December 2018 Newsletter - Central MA Chapter of Trout Unlimited

January 2019 Chapter Meeting –
 

Date: Monday, January 7th, 2019
 

Time: Pizza and pre-meeting starting at 6:30 PM        Meeting at 7:00 PM
 

Location: Auburn Sportsman’s Club
             50 Elm St, Auburn, MA 01501
 

Did Santa bring you that fly rod you asked for? We have a lot to be thankful for as we look into our 2019 calendar. We already have the dates for the Banquet and the High School State Fly Fishing Championship nailed down. In addition, the Farmington River trip is booked for 3 cabins with a bonus this year in the form of one of the cabins for the weekdays right before our weekend (Will not be on Father’s day this year).

Santa left a large box for me to bring to the January meeting. He left me a note asking for 15 of the latest Elf design fly boxes be given to the first 15 attendees to the January meeting. Make sure you show up early as the North Pole knows how to make a nice fly box.

The intention is to provide flies at each of the following month’s meetings to fill up the box and prepare for fishing the Quinie and the Farmington.

The November meeting will focus on putting together the teams for our big events in 2019. Specifically:

1. The Banquet
2. The Farmington Trip
3. The High School State Championship
4. The Quinie - Could the dam removal become a reality?

We will be looking to select a leader for each of these projects and a support team to make each a success.

In addition, we will look at the different fly patterns that we find to be so successful on these waters, assign the pattern to some veteran tiers and either provide the material or just bring in the receipt to reimburse.

1. The Banquet

I’ve attended many banquets, sponsored by both with other local TU chapters and other organizations. Let me just state that the spread put out by Steve and his team is second to none! I would challenge many fine restaurants to put together a better menu. One word – “Fantastic”. In addition, it was wonderful seeing a good number of the Auburn Sportsman’s Club members supporting this event. Great time. We are already planning our 2019 Banquet. My suggestion – get your tickets early.

The team will work to develop the menu, identify some nice prizes, the format for the event, advertising and budget. Not sure if we need to change much from last year’s success, Maybe a 50/50 raffle?

2. The Farmington Weekend

So many smiling faces, so many bent rods, so much fun. We had a ball fishing the “B52” spinners in the Church pool and working emerger patterns up in the Campground pool. There were several using nymphs with very good success. This year did not have the prolific hatches that we’ve seen in the past. But we were still on a good amount of fish. And, we are getting smarter. The addition of the emerger and B52 patterns and techniques proved to enticing for the natives to pass up.

We are looking to review the Father’s day weekend with a possible move to another weekend. In addition, there is talk of getting at least one cabin for the entire week before the planned weekend. Too much fun X a whole week

The team will develop a budget, How people will get a spot in this event and organize the monthly fly program.

3. The High School Fly Fishing Championship

This year we had several young ladies show up for the event. We saw fewer fish landed this year, but the enthusiasm from the kids was terrific. We have a list of improvements that can make this an even better event. In addition, contacting the other sportsman’s clubs in the state may be the best way to attract more kids to the event. In addition, we are going to talk with some of the local fishing companies to see about some sponsorship – Imagine if this went Nation Wide! There are a couple other ideas up our sleeves.

The team will work with the Auburn Sportsman’s club to put together this year’s event. We will focus on contacting the local fly shops and New England Fly Fishing companies to gain support for this event.

4. The Quinie

There is again talk of the Dam removal. This is an opportunity for our team to evaluate some conversation projects on our home water to move the wonderful stream to support the potential for the dam removal.

The team will develop a multi-year plan for the Quinie and develop a communication team to keep the dam status well publicized.

Going forward – The 2018 – 2019 Season

We will continue to hold our meetings on the first Monday of each month at the Auburn Sportsman’s Club. However, there is a big change coming.

We had some technical issues with our first Web based meeting. The December meeting will also act as a training/practice session to bring this tool to a level that we can rely on as an option for our meetings going forward. The goal is to be able to join either/both for audio and video. This opens up many options that will include the access to wonderful YouTube videos, Information and many other benefits. Stay tuned.

Look forward to a great 2018 – 2019 season and your input as to how we can make it even better.

We look forward to seeing you and discussing FISH.

Tight Lines,

Peter Sterndale

President, Central MA Chapter of Trout Unlimited

© 2018 Trout Unlimited | CMTU #148 | http://centralmasstu.org