If you are interested in a half day group spey/switch  casting class on the Housatonic River this fall with Andrew Moy of East Coast Spey, please contact Gary Whipple. Eight people are already committed, and another 4 or 5  can be added with additional student’s commitments. Date of the class is October 10. Class will run from 10 am to 2pm with lunch included for registration of $150 (preregistration required) . Loaner equipment may be available for those who don’t yet have a switch or spey rod.

Gary has quite a track record of coordinating great classes so if you’re interested in building skills or learning new ones I recommend you attend.

Please contact Gary Whipple garyw1948 [at] sbcglobal [dot] net if you are interested.

Gary Whipple forwarded me this excellent article from over on midcurrent.com that talks about fighting fish. The roots of this article are based upon salt water technique, but they’re equally applicable to fighting fish in fresh water. The whole notion of keeping a fish off balance and putting pressure on the fish using the rod as a lever and pulling against the direction the fish is going are techniques that I’ve used on rivers like the Housy.

Enjoy. And good luck getting your big fish.

Link: Fighting Big Fish

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 11th at 7 pm at the Miry Brook Firehouse in Danbury, Connecticut. [directions]

Casting guru and award winning member of the U.S. Fly Fishing Team, George Daniel, will be speaking at our next meeting. If you’ve never seen this guy you must. He’s a expert caster (that’s an understatement). More importantly, he’s a fishing machine. He’ll be fresh off our course scheduled for Monday the 10th and available to answer any of your questions about fly fishing and dynamic nymphing.

Pizza will be served! Join us!

Next generation casters

Our Youth Education day scheduled for Saturday, May 8th has been canceled.

Unfortunately, enrollment for this year’s event was very low and we could not justify the volunteer time nor the financial cost for such a small class.  We’ll be regrouping on this program and hope to be able to offer it again in the future. Thanks to everyone who was interested. We hope we see you at our next event.

Source: Biosecurity New Zealand

Our next meeting will on Tuesday, February 9th at 7 pm at the Miry Brook Firehouse in Danbury, Connecticut. [directions] Neal Hagstrom of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection will be speaking to us about invasive species in Connecticut and what we can do to help stop the spread of these diseases in our watersheds.

The photo at right is from a Didymo (also know as Rock Snot) infestation in New Zealand. Didymo is currently found in three New England Rivers — the Connecticut River in New Hampshire, the Battenkill and White Rivers in Vermont.

For all you spey casting types out there (and those who are interested), a bunch of the guys will be attending Spey Nation III on June 19th. Check out the details at speynation.com   There is also a Skagit Clave at Pineville on May 1; Ed Ward is coming east and will be at the Clave and giving private instruction on May 2. 

Ask around at the next chapter meeting. Gary Whipple and Joe Hovious can fill you in on the sickness that is “Spey Casting”.

Our annual banquet will be held on March 26th at the Stony Hill Inn in Bethel, CT at 6:30 p.m. This event is a great opportunity to get together with your friends (fishing and otherwise) and help raise some money for our conservation efforts. Most of this money will go towards supporting our Youth Education efforts.

No speeches – just good food, friendly people, lots of stuff, and a great cause!

Auction and Raffle items include:

Youth Education

• Guided fishing on the Housatonic River
• Great seats to a Yankee game
• Collectible books
• Guided salt water fishing
• Salt and fresh water reels
• Guided fishing on the Pootatuck River
• Professionally (and amateur) tied flies
• Float trip on the Deerfield River
• Hand signed “Conservation Edition” Bob White artist prints
• Fly rods
• Float trip on the Housatonic River

Plus many Bucket Raffle items.

Tickets are $40

Available at the Valley Angler, from CVTU Board Members, by emailing Adam at the email in the comment below or by calling 203-241-5361

The event will be held at the Stony Hill Inn located at 50 Stony Hill Road (US Route 6), Bethel, CT.

View Larger Map

I’ve fished with a few guides during the past couple of years and the ones that I liked the best were the ones who focused most on what I enjoyed versus getting all uptight about what they thought I wanted. This really came down to focusing on the client as an individual and not as “Generic Sport desiring to catch lots of big fish”. All these guys (and one gal) had skills on the water but the ones I’ve fished with more than once made it all about me. So guiding isn’t all about fishing.

Phil Monahan over at Mid Current posted the article below on what being a guide is all about and how to get a start in the business.

http://www.midcurrent.com/flyfishing/fishingguide.aspx

Paul Dinice's Eel Fly

Our next meeting will on Tuesday, January 12th at 7 pm at the Miry Brook Firehouse in Danbury, Connecticut. [directions]

Paul Dinice will be speaking with us about “Fishing for Stripers on the Housatonic”. The topics will include techniques, flies, bait and locations.

As always, we’ll also have a Swap-n-Sell table so bring those items you’re looking to unload. We’ll also be doing some fly tying prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there.