AmazonSmile - Supporting CVTU is Easy

Have you heard about “Amazon Smile”? Well, it is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charitable organization of your choice.

If you’re like me, and an Amazon Prime member, you’re probably ordering a lot of stuff off Amazon. Especially with the Holidays approaching and during this pandemic. What if you used AmazonSmile instead, and listed your charity as Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited? I listed CVTU as my charity and have been using AmazonSmile exclusively since the summer of 2019. A few others in our chapter have jumped on board in the last 6 months. In the year and a half that our small group has been using AmazonSmile, we’ve generated $29.47 in donations. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it didn’t cost us anything and if 50 of us were on board, we would generate at least 5 times as much. That could pay for an event like our summer BBQ or a nice auction item for our banquet.

AmazonSmile is easy to setup. Just click on this link, which will take you to AmazonSmile and automatically set up CVTU as your charity; https://smile.amazon.com/ch/06-1496855. Once your setup you can bookmark the site and add it to your favorites, so it’s easy to find when you’re ready to shop.

Please note that you don’t have to be a Prime member to use AmazonSmile, and of course you don’t have to list CVTU as your charity. Pick whoever you want as a charity or share the wealth with CVTU. You can change charities back and forth whenever you want.

If you want more information about AmazonSmile or need help getting set up, please email me at grt4dead@hotmail.com, or ask your questions in the “Comments” section below.

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and tight lines!

Mark McBeth, CVTU Webmaster

November Virtual Chapter Meeting Replay Available on YouTube

Wednesday evening November 18th, CVTU members and friends gathered via Zoom for our November Chapter Meeting. We’re still unable to meet in person, but Zoom has proven to be an engaging platform for our monthly gettogethers. There were 23 attendees on the Zoom call, making this meeting about 75% of typical in-person attendance.

CVTU President Mike Fatse gave updates on current TU state of affairs, and he told attendees about CVTU logo Masks and Neck Gators that will soon be available for purchase on the CVTU website. They will be sold at CVTU costs with Masks running $3.50 and Gators $6.50. Shipping is free. We’re hoping to have them on the website and available before Thanksgiving.

Mark McBeth then gave a short presentation on the weekend trip to Pulaski and the Salmon River. Though fishing was slow, steelhead and a few browns were landed by all. Randy Walker then gave an engaging look at his home waters in his home state of Arkansas, focusing on the White River. Neil Baldino rounded out the presentations with an in-depth look at bass fishing on Candlewood Lake.

A replay of the meeting can be found on the CVTU YouTube page here…

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October Virtual Chapter Meeting Available on CVTU YouTube

This past Wednesday, October 14, CVTU held its chapter meeting via Zoom. This virtual platform will be our standard for meeting until restrictions are lifted for in-person gatherings. We have access to the Zoom platform for up to 100 attendees, with social media streaming and recording capability.

Last week’s meeting was recorded and can be found on the CVTU YouTube channel here.

The meeting featured presentations from CVTU members on their “Summer of COVID”. Presenters included Mike Fatse telling us about his 30-day trout fishing streak, Kirsten Begg’s exploration in the back woods, Bob Mylnar’s most excellent adventures, Mark McBeth teaching his grandson how to fish, and John Hildenbrand, John Forlenzo and Dave Surowieki, reporting on their salt water exploits on the “Sound”. There is literally something for everyone in these presentations.

Stay tuned for November’s meeting notification and agenda and please plan to join us virtually next month.

Why We Are So Loyal to Our Fly Fishing Brands

I had one of those “Oh S@#t” moments out on the river the other day. My fully rigged 10’6” Cortland Competition Nymph rod, was stowed from the back of my Forester, across the laid flat back seat, over the center console, and down into the passenger front seat foot-well. That’s how I’ve always stored it, while driving between holes. But this day I also had a fully stocked cooler occupying the foot-well. The rod laid over the cooler, bending down to its tip deep in the foot-well. Nice and snug, huh?

Well, needless to say when I applied too much brake pressure to pull into the next turnout, the cooler tipped over and snap… there went the tip section of my rod! It would be one thing if I broke it on a 22” holdover Brown. But, total stupidity on my part made it worse. That rod has probably seen more action over the last 4 years than all my others combined. I had to get it fixed.

That was Saturday. On Sunday morning I took a picture of the broken section, along with the rod case and 1st section clearly showing “Cortland Competition Nymph – 10’6” 3wt”. I opened the Cortland Line Company’s website and clicked the “Contact Us” link.

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Yikes! Broken Tip

I completed the form as instructed and truthfully told the story of the broken tip section. I wasn’t expecting Cortland to replace the tip for free, and I had seen the “$50 flat rate replacement” statement on the support site. What I didn’t expect was the response I got. By mid-morning Monday I had received and email from Matt, a customer service & sales rep. He included an invoice with an embedded link for me to complete my replacement order. The link took me directly to the “cart” on the website with my tip section already there. In a couple of clicks I had my shipping information and credit card info completed. Another click and the order was complete. This morning I wake up to a shipping notice from Cortland with an expected delivery date of this Friday. Pretty cool. I won’t even miss a weekend of fishing.

Why am I telling you this story? Well, how many times have you fought with a customer service rep over the most mundane issue, never getting it resolved, and feeling totally frustrated with the process. How many emails to support go unanswered or worse, answered by a BOT and not a person? How long have you waited on hold with your cable company, bank, or airline? Forever, I bet. What fly fishermen have come to realize is that the companies we deal with aren’t like those cable companies, banks or airlines. Our friends at Cortland, Simms, Orvis, Trouthunter, J. Stockard, Firehole Outdoors and others, are part of a network of small American, mostly private businesses, that value customer relationships and produce reliable, well made products. Yeah, we spend a little extra money, but we’re buying quality and that relationship after the purchase.

I have had similar experiences with Simms (replaced broken wading staff, no questions asked), Cabela’s (replaced my broken 4wt travel rod, no questions asked), St. Croix (replaced broken rod 20 years ago, no questions asked). I didn’t know what Trouthunter tippet was until I saw the Grateful Dead logo with the Osprey head in the center. Hmm… how do I get one of those? I went to their website and asked them that very question. Just four hours later I received an email response simply stating, “it’s in the mail”. A week later I had a whole envelope worth of Trouthunter stickers. That simple gesture created a customer for life.

These are the little things that separate successful small businesses from those that fail, and the fly fishing universe is littered with them. We’re lucky to have a passion that these companies share with us. And when we shop at our local fly shop for these products, we’re helping those small businesses succeed as well (some of which are TU Business Partners).

It’s a win win for all involved in the pursuit of fly fishing. Buy local, buy American, and tight lines.

Orvis Great Giveback Days!

Throughout September, Orvis is making it easier than ever for our customers to support the conservation initiatives they are most passionate about. During the past two years, Orvis has raised over $100K for many different organizations in our local store markets, including Trout Unlimited (TU) chapters, Project Healing Waters, pet adoption groups, and more.

Donate online now to the Trout Unlimited Embrace A Stream program or donate at your local Orvis retail store. Either way, this September, when you give $10, you get a $10 Orvis Savings Card.

Click image above to donate now.

Volunteers Needed for this Saturday, 9/19

Dear CVTU members & friends,

I hope this email blast finds you all well and you have had a wonderful summer.  Patricia Barkman (Al's trail founder, who helped secure grant dollars for tree plantings along Deep Brook and the Pootatuck River), has reached out to me, looking for support this Saturday (9/19) to help with clean up the Al's Trail in the vicinity of Deep Brook and the Pootatuck River confluence.

Due to the recent storms, there has been some brush and limbs that need to be cleared, in addition to invasive growth.  We will be practicing good social distance measures (masks required) and I'm only looking for 3-4 volunteers so we can keep our distances.  I will provide all the tools necessary to complete our work.  Please bring work gloves and wear long pants and long sleeves.  We will be meeting @ 9 am at the Deep Brook kiosk off Old Farm Road in Newtown, behind the "Park & Bark" dog park.  I figure we will finish no later than one o'clock but I am appreciative of whatever support you can volunteer.

Please email me at neil.baldino@gmail.com if you are interested in volunteering.  I will then finalize all details by Friday evening.

Neil Baldino

203-400-0374

VP Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited

Guide Strategies for Great Lakes Winter Steelhead

It’s getting to be that time of year when CVTU members start dreaming of the late fall/early winter trips to Pulaski and the Salmon river. Steelhead are the fish of dreams, and the Salmon river is a world class Steelhead river. We’ll start switching from tying nymphs & dries to neon eggs patterns & gaudy bright stoneflies. Stories of past trips to Pulaski will be told and re-told. Lies will be embellished.

Of course we’re not sure if we can pull off a CVTU trip this year, due to COVID. However, this article from Fly Fisherman magazine should help us get prepared for the bitter cold, but extremely rewarding Steelhead season. Lets hope we can make a trip in the coming months to chase some chrome.

Guide Strategies for Great Lakes Winter Steelhead

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Great American Outdoors Act Becomes Law

House bill H.R.1957 was signed by the President Tuesday, August 4th and became law. While most of us were sheltering from Tropical Storm Isaias, this bill was signed into law establishing the “the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund”, to support deferred maintenance projects on federal lands. This is something that TU has been supporting throughout the bill’s journey through Congress.

You can find out more about the TU response here, along with a short video thanking our political allies.

If you would like to read the entire bill, you can find it on this link on the 116th Congress website.

An interesting side note about this bill, is that it was originally sponsored on March 28, 2019, by the late Representative John Lewis. RIP and thank you sir.

The Next Step in the Fight for Bristol Bay

Meghan Barker of TU Alaska, who spoke at our June virtual chapter meeting, has informed TU Leaders of the final release of the Environmental impact Statement (EIS) for the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay. Meghan has provided us with the following information on EIS below. It is a lot to digest, but it’s all available for us to learn and take action.

If you happened to miss our June meeting and Meghan’s presentation titled “Fishing The Last Frontier: TU’s Efforts to Protect Bristol Bay, you can find it here on the CVTU YouTube channel.

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“The fight against the proposed Pebble mine has reached another critical milestone with the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (Final EIS) on Thursday, July 23, 2020. 

Produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Final EIS is the risk analysis document that should review all the potential impacts the project could bring to the people, fish, and fish-based economies in southwest Alaska. More importantly, the Final EIS serves as the basis for the record of decision, which will grant or deny Pebble its most important federal permit. This decision could come as soon as August 19, 2020.

In 2019, Trout Unlimited, multiple federal and state agencies, and 685,000 individuals submitted comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, all noting the inadequacies in the Corps’ initial document. Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan even weighed in, saying that if the Corps doesn’t address all the issues raised in agency comments in the Final EIS, they should not issue the permit.

Even from reading the executive summary, it is clear that the Corps has not evaluated Pebble beyond a conceptual level plan, and hasn’t fully accounted for every way Pebble would impact Bristol Bay, which is a failure of their duties under the Clean Water Act.

See the FEIS here and TU’s analysis here.

With a record of decision issued as early as next month, we are nearly at the end of the permitting process. We’ve called on the Army Corps, our Senators, and even the President to stop Pebble, and now they need to hear from people from across the country again. Head over to www.savebristolbay.org/tellpresidenttrump to send a note to the White House -yes, again- asking them to do all they can to stop Pebble in the permitting process”.

Additionally, you can take action by signing the Petition urging President Trump to deny the permit application; savebristolbay.org/tellpresidenttrump

Penfield Reef Sunset Surf Trip - CANCELLED

We received some unfortunate news today from the Town of Fairfield. Details of the message are included below and were provided by CVTU member Ryan Knapp. CVTU Board Member and event organizer, John Hildenbrand, contacted Fairfield Police today to confirm the restrictions, and they told him we will not be able to park at Veteran's Park, or have access to the beach and the reef. 

Therefore, we will have to cancel this Saturday's event. We hope to reschedule it in September, if restrictions are lifted. These are challenging times and we must flex our activities in accordance with local regulations and restrictions. As your Board, we will keep working to plan exciting and pertinent activities that support CVTU's goals and mission.

Respond to John Hildenbrand with any questions; Jhildenb73@gmail.com or 845-242-7730. 

Note from the Town of Fairfield

An Update Regarding Town Beaches:

Hi Fairfielders,

I received numerous emails from residents over the weekend with concerns surrounding our beaches, parking, non-residents and enforcement.

I want to provide a brief update because I am simply unable to respond to the many Facebook posts I'm tagged in.

At the outset of the pandemic I signed an emergency declaration and completely closed all the town public spaces including our beaches. When we reopened, I made the decision after consultation with the Emergency Management Team to limit parking to residents only. We were able to restrict it temporarily because we are in a State of Emergency.

In normal times, because the Town received federal funds for our beaches, we are not allowed to exclude non-residents at Jennings Beach.

Several weeks ago, because we were not reaching capacity at Jennings Beach, and because non-residents were already walking on to our beaches and parking elsewhere, we decided to allow a limited number of parking spots to non-residents. We have adjusted that number a few times while closely monitoring crowding at the beach. Sunday was the first time we had to turn residents away from Jennings Beach - which is unacceptable to me and we immediately increased capacity to allow more residents in.

My first priority is to ensure our residents can safely enjoy our beaches. Our Emergency Management Team's planning committee and I have been monitoring the beaches every week and taking into consideration input from residents. We've taken several steps to address previous concerns:

• We added No Beach Parking signage and police enforcement at Bob's parking lot with cooperation from management

• We increased patrol and enforcement for parking in the beach area and have given out a record number of tickets over the last several weekend.

• The Police Commission voted to increase parking fines from $80 to $200 to help deter illegal parking. I hope the increased fine will cut down on non-permitted parking.

• We have added more garbage bins and an extra dumpster and social distancing signage at the beaches.

Given the huge increase in people walking on to our beaches whether via Uber or walking from parking spots miles away, I have asked our Town Attorney to get clarification on what we can legally do. Assuming we can legally and logistically prevent non-residents, it's a challenge because our beaches have countless points of entry.

We are going to research solutions and see if we can come up with a proposal that mitigates the issues we are experiencing at our beaches.

I want residents to know I am frustrated too.

I have asked the Emergency Management Team's planning committee to meet again this week to discuss how we can plan to address the problems we have been seeing in the beach area. I will update residents through my weekly newsletter. Please know I want to ensure our beaches are safe and that our residents are able to enjoy them.