Trout Lines. Jan. 9th Meeting. President s Corner James Belden. Speakers Forum Jerry Rekart

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1 Trout Lines President s Corner James Belden Happy New Year to all of our members. Looking back 2006 was a great year and I am confident that 2007 will be as well. I hope that I get to meet many more people this year, both old members and new, while we roll rocks and throw fly lines together. All hands on deck for the 2007 Banquet! In order for our annual event to be a success we need your participation. Please solicit donations for auctions and raffles while not forgetting that you may have a valuable talent or an item to offer. Just contact me (my info is on the last page) regarding anything you may have. Donation flyers, useful for soliciting donations, are available. We also need attendance, and that includes members as well as non-members, so Speakers Forum Jerry Rekart In January we are going to get away from the exotic and exciting trips, leave the river exploration till another time and revisit the fundamentals of fly fishing. Our January speaker is Jerry Bannock. For the past thirty-five years Jerry has been fly fishing the fresh and salt waters of the Northeast and refining his skills with trips to the major fly fishing venues of the world. He has taught fly fishing for the past fifteen years and operated an Orvis Endorsed Fly Fishing School for the past nine years, and is a licensed fly fishing guide here in Connecticut. Jerry is an active TU member and has held most of the positions in the Farmington chapter and State Council TU organizations. please buy a ticket for yourself and convince others that this is a worthy and enjoyable event to attend. Prize and auction items include many non-fishing, as well as fishing related, items. Our Chapter is doing so many good things and depends upon this evening to remain vital. Donation flyers are available on our website, while flyers and tickets will be available at meetings or directly through me. Tickets are also available at the Valley Angler in Danbury. Jan. 9th Meeting We will meet at the Miry Brook Firehouse south of the airport in Danbury at 7:00 PM. We should have a flytying session, coffee and snacks at 6:30 PM with the meeting starting at 7:30 PM. He has several fly fishing presentations but the one we have selected is entitled Fly Fishing Strategies. This presentation will focus on what the angler should consider before going fishing - maps, hatch guides, information and suggestions on reading the water, the fish s needs and how to locate them, what flies to consider in different seasons and conditions and suggestions on how to organize fly boxes and vests. This isn t a boring basics lecture, not the way Jerry does it! Join us on January 9 th for an interesting and informative presentation as we review the fundamentals of fly fishing with Jerry Bannock. For more info, visit our web site at or Jerry s site: Page 1

2 CANDLEWOOD VALLEY CHAPTER TROUT UNLIMITED ANNUAL BANQUET AUCTIONS, RAFFLE PRIZES FOOD, DRINK AND FUN FOR ALL! FRIDAY, MARCH 23, :30pm THE STONY HILL INN Route 6, Bethel, CT COST: $35.00 PER PERSON TICKETS AVAILABLE AT CHAPTER MEETINGS OR THE VALLEY ANGLER OR CALL James Belden at (203) ( (TICKETS IN ADVANCE ONLY, WILL NOT BE SOLD AT THE DOOR) Page 2

3 SS Trout Lines Book Reviews for Winter Reading Tony Ballato Books every fly fisher person should have in their library; Whether a flyfisherman for 30 years or 3, there is a small set of books that every angler, especially the flyfisherman, should have. I have an angling library of about 400 books but when I think of the books I go to most frequently, they tend to be the books that provide useful information as opposed to stories of fishing exploits. So, here's some of my favorites, and why. 'Practical Fishing Knots" by Mark Sosin and Lefty Kreh, provides me with all I need in that dept; the need to know good knots gets more important once you venture into the Salt or any big fish situation. This is the book I have, but there are others. "Hatch Guide For New England Streams" by Thomas Ames,helps make some sense of our area fly hatches AND ( and an important and) provides the right Santa caught practicing Catch and Eat imitation for the natural. For general knowledge, I still refer to one of the fishing encyclopedias like McClane's or Schwiebert's. Questions like the proper method for putting backing on a reel, or what is a Bull Trout, can be found in these tomes. If you don't want to deal with 10 pound books then a general fly fishing guide like Orvis publishes, is fine. Sooner or later, if you are serious about flyfishing, you will, or have already, ventured into salt water; my favorite for saltwater fishing is Lefty Kreh's "Fly Fishing in Salt Water". Also, very good for our local waters are Lou Tabory's books on where to fish, how to fish and especially the bait to imitate. You need a few destination books; I try to make a pilgrimage out West each year, and the best books I have found for doing detailed planning are the Fothergill and Sterling guides to Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho, together with a good road atlas and a AAA hotel guide. Finally, for those Winter nights in front of the fireplace, a few plain old "story" books; my favorites are anything by Nick Lyons, John Gierach,or Ernest Schweibert. The rest of the 375 or so books are just to fill the empty book cases!!! Page 3

4 Trout Lines 2006/2007 EVENT CALENDER DATE DAY TIME EVENT LOCALE INFORMATION Sept. 09 Sat 8:30-3:00 Microinvertibrate sampling Newtown Water Treatment Hovious Sept.12 Tues 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Capt. Bob Turley, Speaker Sep18-21 M-T 3-Sep E.Aspetuck Stream Restoration Pratt Ctr. New Milford Peterson Sep F-S-S Ausable Trip Whipple Oct.10 Tues 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Mike Goodwin, Speaker Oct.24 Tues Newtown P & R Comm. Belden Oct. 25 Wed CT TU State Council Meeteng Hovious Oct. 25 Wed. NW Conservation Dist. Annual Mtg. Belden Nov. 2 Thurs all day Connequot State Park, LI NY Trip Whipple Nov. 15 Tues PWA Board Meeting Hovious Nov. 14 Tues 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Mike Tougias, Speaker Nov. 23 Thurs. Happy Thanksgiving Nov. 28 Tues Newtown Rams Pasture Mtg. Belden Nov. 30 Thurs NRCS WHIP Submitted Belden Dec. 1 Fri. Natives Grant subm. to F&W Found. Dec. 1 Fri. Pratt Center Banquet & Auction Candlewoo Lake Inn Peterson Dec. 12 Tues 7:00 PM PWA Board Meeting Hovious Dec. 12 Tues 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Frank Plona, Speaker Dec.18 Mon EAS Grant Deadline Belden Dec.25 Merry Christmas Jan. 9 Tues. 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Jerry Bannock Feb. 13 Tues. 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Dr. Marc Taylor Mar. 13 Tues. 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Bill Hyatt - CT DEP Mar. 23 Fri. 6:30 PM CVTU Annual Banquet Stonyhill Inn - Bethel Belden Apr.10 Tues. 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House TBA May. 8 Tues. 7:00 PM CVTU Monthly Meeting Miry Brook Fire House Casting & tying clinic - PIZZA May17-20 T-S PA Rocco Rosamilia Lodge Whipple Jun. 4-8 TBA TBA PA - Green Drake hatch Rocco Rosamilia Lodge Whipple Jun F-S Cape Cod - Stripers Whipple July TBA TBA CT River headwaters Lopstick Lodge, NH Whipple Sept TBA TBA Ausable river Hungry Trout Whipple Nov TBA TBA Connecquot River Long Island, NY Whipple Fishing trips are dependent on membership participation. Contact Whipple as soon as you can commit!!!! Contact Jerry Rekart with any additions or corrctions to the calendar. Rekart Page 4

5 Question: How do you organize your fly boxes? Mine are a mess. I have to look through 5 boxes to find the right size, color, pattern, and medium. Ans: Five Boxes!!! Wow. Maybe you can tell me how to keep it down to five boxes???? Ans: OK, now I'm worried - I only have 4! One with nymphs and emergers, one with bigger nymphs and streamers and one with dries only. In fact, only 3! What else is there? Clearly I need more boxes... Ans: I've got five boxes, though I recently went from a vest to a fanny pack/chest pack combo and generally all the flies I need are stuck to the patch on my chest pack. Here's how the flies in my fanny pack are organized. 1 - Small Flies. This is a box for the small dries #22+ and midge nymphs that I just can't store anywhere else. It's a clamshell type box from Orvis. 2 - Nymphs. This holds the abundant collection of nymphs that I own. The majority of the numphs in this box are PTs, HE, Prince, Copper Johns, and Lightning Bugs. But I also have larger midges and a few large stoneflies as well. Also have a small selection of wet flies. 3 - Mayfly Dries - Standard Assortment of Dries both full hackle, downwing and a bunch of paras 4 - Caddis Dries - This is a another small clamshell box that holds several variations and sizes of caddis. 5 - Streamer box -- One side holds buggers, the other holds classic flies (ghosts, finns) as well as a few muddlers. I also have an Orvis dropper box that is handy but very large. I like it a lot last season, but find myself still tying droppers streamside. Ans: Well, this year I set a goal of getting down to one box. I almost made it. I got a big 3-layer box (the kind with foam with slits) - the three sections are: 1. Deepest section - dry flies. Organized by size and then by color (light, medium, dark colors). Also, some big stimulators 2. Shallowest section - nymphs. Organized by size and then by color within each size range. Also, try to keep heaviest nymphs together. Latter third of this has streamers. 3. Medium depth section: emergers and small flies Also found I needed a second box with very small flies (dries, emergers, nymphs from size 20 on down) and a third box of large streamers and ugly flies. Maybe next year I can get down to two boxes! Page 5

6 Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited Awarded Meserve Foundation Grant Mr. Karl Epple, Chairman of the Albert W. and Helen C. Meserve Memorial Fund, announced that the Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited has been awarded a $5,000 grant to implement Trout in the Classroom programs in five local schools. The Albert W. and Helen C. Meserve Memorial Fund was established in 1978 to further the work of Mr. Meserve, a nationally recognized arborist, and his wife Helen in the field of environmental education. In a Trout in the Classroom program a teacher sets up an aquarium and incubates eggs in a classroom under the guidance of the Trout in the Classroom Coordinator. The teacher and the students accept the responsibility for daily maintenance and observing the eggs and fry, while the coordinator is responsible for providing equipment, assisting in the setup, obtaining permits and coordinating the purchase of the eggs and release of the fish. A trout in the classroom program results in an aquarium full of trout fry that students release into an approved stream on a class field trip. In accepting the grant for Trout Unlimited, program Coordinator Jerry Rekart said, This grant from the Meserve Foundation will allow us to give teachers the opportunity to involve students in a hands-on environmental project that fosters personal responsibility and provides both extended education and a rewarding, real life connection to the environment. The five school districts implementing Trout in the Classroom programs are Danbury, New Fairfield, Brookfield, Bethel and Newtown. More information on this national environmental education program can be found at Page 6

7 CANDLEWOOD VALLEY CHAPTER TROUT UNLIMITED DONATIONS NEEDED! RODS, REELS, FLYS, OUTDOOR GEAR, ARTWORK, GIFT CERTIFICATES, ELECTRONICS, TRIPS, BOOKS, ETC. For Raffle Prizes and Auction Items at the Annual CVTU Chapter Banquet 3/23/07, Stony Hill Inn, Bethel, CT All Donations are Tax Deductible. All Funds Raised go to support local and state TU Conservation Projects. Donations accepted at Chapter meetings, by any member or The VALLEY ANGLER (56 PADANARAM RD., DANBURY) or call James Belden, (203) ( Thank you for your support! Page 7

8 Editor s Note Tony Mortimer You no doubt have noted the ragged edge quality of this newsletter. This is somewhat due to the arrival from Santa of a new computer and my transition to it (I have left the dark side Windows- and transitioned to Macintosh). And partially due to holidays, family, travel, football and basketball schedule infringement on newsletter time. I ll settle down to better practice for February. (and maybe be able to retrieve my fly-tying table from the basement holiday banishment). Items for Sale: Bamboo Rod: 8 1/2', Jay Harvey-Jackson #7 1/4 D by Heddon, 3pc/2tips, 5wt. moderate action, green wraps with gold trim, bright nickel silver ferrules, Heddon nickel/silver/bakelite reel seat. Comes with replacement bag and original paper covered aluminum rod tube. Rod is the same quality level as a Heddon #20. Has one agate tip top, and agate stripping guide. Very good condition $250 Call Doug at or cdflyfish@att.net Send me an (tony.mortimer@cvtu.org) or see me at a meeting for any items you want to sell or swap and I ll list them in the newsletter. Advertisements Salty Flies Charters (an Orvis endorsed fly fishing guide with 25 years experience fishing Long Island Sound) has a Custom 23 boat out of Rowayton, CT ( captkoop@saltyflies.com) North Coast Charters an Orvis endorsed fly fishing guide Fishing CT, NY a& Southern RI Capt. Bob Turley Old Saybrook, CT English Angling Trappings at Angler s Den 11 MEast Main S. Pawling, NY Page 8

9 Fund Raising Banquet Donations Needed! Please use the copy of the Donations Needed flyer on page 7 to Take to one of your favorite local vendors and ask them to support our work with a donation. Then, contact James Belden (see contact info below) and let him know what you have. Our chapter meetings are held September through May on the second Tuesday of each month starting around 6:30 PM for snacks and coffee (and usually some fly tying) with the meeting starting at 7:30. The meetings are open to all members and nonmembers. Come over and see what we re about, we d like to meet you. Visit our web site for copies of newsletters, interactive member forum, trout fishing links and much more: This newsletter is for you, our members. Let me know how we can improve it or make it more useful to you. And think about dropping me a note with some content, items for sale, stories, etc. It makes it more interesting to all of us! Tony Mortimer Tony.Mortimer@cvtu.org Candlewood Valley Chapter Trout Unimited Board of Directors James Belden President Tony Mortimer Newsletter Editor James.Belden@cvtu.org Tony.Mortimer@cvtu.org Jerry Rekart Vice President Joe Hovious Conservation Chair Jerry.Rekart@cvtu.org Joe.Hovious@cvtu.org Chuck Rich Treasurer Gary Whipple Trips Chair Chuck.Rich@cvtu.org Gary.Whipple@cvtu.org Jerry Rekart Program Chair Doug Peterson Grants & Gov't Affairs Jerry.Rekart@cvtu.org Doug.Peterson@cvtu.org Chuck Rich Membership Jonathan Atherton Secretary Chuck.Rich@cvtu.org Jonathan.Atherton@cvtu.org Page 9

10 Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited P.O. Box 3795 Danbury, Ct First Class Postage Stamp Page 10