Riffles

February’s Speakers

“Speakers” because you, the members are the speakers.

We are once again holding one of our popular fly tying nights, a time when you can either show off your tying talent of come and pick the brains of some of EJTu best tyers.

Come to the meeting, have some of Vic’s coffee and, if you’re not an experienced tyer, learn more about the art before trout season opens and you get too busy.

When: February 11, at 7:30 PM

Where: American Legion Hall

33 West Passaic Street

Rochelle Park, NJ

The Monthly Newsletter of the The Monthly Newsletter of the The Monthly Newsletter of the The Monthly Newsletter of the

East Jersey Chapter of Trout UnlimitedEast Jersey Chapter of Trout UnlimitedEast Jersey Chapter of Trout UnlimitedEast Jersey Chapter of Trout Unlimited

www.ejtu.orgwww.ejtu.org

Volume 46Volume 46 February 2015February 2015 Number 1Number 1

Please consult EJTU’s web site’s “Upcoming Events” for the most up-to-date information and de-tails.

Trips; contact Chris Henrickson C.henrickson@icloud.com

Other events: Rich Malizia at 9 7 3 - 3 0 4 - 0 7 8 9 o r remqcp@optonline.net

February 7 [Sat] Pequest trip February 11 [Wed] Fly-Tying Night March 11 [Wed] Meeting: Fishing the Delaware River March 28 [Sat] EJTU Banquet April 4 [Sat] Opening Day April [Date TBD] West Branch Delaware trip May 2 [Sat] Hooked on Hudson May [Date TBD] Delaware River shad trip May 30 [Sat] Catskill (Roscoe) picnic June 6 [Sat] Ramapo River Day June [13—20] Block Island trip June [Date TBD] Ausable River trip July [Date TBD] Farmington River trip August [Date TBD] Kayak trip September [Date TBD] Housa tonic trip October [Date TBD] Musconet cong trip November [Date TBD] Salmon River Steelhead trip

Welcome to

January’s New members

Robert Byrnes New Milford Dennis Hoag Closter Jeanne Johnston Bloomfield Greg Koch Upper Saddle Riv. John Loschiavo Oradell Michael McCormac Nutley Jory Miller Montclair George Sabel Westwood Robert Smith Glen Rock Wiliam Sposa, Jr Norwood Michael Wedlick Montvale

2015201520152015羊年大利羊年大利羊年大利羊年大利

Presidents Beat Last month I mentioned the con-flicting information I had received regarding the ability to identify true NJ native brook trout. I reached out to Agust Gudmunds-son and Brian Cowden to see if they could clarify the issue. This is what I received from Agust:

Unfortunately, there is no way to know how "pure" these genetics are, just that they are distinct. This does mean there is very high probability of heritage bloodlines, but we don't know how diluted they are with introduced genetics. The best and most distinctive are the Raritan strains, with the Delaware ones showing closer relations to each other. That would be con-sistent as the Catskills and Poconos still supply lots of brook trout to the river sys-tem, but the hatchery tra-dition is also more well es-tablished there. The main thing is there is no "pool" of original genet-ics to use as a Rosetta Stone. They are definitely unique and discernible from hatchery fish, but there is no way to declare any of the wild populations as "pure".

The bottom line is that there may be original Native NJ Brookies in

Continued on Page 8

How to contact us: Website http://www.eastjerseytu.org Mailing Address: East Jersey Chapter, Trout Unlimited Box 366 HoHoKus, NJ 07423-0366 For Membership Information call Ken Barile at: 201-391-9214 or email kenbarile@optonline.net. For Information on trips and other Chapter Activi-ties go to www.eastjerseytu.org For East Jersey and National Trout Unlimited information, visit our website at http:// www.tu.org. Go to chapter number 091 and you will get the latest information about our chapter. Riffles is your publication so we invite and encour-age every member to contribute articles, tips, and stories. The articles may relate to trout, trout fish-ing, fishing in general or conservation but all arti-cles are published at the discretion of the editors and should meet EJTU standards regarding pro-tecting our environment and the merits of 'catch and release' techniques. Pseudonyms may be used but the editors must be informed of the name of the member who writes the article. Email to ray-capp@optonline.net

Monthly General Member Meeting: The East Jersey Chapter of Trout Unlimited meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30PM.

Location: The American Legion Hall,

33 West Passaic St, Rochelle Park, NJ. 07662.

Monthly Board Meeting: Board Members of East Jersey Trout Unlimited meet on the last Thursday of each month at 7:30PM.

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East Jersey Chapter Trout Unlimited

Board of Directors

President Bruce Seiden

1st Vice President BIll Borowski

Treasurer Igor Zaretsky

Recording Secretary Dino Eftychiou

Membership Secretary Ken Barile

Education Doug Penna

Speakers Chris Henrickson

Merchandise Elio Chiavola

Trout in the Classroom George Petersen

Points Paul Reithmeier

Riffles Editor Ray Cappock

Conservation Chair Rich Malizia

Founding President Don Ecker

On the environmental front, the Borough of Ringwood is moving forward with its plans to locate a recycling center on a parcel of land contaminated by toxic paint sludge dumped by Ford Motor Co. If this plan gets final approval, this superfund site will be capped and not cleaned up. Ford previously agreed to remove the tainted soil but has now found a way to avoid its obligation. This is another failure of the State to protect water quality for millions of residents in North Jersey. We will do our best to monitor future develop-ments.

We are starting to schedule events for the next few months. The first event will be our annual maintenance of the parking area along Glen Gray Road in Mahwah. We hope that Bergen County will step up to repair the damage that resulted from staging materials and equipment used to replace the bridge. We have tentatively scheduled the work for Saturday, March 21st. Please mark the date on your cal-endar.

NJ Fish and Wildlife will hold its annual open house at the Pe-quest Hatchery on the weekend of March 28th and 29th. This Open House features a number of fishing, hunting and outdoor activities and is free, so it attracts large numbers of participants. We will be repre-sented and, if you have never attended, it is an event the entire family would enjoy. So come out and have some fun, but plan to arrive early because it attracts a large number of visitors, especially if the weather is good.

NJF&W has announced that it will be stocking a strain of rain-bow trout which is resistant to furunculosis. No brook or brown trout are expected to be released by NJF&W. We have not yet received the preseason stocking schedule but expect to assist with in-season stock-ing each Thursday from April 9th to May 21st. We need many hands to get the job done right, so please keep this project in mind when you plan your Spring calendar.

June 6th is the date for our annual Ramapo River Day environ-mental event. We always try to reach as many kids as we can to parti-cipate in this event. If you or your children or grandchildren are invol-ved in scout or school groups, we encourage you to help promote this event. Promotional material will be available at our next general mem-bership meeting. Please help us continue educating our youth about the importance of environmental stewardship.

I hope you all enjoyed Mike Sebetich’s article in the last issue of Riffles. Mike will be scheduling several more samplings this year. Please reach out to him if you would like to help as it is a great way to learn about the biodiversity of our local streams and might even provi-de you with an advantage the next time you wet a line.

Rich Malizia

Conservation Notes

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The Great Backyard Bird Count February 13 - 16, 2015

Another year has gone by and here we are again, trying to figure out whether that pinkish, sparrow-like bird is a Purple Finch or a House Finch. Which one is sort of chunky? Which has stripes on its body? How come that bird looks so much like the photo of those female Cas-sin’s Finches that are supposed to live out west? Why can’t they be bred with little tags or UPC codes?

Why are some of us going through this? Because it’s time for this year’s Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society Great Backyard Bird Count. It’s a chance for people who want to look out the window for a few minutes, note the birds that are there and send the list to the coordinators. Or, if they choose, they can go on a hike or for a walk and count the birds that are seen. It’s your choice: warm and dry with hot buttered rum in hand or out on the trail. Birds are every-where.

The GBBC web site has three part, simple instructions. Number one is to register at the site. Number two is as follows: “Count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the GBBC. You can count for longer than that if you wish! Count birds in as many places and on as many days as you like—one day, two days, or all four days. Submit a separate checklist for each new day, for each new location, or for the same location if you counted at a different time of day. Estimate the number of individuals of each species you saw during your count pe-riod.” Number three is to send your count.

The GBBC is something you can do on a dreary February day!

Here’s the web site: http://gbbc.birdcount.org

You will join the GBBC, will you not?

Hackettstown Hatchery

When we in TU think about hatcheries, the first one that comes to mind is the Pequest Hatchery from which the state’s supply of trout has come for years. There is, however, an-other hatchery in New Jersey that is run by Fish And Wildlife, the Hackettstown Hatchery. Confus-ing? It might be because the Hackettstown Hatchery is, obvi-ously, in Hackettstown while the Pequest is only about five miles west of Hackettstown on Route 46.

Fish and Wildlife recently sent out the following information about the Hackettstown Hatch-ery’s 2014 operations:

More than 3.7 million fish raised at the Hackettstown Hatchery were stocked by the NJDEP Divi-sion of Fish and Wildlife in 2014. Species ranged from those for mosquito control to muskellunge and channel catfish.

For more information and distribution and stocking summaries, visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/hacktown.htm#summaries ; information including the stocking summary for individ-ual species is linked from http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/fish_warmwater.htm .

Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs

A free 2-day Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs (HOFNOD) training for adult staff and volunteers of youth-centered community and/or faith-based organizations will be held February 12 & 13 in Plainfield. HOF-NOD is a great way to introduce youth to fishing, their local waters and other natural resources while supporting positive life skills. The pro-gram can be tailored to fit the programming needs of most organiza-tions.

For more information, visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/news/2015/hofnod_train2-15.htm on the NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife web-site.

Ross Dock

Henry Hudson Drive from the Edgewater park entrance to Ross Dock circle will be CLOSED to all use through Feb. 2015 for GW Bridge work by the Port Au-thority. Conditions permitting, the road will be opened on Sundays to pedestrians and cyclists only. Click here for more information.

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Padgetts Creek Project

From 2015 National Coastal Wetland Conservation Grant Project Summaries

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), with the assistance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will acquire several individual parcels of land owned by one landowner in Cumberland County, New Jersey, totaling 695.8 acres. The wetlands in Padgetts Creek are an important migratory stopover for waterfowl, shorebirds, waterbirds, neotropical and other long distance passerines, American woodcock, red knot, bald eagle and other rap-tors.

NJDEP has designated the entire Delaware Bay area as an exceptional resource value, and the Padgett Creek wet-lands are identified in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, “Delaware Bayshores Focus Area.”

Padgetts Creek is within 20 miles of three national wildlife refuges. The properties will be incorporated.

State/Territory Grant Non-federal match Other federal funds Total project cost New Jersey $900,000 $500,000 0 $1,400,000

On January 9, 2015 The New Jersey Outdoor Alliance (NJOA) reported that “the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council (MFC) voted unanimously to support a two fish bag limit for striped bass last night”. Two options were presented by the New Jersey Bureau of Marine Fisheries to the MFC as a means of reducing the catch by 25% be-ginning 2015. The option chosen is one fish at 28 to less than 43 inches, and a second fish equal to or greater than 43 inches.

The MFC vote is a result of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) vote to reduce the coast-wide harvest of striped bass, which is to start in 2015. All of the states are examining ways to lower the catch by at least 25%.

New Jersey's bonus striped bass program is not included in the option, since it makes use of the commercial quota and there is no commercial fishing of striped bass in NJ. There is currently a $2 tag system in place. MFC voted to review the bonus striped bass program at a future meeting of its advisory committee.

NJOA CF council members will convene shortly to come to a consensus on an option preference, while re-ferring to the opinions of 1000 anglers who responded to the NJOA salt water "Striper Option Survey,” and also the important MFC vote. NJOA will then meet with legislators to discuss its decision since changes to striped bass regulations are legislated into law.

Striper Regulation

February. Cleaning Time!

February is really the “poor soul” of our twelve months. Fewer days, no Christmas, no New Year’s Day, no trout stocking; only Presidents Day, followed by Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Chinese New Year

So why not spend some time sorting, inspecting and cleaning up that pile of fishing gear that you dumped in a corner after the last day on the wa-ter? If you don’t, when fishing season comes around, you will be frantically untangling things as you prepare to start the season with dull hooks and legs that will be wet because of leaky waders.

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2015 Frank Hall Memorial Fly Tying Contest

The fly for this year’s contest was selected by Bill Hrenko,

last year’s winner. Bill will serve as the lead judge of the

2015 contest. All entries should be individually packaged

with the tyer’s name and phone number. More than one en-

try may be submitted. All entries will be due by February 28, 2015, and be-

come the property of East Jersey Trout Unlimited. They may be turned in

at a meeting, to any EJTU officer or in the fishing department at Ramsey

Outdoor in Ramsey, attention Bill Borowski.

March Brown

Hook: Mustad 94840, Partridge L3A (12-14)

Thread: Orange (Flymaster 6/0 or equiv.)

Wing: Mallard Flank with Bronze tinge or

well-marked wood duck flank fibers

Tail: Dark ginger hackle fibers

Body: Sandy beige dubbing fur

Hackle: Dark ginger and grizzly mixed

(Art Flick’s Version)

This pattern, also known as the American March Brown, is the result of re-search done by Preston Jennings and Art Flick. In both of the original pat-terns the dark ginger (red game) hackle is wound in first and the grizzly hackle last as a fronting collar. The Flick variation simply lists light fawn col-ored fox fur from the red fox, which may be incorrectly interpreted by some tiers. For that matter, so may sandy beige, which I’ve (Eric Leiser) used to describe this pattern, but then without a sample, it is a difficult shade to de-scribe.

Excerpted from Eric Leiser’s “The Book of Fly Patterns”

Last Call! Last Call! EJTU Fly Fishing School

If you know of anyone who would like to attend a comprehensive, cheap course on how to fish with a fly rod, tell them about the EJTU course at Paramus’ West-brook Middle School that begins on March 24.

Students will learn the techniques needed to cast with a fly rod, fly selection, tackle for fly fishing, lines and leaders, knots, ento-mology and how to read a stream.

All equipment will be provided; however, students with their own rods and reels are encouraged to use them in class.

The course is part of Paramus Community Schools but all in-structors are volunteers from East Jersey Trout Unlimited with many years of experience in fly-fishing.

There will be seven evening ses-sions on Tuesdays from 7PM un-til 10PM from March 24 through May 12.

To sign up go to http://www.ssreg.com/paramus/ and enter SR12 in the Catalog Search box.

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Competitive Fishermen?

The Hudson River (or North River for the oldtimers), from Tear of the Clouds to the lower harbor bight is one of the most beautiful rivers in the world. But, not too long ago, the water in the New York City/New Jersey area showed lit-tle evidence of any sort of wildlife. White eels (ask an old-time river rat) could be seen at the water’s edge and miles of nets blossomed around the GW Bridge for the spring shad run but, if anything lived in the river, few people were interested in what it might be.

The efforts of conservation groups now appear to be changing the past’s sad picture. Stripers move in and out of the river, fluke can be caught under the Verrazano Bridge, if security al-lows boats to linger there, fishermen line the railing in Battery Park City and Tommy Cod are said to have

returned.

Cleaner water and fresh fish in the river have also brought back other old time residents, Harbor Seals. The seal population was diminishing from Colonial times because of hunting for oil and fur and because they competed with fishermen, but now they are returning and can be seen around Staten Island. In a report posted by the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program, the population of these seals at Hoffman and Swinburne Islands went from 8 in 2008 to 43 in 2011. If that rate of increase continued through 2014, the present population should be 60 or more.

There are enough seals in our area and they are rare enough that American Princess Cruises sails from Rockaway, NY every Saturday and Sunday from March 1 through mid-April on Seal and Birdwatching Cruises.

When I was younger, a lot younger, what I knew a b o u t s p o n g e s

came from Saturday afternoon movies about divers in the Gulf of Mexico, mostly of Greek descent but played by Spaniards or any swarthy male actors with black, bushy mustaches, who were con-stantly fighting each other with sponge rakes on the bottom of the sea. Very exotic for Hobo-ken, NJ. Then plastic “sponges” came along and Greek divers, slow motion fights on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and oddly shaped sponges were forgotten. Until recently.

While looking for information about other things, I stumbled on the fact that sponges grow in many New Jersey fresh water

ponds and streams. What sur-prised me was that they can be found in a place where I have of-ten paddled my canoe, Monks-ville Reservoir. Another place mentioned as having these fresh water sponges is the pond at the east side of the Watergate park-ing lot at the Delaware River Na-tional Recreation Area off Old Mine Road.

According to The National Park Service, “Freshwater sponges grow on sturdy submerged ob-jects in clean streams, lakes, and rivers. Because they are sensi-tive to water conditions, their presence indicates high water quality and low levels of pollut-ants. Sponges are filter feeders; they obtain food from the flow of water through their bodies and from symbiotic algae. They also serve as food for ducks, crayfish, and a variety of macroinverte-

Freshwater Sponges

brates including caddisflies, midges, lacewings, and spongil-laflies. Of the phylum Porifera, to which all sponges belong, only one family (Spongillidae) occurs in freshwaters of the United States; the rest are found in ma-rine environments.”

We all may have come across these helpful little fresh water sponges but mistook them for al-gae. The difference is that the sponges are not slimy but have a coarse texture. They are helpful in that they act as filtration sys-tems for water, thereby purifying it, they indicate the health of the water because they want their sur-roundings to be clean, and they are also food for some of the same macro invertebrates that trout look for.

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Block Island Trip

If you’re not ice fishing, you should have time to tune up your heavier fly fishing gear now, so you don’t have to rush doing it at the end of May. You will need something with more backbone than the rods you use on our New Jersey streams, if you go on the annual EJTU Block Island Fishing trip.

EJTU’s annual Block Island striper fishing trip will be from June 6th through June 13, 2015.

We usually start fishing from Block Island’s beaches at sunset and then continue fishing through the night.

If anyone is interested in attending this trip or if you want more informa-tion about the trip, please contact Paul Reithmeier at paulr21@optonline.net

EJTU’s annual letter with its accompanying raffle tickets and dinner announcement should have reached your mailbox long before now. If you’ve put it aside, please get it out and send your reply.

The winner of the raffle will have the opportunity to go on a guided fishing trip on the Delaware River so the raffle is a double plus; the fishing trip will be a great opportunity to be brought to productive fish-ing spots on a great river and the sale of tickets will help the chapter raise money for our 2015 activities. And the tickets are cheap at $5 each or 6 for $25 – what a deal!

We have written about the chapter’s annual banquet in the past, but if you have never attended one you should try to get there this year. It’s a fun night that you can share with wives, girlfriends and fellow EJTU members, the food is great and it is also the chapter’s biggest fund raiser of the year. The dinner will again be held in the very popular Biagio’s on Paramus Road in Paramus; easy to get to, good food and lots of parking area.

The Date March 28, 2015

Annual Banquet March 28, 2015

Pequest Trip February 7, 2015

On Saturday, February 7, 2015 EJTU will have a fishing trip to the Pequest River.

The Pequest begins its journey to the Delaware River at Stickles Pond in Newton, New Jersey. From there it passes through ar-eas with unique names: Tranquil-ity, Trout Brook and Bear Creek. It then passes between Jenny Jump Mountain and Cat swamp Mountain, where Shades of Death Road parallels the river. After the river flows past Mount Mohepinoke, it enters the Pe-quest Wildlife Management Area.

Our group does not have to trav-erse hill and dale through the above quaintly named sites since we will meet in the parking lot of the Pequest Hatchery, just off Route 46. Route 80 to exit 19, then south to route 46 in Hackettstown followed by a right turn onto Route 46, then about five miles to the Hatchery is the simplest way to go

In late January, Orvis advises this for the Pequest:

Best time: warmest part of the day Best stretch: Pequest TCA Only fish from the spillway to the 1st downstream bridge Best access point: Hatchery lot on Rt. 46 Fly fishing hatches in order of importance: BWO Caddis Larvae Midge Egg Fish species: Trout Recommended fly fishing leader: 9 ft. leader Recommended fly fishing tippet: 5x tippet

We will meet at 9 AM in the Hatchery’s parking lot. If you are interested, please respond to Chris Henrickson at

chenrickson@icloud.com

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Wanted!

There are people in EJTU who need fly tying materials. There are people in EJTU who who have stopped tying or who have excess fly tying material.

If you are one of the members who has stopped tying or, for some reason, has excess tying material, please bring what you no longer need to one of our monthly meetings (the next one is on Wednesday, February 11) and donate it to the chapter. Just give it to Elio Chiavola, the smiling guy standing behind all those boxes of flies that are in the back of the room.

February Fishing

It can be very cold out there. You may need deicer for your guides. You will have to dress like Charlie Brown in winter. Some people will think that you’re crazy.

However, trout still have to eat to survive so, if you present a fly that looks like food that they are accustomed to

seeing at this time of year, they will go for it. This time of year - winter - means midges, tiny

hooks with just enough thread on them to change the hook’s color.

Why not give it a try? Just be careful and try to go with a friend.

The Library Display Wayne

Doug has moved the EJTU library display again!

If you want to catch up to him and to visit the display, you will have to go to the Wayne Library. We’ll let you know when Doug is on the move again, but why not go over to Wayne and take a look at Doug’s work?

The library is located at: Wayne Library

461 Valley Road, Wayne, NJ 07470

973-694-4272

some of the smaller streams, we just cannot prove it.

On another note, we need some-one to take on the position of Publicity Coordinator for the chapter. Basically the job in-volves notifying the local papers when the chapter runs or partici-pates in an event in their area and coordinating with Kelly Buchta and Neil McGee to make sure the event is on our website and Facebook page. The individ-ual would need to attend the Board of Directors’ meetings to keep on top of upcoming events and to report on their progress. The position would only take a couple of hours a month and the current board members would be available to assist while you get comfortable with the duties. Please consider stepping up and getting more involved. Thanks!

Bruce Seiden

Continued from Page 1 President’s Beat