The Nutmeg TU fly tying group resumes meeting Thursday, Jan 15, at 7 p.m. at Chuck MacMath’s home in Trumbull. Contact Chuck at cmacmath59@yahoo.com for additional information.
Beginning Jan.15 the fly tying group will meet on the first and third Thursdays of every month from 7-9 p.m.
The cost is $2 per session to cover the cost of materials.
All are welcome, beginners are encouraged to attend. Vises, tools and materials are available if needed.
There are still a good amount of peanut bunker out in the harbors and anglers are catching the occasional striper and yet, the better action has been in the lower estuary of the Housatonic. Atlantic herring have arrived in good numbers and those can be caught using a sabiki rig on an ultra-light spin fishing set-up. Herring are an excellent food source as well as being great striper bait.
The upper Housatonic has been blown out due to all of the rain in recent weeks and is now coming back down to a fishable level. The Farmington continues to give up a steady number of larger rainbows and browns which have been bulking up for the winter months. The Atlantic salmon fishing in the Naugy continues to thrill anglers and I recently fished there with fellow Nutmeggers John Kovach and Jim Lynch, who caught his first Atlantic Salmon.
John Kovach and I also joined Mianus T.U. at their annual New Year’s outing on the Norwalk River for some fly fishing. Despite the cold temps, more than 30 anglers showed up and many browns and bows were caught in a few different sections of the Norwalk. A few holdovers and some beautiful wild browns. I started the New Year off with a 6 inch wild Norwalk River brown and that was a great start to the year!!
Tight lines!
Ron Merly
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch and Steelpointe Harbor officials celebrated Thursday afternoon, Dec. 11, as the first walls of Bass Pro Shops were erected.
Bass Pro also acquired the maker of Ranger and Triton bass boats this week, and founder John Morris spoke at the Bridgeport Regional Business Council’s annual dinner.
“It’s a great day in Bridgeport to see vertical construction happening at this site,” said Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch. “After decades of broken promises, it’s finally happening. Steelpointe Harbor will serve as a major boon for the city’s economy with Bass Pro Shops serving as the site’s flagship store. This is further proof that Bridgeport is getting better every day.”
State Sen. Andres Ayala Jr., City Council President Tom McCarthy, the developer Robert Christoph and other council members joined Mayor Finch at the site.
Christoph predicted the SteelPointe development will make Bridgeport a “destination” for people around the region to shop, dine and enjoy the views of the Long Island Sound and Pleasure Beach.
Recently, it was announced that Starbucks and Chipotle will be joining Bass Pro Shops on the Steelpointe Harbor site.
“I’m thrilled that we’ll have Starbucks and Chipotle in Bridgeport. They’re joining Bass Pro as the first batch of topnotch businesses coming to Steelpointe Harbor,” Finch said at the November announcement. “These companies will create good paying jobs, and will help attract even more businesses to the state’s largest city. My hope is that Bridgeporters hear the message loud and clear: Steelpointe Harbor – our city’s biggest economic development project since the Industrial Revolution – is finally becoming a reality. We’re building for the future.”
Ian Devlin will share his knowledge of striper fishing in the Housatonic and salt water fishing in the Sound at the Nutmeg Trout Unlimited meeting Tuesday, Dec. 16, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Port 5, 69 Brewster St, Bridgeport.
If there is time after the presentation, Ian also would like to give an in-depth overview of fly lines (tapers, stiffness/limpness for different temperatures), and when to use a line that floats or sinks or something in between. Proper leader tapers and construction/knots for saltwater angling may also be covered.
Ian has been a guide for more than 20 years in both Florida and Connecticut, specializing in fly casting and plug. He holds a current fly rod world record for bluefish caught in 1999 on 20 pound weight tippet.
He has worked in fly fishing retail for more than 25 years including four different shops in both Connecticut and Florida.
Lou Tabory certified Ian as a FFF fly casting instructor in 1996. He learned to routinely cast 100 foot or more at the early age of 15 years old.
His Devil N’ Blends synthetic blend fibers that he makes since 2000 have been purchased by people from all over the planet (literally South America, Australia, Europe, Japan, and all over the USA). He has been tying flies for warm freshwater, and mostly saltwater since for many years.
He is a keen observer of the various skiff types and is designing his skiff from scratch; likely his biggest project to date.
He has also developed fly rods for G. Loomis.
Photography is becoming more than a pastime, and he plans to integrate it into more trips.
Ian is an avid birder and nature enthusiast, and recognizes the value of coastal cleanups.
Lastly, Ian tends to think outside the box and often tries new ideas keep him on a progressive path to innovation.
There are still a lot of striped bass around the area and anglers are doing well in the lower Housatonic with them. Some Atlantic Salmon have moved down into the Housatonic from the Naugatuck and there have been salmon caught from the Derby Dam down past O’Sullivan’s Island.
The warmer weather had the BWOs hatching hard on the Housatonic in Cornwall over the past weekend. The fish weren’t rising but were gorging on nymphs. We had good luck both fly and spin fishing. The recent rain should again increase water levels in the smaller streams.
The Farmington continues to fish well. The bite is very inconsistent and yet, if you hit it on the right day, the fish will be feeding hard to prepare for winter.
The Naugatuck River has been running low making the salmon fishing difficult, yet again, the recent rain should have that river in good shape. If you haven’t seen the completed Tingue Dam Bypass in Seymour, I suggest you check it out. It was a massive undertaking which has now opened the passage for anadromous fish to travel from Long Island Sound all the way to Thomaston. Make sure you stay on the west side of the dam as the east side is within 100 feet of the fishway. No fishing is allowed within 100 feet of any fishway or bypass in Connecticut. The salmon pictured here is a 32-inch hen salmon which was caught below the dam on the west side this past Saturday.
Tight, light lines, Ron Merly
Nutmeg TU TIC coordinator Dave Edgeworth reports that Trout In the Classroom had a very successful trout egg delivery day on Nov 18. Teachers and students were very excited to receive their eggs.
Several volunteers were on hand to make the drop-off to 16 schools across the Nutmeg Chapter region. Many thanks to our President Chuck Petruccelli, Joseph Lanese, and Gian Morresi for the time and effort on a cold and windy morning.
Every school received 200 brown trout eggs which will hatch, grow, and be released into local rivers in May.
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.
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.”
Work has begun on the removal of contamination from the Mill River.
Click here to read an article in the Fairfield Sun.
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