Trout Lines. President s Corner James Belden. CVTU-Sponsored Fishing Trips Gary Whipple. Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 1

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1 sf Trout Lines President s Corner James Belden It s a great time of year to be fishing and enjoying the outdoors but although the weather is great I do hope for rain to help our very low rivers and stream. The Housatonic fished great the other day but the flow is incredibly low. This time of year also means that the chapter has to get back to work and a part of that is electing officers and bringing in new volunteers. The October meeting will include a formal election of Officers for the chapter. The necessity of the positions are not merely something to meet our by-law requirements, but crucial to the operation of chapter business, events and projects. That's why we need new people every year and this year is no exception. My involvement with TU has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I encourage every member to take the opportunity to take on a volunteer position, whether small or large. We actually do have fun together on trips and events, but at the end of the day TU's work and advocacy is the best hope for our children to enjoy healthy fisheries, clean water and wild trout. Several specific positions are open such as Membership Chair, Newsletter assistant and Secretary, but any volunteer is welcome to take on smaller tasks such as a portion of the Annual Banquet preparations. Couple of further things, we have a planned invertebrate sampling on Oct. 20 we need volunteers. And, there will be another Arts of the Angler show at the Ethan Allen Inn on Nov. 10 and 11 and we ll need volunteers to man a booth at the show. We ll reprint a copy of the brochure in next month s newsletter for your information. CVTU-Sponsored Fishing Trips Gary Whipple The last CVTU-sponsored trip of the year, weather and fish permitting, is scheduled for Thursday November 1, at Connetquot State Park on Long Island. A deposit of $50 is required to hold your place on the trip; these funds will pay our entry fee at the State Park. If we don't have adequate reservations (as defined by a deposit being made) by the October meeting, we'll have to cancel this trip. This is a terrific trip for all anglers, particularly beginning fisherfolk, spouses and kids who are curious about what this fishing stuff is all about. The fish are easy to locate, the stream is small enough that getting the flies to the fish is not hard and it s a beautiful woodsy environment to encourage interest in the outdoors and to understand why it s important to conserve our environment. Join us and have fun for the day! One of our young fishermen catches a fish at Connetquot last year!! Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 1

2 TROUT IN THE CLASSROOM Oct. 07 Jerry Rekart &Gary Whipple Saturday, September 15 th, was the first annual TIC Orientation Day for teachers, coordinators and mentors. Attendees included 30 teachers (22 from CVTU), 3 DEP, and 6 TU members. Our keynote speaker was Neal Hagstrom, Senior Fisheries Biologist at the CT DEP. Neal discussed the life cycle of a trout and made several recommendations as to how we can get our survival rate up from last year. The day was spent discussing the problems we had last year and indoctrinating the new teachers as to what they can expect this year. The stars of the program were the teachers. They were enthusiastic and involved, kept the discussion lively all day through the Q & A sessions. In the future we would like to pare the orientation down to a half day culminating with the distribution of the fish and the food. The new equipment for this year, as well as the restart sets for the returning TIC participants, have been ordered and by the time this publishes should have been distributed. This year we will have the 4 schools from last year and 7 new schools. If anyone is interested in mentoring, please contact Jerry Rekart for additional details. Speakers Forum Adam Taylor Steve Culton, a.k.a. The Fisherman (on FlyAddict.com Forum), caught his first trout in A keen student of trout, char, and fly fishing, Steve is an award-winning writer whose clients include Trout Unlimited and UpCountry Sportfishing. He also offers his services as a guide on the Farmington and Salmon Rivers, and CT s Class 1 WTMAs. Steve never met a trout he didn't like. He claims to have the most understanding wife in the world. Steve will be coming in to speak to us about Stalking Wild Trout on Connecticut s Small Streams. I could write a further description but I think the excerpt below says it all. An excerpt from Steve Culton s article Stalking Wild Trout on Connecticut s Small Streams Fishing for wild trout has become a passion for me. It has taken me to many of the State s Class 1 WTMAs (Wild Trout Management Areas) as well as nameless brooks most fishermen wouldn t give a second look. Sure, I love the Farmington, and you ll find me there an awful lot. But there s nothing quite like the satisfaction one gets from bagging a wild fish, one that grew up with no knowledge of food pellets, feeding schedules, holding tanks, or stocking trucks. These are primal, wary, wanton creatures that, when hooked, fight like fish twice their size and if you re going to catch one, you d better bring your A game. Ed and Kit Kechejian relate their experiences with TIC in her classroom in Bethel October 9 Meeting We will meet at the Miry Brook Firehouse south of the airport in Danbury at 6:30 PM. Don t miss Steve Culton s talk on wild trout in our Connecticut streams (see above). Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 2

3 Trip Input Sought Gary Whipple If you have any input you'd like to make into next year's trip calendar, please send an your thoughts in an to Or send me a postcard with your thoughts to 121 Route 37, New Fairfield CT I'd say hand me an index card at the October Meeting, but that would at best represent only a small portion of our membership. I am interested in the places you liked (or didn't) this year? And what places or type of places you'd like to have a CVTU-sponsored trip to next year? It's OK to say I'd like to catch 5 pound brook trout within a 20- minute drive of Danbury, and have a 5 course dinner before driving back home that night, but of course I'd struggle to find such a place. Nevertheless, knowing that's what you'd like will help me find places to visit. In general, I do not intend us to fish private waters like Spruce Creek in PA, but if anyone thinks that philosophical approach is wrong, let's discuss it. We had only two members go to Cape Cod this year, so I am taking that as a signal that maybe we should replace the Cape Cod trip next year with some place new? How about a charter off Montauk or Nantucket for stripers and false albies on a fly rod?? And only two of us fished the green drake hatch in central PA, so perhaps that's not a keeper? A small group of us had a good time fishing the Connecticut River from the Lopstick Lodge in far northern NH this summer, but I don't think it is suitable as a site for a CVTU-sponsored trip. How about a float trip on the Kennebec River in Maine? At this writing, several CVTU members have said they were going on the Connetquot State Park trip, but only one person has ponied up his deposit, so this may be another place that we shouldn't go to next year? How about a trip to fish the Finger Lakes region? Or a CVTU-sponsored trip to go steelheading (I know less than nothing here, so I'd need some help from experienced CVTU steelheaders). Trip Report: Minipi River - Labrador Gary Whipple In August, CVTU Members Ballato, Hovious, Mortimer, Rekart and Whipple ( and an old buddie from West Virgina, Mike Gilzow) ventured to Labrador to fly fish for the storied huge brook trout that allegedly live there. As those of you who attended the September meeting know, we drove to Boston and over-nighted there before we flew to Halifax early the next morning. We connected in Halifax with a flight to Goose Bay, and then flew from Goose Bay on an amphibious plane for the last 40 miles into the Minipi drainage. We actually were on the river that evening fishing for large brookies and northern pike. Returning, we made the trip home from Minipi to Connecticut in one long day. In just less than a week, the group of us caught more than 40 brookies 3 pounds or larger, and enough 3-6 pound pike that we had pike to eat every day. Biggest trout of the week was Tony Ballato s 7+ pounder. Interestingly, the fish started out hitting size 2 deer hair mice early in the week, and graduated to size nymphs by the end of our stay. One of our group remarked that the Minipi fished just like the Farmington by the end of the week (except for the size of the fish). Messers Hovious and Mortimer and their guide even pumped a trout s stomach and tailor-made nymphs to match that evening; they caught a number of very nice fish on their nymphs, which was made in part from an old trash bag found in the lodge (promptly naming the fly the Trash nymph ). As a whole, the trip was lovely, and we all had a chance to catch trophy brook trout. There were a few things that were suboptimal, such as the river-side walk that faced us every day, and the fact that we ended up fishing essentially the same mile stretch of water each day. And, our planned fly-out didn t happen because the lodge s pilot was unavailable. Pieces of advice for anyone contemplating such a trip: ask for, and talk with references who have been there fishing at similar times to verify conditions and flies, etc. and ask about what a typical days fishing is like. Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 3

4 There was an unsubstantiated report of another trip of CVTU ers to Martha s Vineyard recently seeking denizens of the salt. Perhaps the reason no formal report was filed is somehow related to the fact that unlike river and stream fish that are often location predictable, these salty variety travel about more? At any rate, at least two pictures fell into the editor s hands (see below). Key Chapter Upcoming Events Come out and join us Help invigorate our Chapter! Oct. 9 Tuesday night 6:30 PM Chapter meeting Fishing for Wild Trout in CT streams Oct. 20 Invertebrate sampling Deep Brook Contact: Joe Hovious Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 4

5 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. A Spawning Brown in our local stream 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 & TIC Joe Hovious Conservation Jerry.Rekart@cvtu.org Joe.Hovious@cvtu.org Chuck Rich Treasurer & Membership Gary Whipple Trips Chuck.Rich@cvtu.org Gary.Whipple@cvtu.org Steve Zakur Webmaster Doug Peterson Grants & Gov't Affairs Steve.Zakur@cvtu.org Doug.Peterson@cvtu.org Joe McGowan Facilities/Setup Adam Taylor Program Chair joseph_mc_gowan@sbcglobal.net Adam.Taylor@cvtu.org Open Secretary Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 5

6 Candlewood Valley Chapter Trout Unlimited P.O. Box 3795 Danbury, Ct First Class Postage Stamp Address Label Volume 13, Issue 2 - Oct 1, 2007 Page 6