www.cjtu.org

January 2022

General Meeting

Due to the present Covid conditions, chapter meetings will continue to be held virtualy on the Zoom platform until further notice!

We will be having a virtual meeting on Tuesday, January 11th at 8:00 pm. We will be using the platform ZOOM to conduct this meeting.

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

Meeting ID: 861 8419 8571
Passcode: 205012

General Meeting

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Nancy Moy – Fishing in the Bahamas

Nancy, a former elementary school teacher and Ultrasonographer, is an outgoing woman who loves to travel with fly rod in hand. There is nothing she loves more than to share those experiences with others.

Born and raised in New Jersey, she fished for bluefish and trout while camping on family vacations. Always fascinated with the idea of casting a line, the opportunity presented itself in 2009 when she stepped into her local fly shop, Tight Lines Fly Fishing, and asked for a lesson. Andrew, who would later become her husband, gave her this lesson. In addition to casting, on that day she discovered the camaraderie of a wonderful group of anglers serving steak and onions fresh off the grill. She purchased her first fly rod then and in that instant, her life changed.

Since that day, she has discovered the purposeful life of fly fishing and Spey casting and together with Andrew and many anglers has fished extensively for many species. Over the past 10 years, Nancy has developed devotion for Spey casting and fishing for Atlantic salmon and steelhead. She has fallen love with all saltwater species of the Bahamas. She is always ready to share her enthusiasm and passion for the sport.

Due to the present Covid conditions, chapter meetings will continue to be held virtualy on the Zoom platform until further notice!

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

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

President’s Letter

A Message From A Past President

Marsha Benovengo, our chapter president, has been experiencing some technical issues and asked me to provide the chapter update in this month's newsletter. CJTU, like many other chapters, is navigating through all of the obstacles put in front of us by COVID-19. We were planning on resuming in-person meetings and other chapter activities this month, but the surge of new infections caused by the Omicron Variant of the virus has caused us to reconsider. We will continue to meet virtually and re-evaluate this decision every thirty days for the immediate future. We are anxious to resume in-person meetings but will only do so when it is safe, and members are comfortable resuming normal activities.

As a result of the changing conditions concerning COVID-19, there have been some changes to upcoming activities. The NJ Outdoor Sports, which would usually occur next week, has been postponed until summer 2022. Hopefully, we will attend the show if and when it returns. The Fly Fishing Show at the end of the month is still scheduled. The show dates are Friday, January 28 through January 30. Unfortunately, the chapter will not be attending the show as we have done for many years. At this point, many of our volunteers are unable to staff our booth due to health concerns. The fact is we do not have the staffing to man our table for all three days of the show. This decision was tough for us to make as we have attended this show since its inception.

Now for some good news! As some of you may have already heard, Shannons Fly & Tackle recently stocked the South Branch of the Raritan River in the area of Califon, NJ. Every December, the shop puts together this special stocking, including two trophy tagged trout worth a valuable prize to the lucky anglers that catch them. Unfortunately, the tagged fish have been captured and their prizes claimed, but they were both released to fight another day. However, there is still plenty of fish in the area to provide some excellent winter angling.

This year, several TU chapters donated funds to provide an additional holiday stocking on the Musky river. On Christmas Eve, Shannons Fly & Tackle and TU volunteers stocked 350 fish in the Point Mountain tract of the Musconetcong River. These fish will allow anglers to enjoy quality winter fishing on this special regulation water throughout the winter months. Shannon's provides each contributing chapter with a new Douglas fly rod to use for their fundraising efforts as an added benefit. The value of this rod far exceeds the $600 donation made to purchase the fish for the stocking. I recently picked up the donation from last year's stocking. We now have a fantastic Hardy/Greys Euro nymph outfit (rod and reel) to use as a raffle prize for one of this year's fundraising events. We want to thank Shannons Fly & Tackle for the fine work they do for the anglers of New Jersey, not only for their generosity and support of local Trout Unlimited chapters but for spearheading local conservation efforts as well.

The trout fishing during this early winter season has been excellent. Unseasonable mild weather has made for some very comfortable afternoons on the water. The fishing has been great, and I have recently experienced some dry fly midge fishing. If you plan on fishing during the winter months, there are a few things to consider. For safety, make sure you wade carefully and keep an extra set of warm, dry clothes in your vehicle in case you slip and get wet. Hypothermia is a real threat at this time of year. If you get wet and chilled, stop fishing and get into dry clothes and a warm environment immediately. Hypothermia is no joke and can creep up on you unexpectedly. If you're heading out, plan your trip during the warmest part of the day. Not only will you be more comfortable, but the fish are more active when the water temperature hits its peak for the day. Midges are an essential food source for trout at this time of year, so be sure to have all stages of this insect in your fly boxes. I like to fish what I call "winter water," the slower, deeper stream sections. If you are brave enough to endure winter weather, you may experience fantastic fishing. If nothing else, you are likely to have the river to yourself. Good luck!

We hope things will get back to normal soon as we look towards the future. We would typically be gearing up for our fly tying classes at this time of year. Unfortunately, until the current conditions change for the better, we will be postponing this activity. Other chapters are conducting weekly/monthly virtual tying nights. I am a guest tier at one such event run by another TU chapter. If successful, we may seek to implement a similar program to help ward off the cabin fever this winter will bring. Stay tuned for an update on this next month.

As a reminder, we will still be meeting virtually in the immediate future. Our virtual meeting takes place at 8:00 on the second Tuesday of the month. We will have a guest speaker and presentation at all virtual meetings. These meetings have been very successful, and the best part is you don't have to leave your home to attend. To entice you further, if you participate in our virtual meetings and stay with us until the end, you may win a $25 gift certificate to a local fly shop! You can join the meeting via Zoom by using the link below.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86184198571?​pwd=ZnNQTkVzMkRiR3d​jQm1xRUYrWm8vdz09s

Let me finish by wishing all of you a very Happy New Year. I hope we safely navigate the challenges the new year will undoubtedly bring. I have faith that we will. A happy and HEALTHY new year to you all.

Tight Lines, Bart Lombardo Past President CJTU

News & Events

Garden State Outdoor Sports Show

Raritan Center Expo Hall in Edison, NJ

Due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns, the Garden State Outdoor Sports Show is being rescheduled from January 6–9 to August 11–14, 2022

The Fly Fishing Show

January 28 - 30, 2022
New Jersey Convention and Expo Center
Edison, NJ

It's time for a new NJ Fishing License and Trout Stamp! You can get it here:

https://nj.aspirafocus.com/internetsales

If you fish in saltwater you will need to register here:

https://www.nj.gov/dep/saltwaterregistry/index.html

Sign Up for a Free Membership!

Help CJTU when you shop at Amazon!

https://smile.amazon.com/ch/23-7355313

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.

More about amazon Smile

Fly of the Month

Duran’s Flask Thread Midge

Tied by Bill Ninke

Local waters are cold. Trout are hovering on the bottom eating lots of midge larva. Since I learned of this month’s fly fifteen years ago, it has been my top performing larva pattern.

It is the creation of Jude Duran, formerly a top-rated guide (more on this later) on the famous tail waters of the San Juan River below Navajo Dam in New Mexico. I first leaned of this fly through Duran’s article on midges in the September 2007 issue of “Fly Fisherman” magazine. In that article he described a number of his patterns and also listed his web site. I was interested in fishing the San Juan at that time so I visited the site and read the many glowing reports from his clients. They described him as very knowledgeable, hard-working, and a great teacher. Buoyed by these recommendations I phoned Duran to talk about his flies and a possible trip. He noted in our conversation that he had quite a few other patterns in the section devoted to him on Hans Weilenmann’s Fly tiers pages with detailed tying instructions for many of them. But the Flash Thread midge is his favorite. (Duran’s section is still up.) He further mentioned that while he listed a slightly curved hook like the TMC 200R in sizes 18-22, his thread midge can be tied even smaller on size 22 and 24 scud (e.g. TMS 2487) or similarly curved hooks. And if I did come to the San Juan, I should bring some of these really small patterns since the trout there can be very sensitive to size. They are less sensitive to color and white, black, olive, dark olive, red and brown are all good. I have since discovered the Gamakatsu C12-BM hook which is barbless and has a large eye for easy tippet threading and comes in size 26-30. I’ll be using this hook if I ever go to the San Juan. I’ll use a Davy Knot with these hooks for small profile.

So after this phone call and checking on the Weilenmann site, I tied this month’s pattern as Duran described and took it to the Spring Creeks of Livingston, MT and of Eastern Pennsylvania, the Madison, the Missouri, the South Branch and the Musky. Trout have loved it. It’s simple to tie using only a hook, two sizes of thread and a strand of pearl Krystal Flash, Flashabou, or tinsel. Size A nylon rod wrapping thread in white is used for the body and UNI 8/0 in black forms the head. Sharpie markers are used to color the body as desired so I I haven’t had to invest in other colors of the heavy thread. For the really small versions I’ll use something like Danville white mono cord. Black, white and dark olive have been my best producing colors

Life happened and I didn’t get to the San Juan in in 2007 0r 2008. However, in 2009 I got reinterested in the San Juan and phoned Duran to discuss options. But his phone was disconnected. I then checked his web site but it was down. Finally searched on his name and found that he had robbed a bank in 2008, shortly after I had first talked with him. He was traced, arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. All this info ended my then San Juan plans.(Still on my Bucket List) Duran must be out by now but a recent search yielded nothing so I have no idea what has happened to him. He was very helpful to me and seemed like a really nice guy. Guess you can’t tell a book by its cover.

Here’s pattern in size 22 as tied by Duran

Fly: Jude Duran, Photograph: Hans Weilenmann

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