Fly fishing area featured in story
The Westport News published a feature about the William “Doc” Skerlick Trout Management Area on the Sauguatuck River, and praised Nutmeg TU for its work on the fly fishing area.
Click here to read the story.
Category: News
Fish the Saugatuck April 18
Nutmeg TU will hold a fishing meet-up Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Doc Skerlick Fly Fishing Area on the Saugatuck River, along Ford Road in Westport.
For information contact Cheryl Groesbeck, cherylgroesbeck@gmail.com or 203-414-6245.
Pizza and movie night April 21
Nutmeg TU will hold pizza and movie night Tuesday, April 21, at 7 p.m. at Port 5, 69 Brewster St., Bridgeport.
The movie will be Once in a Blue Moon.
Once in a Blue Moon unravels the mystery of an event that occurs briefly once a decade. This strange and unreal journey takes us into some of the most remote and beautiful parts of New Zealand as we follow one angler on the fly fishing adventure of a lifetime and a quest to document and unravel a childhood mystery. As part of an unpredictable chain of events, a mass flowering of the ancient New Zealand Beech forest leads to an excess of seed production. Mice and rodents fuel on this abundance and reproduce in numbers reaching plague proportions. Incredible footage follows these rodents as they then embark on a strange migration, attempting to swim across the expanse of New Zealand’s rivers and lakes. There they fall prey to the largest predators in the lake – monster Brown trout. Gorging themselves on swimming mice, these fish become extremely aggressive and grow to epic proportions. For a fly fishing angler, this is the stuff dreams are made of. This bizarre phenomenon has remained a mystery…until now. Stunning cinematography, never before seen underwater footage, fantastic fly-fishing and amazing trout behavior will take you deep into the tale of the fabulous and mysterious “Mouse Year.”
Easton selectmen hear passionate pleas to save parcel
With five options on the table for what is to become of the former Running Brook Farm on South Park Avenue, the Board of Selectmen appears to be favoring selling the land to Sacred Heart University for athletic facilities, including a pool and tennis courts that residents could use, according to a story in The Easton Courier.
Power plant proposal threatens fish habitat
Ron Merly of Nutmeg TU has written an essay for the Connecticut section of On the Water Magazine expressing opposition to a proposed power plant in Oxford. There is still time to speak out and stop it.
Click here to read more.
Act by April 1 to try to save hatchery
The following was sent out Thursday night by the Connecticut Council of Trout Unlimited:
We learned today that the deadline for the Conservation and Development Appropriations Subcommittee to address the DEEP budget is April 1st.
The best course of action at this time is to ask our membership (and our TIC teachers and parents) to check the Subcommittee list and, if their local legislator(s) are on the list, ask them to make contact with them about the reinstating funding for the hatchery ASAP. This time each legislator on the Subcommittee needs to hear specifically from their own constituents.
Greg Sharp, Chair of the Fisheries Advisory Council, has prepared a sample letter and I have put together the list of members and completed the contact information. I also have them sorted by Chapter on the second tab. I’ve also included Greg’s and our testimony to the Subcommitte during the comment period.
The list and other documents you may want to use are on the left. For more complete information click here.
Please stress that the deadline is April 1st!!!
A very good piece of news is that Bill 6047: An Act Providing Proper State Funding for State Hatcheries was passed by the environment committee. Greg Sharp sent the following message yesterday:
“Earlier today, the Environment Committee voted favorably on Representative Tong’s bill to set up a Task Force to examine the issue of providing sustainable funding for the State’s hatcheries and recreational fishing programs. In addition to the Task Force, the substitute bill as voted out by the Committee includes a provision to establish a trust fund within the Treasurer’s office to accept donations, grant funds, etc. which would only be accessed at the direction of the Commissioner of DEEP. It does not appear to provide that license revenues and federal excise taxes would go into the Treasurer’s fund, so those monies would still be subject to being cut, swept, etc. by legislatures in the future.
The bill now goes to the floor of the House, where we believe it will pass. I will keep you posted as to the next steps, but I believe we should be stepping up the communications to the members of the Subcommittee on Appropriations for Conservation and Development to urge them to restore the Kensington Hatchery funding. More to come.”
We can thank our friend and fellow angler Rep Bill Tong for this bill.
I WANT TO STRESS THAT THERE ARE NO FUNDING PROVISIONS FOR ANY HATCHERY FOR THE NEXT YEAR IN THIS BILL. EVEN IF THIS BILL IS ENACTED, IF THE FUNDING FOR KENSINGTON IS NOT REINSTATED, THEN THE HATCHERY WILL CLOSE.
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Alicea Charamut
Secretary, CT Council Trout Unlimited
President, Farmington Valley Trout Unlimited
Mill River cleanup Sunday
Due to foul weather possibilities forecast for Saturday, the Mill River Cleanup is rescheduled to Sunday March 29, 1 to 3 p.m.
We will meet in the parking lot at Covenant Church, 1 Sport Hill Road, Easton. The church is on the north bank of the river.
The Mill River runs parallel to Congress Street along the border between Fairfield and Easton, behind the service area on the southbound Merritt Parkway
DEEP biologist to speak March 24
Mike Humphreys, the DEEP Inland Fisheries Biologist for the western district, will be the speaker at the March meeting of Nutmeg TU, set for Tuesday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at Port 5, 69 Brewster St., Bridgeport.
Mike is a longtime fish biologist, holding an master’s degree from the University of Tennessee with more than 30 years in his profession.
In past 25 years with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, his work has focused on Statewide Stream Electrofishing Surveys, a Statewide Wild Trout Research and Management Project, and Housatonic River Research and Management.
Mike will be talking to us about his findings on trout survival with run of river in the Housatonic TMAs, various fish stocking programs, and regulation changes for some sections of the Mill River.
Environmental issues put rivers at risk
The trout season has officially ended except for the designated TMAs. Opening day has been switched to the 2nd Saturday in April this year so mark your calendars. A few of the open areas on the Farmington have been producing some beautiful browns for those fishing nymphs in these very cold temperatures however most of the state’s streams remain icy or slushy.
The Kensington Hatchery is up on the block for the third time so write letters immediately. The comment period is nearly over. The Kensington Hatchery produces all of the eggs used in SIC and TIC and is the only hatchery in the state capable of raising Seeforellen brown trout and Atlantic salmon. The loss would be a travesty for Connecticut’s fisheries and would also set precedent for more cuts to the state fisheries rather than increasing monies allocated to DEEP.
While you are writing, you might consider writing the Connecticut Siting Council in opposition of an enormous power plant that is proposed very close to the Oxford Airport. This plant will save the average Connecticut customer within a 10 mile radius of the plant approximately $35 annually as most of the power will be sold to residents in R.I. and Mass. The cost of this plant will be six trout streams, the lower estuary of the Housatonic and Long Island Sound.
The proposed Towantic Power Plant will draw more than a million gallons of water annually from the Pomperaug River which is formed by the Nonewaug and Weekeepeemee Rivers as well as Sprain Brook. Currently, these streams run very low during summer months. The plant will be built right near the headwaters of the Little River which is right on the fringes of over development as it sits. All four of those streams contain wild and holdover trout. The grey water or outflow from the plant is proposed to release all of this very warm and not very clean water into the Naugatuck River upstream of where a 6.5 million dollar fish bypass was recently completed. The Naugatuck flows into the lower estuary of the Housatonic a relatively short distance downstream. The estuary contains the largest wintering over populations of striped bass in the northeast. This would be a huge step backward for Connecticut as the Naugatuck and Housatonic have come such a long way ecologically.
Remember, there has been nothing invented by humans since the dawn of time that does not break or fail. what will happen when this plant breaks or fails. Would the damage take decades to repair itself or will the damage be permanent?? Either way, this is not good for Connecticut.
– Ron Merly
Striper trip March 21
Nutmeg TU will hold a striper trip Saturday, March 21. The rain date is March 22.
Meet at noon at the Audubon parking lot in Milford to fish the outgoing tide.
Bring your gear.
Contact Chuck P for details, chuckp@optonline.net.