www.cjtu.org

November 2024

General Meeting

Tuesday, November 12th, 2024

Rick Nyles – Tactical Dry Fly Fishing

Rick has been fly fishing for over 45 years and started guiding in 1999, 24 years ago. As the business grew, Rick decided to start Sky Blue Outfitters in 2001. Sky Blue has grown to be the most comprehensive guide services in Pennsylvania. His staff of 8 guides has well over 100 years of guiding experience and over 170 years of combined fly fishing in Pennsylvania. Sky Blue Outfitters is a Endorsed Trout Unlimited Business for over 10 years. Sky Blue also offers destination trips to Pennsylvania, Montana, Saskatchewan and Idaho.

Rick is an accomplished fly tier who is known for his CDC patterns, his simple approach to fly tying, and fishing techniques. Rick placed 3rd in the ORVIS fly tying contest by entering his unique Green Drake pattern. Rick developed and started selling his own wing material called UP DN TROUT. Rick has done presentations at the regional fly-fishing shows, contributed to books and magazine articles on fishing in Pennsylvania. He is also Executive Vice President for Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited.

Meeting Location

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

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

President’s Letter

Autumn has been with us for weeks now, but it still feels a bit like summer. Warm days and cool nights have created perfect conditions for trout fishing, the only thing we need now is water! New Jersey is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades resulting in extremely low water levels in most of our trout streams. The State of New Jersey delayed their fall stocking program a few weeks hoping for an improvement in water conditions, but that improvement never materialized. After a delay of several weeks the fall stocking recently took place despite the low water conditions. Our volunteers helped with the stocking of the Point Mountain tract. Because of the restoration work done at this location anglers are reporting a lot of success fishing at this location despite the low water.

The Annual Fly Fisher of the Year Competition takes place this weekend at the Raritan Inn on the waters of the South Branch of the Raritan River. On Sunday November 10th, anglers from TU and other NJ conservation organizations will compete for the title of Fly Fisher of the Year. The event takes place on the waters of the Raritan Inn (Shannon’s Private Waters) and supports the New Jersey State Council of Trout Unlimited. In this unique event the competitors must select only one fly to use for the duration of the event. Participants are allowed three flies of the same pattern to use during the competition. If they lose their three flies their fishing is finished for the day. This year Kenneth Snyder is representing CJTU. We wish him the best of luck! Guests are welcome and encouraged to to come out and support their teams.

For those of you that are fly tiers the 33rd Annual Fly Tying Symposium will take place at the Double Tree Hotel in Somerset, NJ on November 16th and 17th. While we are not taking part in this event as a chapter many of our members will be attending the show. This is THE event for fly tying enthusiasts. At the show there will be over a hundred fly tiers showing off their craft and there will be plenty of vendors at the show giving you the opportunity to stock up on materials for fly tying season.

CJTU will be attending the Fly-Fishing Show in January. The show takes place January 24-26 at the NJ Convention & Expo Center in Edison, NJ. We are looking for volunteers to help man our booth at the show. If you volunteer to staff the booth we will cover your entrance fee to the show. If you are interested in helping send an email to volunteer@cjtu.org and we will get you signed up.

We have a great speaker lined up for our November meeting. Rick Nyles will be giving a presentation on dry fly fishing. Rick, an experienced angler, and fly-fishing guide will share his knowledge on the topic of fishing the dry fly. As an avid dry fly angler myself, I am looking forward to this presentation. I hope to see you at next Tuesday’s meeting!

Tight Lines
Bart Lombardo
CJTU President

You can contact Bart at president@cjtu.org

News & Events

Point Mountain Fall Stocking

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024

Despite low water levels in the rivers, the CJTU stocking team put fish into the Point Mountain stretch on October 22nd. The restoration work of a few years back along the stretch created some deeper pools which can support the fish during low water. A little over 150 rainbow trout were stocked. Most were in the 14 to 15 inch range with a few brood stock fish over 20 inches. That completes the stocking for this year. Thanks to all the volunteers who participated in this year's stockings.

Anyone interested in joining the stocking team should see me at our general meeting or send me your email address and I will put you on the list. My email address is edward.kordyla@aol.com. You should also be a NJ wildlife conservation corp member.This is done for insurance purposes. You can sign up by going to the New Jersey Division Of Fish and Wildlife's web site and clicking on freshwater fishing and then clicking on conservation volunteer and filling out the form for volunteering.

Ed Kordyla, CJTU stocking coordinator

Fly Fisherman Of The Year One Fly Contest

Sunday, November 10th, 2024

Shannon’s Private Waters at the Raritan Inn

33rd International Fly Tying Symposium

November 16-17, 2024

Double Tree by Hilton, 200 Atrium Drive, Somerset, N. J.

Fly of the Month

Big Hole Demon

Tied by Bill Ninke

With cooler air temperatures and shorter days setting in, our waters are cooling quickly. Large trout and bass are on the prowl for big meals to build up reserves for the coming Winter. It’s time to get out the streamer rod and box of streamer flies and take them to the river or pond of your choice.

My streamer box has many of the newer patterns crafted from often-flashy synthetic materials. Additionally, it has many older well-known traditional patterns using only natural materials (buggers, rabbit and squirrel zonkers, marabou streamers). But it also has one old time pattern that is not well known, the Big Hole Demon. I tie and carry it for two reasons. First, of course, is that catches well. But more important is that it’s the most beautiful fly in all my fly boxes. When I fish it I just feel good.

The pattern was created around 1965 by Pete Narancich, a rancher from Sheridan, MT. He wanted a fly that he could fish as both a stonefly nymph and a baitfish streamer on the Big Hole River, hence the name. When you look at the above photo you can see this design influence. The densely palmered Badger hackle over the chenille thorax suggests insect legs when drifted while also serving to push water when retrieved as a streamer. The silver tinsel body adds attraction when drifted and flash as a streamer.

I first became aware of the pattern through reading Joseph Bates’ 1979 book “Streamers and Bucktails, the big fish flies”. And I tie the pattern as Bates describes it with the substitution of feathers for the tail from a badger Brahma Hen neck or badger Rooster neck instead of body feathers from a Jungle Cock neck. I fish it as Bates instructs to fish any streamer. Cast and mend to dead drift the fly until drag sets in. Then let the fly swing with sporadic twitches. Then let the fly hang for a while before picking up for the next cast.

Dan Bailey featured the pattern in his fly shop early on and is sometimes mistakenly given credit for its origin. But he was given the pattern by Bates who got it directly from Nanancich. Bailey did introduce a popular color variation in which he uses furnace brown feathers for the tail and hackle instead of the original cream/white badger. He matched this with a gold body and rib. I show this variation (flies on right) along with the original dressing (flies on left) in the photo. Most effective sizes for me have been 6s and 8s. The right-most flies in the pairs in the photo are 6s and left-most ones are 8s.

If you search youtube, you’ll find many tying videos for the fly. As a warm up before starting the pattern you might want to checks out several. In the instructions below I describe one technique that I didn’t see in any of the videos for aligning the tail feathers so that they remain in a vertical plane. The technique is also useful for a number of other patterns with feather tails. So be sure to check it out.

Finally, after you’ve let the head cement dry, soak the fly for half a minute in water and insert it into a short section of a drinking straw. Remove from the straw once dry. This sets the hackle fibers in a swept back orientation that fish and I adore. I did this for the flies in the photo.

You can send comments, questions and suggestions to Bill at fotm@cjtu.org

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