Central MA Chapter of Trout Unlimited - October Newsletter

The 2019-2020 Chapter Year is finally upon us.

October Chapter Meeting –
 

Date: Monday, October, 7th
 

Time: Social hour - 6 to 7 (with FREE Pizza arriving at 6:30)
 

Meeting - 7 to 8
 

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

The October meeting will focus on a review of our 2019 events, what is planned for 2019-2020 and other opportunities.

Fill Your Fly Box Program

We received a lot of positive feedback on the "Fill you Fly Box" program. This program provided a very large quantity of flies that the chapter purchased from the Big Y fly company at a very attractive price along with fly boxes from eBay. The patterns were selected for use during the Farmington River event, but work all over the state.

We are looking to continue this program and will be looking for your input on flies for this year's event. We will be very interested in your "go to" patterns for the Quinie and other local streams and ponds. I will be bringing a few of the key patterns used on the Cape Cod ponds for use in Central MA and also at the ponds right there at the Auburn Club.

The purchase of flies will combine with our monthly fly tying and donations. Last year, we received dozens of flies from club members. These were very much appreciated and proved they need to be in the "preferred" section of your fly box. The October meeting will include a discussion on the flies for each month.

One in particular is the Spinner. We purchased several of these from Big Y, but their pattern does not work as well as the one we use for our chapter. I've been fishing these heavily on the Farmington and there is no better fun than that heavy Spinner Fall as you approach dusk. I've tweaked the pattern to prove a more realistic profile and the results are tremendous. If you have not experienced the spinner fall, we will have that discussion and make sure if becomes part of your game!

Banquet 2020

FANTASTIC!

This keeps getting better and better. So much fun rolled up into a wonderful evening. The food was terrific, great job on the deck of cards and bucket raffles and did you see that cake! Great event to partner with the Club - donation combined with the proceeds from the 50/50 raffle provided over $300 to the Club's stocking program - well done.

Combing this with our High School event made for combining 2 days into one. Was that easier?

We want to select the date early as the club dates fill up fast. Not sure if we will be able to select the date, but our conversation will be in that direction and should have the date for our November meeting. Note: This year we will look at the Calendar and stay away from Holidays.

Farmington Trip

We added a full week and the following Monday to this year's event. Based on how quickly certain dates filled up, we can start to plan our 2020 event. This year, we will evaluate AirBNB and other options. The location is nice on the river, but there may be some other locations that could be of interest.

Looking for you input on the 2019 event as bad weather in CO kept me from attending the event. I will not be missing the 2020 event.

High School State Fly Fishing Championship

The move from the Trout Brook to the Auburn Sportsman's Club was the right decision.

Safety is number one. The contestants were getting pretty aggressive in the Quinie water and was an area of concern. The Club waters were safe and provided an significant increase in the number of fish caught. We made some good connection with some of the local schools and look to contact more for the 2020 event. Our team did a much better job with regards to getting the word out and the prizes were exceptional.

The October Meeting will review these events and start putting the plan together for the 2019-2020 meeting year. We will do more of the "Movie Nights" with a focus on Fly Fishing techniques and "Go To" destinations.

Looking forward to seeing you all and hearing of your summer fishing stories.

Tight Lines,

Peter Sterndale

President, Central MA Chapter of Trout Unlimited

© 2019 Trout Unlimited | CMTU #148 | http://centralmasstu.org