Category: News

Written by NutmegTrout21725Nov, 2014

Jewish Home wants to buy South Park site

Longtime Easton neighbor the Jewish Home for the Elderly in Fairfield is offering $6.1 million to the town for the former Running Brook Farm, a 29-acre property on South Park Avenue the town bought in 2008 for $6.1 million.

The idea calls for 260 units total, with 200 independent living apartments and a mix of assisted living and skilled nursing spaces. Ten percent of the rental apartments would be reserved for the affordable housing category and would count toward the town’s requirements to provide affordable housing, Banoff said.

Click here to read the full story in The Easton Courier.

Tom Rosenbauer
Written by NutmegTrout21725Nov, 2014

Tom Rosenbauer in Avon

Tuesday, Nov. 25, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the folks at Orvis of Avon are hosting an evening with Tom Rosenbauer specifically for area club members (TU, FRAA, CFFA & HFFA). Tom will speak about a variety of topics and sign books. Light refreshments will be served. Don’t miss this!

Tom Rosenbauer, host of the Orvis Fly Fishing Podcasts, has been with the Orvis Company over 30 years, and while there has been a fishing school instructor, copywriter, public relations director, merchandise manager, and was editor of The Orvis News for 10 years. He is currently Marketing Director for Orvis Rod and Tackle. As merchandise manager, web merchandiser, and catalog director, the titles under his direction have won numerous Gold Medals in the Annual Catalog Age Awards.

Tom has been a fly fisher for over 35 years, and was a commercial fly tier by age 14. He has fished extensively across North America and has also fished on Christmas Island, the Bahamas, in Kamchatka, and on the fabled English chalk streams. He is credited with bringing Bead-Head flies to North America, and is the inventor of the Big Eye hook, Magnetic Net Retriever, and tungsten beads for fly tying.

He has ten fly fishing books in print, including The Orvis Fly-Fishing Guide, Reading Trout Streams, Prospecting for Trout, Casting Illusions, Fly-Fishing in America,Approach and Presentation, Trout Foods and Their Imitations; Nymphing Techniques; Leaders, Knots, and Tippets, The Orvis Guide to Dry-Fly Techniques, and The Orvis Fly-Tying Guide, which won a 2001 National Outdoor Book Award. He has also been published in Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Catalog Age, Fly Fisherman, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Sporting Classics, Fly Rod & Reel, Audubon, and others. He lives in southern Vermont on the banks of his favorite trout stream.

Tom was Fly Rod & Reel magazine’s 2011 Angler of the Year! To quote the magazine: “People who meet him know this: Rosenbauer is as valid a fly fisherman as they come – honest, approachable, generous, dedicated, and enthusiastic. It’s that kind of enthusiasm and the written and verbal legacy he is providing that make Tom Rosenbauer Fly Rod & Reel’s 2011 Angler of the Year.”

Written by NutmegTrout21710Nov, 2014

TU scientist discusses climate change on show

Jack Williams, Ph.D., senior scientist for Trout Unlimited, talked about TU’s national Climate Change Committee on the Oct. 30 episode of “Yankee Fisherman,” hosted by Nutmeg TU member John Kovach, on hanradio.com.

Williams discussed TU’s position on climate change and the work of its committee.

Williams also serves on the Board of Directors of the Western Rivers Conservancy. Prior to his current position with Trout Unlimited, he was a Professor at Southern Oregon University, Forest Supervisor of the Rogue River and Siskiyou National Forests in Oregon, and Deputy Forest Supervisor of the Boise National Forest in Idaho. He also taught at the University of California-Davis and has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management, including serving as the BLM’s National Fisheries Program Manager, and the Science Advisor to the BLM Director in Washington, D.C.

His education includes a BS in Wildlife Biology from Arizona State University, a MS in Biology from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and a PhD in Fisheries Science from Oregon State University. If not fishing with family and friends, he is with his springer spaniels.

Also on the show is David Deen, river steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Councill.

Deen spent 28 years as an Orvis-endorsed guide in Vermont and a licensed guide in New Hampshire. He operated his own business called Strictly Trout, but fished for anything he could catch with a fly rod, including shad, stripers and smallmouth and largemouth bass in the watershed. He has been river steward for the upper valley in Vermont and New Hampshire for 16 years working with the Connecticut River Watershed Council.

Kovach hosts Yankee Fisherman, a look at fishing and conservation related topics with a focus on the Northeast, Thursdays from 1 to 2 p.m. Archives of all prior shows can be heard on hanradio.com

Written by NutmegTrout21705Nov, 2014

Aquarion official to describe natural resources

George S. Logan, director of Environmental Management and Government Relations for Aquarion Water Company, will discuss natural resources and the land management in terms of source protection and watershed management as it relates to Aquarion with Nutmeg TU Tuesday, Nov. 18.

The meeting will be held from 7-9 p.m. at Port 5, 69 Brewster St., Bridgeport. Pizza will be sold, and there will be a raffle.

Logan earned a Bachelor of Science Degree (1991) in Engineering from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and a Master of Science Degree (1995) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bridgeport. He has recently taken on the role of Director of Environmental Management and Government Relations for Aquarion Water Company (Aquarion) of Connecticut. He is responsible for leadership and support roles related to government relations and environmental functions related to sustainability programs, alternative energy programs as well as watershed maintenance, law enforcement, source protection, environmental compliance, natural resources management, and community outreach programs.

Prior to taking on this new position with Aquarion, Logan was responsible for leadership and support roles in all aspects of water utility engineering. In other previous roles with Aquarion, Logan was also responsible for supervision of Aquarion’s land survey, CAD drafting and design functions and was in charge of Corporate Purchasing for the entire Company.

Aquarion is the public water supply company for more than 625,000 people in 50 cities and towns throughout Connecticut, as well as serving customers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. It is the largest investor-owned water utility in New England and among the seven largest in the U.S. Based in Bridgeport-CT, it has been in the public water supply business since 1857. Across its operations, Aquarion strives to act as a responsible steward of the environment and to assist the communities it serves in promoting sustainable practices. For more information on Aquarion Water Company, please feel free to visit www.aquarionwater.com or www.facebook.com/aquarionwater.

Nice Housatonic River rainbow caught recently outside of the TMA. Don't be afraid to explore!
Written by NutmegTrout21705Nov, 2014

Merly: Trout, salmon in full swing

Nice Housatonic River rainbow caught recently outside of the TMA. Don't be afraid to explore!

The trout and salmon fishing is in full swing right now. We have received some much needed rain and the rivers are looking better. The Housatonic and Farmington Rivers are fishing very well with some large spawning browns being caught. Brook trout fishing has been excellent throughout the state and they are in their full spawn colors at this time.

The salt water fishing has been very good as well with great blackfish reports as well as a lot of stipers being caught. There is still a lot of bunker out there to kep the fish around but they’ll be gone soon.

I just returned from Pulaski, New York where the steelhead fishing is now in full swing as well. Lots of big steelhead in the rivers and a few fresh salmon still tricking in. If you’ve never been up to catch these fish, try it. It is a world class fishery only 5 hours away.

The chapter needs to take action on a serious problem which has recently occurred in the Mill. Apparently, some of Connecticut’s finest citizens parked in the lot on the Congress St. side of the Meritt Pkwy., dragged logs across the river to pool it, and then took a drag net though the stream netting all of the trout that they could take. The smaller trout were thrown onto the banks to die as they would have been too small to eat. This was told to me by very reliable witnesses and I was also told that this was not the first time that this has happened. Unfortunately, there were no photographs of this atrocity. As far as I know, the logs are still in place.

My suggestion is that the loggs be removed and camo cameras be installed such as deer cams to try and prevent this from happening again or to catch the people who are doing this. The chapter could also use river stewards to patrol the chapters streams weekly as there were many bait containers found along the Saugatuck Fly Area and anglers aren’t catching many fish there.

Our state has a serious problem with poaching and I believe that all anglers should unite at this point and demand better protection for our fisheries. Millions are spent each year raising and stocking trout, pike, walleye, salmon etc. but yet that investment is not protected. Maybe a petiton to the state legislators is in order.

Tight light lines

Ron Merly

Written by NutmegTrout21725Oct, 2014

Nutmeg president plans casting clinic

Nutmeg TU President and certified casting instructor Chuck Petruccelli will hold a casting clinic for interested anglers on Saturday, Nov. 1.

For information on the date, time and location, click here to email Chuck.

This being a clinic, what will be covered will depend on the attendees’ abilities. The clinic will include analysis and video of the attendees’ casting.

Work may cover:

The basic cast (pick up and put down);

casting accuracy;

shooting line;

roll cast (most useful cast in the East a must for the Mill, Saugutuck, Far Mill, and Pequonock rivers);

presentation casts;

slack line;

reach mend and

casting in the wind.

Petruccelli has 35 plus years experience fly fishing. He has extensive experience fishing the Housatonic and the Farmington rivers, and in shore from Milford to Westport. Petruccelli has also fished Maine, Montana, Wyoming, New Brunswick Canada, Belize, and Puerto Rico.

“I’m looking forward to helping people improve their casting and catching,” Chuck said.

Written by NutmegTrout21725Oct, 2014

TU scientist to talk climate change

Jack Williams, Ph.D., senior scientist for Trout Unlimited, will talk about TU’s national Climate Change Committee on “Yankee Fisherman,” hosted by Nutmeg TU member John Kovach, on hanradio.com Thursday, Oct. 30, at 1 p.m.

Williams will discuss TU’s position on climate change and the work of its committee.

Williams also serves on the Board of Directors of the Western Rivers Conservancy. Prior to his current position with Trout Unlimited, he was a Professor at Southern Oregon University, Forest Supervisor of the Rogue River and Siskiyou National Forests in Oregon, and Deputy Forest Supervisor of the Boise National Forest in Idaho. He also taught at the University of California-Davis and has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management, including serving as the BLM’s National Fisheries Program Manager, and the Science Advisor to the BLM Director in Washington, D.C.

His education includes a BS in Wildlife Biology from Arizona State University, a MS in Biology from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and a PhD in Fisheries Science from Oregon State University. If not fishing with family and friends, he is with his springer spaniels.

Also on the show is David Deen, river steward for the Connecticut River Watershed Councill.

Deen spent 28 years as an Orvis-endorsed guide in Vermont and a licensed guide in New Hampshire. He operated his own business called Strictly Trout, but fished for anything he could catch with a fly rod, including shad, stripers and smallmouth and largemouth bass in the watershed. He has been river steward for the upper valley in Vermont and New Hampshire for 16 years working with the Connecticut River Watershed Council.

Kovach hosts Yankee Fisherman, a look at fishing and conservation related topics with a focus on the Northeast, Thursdays from 1 to 2 p.m. Archives of all prior shows can be heard on hanradio.com

Written by NutmegTrout21725Oct, 2014

Nutmeg TU going striper fishing

Members of Nutmeg TU will meet to do some fall striper fishing at Short Beach in Stratford, 1 Dorne Drive, Saturday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m.

There is plenty of room to fish and park.

Come meet fellow chapter members and share techniques, flies and lures. Bring a 8 or 9 weight fly rod, or a medium to heavy spinning or surf casting rod.

We will fish the outgoing tide. High tide Saturday is 12:06 p.m., low tide at 6:35 p.m. We will fish till dusk.

The rain date is Sunday, Nov. 9, with the meeting time at 1:30 p.m. Sunday’s high tide is 12:52 p.m., while low tide on the rain date is 7:21 p.m

Written by NutmegTrout21720Oct, 2014

State seeks input on wildlife plan

Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) will be holding a series of informal meetings throughout the state to obtain public input as it updates the state’s Wildlife Action Plan, which serves as Connecticut’s blueprint for conservation action. The agency must complete a comprehensive review and revision every 10 years to make sure the Wildlife Action Plan reflects current needs and priorities for species of greatest conservation need and their habitats. The revised plan is due to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by October 1, 2015.

Click here to read more.