On Tuesday, November 8th, at 7 p.m., Tom Zarecki, of the Angler’s Den Fly Shop in Pawling, New York will present an overview of the Croton River system. The Croton River system is just over the border in Westchester County New York and covers numerous rivers that run between the various New York City Reservoirs in the area. These fisheries provide some of the best fishing in the area and are conveniently located for anglers in southern New York and south-west Connecticut.

Tom is a licensed guide and has expert knowledge of the Croton System. In addition to serving local anglers on the Croton River, the  Anglers’ Den serves the Croton, Housatonic and Delaware systems with guided wade and float trips. The Anglers’ Den is celebrating its 10th anniversary next month.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, November 8th at 7:00 pm at the Miry Brook Firehouse in Danbury, Connecticut.  Stop by to get some dinner, talk with members and see some of our member’s favorite, top producing ties.

Pizza: As has become our tradition,  pizza will be served.

Fly Tying: If you’re interested in demonstrating your best patterns, please contact Doug or Tony.

Swap Table: If you have something you’d like to sell or swap bring it to the meeting and place it on the swap table. Stop by the table to see if there are any bargains to pick up!

Meeting Agenda

• Call to Order at 7:30 pm

• Pledge of allegiance: All
• President’s report: James Belden and Dick Rothen
• Treasurer’s report: Chuck Rich
• Guest Speaker: Tom Zarecki, The Croton System

Tony Ballato and Doug Peterson are the co-chairs of the Program Committee and could use your suggestions and help in arranging for speakers. If you have any recommendations for speakers, please share your ideas with Tony and Doug.

Slate of Officer Candidates reviewed at September meeting:

• President: James Belden
• Co Vice President: Dick Rothen
• Co Vice President: John Queirolo
• Secretary: Bill Dunn
• Treasurer: Chuck Rich
• Director: Tony Ballato
• Director: Tony Mortimer

We look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting! [directions]

The idea of getting a group of people together and traveling far and wide in perfect fishing harmony is an appealing fantasy and is borderline delusional. Fishing trips involve substantial investments in time and money and require making important and difficult choices about when and where to go. The reality can be a meteorological, logistical and interpersonal nightmare.

Tony and Doug will draw on their own – sometimes ill fated – experiences and give you a method to help insure an enjoyable trip.

At this month’s meeting Tony and Doug will provide a proven system to minimize problems and maximize the fun. They will provide handouts that will walk you through the basic choices, how to research, the planning steps, and how to prepare for a successful fishing trip.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 8th at 7:00 pm at the Miry Brook Firehouse in Danbury, Connecticut.  Stop by to get some dinner, talk with members and see some of our member’s favorite, top producing ties.

Pizza: As has become our tradition,  pizza will be served.

Fly Tying: If you’re interested in demonstrating your best patterns, please contact Doug or Tony.

Raffle: We’ll have another raffle featuring a $25 Orvis gift card, flies and a couple of special items.

Swap Table: If you have something you’d like to sell or swap bring it to the meeting and place it on the swap table. Stop by the table to see if there are any bargains to pick up!

Meeting Agenda

• Call to Order at 7:30 pm

• Pledge of allegiance: All
• President’s report: James Belden and Dick Rothen
• Treasurer’s report: Chuck Rich
• Other business: All
• Raffle drawing

Tony Ballato and Doug Peterson are the co-chairs of the Program Committee and could use your suggestions and help in arranging for speakers. If you have any recommendations for speakers, please share your ideas with Tony and Doug.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting! [directions]

Comstock River downstream of diversion (Thanks to Mianus Chapter for the photo)

The Mianus Chapter has posted a good article on proposed streamflow regs. Head over there and give it a read. The key message is that the DEP has spent years getting consensus on regs and TU recommends that the proposed regulations be approved as written.

ACTION: Follow the link above. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the link for a draft letter (I just cut and pasted it from Microsoft Word into an email) and the email addresses of all the committee members that need to get that info.

This will take you roughly 5 minutes if you do it slow and will have an impact that will last a lifetime.

Please email these committee members as soon as possible with your letter.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED SOON! – for Rock Rolling in the Housatonic River Trout Management Area!!!

We have an opportunity to help with a long-anticipated project to improve summertime trout survival in the Housatonic River. The thermal refuges on the Housatonic (mouths of cold water tributaries where trout gather in large numbers to avoid warm river temperatures) have needed restoration for years. Some of these areas have become shallow and, despite having cool water, of little use for trout survival. Five have been identified as potential projects this year.

Our joint plan with CT DEP and Housatonic Fly Fishermen’s Assoc. is to enhance the refuges by deepening them and also adding woody tree cover for trout so that significant numbers can shelter there during hot, dry spells. We’d like to do the work in late June or early July.

No skills are needed! It’s just going to be a bunch of guys rolling rocks. Nothing more than that – however – a bunch of guys moving rocks can do a lot! For years, just two or three people working one day at a time expanded, deepened and maintained the Furnace Brook refuge. You just need to have a willingness to give up some time and muscle power to help this first-class fishery. You’ll also need to bring is your work gloves and enthusiasm (and shovels, pry bars and crowbars if you have them).

Because the project depends on low water for success, we can’t select a date very far in advance. A single thunderstorm can stop the project for days. At this time, we need a list of names of potential volunteers. That will help Mike Humphries of CT DEP gauge the team’s readiness. When we have a date, we’ll contact them directly. If you think you can help, please contact (either me or Mike Piquette)

Jim Glowienka jimglowienka [at] optonline [dot] net
Mike Piquette leeniekate [at] aol [dot] com

What I’m asking each of you Chapter Presidents is to work up a list of names of potential volunteers that we can contact when Mike has a date to propose. Please distribute this document to your Chapter members and ask them to respond with their interest and availability on short notice. I will follow up with you on responses in a couple days.

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.

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.

A couple of quick reminders. Our next chapter meeting is on April the 13th. We have a great speaker, there will be pizza, raffle items, swap-n-sell table and stories to be shared.

May 8th…the 3rd Annual CVTU Youth Day event. We need volunteers. Check your calendars. There is more information here on the site. You can also follow up with Steve Zakur at the next meeting.

A short trip report. I took a ride to the Mianus TMA this past Sunday. Riding shotgun was George “THE BLACK GHOST” Hansen. Neither of us had ever fished there before. I am not quite sure how to describe the trip other than an adventure.

The water was up but manageable. I landed 1 trout, was visited by a Conservation Officer, witnessed an epic canine hatch and came to the conclusion that some cyclists really should consider an alternative to spandex.

George was the high hook with 3 trout, all on the black ghost.

A neat little stream, but next time I am staying on the east side of the river to avoid the dogs.

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”.