Fly of the Month - December - "Pats Rubber Legs"

Stoneflys are a great pattern for year round fishing which makes them a great fly for the winter. When it’s cold and the trout are sluggish they will often look for a high protein meal like a stonefly. The Pat’s Rubber Legs pattern is a favorite on Northeast waters and has been a go-to fly for many anglers on the Farmington, Housatonic and Delaware. It doesn’t require a ton of material and can be tied on a variety of hooks and sizes. Tie it with or without a bead and vary the color combinations and legs.

Tie up 8 of these or another stonefly pattern and bring them to the December fly swap at our chapter meeting on Wednesday, December 11.

Salmon River Steelhead - 2019 Odyssey to Pulaski

This past weekend marked the annual trip to Pulaski to chase Salmon River steelhead, for members of CVTU and Mianus TU chapters. 22 anglers braved the cold of the season’s first polar vortex, to cast for “Chromes” in one of the best steelhead rivers in the lower 48. The chapters occupied 5 of the 6 Douglaston Salmon Run lodges with the Douglaston River Lodge serving as party central for evening festivities. Our intrepid members were up bright and early both Saturday and Sunday to stake out the best runs and pools on the river, hoping to ensure a catch for all. With the help of John Hildenbrand and Mike Fatse, this “newbie” landed a chrome and hooked up another for an epic pull, but inevitable hook spit. Many others “got into fish” giving them stories to tell their families at next week’s Thanksgiving dinner.

The whole event was organized by our lead steelheader Dave Surowiecki, and he deserves our gratitude and thanks for doing a fantastic job herding cats and getting us all in our lodges warm and safe. Though I missed it, I understand that Dave gave a very educational presentation on how to fish for steelhead on the Salmon at our Friday night get together. Saturday’s BBQ and pot-luck was a blast with a plethora of great food and beverage. Fish stories were flying around the DRL kitchen, while the dining room table was crowded with fly-tyers whipping up patterns to replace all those lost to the river bottom.

Pictures of the trip are going up on the gallery page on CVTU.org, and many of us that attended can’t wait to go back. The Pulaski steelhead trip is becoming one of the most anticipated chapter events of the year. If you want more details or just like to listen to fish stories about the “monster chrome” that got away, be sure to attend our next chapter meeting on Wednesday, December 11, 7:00 pm at the Stony Hill Fire Department in Bethel.

Tight lines,

Mark McBeth

Restoring the Norwalk River - A Mianus Chapter Production

Check out this amazing video produced by our friends and partners at the Mianus Chapter of Trout Unlimited. It takes a close look at the restoration work performed on the Norwalk River in Wilton, CT. Chapter President Ben Couch, member Gustavo Castano, and Jeff Yates star in this high quality production.

With this video Mianus is raising awareness of the challenges suburban streams and what TU and its members must do to restore and sustain them for generations to come. Great work by Mianus and their hope is that this will generate additional donations and potentially win them the title for the Embrace a Stream Challenge.

Cheers to Ben, Gustavo, Jeff and all of your chapter!

Fly of the Month - November

This month’s FOM is the “Egg” pattern. Call them “Glo-Bugs”, “Eggstasy”, “McFlyfoam Egg”, or just a Salmon Egg pattern, they’re deadly for winter Steelhead and all trout. With our Salmon River Steelhead trip coming up this month we’ll focus our attention of one of Dave Surowiecki’s favorites, the “Eggstasy”. These are easy to tie, so you should be able to whip out several in various colors and sizes in a very short time at the vise.

Be sure to attend our Barflies event on November 7 at Reverie Brewing Company to get more hints on Egg and other Steelhead patterns.

Recipe:

• Size 14, 12, or 10 jig or scud hook

• Tungsten bead (size to hook)

• UTC 70 Florescent Orange

• Flybox Eggstasy in a variety of colors

Fly of the Month - October

The Blue Winged Olive of all the species and sub-species of Baetidae, is one of the most varied and common insects in American waters. The numbers of trout flies that represent these are legion and include some of the most common and well-known patterns, such as the Adams and the Pheasant Tail Nymph. This month’s video is from Davie McPhail, where he shows us 3 of his favorite patterns. Tie up a bunch of these or your favorite BWO patterns, for our October Fly Swap and for your box to use on the Farmington and Housy this fall.

Public Hearing on Atlantic Striped Bass Draft Addendum IV

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board is releasing Draft Addendum VI to Amendment 6 of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass for public comment. Atlantic coastal states from Maine through North Carolina, including Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, have scheduled their hearings to gather public input on Draft Addendum VI. The details for the hearing in Bridgeport Connecticut follows blow.

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

September 25, 2019 at 7 PM

Port 5 Hall, 69 Brewster Street

Bridgeport, Connecticut (Map)

Contact: Justin Davis at 860.434.6043

See the full schedule of hearings here

Draft Addendum VI was initiated in response to the 2018 Benchmark Stock Assessment, which indicates the resource is overfished and experiencing overfishing. The Draft Addendum explores a range of management alternatives designed to end overfishing and reduce fishing mortality to the target level in 2020. The Draft Addendum proposes management options for both commercial and recreational sectors in the ocean and in Chesapeake Bay in order to reduce total fishery removals by 18% relative to 2017 levels.

You can read the full content of Draft Addendum VI here

CVTU Member of the Month

In this news post we will highlight a CVTU member each month. We want to get to know our members and help them engage with the chapter in meetings, events, and conservation projects. This post will allow selected members to share their story. What do they do when their not fishing? What specials skills do they have that may enhance the chapter’s capabilities? We’ll include this short bio with a picture of the member’s choice.

Member’s Name Here

Fly of the Month - September

This month’s fly is the classic Prince Nymph. This historic fly is named after its creator, Doug Prince of Monterey, California. He developed it in the late 1930’s or early 1940’s. His original had a black body, black soft hackle, and black tail. Later versions included a brown forked tail, and this became the modern day Prince Nymph.

Recipe:

• Hook: Mustad 9671 hook, size 8-12 (or similar nymph hook)

  Bead: gold

  Weight: lead wire

  Thread: light brown/brown

  Tail: goose biots, brown

  Body: peacock herls

  Rib: fine gold wire

  Beard/collar: brown hackle fibers

  Horns: goose biots, white