www.cjtu.org

June 2022

General Meeting

Tuesday, June 14th, 2022

The Annual CJTU Picnic
5:00 - 8:00 pm

Join us at CJTU's Annual Bar-B-Que and Picnic, Tuesday June 14th, starting at 5 pm in the park right behind the American Legion Hall, 137 New Market Road in Dunellen, NJ 08812. Plenty of food and soft drinks (plus the inexpensive bar is open right inside the hall as always).

Come relax, meet new and old friends, and share some fish stories. The cost of the picnic is only $15.00. In case of rain we will move inside the hall to our regular meeting space.

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

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

News & Events

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

Euro Pat’s Rubber Legs

Tied by Bill Ninke

The Pat’s Rubber Legs nymph has been receiving a lot of recent publicity. In the last five years a plethora of YouTube videos have been posted on tying the original pattern and numerous variations. This month I present my favorite variation that is specially designed to be used as the point fly in Euro Nymphing but works well with other methods of nymphing as well.

I first learned of the original pattern in 2010. The occasion was the browsing of the fly bins at the Snake River Anglers Fly Shop in Jackson, WY. I had just read the recently published book “Snake River Fly Fishing” by Boots Allen, head guide there. I was impressed by his thinking so called him and booked floats on the Snake the last two days in September. On the morning of the first day Boots was advising me on flies to buy to use on our trips. I remember his emphasizing to get a number of those flies with the wiggly legs, both with the black and the brown bodies. They didn’t seem particularly impressive to me, just like pipe cleaners with spanflex legs. But I certainly wasn’t going to argue with him so I bought a half dozen of each color. As it turned out they were the most productive flies on our floats. In discussions during these floats Boots told me they were called Pat’s Rubber Legs and that the Shop got them from Solitude Flies which had recently begun tying them commercially. They represent stonefly nymphs that are prevalent in freestone streams everywhere.

As a side note, if you go to the Snake, make a special effort to book Boots as your guide. He’s special - very hard working, educational, an absolute delight to be with in the boat.

Upon returning home I took apart the only fly I hadn’t lost in snags or broken off to see how it was tied. No surprises, just a size 8 4XL streamer hook, lead under body, olive spanflex legs, tails and antennae, and a medium chenille body. I tied many copies with black and brown and various variegated bodies and subsequently fished them locally and through the Rockies. When barred spanflex became available I started using it to give my flies a little pizzaz.

Lately I did some searching and found that the originator is Pat Bennet, a guide on the streams along the Idaho Montana border. Ironically, he never tied it with actual round rubber legs using Super Floss, a stranded spanflex material, right from the start. So why is it called Pat’s Rubber legs? Good question.

Five years ago I ran across a video of Lance Egan tying a variation that he uses for his fishing. Lance is a noted fly designer and member of the US Fly Fishing Team. He’s done well in international competitions where Euro Nymphing is used extensively. I tried his variation which is a little smaller and thinner than the original and features a bead and bent hook to cause the fly to ride hook point up. I have been very successful with it so it now joins the original version in my fly box. From the fly photo and my terse instructions, the experienced tier should have no problems with this pattern. If you haven’t much experience, you can find total detail on Lance’s video.

Central Jersey Trout Unlimited’s Supporters