choice because of its translucency and have listed it in the pattern description. Don’t use Zelon since it tends to float and you want the back of the fly under water when fished. The body and thorax are still just dubbing. The key design feature is a thorax cover of hackle fibers folded forward. The fibers are separated and pulled back on the sides as emerging wings. Barr used and uses dry fly hackle fibers. I think hen fibers, being softer and more mobile, work better. While Barr’s original was for the PMD, he later added a version with Baetis coloring. It’s this version I cover in the tying procedure since Fall Baetis will soon be on our local waters. But don’t be hesitant in tying versions for other small mayflies. A Paralep version with a pheasant tail back end Hare’s Ear thorax works great and sized up a bit matches a Hendrickson.

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