September 2019

General Meeting

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Rob Shane
TU Mid-Atlantic Organizer

Protecting Wild Trout

Trout Unlimited has been working to protect populations of wild trout in the Delaware River Basin since 2011. The approach has been three fold: 1) protect existing populations 2) discover new populations and 3) restore extirpated or threatened populations. Rob will give a rundown on how TU has been successfully achieving its goals, thanks in large part to volunteer efforts, and our plans to continue this process into the future.

Rob Shane is the Mid-Atlantic Organizer for Trout Unlimited working out of his home in East Stroudsburg, PA. He spends most of his time travelling to meet with chapters and outdoor groups to spread the word about TU’s efforts and gather support for key legislative priorities.

Pre-Meeting Fly Tying Program

As a broadening of our Chapter’s educational offerings we are continuing the new pre-meeting program aimed at those in our Chapter who have interest in the pattern or techniques mentioned in the Fly of the Month.

So come at 7pm this coming Tuesday if you are interested. Bill Ninke will be demoing the techniques and material selection for tying the "Carlson’s Copper Cripple” featured as the September Fly of the Month.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

John Miller

Stepping Up Your Entomology Game

Entomology simplified to identify the various insects trout feed on and in turn make you better at selecting an artificial to match the hatch. By learning the habitats of different insects, along with their behavior and the corresponding fish behavior you will be more effective in catching selective trout that often times seemed impossible before.

John grew up in the Catskill Mountains, in upstate New York. He began tying flies and flyfishing at an early age, perfecting his skills on the Esopus, Kaaterskill, Plattekill, Beaverkill and Schoharie Rivers.

His knowledge of aquatic entomology and photography have enabled him to capture stunning photos that have appeared in several books, including the “Orvis Pocket Guide to Mayflies” by Dick Pobst, “Catching Shadows” by Rich Strolis, “Fusion Fly Tying” by Greg Senyo, “Selectivity” by Matt Supinski, and the re-release of Al Caucci ‘s “Mayfly ID Guide”. John’s work has also been in many magazines as well, Catch Magazine, Chasing Silver, Hatches, Fly Fisherman and more. He’s also appeared in Fly Fish America as well.

For more than 20 years, John has been a guide and fly-fishing instructor, and an Orvis Endorsed guide since 2002. He mastered his skill of Entomology with colleagues Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi. He guided in West Michigan at The Gray Drake Lodge where he honed his skills at fly fishing for Great Lakes steelhead.

Weather it’s steelhead in the Great Lakes or chasing wild trout in the Catskills, you’ll find John near some piece of water guiding clients, fooling big browns or photographing the things that trout eat.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Wendell "Ozzie" Ozefovich

Fishing Montana

Born in eastern Pennsylvania, Wendell "Ozzie" Ozefovich grew up fishing the streams of the coal mining region. His passion for trout and their world began at age six, when a brook trout fell prey to a garden worm. That passion continues unabated for the salmon and trout he now pursues with fly and rod.

After serving four years in the US Navy, Ozzie spent his professional career in training and course development in the power generation industry. His experience in teaching allows him to discuss the nuances of hydrodynamics and make them understandable.

Since retiring Ozzie has spent considerable time volunteering with the Central Jersey Trout Unlimited chapter where he served many years on the Board of Directors and was the coordinator for the Trout in the Classroom program. He has also worked with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife by being involved with kids education programs, stream restoration projects and stream surveys.

In the late 90’s Ozzie combined his love of trout and his experience in lecturing with a lifelong interest in movie making. He has produced a series of underwater videos exploring how trout feed, spawn and behave. He has chronicled wild and hatchery trout in their natural environs. His narrated video presentations have opened the eyes of thousands of anglers across the country.

There are currently three dvds available -- Discovery, Feeding Lies, and Trout Vision and Refraction. Video presentations include Atlantic Salmon Fishing-Good Guides and Not so Good Guides, The Life Cycle of the Brook Trout for Trout in the Classroom Students, and Not Just Trout, a banquet presentation which appeals to not only anglers but to non-fishers alike. DVD's are available for sale on www.underwateroz.com.

Wading and drift boat fishing the Missouri River from Canyon Ferry Dam to Pelican Point. I have fished the Missouri River every year since 2002. Besides wetting a line in other rivers in Montana, the Missouri is still my favorite.

Fishing the Anaconda Settling Ponds in the Warm Springs Wildlife Management Area. Normally, one would not think that the nation’s largest Superfund site would harbor any fish at all, let alone monster trout. Yet, that is the case at the Anaconda Settling Ponds, located north of Anaconda and fifteen miles west of Butte. I have fished it and it's true, but there is a risk. FYI, google The Anaconda Settling Ponds Fishing Reports.

American Legion Hall
137 New Market Road
Dunellen, NJ

Meeting starts at 7:30 PM - Non Members are always welcome!

President’s Letter

I hope everyone enjoyed their summer; I know I did. This summer involved a lot of travel and a fair amount of fishing. I am looking forward to settling in back at home and the return of cooler weather so I can spend some time on some local waters. It seems like our rivers and streams came out of the summer in prime shape. Water levels were good all summer and reports from folks that have been on the water recently indicate that our trout held over well. That is excellent news for New Jersey trout! I'm looking forward to excellent autumn fishing.

The big news for the fall is the return of our annual banquet. This year the dinner is on October 19th. It will be held at the Grillestone Restaurant again this year. We opened up ticket sales this week. The cost of a banquet ticket is $55.00. Be sure to get yours early as there are a limited number of seats available and they go quickly! This is a great evening out. As always, there will be good food, socializing and plenty of raffle prizes! Buy your tickets and help support your chapter and be sure to bring your spouse or significant other along!

Our speaker for this month is Rob Shane, the Mid-Atlantic Organizer for Trout Unlimited, his presentation Protecting Wild Trout is one you will not want to miss. Trout Unlimited has been working to protect populations of wild trout in the Delaware River Basin since 2011. The approach has been threefold: 1) protect existing populations 2) discover new populations and 3) restore extirpated or threatened populations. Rob will give a rundown on how TU has been successfully achieving its goals, thanks in large part to volunteer efforts, and our plans to continue this process into the future.

Our show season is right around the corner, and as always we will be looking for volunteers to help us staff our booths. These shows are an excellent opportunity for us to spread the word about the superb work Trout Unlimited does here in New Jersey and nationwide. Please consider helping out when our call for volunteer support goes out.

We are in the planning stages of our 2020 fly tying classes. We are looking to change things up a bit this year. If there is something, you would like to see in regards to fly tying instruction drop us a line at info@cjtu.org.

That's it for now. I hope to see everyone at our meeting next Tuesday.

Tight Lines
Bart Lombardo

News & Events

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Fly of the Month

Carlson’s Copper Cripple

Tied by Bill Ninke

At fly tying demonstrations and at tying classes I’m often asked “What is your most productive pattern?”. My answer is that I can’t narrow it down to just one but the top two patterns on which I’ve caught the most trout are the Parachute Adams and the Carlson’s Copper Cripple. Responses typically are “Whoa! I recognize the Parachute Adams but what the heck is a Carlson’s Copper Cripple?”. The short answer is that it’s a color variation of the Mayfly Cripple pattern of Bob Quigley, the famous but recently deceased tier from California and Oregon. Its creator is the legendary guide of the Bitterroot River and great personal friend Andy Carlson. Andy is probably most famous for his Purple Haze parachute pattern but he also has originated many other very productive patterns, his Cripple being just one example. I had a personal role in his creation of the Cripple pattern as I explain below.

In the early 90s my friend Bruce and I were first fishing Hat Creek below Power House 2 in Northern California in PMD time. Hat Creek there, if you’ve never fished it, is a tail water below a dam release with long stretches of weedy flats. It is like a giant Spring Creek. It suffered significant siltation after the 90s but trout were plentiful and rising freely when we were there. Yet we weren’t doing well so we stopped at the Fall River Hat Creek Fly Shop just outside Burney for some advice. The shop was owned and staffed solely by Bob Quigley, recognized locally as a Spring Creek guru but not yet having the national and international recognition he would later enjoy. We asked Bob for some advice. He recommended his PMD Cripple pattern on 6X tippet presented with a reach cast downstream to get drag fee drifts. He advised you couldn’t expect long drifts because of the weeds but they had to be drag free with the fly landing only a few feet above a rise. Bruce and I were not great at accurate reach casting at that time but we bought some of Quigley’s PMD flies and said we’d give his advice a try. In checking out we noted that Bob had a number of color variations of his Cripple pattern targeted at other hatches. So we bought some of those too. As we were about to leave I mentioned to Bob that I was a beginning fly tier and wondered how to tie his pattern. He then set me down at his vise in the back room and taught me his Cripple. (Wow, a private tying lesson from Quigley. I cherish it to this day.) I’d like to say that we returned to Hat Creek and zinged the trout. We didn’t. But we did better. Wish our reach casting then was as good as it is now. I’m sure we would indeed have zinged them.

The story now turns to early October of that same year. Bruce and I floated the Bitterroot with Andy Carlson. I told Andy about the interactions with Quigley and gave him a selection of Quigley’s Cripples. The Cripple is a simple pattern with a wrapped marabou abdomen, a dubbed thorax, a deer or elk hair wing and a wrapped hackle. (See the above photo). In Quigley’s versions for different hatches, the colors of the marabou, the dubbing, and the hackle are varied as is the hook size. Andy liked the look of the pattern, experimented with it over the next year, and came up with a unifying simplification for the variety of Quigley’s variations. He used just one color scheme. The marabou is a coppery brown, like most nymph shucks. The dubbing is Hare’s Ear, like the legs of most emerging nymphs. The hackle is grizzly to give a mottling like most emerging wings. Now Andy had only to tie and carry the pattern in different sizes. This is true “guide think”. Andy showed me his reduction the next Spring when we fished it . quite successfully for mayflies. I’ve continued to fish it everywhere since, East and West.

I tie it mostly in sizes 14 and 16, but with an occasional 12 or 18. The color scheme has the “imitates everything” attribute of the Parachute Adams. It works extremely well locally for Hendricksons. It also has worked well for caddis on the Missouri. In fishing, grease only the hackle and wing and pre-wet the marabou. It then floats in the film at the angle of the top fly in the photo. Trout see it as the blob of some insect struggling in the film waiting to be eaten. Follow Quigley’s guidelines on presentation.

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