www.cjtu.org

October 2024

General Meeting

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Masha Benovengo – Casting For recovery

Marsha Benovengo is currently the Program Coordinator for the Casting for Recovery (CfR) Eastern PA Program, which includes the CfR Skytop Retreat. Marsha has represented CfR at various locations and at a variety of events.

Casting for Recovery is a national nonprofit organization that provides retreats for women breast cancer survivors throughout the US, at no cost to the participants. There will be 60 Retreats nationwide, with some states like NJ, PA, CO, MT, CA and more having two retreats yearly. The participants are selected at random from a pool of applications received. The retreat focuses on education, wellness, mindfulness, building a supportive community, and camaraderie. And yes, the participants are taught the basics of flyfishing, equipment selection, knot tying, entomology and casting. Along with the Retreat Staff many TU members volunteer to be fishing guides for the women, practicing catch and release fishing. There is a Wellness Staff composed of professional medical and psychosocial facilitators which gives the participants a safe and brave space where they can share their physical and emotional questions and concerns and learn from each other.

In her role as Program Coordinator, Marsha along with the other team members work to provide the participants with a respite from the challenges of dealing with breast cancer, in the beautiful outdoors. They are devoted to the participants and dedicated to the program. Marsha is responsible for staff and volunteer selection, facilities management, itinerary development and teaching casting along with nurturing relationship sand partnerships.

Marsha has served as President of CJTU and is currently the Immediate Past President. She has coordinated the Chapter's participation in various events. Marsha is currently the Chair of the NJ State Council of TU. She has served in various TU committees and workgroups. In 2022 Marsha was awarded the TU National Mortensen Award for "Outstanding Volunteer Leadership".

This year Marsha is celebrating serving with Casting for Recovery for 20 years and 16 years as a Program Coordinator!

Meeting Location

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

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

News & Events

Point Mountain Stocking

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024

The Point Mountain area of the Musconnetcong River was originally scheduled to be stocked on Wednesday, October 9th. we have just been informed by NJ Fish and Wildlife that because of low flows in the rivers they are changing the date for the fall stocking to Tuesday, October 22nd.

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.

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

Booby Minkie

Tied by Bill Ninke

Last Spring you probably fished some small egg patterns to represent the spawn of baitfish inhabiting our running and still waters. During the summer, those eggs that escaped predation hatched and the resultant baitfish have grown into tasty morsels. In September 2022 I presented a lightly weighted pattern, the Silver Minkie, to use at this time of year in medium to deep water to represent these baitfish. When using this pattern I noticed that not all baitfish were in such water. Some were cruising just under the surface sipping food morsels from the film. So I searched for variants that would mimic the behavior of these cruisers. I found many on Youtube which I tied and tried. This month’s pattern, the Booby Minkie, has come to be my favorite.

It is basically the previous pattern with bulging white foam eyes added just behind the hook eye. Pre-formed eyes in size medium from Rainy’s are readily available from fly shops and, if you are tying just a few flies, are most convenient to use. If you want a lot of copies of this fly, 5 mm diameter foam cylinders (Booby Cord) can be can be purchased and used to create the eyes. These cylinders are 1 inch long so cut a cylinder in half and round the ends of one half with a scissors. A light flaming with a lighter will finish your shaping effort. As an alternative, you might want to try a new way to convert the cord to eyes. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV-ezlE_V6M)

When fished with a floating line the pattern hangs with the eyes in the film and the body hanging downward. When twitched it represents a feeding baitfish that has temporarily lost caution. Takes can be vicious. When fished with a sinking or sink tip line, it floats up from the bottom of a stream or weed beds of a pond, rising and falling in an erratic manner like a slightly wounded baitfish as it is twitched along. Again strikes can be vicious.

Mink zonker strips come in many colors. My description of the pattern uses a grey mink zonker for the back and a pearl sparkle chenille for the belly. A white mink zonker with the belly as described for the Silver Minkie is another nice combo. The natural brown color combined with a light yellow body material gives a fly that matches a small Brown trout or many minnows. Finally, an olive mink zonker can be used for a bass or Rainbow match. This is a quick, easy and fun pattern to tie and even more fun to fish. Give it a try.

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

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