Needham Sportsman s Club May, Newsletter May 2018

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Brendan Andrews
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1 Newsletter May 2018 May Meeting on the 17th The May meeting will be held on Thursday, May 17th starting at 6:30 PM at the clubhouse. We ll start with a cookout dinner at 6:30 ($5.00 each). The business meeting will start at 7:00. June Cookout on the 10th The June meeting will be the annual family cookout. Starting at noon on Sunday, June 10 th we ll be cooking up burgers and dogs for the whole family. For this afternoon the summer fishing rules for kids will be in effect (see below). The club will provide hamburgers, hot dogs, soft drinks, chips, condiments and ice cream. We encourage members to contribute a side dish or dessert. This is usually a very good time for the whole family. We hold the cookout rain or shine. Note there is no regular Thursday night meeting in June and the next Thursday meeting will be September 20 th. Beginning Fly Tying Class Don Walker taught the beginners fly tying class on May 5 th. There were five students and they reported that it was great time and they learned a lot. There is no word if the students caught any fish on their new flies (if you were a student and have a fish story to tell about your new fly we d like to hear about it). Fly Fishing Class The beginners fly fishing class on April 21 st several new members from the class. So if and 29 th was well attended. We had three you see a newcomer to the club working on instructors, (Rollie Johnson, Ray Capobianco, their casting or trying to figure out what fly to Dennis Martin and Bob Lynch), and eight use, please take minute and help them out. students. The students did quite well and Thank you to the instructors for helping with seemed to have fun. We have acquired this. Aerators The aerators in the pond have been started. They are on a timer to run at night now. As the weather gets warmer the time they are on will gradually expand. We will try to keep them off in the evenings to avoid impacting the evening fishing (the bubbles seem to attract the fish moving them out of casting range). Page 1

2 Outhouse The outhouse/portapotty is NOT a trash receptacle. There are complaints that it is getting clogged with trash especially dog poop bags. DO NOT put trash, including dog poop in the portapotty. If you see others doing that please stop them. If this continues we may have to remove it. Grounds Maintenance For the upcoming summer months we need to make arrangements to maintain the grounds. The grass needs to be cut periodically, and the growth around the buildings, parking lot and driveway occasionally cut back. In the recent past we ve used a commercial service to do this. To save money we d like members to volunteer to do the maintenance each week from May through September. A calendar has been set up in the website (upper right hand corner). We ask that members signup to be whack the weeds or cut the grass. Check the calendar online for an open week and choose a week and make an appointment on the calendar. To add an appointment to the calendar, just send an appointment to mailto:needhamsportsman@gmail.com. Please put your name and activity ( mow grass, trim weeds ) in the subject line. If you have trouble with this contact mailto:webmaster@troutpond.com. There is a lawn mower in the shed. No need to bag the cut grass, just let the mower mulch it. Use the metal ramps in the shed to roll it in and out. The battery-powered weed whacker will be in the clubhouse. Please wear safety glasses when using it. Read and a follow the safety information in the tool manual. There will be safety glasses with it in the clubhouse. Please charge the battery after using the weed whacker. To reduce our trash and the costs of disposing of it, and to be greener, we need to be more conscious about recycling. Please separate items like aluminum foil and pans from the trash. There is a recycle bin next to the trash barrel. Please put CLEAN Recycle at the Clubhouse Gooseman recyclables in the bin (water bottles etc ). The same rules apply as at home. Returnable cans still go into the barrel by the TV. Jay Jones, a.ka. the gooseman, performs an important task for the club. He scares away the geese so they don t soil our lawn. Among his tools is a radio controlled boat. Using this may be briefly disruptive to fishing, but over the long haul it is necessary. Please be patient when Jay is doing his thing. Page 2

Summer Fishing Rules The same rules as last year will be in force for summer fishing in the club pond: 1. Children 12 years old and under may fish by methods other than fly fishing. 2.

3 Summer Fishing Rules The same rules as last year will be in force for summer fishing in the club pond: 1. Children 12 years old and under may fish by methods other than fly fishing. 2. The only bait allowed is worms or night crawlers. No live fish (shiners, etc ) or power bait allowed. 3. Fishing with anything other than flies (i.e., bait) is allowed only within 10 feet of the shore. 4. Children must be accompanied by a member. These rules are not a public invitation to fish in the pond. It is still members only. 5. Trout caught must be released immediately. 6. Sunfish caught must be released into the brook below the driveway bridge (bring a bucket). 7. These rules are in effect from on June 10th and July 1 st through August 31 st. Midge Fly Most evenings lately the trout in the club pond have been feeding on the surface; you can see the splashes and swirls all over the pond just before sunset. These fish are difficult to catch because they are focused on eating very small midge flies. A fly that I use to at these times is a small wet fly, retrieved slowly. It doesn t usually catch a lot of fish but it seems to work better than anything else I ve tried. Here s the pattern: Hook: standard length (wet or dry fly) size 16, 18, 20 Thread: black, 8/0 Body: dark gray dubbing (muskrat) thin Rib: Midge flash (pearl) - may substitute krystal flash but midge flash is smaller Hackle: grizzly or dark dun hen 2 or 3 turns Page 3

4 Herring is a hugely important forage species to the Cape Cod and Islands fisheries. In addition, whales, pinnipeds and bird life all depend upon the sea herring as an important link on the food chain. Over the last 20 years or more, huge mid water trawl vessels of over 100 feet in length have been increasingly vacuuming up the herring resource just off our shorelines. Chatham tuna fishermen once were able to travel to an area known as the Great South Channel to catch their share on the New England Bluefin quota. In the early 2000 s the mid water boats started fishing there, and now the tuna are there no more. Fishers up north in the Gulf of Maine tell us that when the mid water guys move in, its over for the tuna fishing. Its the same for striped bass, haddock, and cod, as well as the dolphins, whales and all of the other marine life that are dependent upon the mighty herring. I will attach a few links so you readers can get an idea of the discussions that have happened at a snail s pace in the last 20 years or so. I was recently at a meeting with a herring purse seiner from Maine, that was part of a Washington DC trip he and I made with the Hook Fisherman s Association on this issue over 20 years ago. Keep in mind a purse seiner is a much more sustainable and preferred method of catching herring than mid water trawling, in that when the net is put around the school, the school splits apart and dissipates, so the entire school is not captured. The biggest damage being done to the sea herring today is the fact these trawlers are fishing on spawning herring. We must increase protections to these very valuable forage species before its too late. Here is a link to the general NEFMC calendar as it applies to the Herring and the localized depletion topics. Herring By Bruce Peters (from Floyd Alwon) calendar/feb herring- committee-meeting This link here lays out many diagrams and maps of the control areas, the proposed alternatives, and some catch statistics. org/ herring-staff- presentation.pdf Frames #8 and # 9 in the above document lay out the listed alternatives, BUT Mid Water Trawler interests asked for seasonal components to be considered for the alternatives. What that means is that the herring boats could be allowed in those areas in certain times slots. Alternatives 3, 4, 5,6 all were for year round, but the MWT boats wanted to have a fall back to get in there after September 30. (When we are doing our best tuna fishing in Oct- Nov!!!) FRAMES 11, 12 AND 13 Show the herring catches from the MWT boats. It also shows the increased catches from the Great South Channel area from 2000 to (why there is no tuna there) Frames 25 and 26 show the tuna landing areas and the sharp 75% decline in tuna landings in our Great South Channel area from to , after the MWT vessels started fishing there. Pay attention to these issues folks, and be willing to take the time to send an to the appropriate NEFMC personnel when the time comes. If you are a New England Fisherman I would expect to see you at these meetings to stand up to the microphone and protect the fisheries you love. Page 4

5 Fishing Report Fishing has been very good. The late season pattern has started; fishing is usually best in the morning and then in the evening, after the sun is off the water. For the hatch matchers, there are fish eating midges on the surface, so small, (sizes 16, 18, 20), dries and wets have been catching fish. But streamers, (bait fish imitations), and larger nymphs, (particularly sparrow nymphs in sizes 10 and 12), have been catching fish too. Classifieds As a new feature the newsletter will print classified ads for members looking to sell or give items (or seeking items). Contact Classified_ad@troutpond.com to list or respond.. Page 5

6 President: Bob Lynch Vice President: Denis Martin Treasurer: Tony O Leary Secretary: John Aurelio To contact all four officers: Officers@TroutPond.com Needham Sportsman s Club Board of Directors: Brad Voight, Bill Dello Russo, Paul Defilippo, Matt Palmer, Mike Herman Web master: Bob Lynch Newsletter Editor: Bob Lynch Send comments on the newsletter or articles for the newsletter to Editor@troutpond.com. If you received this by regular mail but can receive it by , please send your address to Editor@troutpond.com. An archive of newsletters since 2006 is on the website at Needham Sportsman s Club PO Box Needham MA Page 6

Mogollon Rim and White Mountains Angler Report

Mogollon Rim and White Mountains Angler Report Becker Lake, Monday, Nov. 6 Blain O.: Becker Lake fished well last week though the water was cold (50- degrees F at the surface). Fish were scattered everywhere