Mayflyer. Our chapter whenever possible is partnering. What s Emerging. Donegal Trout Unlimited

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1 Mayflyer Donegal Trout Unlimited What s Emerging PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Our chapter whenever possible is partnering with others who have like interests in conservation. Many of them are nonprofits and many are public corporations. We have found that these relationships work well and give us more firepower to get the job done. The job is of course stream restoration at the local level and this year we have worked with the following organizations; PA Fish & Boat, The Lancaster Conservation District, Warwick Twp., Lititz Run Watershed Alliance, Millport Conservancy, Lancaster Conservancy, Friends of Fishing Creek, DEP, and Lancaster Career & Technology. We have been featured on WGAL-TV, appeared in a major article on the Chesapeake Bay and the Lititz Run which was front page news in the September 6 th Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer. We have been contacted by a number of reporters including the Voice of America in Washington D.C. Our chapter has taken a group of fishermen and made a statement that we want clean water and streams where wild trout survive and we want what we do here to be contagious. This media coverage is because we have a story to tell and it shows what a small group of conservation-minded fishermen can do to make a difference. We all like a pat on the back and the accolades are great but what we are doing hopefully will energize others to follow our lead. Right now we are planning ambitious projects for 2010 and after. We have applied for grants for Conowingo Creek which total over $383,000 and have partnered with Exelon Corp. to fund a project on Fishing Creek next year. We welcome Exelon and are excited about this new partnership with them. They are funding the Fishing Creek (Valley Lea) Project with a $10,000 donation. The Climbers Run Project near Marticville is in the final planning stages with PFBC and U.S. Fish & Wildlife. Restoration for this project will be much more extensive than we first envisioned after a more thorough investigation of the problems found on those farms. One Stream at a Time was the title of our video produced years ago and it is a great story of the work on Lititz Run which has restored that stream to a healthy state again. Now our work is taking on multiple streams at one time because we have learned how to accomplish this with our limited resources thanks to the partnering concept. So in looking forward to 2010 I can see a vision of accomplishments we never dreamed possible. Updates: We are told there are as many as 80 to 160 eagles spotted at the Conowingo Dam in a single day. This should last for several months. Do take your cameras! Check out the new Stream Explorers TU memberships available for youths at: memberships make great gifts for kids. On behalf of the chapter I would like to wish all a wonderful and safe Holiday Season! December 2009 Vol. 39 # 6 TED DOWNS Button! Button! Who's got the button! Why Faye Haering has the buttons. The new 2010 Millport Buttons are available. You can pick one up at the membership meetings held the 3 rd Wednesday of the month at the Farm and Home Center, or you can contact Faye at or Fayeonthefly@comcast.net. VolunteerCorner The cost of the buttons remains at $20.00 or $22.00 including postage. FAYE E. HAERING, DTU VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR DECEMBER MEETING December 15 Fly Tying Demos Farm & Home Center Lancaster CONTENTS CHAPTER PLANNER...2 PHOTOS...2 NEW MEMBERS...2 COMMITTEE REPORTS...3 KIWI FLY FISHING FILM...5 WILD TROUT PROJECT...6 $3 BILLION- MAYFLY...7 RUSS BLESSING...8

2 Chapter Planner DECEMBER 9th: 7 pm Board Meeting Millport Conservancy 16th: 7 pm Chapter Meeting Farm & Home Center Fly Tying JANUARY 13th: 7 pm Board Meeting Millport Conservancy 20th: 7 pm Chapter Meeting Farm & Home Center Rise - Video FEBRUARY 10th: 7 pm Board Meeting Millport Conservancy 17th: 7 pm Chapter Meeting Farm & Home Center Dave Rothrock - Nymphs Welcome New Members Daniel Herr 2700 Royal Rd Lancaster, PA Stephen Miller 3650 Hempland Rd Lancaster, PA David Rynier 93 N. Ronks Rd Apt 1 Ronks, PA mrynier93@comcast.net G. Williams 512 Willow Valley Lakes Dr Willow Street, PA annageorge@verizon.net DTU OFFICERS & BOARD PRESIDENT Ted Downs 158 Canterbury Turn Lancaster, PA (home) tdowns30@comcast.net VICE PRESIDENT Wayne Boggs PO Box 486 Terre Hill, PA (home) greygost@ptd.net SECRETARY Gary Roulston 1150 S Lefever Dr Lititz, PA groulston@comcast.net TREASURER Tim Suloff 859 Salisbury Court Lancaster, PA (home) tksuloff@comcast.net BOARD Programs Bob Albright (home) bobndort@dejazzd.com Banquet Dan Brandt (home) flyguy66@ptd.net Membership Kevin Fausey kevin40@ptd.net Volunteers Faye Haering (home) fayeonthefly@comcast.net Photos from OctoberFest At Large Tom Hall phallcat@comcast.net Conservation Bob Kutz (home) kutz.bob@gmail.com Newsletter Mark McMaster (home) At Large Glen Mattox glenmattox@comcast.net Nursery Tom Royer (home) royer207@dejazzd.com Education Scott Trefny (home) snjtrefny@dejazzd.com At Large Greg WIlson (home) greg@woodlandconcrete.com Communication Bob Wyble (home) wyble@ptd.net

3 Committee Reports PROGRAMS DECEMBER 16, 2009 Chapter Members Fly Tying Demo - Five of DTU s chapter members will put their tying skills on display. You ll be able to view each tying demo separately - and up-close. You ll see and learn about a different and unique pattern at each tying station. We may even have a casting fundamentals demo too! JANUARY 20, 2010 In 2008, Confluence Films debuted DRIFT, a highly acclaimed documentary that captivated the flyfishing community. This new film is RISE a six segment collection of individual stories shot around the world; stories that together truly reflect the attraction that flyfishing has for all of us. Shot on location in the Florida Keys, Argentina, Idaho, New Orleans, Venezuela, and Alaska. RISE is a stunning full-length film, photographed entirely on 16mm film and mastered in HD. FEBRUARY 17, 2010 Dave Rothrock, owner-operator of Salmo-Trutta Enterprises, and President PA Council T.U. Effective Nymph Tactics & Patterns In this program Dave focuses on the variety of patterns and tactics, and he points out the conditions under which they can most effectively be employed. This program is actually the WHY and the HOW of nymph fishing. He gives the audience a detailed look at the characteristics of nymphs and shows how these can be incorporated to produce more effective patterns. MARCH 17, 2010 Brian Shumaker - Fly Fishing for Smallmouth on the Juniata & Susquehanna Rivers. Conowingo Creek - A check for $68,000 was received from PA for work on the Conowingo Creek project. An was also received from Russ Wagner from DEP requesting that DTU formally adopt the Conowingo Creek TMDL restoration plan (in writing). A pro forma letter to accomplish this was presented by Ted Downs. After some discussion, a motion was made to adopt and sign this letter formally adopting the published Conowingo Creek watershed restoration plan by the DTU Board and committing the Board to seeing the plan through to execution. The motion was passed unanimously and the letter was signed by all Board Members present at the Board Meeting. Doing this was viewed as providing for a conduit for future 319 Grant funding via the EPA and PA DEP. Bob Kutz described an opportunity to create a full-time PAF&BC person for Lancaster County stream restoration projects. It would be a 4-5 year commitment and it would require a large scale plan and significant funding (via a grant and a broad coalition of stakeholders) to accomplish. The EPA apparently has Lancaster County in its sights for Chesapeake Bay pollution and it intends to come down hard on the agricultural community in Lancaster County because of this. Apparently the EPA is coming to F&M in the near future for a presentation on this subject. BOB KUTZ CONSERVATION CHAIRMAN CONSERVATION BOB ALBRIGHT PROGRAM CHAIRMAN (Editor: Bob is out of town, so this is not an actual report submitted for this issue, but rather Gary Roulston s minutes from the November Board Meeting on Bob s report there. I feel it s of sufficient import & timeliness that the entire membership should be able to read it. MM) Fishing Creek - Materials for the Fishing Creek restoration project were ordered on 11/11/09. $3,000 will be charged to fiscal 2009 and $3,000 will be charged to fiscal Climber s Run - Bob Kutz reported that the PAF&BC and the USFWC will be providing the fencing, the design and the equipment needs for Climber's Run, including the stream relocation portion of the project. The design portion of the project (PAF&BC) will be ~$3,000/farm and there are already 2 farms committed to stream restoration work ($6,000 total). Big Beaver Creek - Apparently there is a PA Water Conservation Officer who has heard abut the stream restoration work that we are doing and who is able to make property on Big Beaver Creek available for restoration work. It isn t yet clear whether that will be restoration work that will fit into the scope that can be accomplished by the PAF&BC, or whether that would require professional engineering involvement to accomplish. Stay tuned for more on this conservation development. Members of the Elizabethtown College Environmental Choices Class spent the afternoon on November 21 st at the Millport Conservancy learning about Trout Unlimited and the Millport Conservancy. 3

4 GROSS INVESTMENTS Donald R. Gross, Jr. Chartered Financial Analyst 8 N. Queen Street, Lancaster, PA (717) Watershed Assessment Stream Restoration and Construction Management 315 North Street Lititz, PA Proud Sponsor of the Donegal Chapter of Trout Unlimited The Link Between Man and Machine Custom Machine Building - Tooling & Fixtures Conventional & CNC Machining Progressive Design & Machine Company, Inc 1813 Olde Homestead Lane, Suite 105 Lancaster, PA SELECT OUR SERVICES WE LL KEEP YOUR HOME IN TIP-TOP SHAPE SO YOU CAN SPEND MORE TIME CASTING PLUMBING HEATING COOLING ELECTRICAL 24/7 SERVICE DONE RIGHT BY PROFESSIONALS 4 (717)

5 Kiwi Fly Fishing Film Stuns Americans Two Otago fishing mates have become overnight winners with their fly fishing film Once in a Blue Moon, about the fly fishing adventure of a life time. Carl McNeil and Earl Kingi won a top American Film Award as they unravel a Fiordland mystery of trout eating mice... and then trying to catch the big one. It took three years to film and over 400 hours of never-before-seen footage. It's so popular they ve had over 70,000 hits on YouTube Fiorldand is country we are all proud of and yet rarely get to see first hand. It s remote, beautiful and simply stunning And it s down here at the bottom of the country where professional fly fisherman McNeil lives and breaths fly fishing, dreaming of catching the big one. Been for almost 30 years since I was 5-6 years old, says McNeil. Like most Kiwi kids, most Kiwi country kids, my dad took me out fishing as a wee kid and yeah it has become a big part of my life. Carl is a self-admitted trout bum - a certified master casting instructor and obsessed with fly fishing. The thing that I enjoy most about angling and fly fishing is the places we go, says McNeil. We live in a beautiful country and it is a great excuse to get out and go and see it and do it. And it s here in Fiordland in some of the most inaccessible places where some of the biggest trout live. You have to have the best skills and experience if you are to bag fish like this. The idea for a movie came after years spent fishing with his mate Earl Kingi, a cameraman and a keen angler. The idea for Once in a Blue Moon - I spent years and years with my mate Earl and we sat by a river and seeing all the glorious stuff every day and we thought we should probably make a film on this, says McNeil. MAYFLYER ADS If you are a business owner and would like to reach over 560 members with a common interest, please consider running your ad in the Mayflyer. There are 6 issues each year. Cost of the ads are $150 for a business card size and $300 for a half page ad. Please contact Glen Nephin at gnephin@ptd.net or HERE TO TIMBUKTU Moirajeanne Fitzgerald moirajeanne@earthlink.net A Global Adventure in Art, Clothing, Jewelry, Stationary, Toys, and Gifts for the Young at Heart! 46 N. Prince St., Lancaster PA (717) Fax (717) Hours: Monday thru Friday 10-6 P.M. Saturday 9-5 P.M. First Fridays 10-9 P.M. Closed Sunday And we said this every fishing trip for about 10 or 15 years and we had seen a lot of fishing films and really felt that they had never done fly fishing any justice. So finally we got our A into G and it took three years to make and that was the motivation. We really just made it for Earl and I, and low and behold a lot of other people have liked it which is really cool. Every night we would sitting outside in stunning conditions and Carl said: You should really film this one day, you re a cameraman why don't you film it?', says Kingi. What Kingi and McNeil set out to do was unravel an event that occurs once a decade, when mice grow in their thousands and trout feed on the rodents. Our film Once in a Blue Moon is about an interesting phenomenon that occurs in our native forest once every 5-10 years, says McNeil. The native forest flowers, it produces seed and the rats and mice eat them and the population booms. It s fantastic for the trout. Once they have eaten the forest floor then they start to swim and they end up in our lakes and rivers. A trout it is used to eating bugs - now it is eating mice which is like eating 10 cheese burgers a day so these trout get very, very big very quickly and they turn into aggressive feeders and for a fly angler it is an absolute dream. In the film Carl meticulously crafts a fly in the shape of a mouse and then goes for the big one. The Kiwi fly fishing film has turned into a huge hit in the US, winning a top award with the underwater footage alone being called some of the best ever seen. We tried to make the film really different and try to get stuff that people had never seen before and a large part of that was trout underwater, says McNeil. We got Dave Allen, put him in a wetsuit and threw him in the river for a week, says Kingi. He nearly got hypothermia and he got some stunning stuff that we have never seen before. Took about three years to make the film,so it did take a long time I suppose, says McNeil. We have taken hours of footage that is edited down to 30 minutes. Now this footage is playing on a 40 city film tour through the United States, showcasing the best of New Zealand. All thanks to a couple of guys who love their country and their fishing. 5

6 Wild Trout Project Can trout survive in Lititz Run? That was the question in the early 1990 s when Greg Wilson and Harold Alleman began rolling rocks to stabilize stream banks along Lititz Run in Hess s meadow. Since that time, following hundreds of hours of work from TU volunteers, grants from TU National, DEP, and contributions from friends of Donegal TU, the water quality in Lititz Run has improved to the point that stocked trout can survive in Lititz Run. Now the question is, can a population of wild trout become established in Lititz Run? In 2004 a section of Lititz Run was relocated to its original place on the flood plain. This new stream bed would evolve into a new ecosystem over the next number of years, so it was an ideal location to try an experiment and see if a wild population of trout could become established in Lititz Run. In 2006, 1500 fingerling trout were released in this section of Lititz Run. At that time there was very little cover in the water where trout could hide and the natural food supply for trout was just beginning to develop. Consequently the baby trout were easy pickings for herons and it was tough for baby trout used to being fed in a hatchery to find food for themselves in a new environment, so most if not all of these trout did not survive. When we used electrodes to shock this section of the stream this past year we did not find any trout with clipped fins. It is possible that some of these trout were out of reach of the electric shock and we missed them, but the fact is we did not turn up any trout with clipped fins when we shocked the stream. This new stream bed in Lititz Run now has lots of aquatic vegetation, there are deep holes, and water has cut under sections of the stream bank creating numerous hiding places for fish. There are plenty of sow bugs and other macro-invertebrates to provide food for fish so the TU Board decided to extend the experiment and add another 1500 trout to see if a wild trout population can become established in Lititz Run. On Friday, October 9, 2009, we received inch brown trout from Cedar Springs Trout Hatchery. Approximately 20 volunteers showed up with buckets and scissors to clip the little fleshy adipose fin on the back of the baby trout. The fish were poured into a wire cage (built by Jim Stephens) sitting in the middle of Lititz Run. Water and a small net full of fish from the cage were added to a 5 gallon bucket and Bob Bachman added clove oil to the water in the bucket to make the fish a little sleepy. Volunteers then took the buckets of sleepy fish up and down stream where they held each fish in their hand and clipped off the adipose fin. After the fish was clipped it was released into the water. Thanks to the large number of volunteers the whole process only took 1 hour to complete. Some trout could be seen along the edges of the stream next to clumps of grass and others disappeared into deep pools. Some trout could be seen rising for something on the surface minutes after they were released. This section of the stream will continue to be closed to fishing to give these young trout a chance to find cover and feeding stations. No other trout will be stocked in this section to compete with the young fingerlings. These trout need to find their own food to become wild so they will not be fed commercial trout chow. We will shock this section of Lititz Run next year to see how many of them survive. A big thank you to Bob Bachman and all of the volunteers who showed up to clip trout fins. As the old saying goes, many hands make work light. Thanks to Faye Haering for organizing the volunteers and for bringing cookies for a treat. Now we wait until next year to see what happens. BOB WYBLE

7 Mayfly May Thwart $3 Billion in Coal Mayflies may seal the fate of mountaintop mining in the Appalachian hills of the eastern U.S. Companies such as Massey Energy Co. that mine coal there by stripping mountain peaks and dumping debris in streams are being asked by the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time to safeguard the mayfly, one of the oldest winged insects and a bait favored by fly-fisherman. Applicants for new mines will have to show they wouldn t cause pollution deadly to the aquatic bug. That puts at risk about $3 billion a year in coal that operators led by Massey and International Coal Group Inc. extract in Appalachia, said Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy Partners LLC. Without fresh permits to dump debris, mines may shut by 2012 in states such as West Virginia, he said. The future of mountaintop mining looks bleak, Book, who is based in Washington, said in an interview. Ripping off mountaintops gets cheap clean coal, but there s no way to do it without environmental impacts. The mayfly, so irresistible to trout that anglers use it for bait and model lures after it, may become Appalachia s spotted owl. Efforts to save old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, where the owls nest, led to federal protection in 1990 that restricted logging. Mountaintop mining produces millions of tons of crushed shale and sandstone dumped in valleys and streams. Rainwater flowing though the debris carries dissolved metals into waters below, a lethal stew for mayflies, the EPA says. In mountaintop mining, peaks are blown away by dynamite to expose coal. Companies may be forced to make greater use of tunnels and shafts, which require more labor and can add $3 to $10 to the cost of extracting a ton of coal, Book said. PRODUCERS UNCERTAINTY The EPA s decision adds further uncertainty for coal producers, Richard Whiting, chief executive officer of St. Louis, Missouri-based Patriot Coal Corp., said on an Oct. 27 conference call. If future permits are not granted, an important source of low-cost fuel for electricity will be eliminated. International Coal, Massey Energy and Patriot Coal are the companies most reliant on mountaintop mining in Appalachia, said Jeremy Sussman, senior coal analyst with Brean Murray, Carret & Co., a New York-based investment bank. Mountaintop mining in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio accounts for 6 percent of U.S. coal production. Half of U.S. electricity comes from burning coal. ALPHA, PEABODY The end of mountaintop mining in Appalachia would remove about 70 million tons a year from the market, increasing demand for coal from Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, according to Book. That may benefit producers that mine in those states, such as Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and Peabody Energy Corp. Massey had $2.9 billion in revenue last year, all from mining in Appalachia, according to its annual report. International Coal reported $1.1 billion in revenue, with $882 million from Appalachia. Patriot Coal had $529 million in revenue, including $460 million from Appalachia. About half of International Coal s revenue comes from mountaintop mining and other surfacemining techniques; the other companies didn t provide a breakdown. If the most sensitive mayfly has to be protected in its habitat at the expense of coal mining in the entire region, we don t think that s a wise tradeoff, Gene Kitts, senior vice president of mining services for Scott Depot, West Virginia- based International Coal said in an interview. The issue that the EPA has conjured up here doesn t bear shutting down surface mining. MASSEY S PLANS Without new permits, Massey Energy will rely more on conventional tunneling, CEO Don Blankenship said on an Oct. 28 conference call with analysts. The impact of permit restrictions may be felt beginning in We always worry about what EPA and others will do, he said. More than 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) of creeks and streams have been buried by mining debris in Appalachia from surface-mining techniques, including mountaintop removal, the EPA said in Mining s threat to mayflies, which hatch in streams and grow to a quarter-inch to more than an inch (2.5 centimeters) long, has been documented since the late 1990s. This year, the EPA under President Barack Obama for the first time held up new permits on the grounds of inadequate safeguards for the insect. Companies opt for mountaintop mining when shallow coal deposits in unstable rock formations make underground mining dangerous, said Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the National Mining Association, a Washington-based trade group. 79 PERMITS The EPA said in September it was withholding for further study 79 mining permits in Appalachia under new criteria that consider the mayfly s habitat. Most of the permits were submitted under an expedited approval process that the Bush administration encouraged. I don t see any way to get around it, said Matt Wasson, director of programs for Appalachian Voices, a Boone, North Carolina, group opposed to surface mining. There s just a higher density of clean freshwater streams there than just about anywhere else in the country. The industry s alarm bells aren t necessary, as coal will continue to play a role in the U.S. energy supply, Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in an Oct. 16 interview. The goal is to ensure that we are dealing with the impacts on the natural resources and on the health of these communities adequately, she said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net. 7

8 DONEGAL CHAPTER of NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #684 Lancaster, PA TROUT UNLIMITED P.O. Box 8001 Lancaster, PA printed on recycled paper Donegal Trout Unlimited is a non profit organization affiliated with National Trout Unlimited located at 1300 North 17 th Street, Suite 500, Arlington, Virginia ( ) Russ Blessing, Inventor of the Wooly Bugger Combining the constant-motion softness of marabou feathers with a woolly worm fly, Russell C. Blessing s Woolly Bugger did what most great flies do: it improved on an already workable idea, and it helped those of us less apt to make a perfect presentation catch more fish. Blessing passed away at the age of 74 last Wednesday at his home in Pennsylvania. Tom Rosenbauer recommended the Woolly Bugger as one of eight essential patterns in his The Orvis Fly-Tying Manual, the Woolly Bugger was first tied in 1967 by Russell Blessing of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who added a marabou tail to a Woolly Worm in an attempt to imitate a hellgrammite, a big mean larva of a dobsonfly. I saw the fly about five years later on the upper Beaverkill. I was sitting on edge of a deep pool with Ron Kusse, a bamboo rod maker who was running the old Leonard Rod Company at the time. It was one of those midday breaks in August when you realize you won't catch a fish for seven hours, when the sun leaves the water. Wanna see something amazing? Rod asked. As Gary Soucie wrote in his book Woolly Wisdom, Blessing had some specific advice on how to fish his favorite pattern, starting by deaddrifting the Bugger, to see what happens. If that doesn't produce, he will add jigging motions on the strip, jig it back at the end of the drift... and across the current and let it swing, use hand-strip retrieves. Sometimes, he says, it takes fast strips. Some of the guys around here will strip it as fast as they can. Almost everything works, some of the time. Amen to that. MARSHALL CUTCHIN