Hammonasset Chapter of Trout Unlimited - #446 CT

March Update

3/7/2023

Regular Monthly Chapter Meeting on Thursday, March 9, 2023. Please be sure to get your free ticket at: https://tu.myeventscenter.com/event/Hammonasset-Chapter-Regular-Monthly-Meeting-74779

Our speaker for the March regular Chapter meeting is Joe Cassone, a Fisheries Biologist for the CT DEEP in the Habitat Conservation and Enhancement (HCE) Program. Joe covers the eastern district of the state. In this role he works to protect fisheries habitats from potential impacts from regulated activities and works with partners to conduct habitat enhancements. Joe will provide a brief overview of the HCE program and how it fits into the Fisheries Division. He will also go over some of the issues they look for when reviewing projects, some of the different stream habitat enhancement measures they use, and then discuss ways the HCE Program staff partner with organizations like TU chapters.

Prior to joining DEEP in the fall of 2021 Joe spent almost 8 years working as a fisheries and environmental scientist for HDR Engineering in NY where he got to work on a wide range of projects including: Environmental Compliance for the Tappan Zee Bridge Replacement, relicensing of hydropower projects, offshore wind permitting and planning, water quality sampling in and around NYC, and fisheries programs along the Erie Canal/Lake Ontario tributaries associated with the Reimagine the Canals Project. Before joining HDR he also worked for the Town of Greenwich Conservation Commission and on a lobster boat off of his home town in Branford, CT.

Joe received his Bachelors from UCONN in the Natural Resources in the Environment Program and completed a Masters at Sacred Heart University in the Environmental Systems Analysis and Management Program. He currently live in Fairfield CT, with his wife Jenn and their two wild children. In his free time he enjoys fishing (especially for false albacore), building fishing rods, and making his own tackle.

January 2023 Update

1/6/2023

Please join us on January 12, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. at the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association building, 540 Oregon Road in Meriden for our regular monthly meeting. This month we will have a very informative presentation by noted angler, fly tier, and author Steve Culton. Steve will present his Wet Flies 2.0 program. Wet Flies 2.0 takes a deeper dive into wet flies and wet fly fishing. Starting with the essential wet fly tackle and toolbox, Wet Flies 2.0 explores topics like matching hatches with wet flies (from caddis to mayflies to midges to stoneflies to terrestrials); searching tactics with wet flies; presentation and rigging options to match conditions and situations; fishing wet flies as nymphs or dry flies; wet flies on small streams; and much more!

Join us for and some good fellowship! A short business meeting, program updates, and raffle precedes speaker.

A Message from the Vice President

Happy New Year! Well, I certainly hope that my new year gets moving along better than my end of 2022. The flu sure can be a pain. I hope that your 2022 ended with a wonderful holiday season.

The Board of Directors of the Chapter had a fairly low key end of the year, except for pulling off a fairly successful Holiday Gathering at the Guilford VFW in December. Those of you who couldn't attend missed great food and fellowship! Thanks again to Paul Dinice for a great presentation of his thought provoking program on the "Stages" of Fly Fishing.

I know that for me, Paul's presentation brought to mind nostalgia for my early experiences and anticipation of trips to come with friends. Thanks also to Jim Woodworth, our Treasurer and VFW member, for his work with the venue and staff. I hope that we can make this event an annual occurrence.

Board members continue to try to move forward with conservation projects with less success than hoped for. Conifer revetment projects on state land are a beast of a different color, to say the least. Many moving parts. We will continue to engage on both the Coginchaug River in Wadsworth Falls State Park and the Mill River in Sleeping Giant State Park.

On December 31, 2022, Bill Martin, his wife Lorrie, and I shut down the Pages Millpond Fishway on the Farm River for the winter. We look forward to opening up the fishway in the spring. In July this year, we will be conducting a removal of invasive water chestnut (Trappa natans) from the pond. Canoes and kayaks (and folks willing to get dirty) will be needed.

Any of you who tie flies and are interested in supporting our Veteran's outreach project with sight impaired patients from the West Haven VA Hospital should contact me at Vicepresident@hctu.org for more information. This winter we have three dates (one per month in January, February, and March) scheduled in Branford through the Take a Vet Fishing folks, with whom we partner.

As always, we encourage members of the Chapter to contact us with ideas on ways that we can engage with you. What are your expectations from the Chapter leaders regarding you membership in Trout Unlimited? Are you more interested in being a part of the larger national conservation and advocacy organization and/or do you have specific local interests that we are or aren't fulfilling? We also continue to seek folks interested in leading the Chapter forward. Please email me at Vicepresident@hctu.org.

I guess that's it for now. I hope to see you at the January meeting on the 12th and at future meetings and events. Again, I wish you and yours a healthy and happy new year.

Best regards,
Rick

December Update

11/22/2022

The Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited, Inc.

Cordially Invites you and your guest/spouse to ourDecember Dinner Meeting and Holiday GatheringDecember 7, 20226 P.M. to 9 P.M.VFW Post 7666,104 Mill Rd, Guilford, CT 06437

Please R.S.V.P. by December 1st to
Rick Huntley by
Email at: vicepresident@hctu.org or
Text at: (860) 301-3653

Cost is $20.00 per person paid at the door or $20.00 per person plus transaction fees paid online.

Tickets available online at:
Holiday Gathering

Presentation by Paul Dinice: The Six Stages of Fly Fishing – A Life’s Experience

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after”.

By far this is my favorite presentation. This is a very different program. Instead of a program on catching more fish, or a fly fishing destination, the primary focus is on the fly fisherman. What is it that drives us to be so passionate about the ‘Quiet Sport’? “Who are we?” This program examines the various ‘stages’ in a fly fishers life, including the initial ‘discovery’ of the sport, the need to learn and educate ourselves more about it, it’s addictive powers, the friendships it has helped us form, the spirituality it has given us, and how it has provided us with a better understanding about where we fit in the world and universe.

A Message from the Vice President

Members and friends,

I hope that this message finds you well and that you have been safe and warm during this colder than usual fall season. I'm sure that you all are well on your way to building a great Thanksgiving for your family. I'm also sure that many of you have braved the temperatures to get out to fish, and some may have even gotten up to the Great Lakes tributaries for lake run anadromous fish like member John Atherton. I know that many folks like me and Paul Dinice, our guest speaker at the December dinner meeting, are still fishing the salt for Striped Bass.

I wanted to share with Chapter members a great video that John Atherton put together during his recent trip to the Salmon River in New York. You can view this video at: Steelhead 2022. I enjoyed this video very much and I'm sure that you will too!

The Chapter leaders still struggle with post (or perhaps nearly post) pandemic issues. We had our first meeting in November with Jeff Yates as our speaker. We had some wifi bandwidth issues, so our intention to broadcast the meeting live on the Chapter Facebook page was not successful. We will continue to try to have a hybrid meeting format for the future. Our January meeting speaker will be Steve Culton.

I encourage you to bring your spouse and/or guest(s) to the Chapter Holiday dinner meeting at the VFW Post in Guilford. We haven't finalized the menu, but I'm sure that there will be something that you will enjoy.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that we see you soon.

Best regards,
Rick

November 2022 Update

11/6/2022

The Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited, Inc.Regular Monthly Chapter Meeting. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month. The doors open at 6:15pm. Pizza/soft drinks will be available. Bring your own beer or wine. The program start at 7pm sharp.

Join us this month for: Fishing the Housatonic from Top to Bottom with Jeff Yates
Flowing from the Berkshires of Massachusetts to the shores of Long island Sound, the Housatonic River offers one of the region’s most diverse fisheries where anglers can target trout, smallmouth bass, pike, striped bass and more! The Housatonic Watershed is also one of Trout Unlimited’s new Priority Waters, a network of streams across the country recognized for their significant conservation value and targeted for large-scale restoration work in the years to come. Join Jeff Yates, Director of Volunteer Operations for TU, as well as a guide and author of the book Fly Fishing Fairfield County for a visual journey down the entire length of the Housatonic covering where to fish, how to access the water and what you can do to help make the “Housey” healthier for future generations of anglers.

For free in-person or Facebook Live tickets to the meeting go to: https://events.eventgroove.com/event/Regular-Monthly-Chapter-Meeting-69729.

A Message from the Vice President
Members and friends,

I hope that this message finds you well and enjoying the fall! Things sure seem to be getting more hectic as I get older. I have been trying harder to get out and fish a bit and I hope that you have as well. The holidays will be upon us before we know it.

That said, I really hope that you can join us as we start in-person meetings for 2022/2023. Also, stay tuned for information about our Holiday Gathering scheduled for December 7th at the VFW Post in Guilford. We have lined up a fantastic keynote speaker in Paul Dinice. More to come on arrangements and cost.

We still can use help to plan and implement a couple of conservation projects. These projects are Christmas tree revetments on the Coginchaug River in Middletown at Wadsworth Falls State Park and on the Mill River in Hamden at Sleeping Giant State Park.

Plan to help for a few hours next July as we remove invasive water chestnut (Trappa natans) from Pages Mill Pond in North Branford. Don't worry, we will remind everyone many more times! We'll also be reminding you about the opportunity to give help to the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association when they conduct their cleanup efforts on Hanover Pond in Meriden.

Please let me know if you would like to see us have our meeting in May 2023 as a picnic meeting somewhere that we can also fish. Thanks.

Best regards,
Rick

October 2022 Update

10/12/2022

We hope that this message finds you well and enjoying this great fall weather we've been having. Hopefully, you have gotten out to fish some of the waters recently stocked. It's about time to give the native brookies a rest as they prepare for the fall spawning activities.

It's been quite a while since we updated this blog. The HCTU Board of Directors took a break from regular meetings and focused on the few continuing activities of the Chapter. We had a great Durham Fair teaching folks, mainly kids, to tie woolly buggers and talked to many about our cold water conservation focus including youth education through Trout in the Classroom and our continuing cooperative effort with CTDEEP's No Child Left Inside program.

We continued to have a presence at Hammonasset Day hosted by the Friends of Hammonasset State Park. We had fly tying, casting, and a backyard bass game. Our thanks goes out to the several folks who braved the rain to get our conservation message out.

We will be holding in person meetings again starting in November. We will also be attempting to make the meetings hybrid and broadcast on Facebook Live or possibly Zoom. Stay tuned for a Mailchimp email message with details about the November meeting.

As always, if you have any interest in helping out with reinvigorating the Chapter and/or helping to work on the several potential conservation activities in our area, please contact any of the members of the Board of Directors. Contact information is on the "Contacts" page of this website.

Best regards and Happy Fall!

Rick Huntley
Vice President

January 2022 Update

1/7/2022

Thank you for your continued support of Trout Unlimited! We had hoped to have a regular Chapter meeting on January 20, 2022. Unfortunately, we have not been able to confirm the speaker that we had previously contacted. That, together with the surge in Corona virus infections, has resulted in there not being a meeting planned for January. If you would like to help plan future meetings, please contact Kevin Fuller at: President@hctu.org or Rick Huntley at: Vicepresident@hctu.org. We hope to have a meeting in February. Stay tuned.

Conservation News

Chapter Board Members Rick Huntley and Jim Woodworth have been working with the Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District to plan a Christmas tree revetment project on the Coginchaug River at Wadsworth Falls State Park in Middletown. We hope to have the project designed over the next year and collect trees after Christmas 2022. Installation would occur as soon as working conditions allow in 2023.

We have also been made aware of eroded banks on the Salmon River in Colchester that may also benefit from this type of project. We will be coordinating with the Thames Valley Chapter to see if a project might be possible there.

In other conservation project news, on December 11, 2021, Rick Huntley, Bill Martin, and Greg Sharp assisted dam owner Lindsay Suter in shutting down the fishway at Pages Mill Pond Dam on the Farm River in North Branford for the season. Stay tuned for an opportunity to participate in opening in the spring and for operating the fish trap in the fishway during the herring season.

Tips for TU Communications Finetuning

We thought that members would appreciate the following information regarding finetuning what mail and email you receive.

You can fine tune the communications you receive by calling 1-800-834-2419 (between 9am-7pm Eastern, M-F), or by emailing us at TROUT@TU.ORG about mail and email communications. Be sure to share your membership email address and/or membership ID number to help find and verify your membership record.

Members can request adjustments to the amount of mail and email based on preferences. TU can also customize communications based on time or the type of solicitation (i.e. calendar, life membership mailing) or for fewer mailings and emails.

The most popular preferences (settings) include:
•           No Email – no online community access
•           No Email but wants online community access
•           No chapter emails
•           Fewer fundraising campaigns
•           Opting out of specific campaigns (Life, calendar)
•           Fewer renewals
Another good option is the auto-pay renewals found at gifts.tu.org/sustainer. If someone signs up for autopay, they are suppressed from renewal mail and email.

May Meeting at Chatfield Hollow

4/21/2021

Jerry Jahn

May 2021 Meeting Announcement

Please join us on Sunday May 2, 2021 at the Pavilion at Chatfield Hollow State Park in Killingworth at 1 PM. We will have a demonstration of Spey casting by Jerry Jahn with Spey Casting Northeast. Bring your own refreshments and a folding chair.

We will be practicing physical distancing while we socialize. Please wear a mask when less than 6 feet apart as recommended by federal and state authorities.

A short business meeting and program updates precede the demonstration. Bill Glueck will also be demonstrating tying some of his favorite patterns.

Come early or stay after the meeting to fish. This trout park offers lots of opportunity for fishing as well as nice trails for a hike. We hope to see you on May 2nd!

Jerry has been fishing for Atlantic Salmon for over 30 years and 25 of them has been with the two handed spey rod. He began on the Penobscot River in Maine and the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. In that time we did not have books, DVDs or instruction on how to cast or set up lines. They used DT lines imported from Europe and cut up lines for their needs. The rods were very long and slow action in comparison to today's equipment. Jerry is an excellent caster of single hand and two hand rods, his enthusiasm is infectious and very well received by all of our students. He is focused on getting the student to understand Spey casting and only pleased when they have success.

We're late in passing along the following request for volunteers from the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (QRWA}, one of our partner organizations. If you have some time before the end of the month, please help!

QRWA 2021 Spring River Cleanup

Happy Spring QRWA members and volunteers!

Just a reminder that our month-long April cleanup event is now happening!
Volunteers are now cleaning in and around the Quinnipiac River and Hanover Pond at their own pace and on whatever date and time is preferred for each individual or group (thank you so much to those who have already started)!

There will not be a QRWA guide on site throughout the month - any volunteers are asked to work independently - but QRWA will provide trash bags and will dispose of all trash collected.

We would love for anyone participating to email or text us photos of yourself cleaning up so we can share them in an email at the conclusion of the event!

If interested in volunteering, please email qrwainfo@att.net so we can provide more details. This is a great outdoor activity for both kids and adults!

Thank you so much for your ongoing support and we hope everyone has a happy spring!

Pages Millpond fishway operation and maintenance is ongoing. Please contact Rick Huntley at: vicepresident@hctu.org if you have an interest in helping out.

Fish or Fly Fact Friday, 3-21-2021

3/12/2021

This is a continuing series of Fish or Fly Fact Friday posts from the members of the Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited, Inc. Thanks to member Jessica Freeze for the idea and the initial batch of posts. To contribute a post, send a photo or photo group with caption(s) to: webmaster@hctu.org.

March 2021 Update

3/4/2021

Join us for our March Chapter Meeting Via Zoom!

HCTU is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited, Inc. Membership Meeting
Date: Thursday, March 11, 2021
Time: 7:00 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85837127519?pwd=V1dka3V6RXpSMWU4c1l5YzdlLzh5QT09

Meeting ID: 858 3712 7519
Passcode: 283458
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Meeting ID: 858 3712 7519
Passcode: 283458
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k934JxdCG

"Favorite Flies for the Delaware"

Please join us on March 11, 2031 at 7:00 PM for our first Chapter meeting via Zoom! Several members of the Chapter lead by fly tier extraordinaire, Bill Glueck, (who has just retired as meeting raffle coordinator) have been traveling to the Delaware River Club in Starlight, Pennsylvania each May to fish the Delaware River and its tributaries. We hope to again be able to travel to the spectacular Catskill Region in 2021.

Our guest speaker will be Samantha Dennis who guides out of the Delaware River Club. Samantha learned to fly fish on the freestone mountain streams of Vermont and the small rivers of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. While brook trout will always be her first love, the lure of big browns has drawn her to many locations. However, it took just one epic day on the Upper Delaware to hatch an obsession and she has been calling the guiding on it's beautiful waters for the past 6 years. While trout on a dry are her favorite, she loves stalking smallmouth and anything that will devour a streamer.

Don't forget that the HFFA has invited the members of the HCTU to their scheduled Zoom meeting tonight.
RICK LITTLE IS PRESENTING A DISCUSSION OF: Adventure Trip to Big Sky Country - Montana's Big Horn and Missouri Rivers

Topic: HFFA March 4,2021 Zoom Meeting at 7:00 PM
Time: Mar 4, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89616394237?pwd=aHZ6UEtoMGF0anhaaDBZd0hsdE5SUT09

Meeting ID: 896 1639 4237
Passcode: 263060
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,89616394237#,,,,263060# US (New York)
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+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 896 1639 4237
Passcode: 263060
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcqJ5pkkz0

Fish or Fly Fact Friday

2/20/2021

This is a continuing series of Fish or Fly Fact Friday posts from the members of the Hammonasset Chapter #446, Trout Unlimited, Inc. Thanks to member Jessica Freeze for the idea and the initial batch of posts. To contribute a post, send a photo or photo group with caption(s) to: webmaster@hctu.org.