SALTY BYTES The bi-monthly newsletter of the Saltwater Fly Anglers of Delaware. Summer 2016 Writer/Editor: Roy Miller

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1 SALTY BYTES The bi-monthly newsletter of the Saltwater Fly Anglers of Delaware Summer 2016 Writer/Editor: Roy Miller On the internet at our club message board is at For club-related questions, inquiries and suggestions, here are the Board of Directors contact numbers and addresses: Ron Smith (302) John Lupinetti Shawn Rakes (302) Frank Danner (302) Bob Kutay (302) Roy Miller (302) Jake Powell (410) A Note from the Editor- As always, contributions of articles, comments, or pictures that I can include in subsequent newsletters are welcome. You can reach me at home (see above) or by . Club Happenings July 13, 2016 The meeting commenced outdoors with fly casting instruction led by Joe Cap, who does rod building out of Shore Tackle in Grasonville, MD on Kent Island. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and the outdoor cooking had to be cancelled in favor of boiled hotdogs on the inside stove. Joe got in some casting instruction while ducking rain drops and then finished with some advice on fly rod design inside the Rolling Meadows Club House. There was an abbreviated business meeting held as well and the meeting concluded earlier than usual. The Club wishes to thank Joe Cap who has been unselfish over the 1

2 years about sharing his vast knowledge and experience with fly casting (he is a certified casting instructor) and also an experienced rod designer. August 10, 2016 The August meeting commenced shortly after 7 PM at the usual venue at the Rolling Meadows Clubhouse in Lewes. Our Club librarian, Steve Halstead, led off the short updates presented by each of the Board members. Steve gave a report on the status of our library of books and DVDs. Steve has worked hard converting most of our videotapes to DVDs. Treasurer Ron Smith reported that we have $3,511 in our Club account. Frank Danner announced that August 27 the Club will hold its first ever Croaker Fly Fishing Derby. Participants are urged to check in at Rolling Meadows Club House at 0600 with fishing allowed until noon at which time participants will partake of whatever covered dishes were provided by tournament participants. Fishing will only be allowed from the beach. It was announced that four Club members will present a program in September about fly fishing from Ambergris Caye in Belize. Coast Day celebrations normally held in early October have been cancelled again this year by the Univ. of DE. Our October 12 Club meeting invited speaker will be Jeff Lewatowski, a Chesapeake Bay guide. The November 9 program is still open and Roy Miller will do the December meeting about the latest happenings at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, followed by some fishing slides. Among the informal fishing reports given, Bob Kutay said he caught and released 16 small sea trout on Fish Bites at Indian River Inlet. A discussion followed concerning fly tying this winter since our host in past years, Joe Morris of Lewes Harbor Marina, passed away this past spring. Mac McNaught will not be available to open the shop on Saturdays this winter, so someone else will have to step forward with the permission of Amanda, Joe s widow. There was a brief discussion about possible back-up locations for Saturday fly tying if Lewes Harbor Marina is not available. It was announced with a heavy heart that one of our most loved Club members, Tom McMahon, 67, passed away on August 3 after a short illness. Tom was a former member of our Board of Directors and always could be counted on to run our annual raffle and to bring the refreshments to the meeting. Tom will be sorely missed as he was a great friend to many (see pictures below). Jake Powell reported that he took weakfish, stripers and flounder from his kayak just beyond the Cape Shores Pier. Ron Smith caught 9 croakers at the Ferry Wall, the largest of which was around 10 inches. Clyde Seibert also has been catching small croakers, sometimes as many as per outing. Rick Ranalli caught a couple of short stripers at the North Jetty at Herring Point in the morning before the surfers took over. New members introduced that night included: Buddy Recentio of Milton, Charles Cats of Lewes, Anthony Mongelruro of Millsboro. Bob Kutay announced that since June the following other new members joined our Club: Mike Lastowski, Cody Carter, Phillip Gatkin, and Glenn Mareston. Our membership is at 162 including 17 honorary members. Captain Dan Harrison was our guest speaker. Dan specializes in shallow water fly and light tackle guiding on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay. Dan has been our speaker in past years. 2

3 He specializes on fishing shallow water structures for sea trout, striped bass, bluefish, and red drum. This time of year he uses 6 ft. of straight leader material without knots because of the prevalence of floating weeds caused by crab scraping. He feels that 4 ft. of depth is the best depth for speckled sea trout. His website is Saltyflyguide.com. Many thanks to Dan for sharing his knowledge with us once again. Some photos of Shawn Rakes with a speckled trout, jack crevalle, and a snook taken during a recent FL trip. August 27. The croaker fishing derby did not attract enough entrants, so the event was cancelled prematurely on the morning of the 27 th. Only four persons had signed up to fish, and one (yours truly) had no luck at all at Cape Henlopen Point. Two things conspired against this Derby, beach traffic which few wanted to tackle on the last big beach weekend of the summer, and a relative lack of croakers and other sport species in shallow inshore waters at this time of year. September 14, 2016 President Lupinetti opened the meeting at the Rolling Meadows Clubhouse at 7:15 pm. New members Daniel O Brien and Joseph Koch were recognized and welcomed to the Club. This now gives us 167 members, give or take a few. Board members offered brief reports to the membership and Frank Danner noted that he has Club shirts, hats, and a Club book on fishing locations available for sale. Steve Halstead is re-organizing our library by putting books with similar topics like How To Do books, freshwater books, etc. together. He also said that he is selling a pair of Topsider Flats booties for $20 if anyone is interested. 3

4 Shawn Rakes invited any members to attend a short remembrance gathering for Tom McMahon that is planned for 6:30 PM at Cape Henlopen State Park fishing pier on Saturday September 17. Tom s widow Cindy and Tom s grown children will be in attendance as well. Shawn gave an update on the A Good Year fishing contest. Roy Miller is presently in the lead with 33 species caught on a fly in the open division, and Bernie Stasko is leading in the Danner division with 24 species caught locally in Delaware or eastern shore MD. Fishing reports followed the business session. Mac caught a 6-8 lb channel cat on a fly in VA. Frank Danner fished the upper Chesapeake and caught some white perch, small stripers, and even largemouth bass. Shawn Rakes also caught some juvenile stripers in the upper Chesapeake drainage on Octororo Creek. Member Paul T. said that the Pots Nets seaside pier has been yielding small stripers, bluefish, silver perch, and hickory shad on green and white synthetic Clouser deep minnows. Eric Danmeyer caught 6 stripers at Reed Creek on the Chester River in MD. Tim Finley caught undersize black sea bass at the Coast Guard Station on Indian River Inlet. Rick Ranalli said that there are some blues in the surf. Ed Barry (left) and Bill Licata (right) had some luck this month off of Watch Hill, RI on albies and bonito respectively. Sept. 17 A number of Club members and spouses came out for the informal memorial service for Tom McMahon Saturday evening the 17 th at Cape Henlopen State Park pier. Shawn Rakes served as master of ceremonies. Roy Miller did a brief reading of a book passage that applied to Tom and recited two prayers, the Fisherman s Prayer and Over the Bar. Other moving testimonials were given by Don Avondolio and Tom s very good friend Bill Licata. Finally Ed Barry distributed some refreshments for a toast to Tom. A brief ceremony followed with Tom s family and close friends out in the shallows next to the pier where Tom liked to fish. All agreed it was a fitting tribute to Tom. 4

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6 Biologist s Corner Juvenile permit 6

7 Unusual Visitors For the past couple of years, those of us who fish a lot or participate in volunteer fish surveys at Cape Henlopen and the Delaware Inland Bays have been noticing some new faces in the fishy crowd. It is certainly no secret that our summer temperatures have been setting records, regardless of whether you attribute this gradual rise in temperature to the release of green house gases or some other cause beyond man s control. Naturally such a shift is having an impact on fish populations in our area as well. Summer flounder and black sea bass have responded by shifting further north and offshore, seeking cooler waters in the summer. New York State has had difficulty containing their harvests to allowable recreational fishing quota levels for both of these species, partially due to a northward shift of these popular sport fish. Massachusetts is inundated with black sea bass and some folks are concerned about their predatory impact on juvenile lobsters. In Delaware, the best fishing for legal-size and better summer flounder and black sea bass has pretty much shifted offshore to the ocean artificial reef sites and historic rough bottom areas like the Old Grounds. While some familiar species have been moving offshore and northward, southern migrants have been paying us visits with increasing frequency. For example, spotted sea trout and red drum have shown up the past several summers and have added variety and excitement to our inshore fly fishing experiences. In addition to these iconic species, others less well known and seldom seen by fly fishermen have been spending time in our area during the summer. For example, John Lupinetti took a small grouper on a fly in Indian River Inlet a few years back. Juvenile pompano, and that ultimate fly rod trophy the permit, have been taken regularly in DE Inland Bays fish seine surveys. Before you get too excited, I should point out that the permit that show up in our area are on the order of 3-5 inches, mere juveniles. Other southern migrants taken in these regular shoreline seine net surveys include gray snapper, spotfin butterfly fish, lookdown, pigfish, pinfish, lady fish, spotfin mojarra, inshore lizardfish, and even the false silverstripe halfbeak, the closest relative to the ballyhoo that is well known to offshore fishermen as a premier bait for offshore big game species. All of these species include Delaware coastal waters in the northern extent of their normal range, but the frequency of these visits seems to be increasing. One that hasn t been recorded yet in Delaware to my knowledge is the invasive lionfish. It wouldn t surprise me if these tropical pests show up in our waters any time now because they have been documented even further north of us in Gulfstream waters. In the short term, there is nothing to be done but to welcome these southern migrants with a fly rod, while for those who participate in seine surveys, the southern migrants have certainly kept it interesting and helped stimulate sales of books on East Coast fish identification. It is too early to tell whether these shifts will be beneficial or detrimental to the long-term health of these species because habitat and food availability may not be ideal here for these southern migrants. For a complete list of species taken in the Inland Bays seine surveys visit the following site and open one of the annual fish survey reports: rwm 7

8 A juvenile lookdown Club Events for the rest of 2016 Oct. 12 Oct. 15 Nov. 9 Nov. 12 Dec. 14 Club meeting. One Fly Contest, White Clay Fly Fishers invited Club meeting, Nomination of Board Members Fall Pickerel Fly Fishing Derby Club meeting. Roy Miller to speak on state/federal fisheries issues, slide talk on 2016 fishing trip. Election of Board members. PHWFF Our local Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing liaison is Frank Danner. Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing is a Club-sponsored program and all club members are invited to help with this exciting and rewarding program. Please join the group at one or more of the periodic programs at the Veterans Home in Milford. See Frank for more details on dates and times. You won t be sorry that you donated your time and talents to this very worthy cause. A Good Year totals in terms of most species caught on flies as of 9/14/2016 by Club members in the Tournament Angler Species Danner Roy Miller Shawn Rakes Bill Licata Bernie Stasko Bernie Dormer

9 Tim O'Neill Ron Smith 20 9 Dave Johnson John Lupinetti Loretta Smith Rich Seagraves Ted Morlock Ed Hays 14 4 Paul Temple Tom McMahon 13 8 Kyle Johnson 12 8 Ed Barry 12 3 Steve Halstead 11 4 Tim Finley 10 0 Jake Powell 9 8 James Page 9 0 Walt Clark 5 0 Phil McDade 4 0 Matt Dammeyer 3 3 Brandon Terry 3 2 Jon Russell 3 0 Jack Semotchko 2 2 Don Avondolio 2 0 SFAOD SPONSORS OUR LOCAL SPONSORS A MARBLEHEAD FLYFISHER LEWES HARBOR MARINA BAIT AND TACKLE CAPT. CHUCK COOK OF FIRST LIGHT CHARTERS CHRIS ERBY OF DELAWARE PADDLE SPORTS OUR NATIONAL SPONSORS 9 3M SCIENTIFIC ANGLERS/ROSS ALBRIGHT DIRECT, LLC ALU-MARINE CORPORATION

10 ANGLER SPORT GROUP CLOUSER S FLY SHOP DOWN EAST ENTERPRISE DR SLICK CO. EXOFFICIO FAR BANK ENTERPRISES FEATHER CRAFT FLY FISHING FLY FISHERMAN MAGAZINE FLY ROD & REEL FRANK AMATO PUBLICATIONS, INC. FRONTIER ANGLERS GALVAN FLY REELS, INC. J. STOCKARD FLY FISHING JANN S NETCRAFT JIM TEENY INC. KRIEGER ENTERPRISES LAMIGLAS LOON OUTDOORS MARCH BROWN LIMITED MERCO PRODUCTS NORLANDER CO./NOR-VISE NORTHWEST, SOUTHWEST AND EASTERN FLY FISHING OASIS FLY TYING BENCHES ON THE WATER PEAK FISHING R. L. WINSTON ROD CO. RAINY S FLIES & SUPPLIES RAJEFF SPORTS, LLC REDINGTON RENZETTI, INC. RIO SALTWATERFLIES.COM SCOTT FLY ROD CO. SIMMS SPIRIT RIVER, INC. ST. CROIX ROD STACKPOLE BOOKS THE CREEK CO. THE ORVIS CO., INC. THE SPORTING GENTLEMAN THE WATERWORKS/LAMSON THOMAS & THOMAS RODMAKERS, INC. WHITING FARMS, INC. WRIGHT & McGILL, CO.. The opening picture of a magazine cover includes three Club members, Roy Miller, Tom McMahon, and Bob Kutay on the flats at Cape Henlopen in an article on the benefits of club camaraderie on men s health. Many thanks to Beebe Hospital for promoting our fly fishing Club. Our ending pictures show Tom McMahon in a happy moment and in a poignant pose on the Henlopen Flats with his buddy Bill Licata. Rest in peace Tom. 10