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www.cjtu.org |
May 2024 |
General MeetingTuesday, May 14th, 2024Don Baylor
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President’s Letter
Trout season has been in full swing for a month now. I hope many of you have been able to wet a line over the last few weeks. High water has been a problem on a few occasions over the previous month, but generally speaking, our rivers are in fine shape and full of trout. I started seeing a few sulphur mayflies on the South Branch of the Raritan this week. This mayfly brings some of the best dry fly fishing of the year. The sulphur hatch also spreads out over several weeks instead of several days, giving anglers more opportunities to find themselves amid a good emergence. The best activity occurs late in the day, often right at or after dark. It usually pays off to be on the water late, fishing right up to the point where you can't see what you're doing! Sulpher nymphs drift at the surface for considerable distances before transforming into winged adults. Floating nymphs and emerger patterns often fish better than dun imitations. Learning to distinguish the different rise forms a feeding trout makes can help you identify whether the fish are feeding on the surface or just under it. April was a busy month, starting with the Musky Clean-up on Saturday, April 13, 2024. CJTU volunteers worked on cleaning up the Point Mountain Trout Conservation Area. The good news is that we collect less garbage each year, but we still managed to fill half a dozen bags and remove several larger items like tires and lumber. Speaking of Point Mountain, CJTU volunteers assist the state in stocking this particular stretch of water. We assisted with stocking in March and April and have two more dates scheduled for May. If you want to help with the stocking, contact the program coordinator, Ed Kordyla, at edward.kordyla@aol.com. On Saturday, April 20, we participated in Trout Fest in Califon. This event, hosted by South Branch Outfitters, featured live music, food and beer trucks, local craft vendors, fishing competitions, and a kid's fishing derby. This year's attendance dwarfed previous events and was the best attended to date. On Saturday, April 27, we attended Rutgers Day. This event has always been a good one for us in terms of the number of people we get to share our message with. This year's event was the best yet. Our volunteers were busy from the event opening to closing. I would like to take a moment to personally thank all of the volunteers for donating their time to help out at all of our events this year. It was great to see some new faces helping out. Plantings, clean-ups, restoration projects, and outreach events are at the core of what we do. Your help at these events is invaluable! In last month's newsletter, I mentioned that I would be giving a presentation on fly fishing from a kayak. Unfortunately, that presentation must be postponed as I cannot attend this month's meeting. We have booked Don Baylor to give a presentation on fly fishing the Poconos. This presentation will inform you about the variety of fly fishing opportunities in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania. An emphasis on public access, hatches for major streams, and some suggested fly patterns will be included. I am disappointed that I will miss this talk as I have always wanted to learn more about this fishery that is right on our doorstep. Our June meeting is our annual BBQ. The event this year will feature classic BBQ fare such as briscuit and pulled pork with all the fixins. The cost is $20.00 per person, and we are requesting that everyone buy their ticket in advance. The May meeting will be your last opportunity to do so. We are still seeking volunteers to serve on the current Board of Directors, the group responsible for running the organization's day-to-day operations. We have several vacant positions that need to be filled. I am happy to discuss what is involved and what is expected of someone who decides to help out. Don't hesitate to contact me at president@cjtu.org if you are interested. I hope you will attend our next general meeting on Tuesday, May 14, at the American Legion Hall in Dunellin, NJ. Please join us for an evening of conservation, camaraderie, and fishing!
Tight Lines You can contact Bart at president@cjtu.org |
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News & EventsMusky River Clean-upSaturday, April 13, 2024
Califon TroutfestSaturday, April 20, 2024On Saturday, April 20, we participated in TroutFest in Califon. This event, hosted by South Branch Outfitters, featured live music, food and beer trucks, local craft vendors, fishing competitions, and a kid's fishing derby. This year's attendance dwarfed previous events and was the best attended to date. 
Rutgers DaySaturday, April 27, 2024This was probably the biggest Rutgers Day for us since we started going there several years ago and it's our best opportunity to interact with the general public. The big crowds were back! We had a constant flow of people from the start at 10:00 am until we packed up at 4:00. The guys doing the fly casting were constantly on the field and the kids were sometimes lined up 6 deep to get a chance with the Orvis Practicaster. We answered questions that ranged from what Trout Unlimited does and coldwater conservation to where to go fishing around the area. There was also a lot of interest in the Trout in the Classroom program from the general public and from teachers who want to get involved with the program in their classrooms. Time to start planning for next year! 
Fly of the MonthGrouse and Peacock Soft HackleTied by Bill Ninke
Grouse and Peacock Soft HackleThis month’s fly is my version of a pattern gifted to me on the banks of the Yellowstone River in early May back in 1992. My introduction to and continued use of the pattern is a several decades long story. The story begins in 1984 when Bruce, who was my fishing partner in New Jersey, took a new job in California. Instead of traipsing up to the Catskills for weekends fishing together each Spring, we decided we could meet together in Montana for a few several day trips each year. For the May mentioned above we had booked five fishing days on the famous Spring Creeks just south of Livingston. We both booked flights into Bozeman but mine arrived around 10 am and his wasn’t scheduled in until 8 pm. Rather than sit around the airport for 10 hours I checked out our rental car and drove to Livingston. There I checked into our motel, moved my fishing gear to the car, and drove south along the road bordering the Yellowstone. I crossed the Carter Bridge, parked the car in the small lot there and walked out on the bridge to check conditions. The water was high and cloudy but seemed fishable. In fact I could see a man fishing from shore several hundred yards upstream. So I donned my waders, grabbed my rod and vest and walked up to talk to the viewed man. When I arrived I found two elderly gentlemen (EGs) whom I will call EG1 and EG2. EG1 was fishing a slack water section sheltered by a rocky protrusion from the shore. EG2 was sitting on a big rock watching and immediately said hello. I returned his greeting and explained I was new to the Yellowstone and asked if he would explain what his friend was doing. He said a caddis hatch was happening which is locally called the Mother’s Day Caddis. It had been going for two days and this would be the last fishable day since a surge of snow melt was coming down river from the Yellowstone Park area. He said his friend was fishing a soft hackle imitating the emerging caddis. In fact his friend hooked and landed a small Brown while we talked. EG2 then asked if I could reach cast. I said yes. He then took out his box, pulled out a fly, and asked if I had anything like it. I said no. So he handed me the fly and said there’s a similar rocky point about a quarter mile upstream. Go up there and fish this fly as my friend is doing. Do a reach cast to put the fly in the seam coming off the point and keep mending your line upstream to keep the fly drifting as drag free as possible down the seam. Then let it swing and hang as the water slows. You’ll get most of your takes as the fly starts to swing. I thanked him for the fly and fishing advice and headed to the upstream location. Once there I fished the fly as he described and caught two small Browns. Then I hooked up with what must have been a much larger fish because it immediately dashed out into the high flows and broke me off. I continued to try other patterns but had no further action. By then it was getting time to pick up Bruce so I walked back to the car hoping to talk more to EG2 about his fly. But the two gentlemen were gone. When Bruce and I crossed Carter Bridge the next morning on our way to Nelson’s Spring Creek, the river was completely blown. EG2 was right in his prediction. Upon returning to NJ I sought to duplicate the lost fly. I remembered it was a size 14 with a peacock herl body with a goldish rib and a brownish mottled feather wound at the head. The closest feather match I had was one from a packet of grouse feathers from an old tying kit someone had given me. So I tied a bunch of flies with a peacock herl body reinforced with a gold wire rib and one of those feathers wound at the head. I took them on a trip to the Beaverkill a month later. There I fished them in Horse Brook Run as EG2 had instructed. I had the best fishing I’d ever had there. I’ve carried the fly and fished it often in many places ever since. Now jump ahead to the following January and my attendance at the annual Fly Fishing Show. I was browsing in the Angling Book Store booth and noticed a book entitled “Soft Hackle Fly Imitations” by Sylvester Nemes. When I turned it over the author’s image on the back dust cover jumped out at me. EG2 was none other than Nemes himself. I, of course, bought the book. In it he describes his Mother’s Day Caddis which I suspect is the fly he gave me. He uses a peacock herl body, yellow silk rib, brownish Partridge hackle collar, and dark gray fur head. I had not remembered the dubbed head. Another point that I hadn’t remembered is that he pulls all of the hackle fibers to the top in finishing the fly. You can tie it with the materials and technique as he recommends in this book. It certainly works well. Or you can tie my simpler version as described in the instructions. I think it works just as well. In remembrance of my initial struggles and fishing experiences I only carry my version. And, since the pattern is quick and easy to tie, I carry lots with me. That way, in honor of the kindness Nemes showed me long ago, I’ll always be ready to gift a fly to someone I meet on the stream who needs a working pattern. You can send comments, questions and suggestions to Bill at fotm@cjtu.org Click here for the recipe! |
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