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Thank you to all our members who made the trek out to Caleb Smith Sate Park for our October monthly meeting. Special thanks go out to Clarence Ware for allowing us to once again hold our meeting in the beautifully restored museum building. I find it’s always a treat to hold the meeting on the grounds of such a historically important landmark. I would like to wish Clarence and his entire crew at the park the best in their ongoing efforts at completely restoring this beautiful building. Thanks also to Capt. Joe Demalderis, Orvis 2010 Guide of the Year, from Crosscurrent Guide Service and Outfitters for being our guest speaker. Joe did a great presentation on fishing the Delaware which I personally found to be very well put together, laid back, and informative. I was very impressed with Joe’s vast knowledge of this very important and vital river system. Joe also touched upon the negative impact “fracking” will have on this beautiful area and how important it is for us to be ever astute and vigilant on this issue. Once again, thanks for making the trek and coming out Joe! The Cold Spring Harbor Fair went very well for us. Although it was quite windy, the day was warm and sunny. We had A LOT of people come by and talk to us about T.U., fly fishing and fly tying. It was great to see and talk about fly fishing but more importantly conservation, to so many people who visited the hatchery that day. Thank you to all who participated and to our very own Norm Soule from Cold Spring Harbor for inviting us. Our November monthly meeting will bring us our yearly “fix” of fishing in Montana. Pete Dubno will once again be presenting his fun filled, yearly presentation on this year’s trip out west. If you have never seen one of Pete’s Montana presentations, it is not to be missed. I’m sure it will be a fun filled night! Just a reminder, at our December meeting we will once again be holding our annual Holiday Rod Raffle. This years raffle will be for a T & T 9 ft 4 WT 3Piece Travel Rod – a real beauty! Tickets are available now; just see our treasurer Tom LoProto at any meeting or function. Buy your raffles early and often as this helps support our chapter and allows us to continually bring interesting speakers to our meetings. See page seven (7) for details to mail in your raffle entry. In closing, remember wherever our fishing and travels may take us, it is up to all of us to Educate,

Conserve, Protect and Restore! Best fishes,

Jay Mooney

T.U. PHILOSOPHY

We believe that trout and salmon fishing isn't just fishing for trout and salmon. It's fishing for sport rather than food, where the true enjoyment of the sport lies in the challenge, the lore, the battle of wits, not necessarily the full creel. It's the feeling of satisfaction that comes from limiting your kill instead of killing your limit. It's communing with nature where the chief reward is a refreshed body and a contented soul, where a license is a permit to use not abuse, to enjoy not destroy our cold water fishery. It's subscribing to the proposition that what's good for trout and salmon is good for the fisherman and that managing trout and salmon for themselves rather than the fisherman is fundamental to the solution of our trout and salmon problems. It's appreciating our fishery resource, respecting fellow anglers and giving serious thought to tomorrow.

November 2010

Vol. 38, # 03

Next meeting:

Tuesday, November 16, 2010 @

7:30 PM Montana 2010 Peter Dubno

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Southern State Pkwy

LIE

Northern State Pkwy

Old Country Rd

Rte 107

VFW

Rte106

Wan

tagh S

tate

Hicksville

Paumonok

Published monthly September through June by the Long Island Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Information, photos and articles on conservation and fishing are welcome. Please send material for publication, advertising inquiries and comments to the Editor:

John Fischer - 314 Randall Ave, Freeport, NY 11520 Email: jakross1@verizon.net

L.I.T.U. OFFICERS President: Jay Mooney (516) 659-3202

Vice President: Peter Harris (631) 421-4876

Secretary: Sean Gannon (516) 641-3516

Treasurer: Tom LoProto (516) 385-8655

Editor: John Fischer 516) 705-4024

Publisher: Sol Harz (631) 581-8173

Circulation: Joe Odierna (631) 563-9492

Membership: Sol Harz (631) 581-8173

All articles remain the property of the writer and

may not be reprinted without prior permission.

11/3/2010 Directors Meeting,

Kwong Ming @ 7:30 PM

**1st WEDNESDAY

11/16/2010 General Meeting

Tuesday

@ 7:30 PM

Montana 2010

12/1/2010

Directors Meeting,

Kwong Ming

@ 7:30 PM

**1st WEDNESDAY

12/21/2010 General Meeting

Tuesday

@ 7:30 PM

Holiday party

1/5/2010 Directors Meeting,

Kwong Ming @ 7:30 PM

Go to www.LongIslandTU.org

for a more complete calendar And much more

069

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Trout Unlimited Mine Restoration Project

Receives BLM Award TU recognized for its work on Colorado’s

Kerber Creek.

Villa Grove, Colo. - Trout Unlimited’s (TU) Kerber Creek Restoration Project is the recipient of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2010 Hardrock

Mineral Environmental Award.

The BLM award is given to organizations that highlight environmental stewardship and acknowledges exceptional track records of meeting or exceeding federal, state or local reclamation

requirements.

“This project would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of our project partners at the BLM and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), as well as from local landowners who are invested in restoring the creek from the effects of mining,” said Elizabeth Russell, TU’s manager for the project. “We are so pleased to receive this distinction

from a federal agency.”

Trout Unlimited, the BLM, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and local landowners worked together to restore the watershed to pre-

mining conditions.

Since 2008, TU and its partners have spent over $1.3 million to restore Kerber Creek, a stream located at the north end of the San Luis Valley. TU and its partners have restored over 40 acres of mine tailings left over from historic mining. The impacts of mining led to metals pollution and a degraded stream channel along a 17-mile stretch of the creek, requiring it to be placed on the list of Colorado’s most impaired

waterways.

Volunteers have spent over 4,000 hours on improvements to the stream and surrounding areas. TU will continue its work on Kerber Creek to address legacy mining contamination throughout the

watershed.

Water quality and habitat conditions have improved enough in the watershed that the project’s partners and local landowners are considering the introduction of native cutthroat trout to Kerber Creek within the next

several years.

Orvis Fly Fishing 101 an overwhelming success

In July, 2010, all 46 Orvis-owned retail stores and many Orvis independently owned dealers offered free introductory fly-fishing classes in conjunction with local Trout Unlimited volunteers every Saturday morning in July. The results were beyond expectations. We had hoped to captivate 1,000 new people into the pleasures of fly fishing and at last tally our stores and dealers introduced over 2600 people to the sport. From anecdotal evidence, nearly all the participants had never tried fly fishing, and most of the locations felt the people attending the events were new customers that had never entered the store before. The great news for the future of our natural resources was that each attendee received a free introductory membership to Trout Unlimited, so these potential new fly fishers should also become ardent guardians of coldwater fisheries throughout North America. Equally gratifying were the number of children who attended with their parents, as well as husband-and-wife teams. Several of the schools actually had three generations from the same family attend, showing how fly fishing can bring together families in a healthy, gratifying pastime that crosses age and gender barriers while getting people outdoors. Orvis will expand this program for 2011, with classes earlier in the season and with a standard syllabus that all locations can use, based on what we have learned in our 2010 classes. And although we’ve learned a lot, we still have a ways to go in figuring out how to make fly fishing more accessible to anyone interested in learning. Here are just a few comments from stores who participated in Fly Fishing 101: People REALLY WANT this type of service, and they are incredibly thankful for it. If you need any more proof of this, consider how we still had 14 of 16 students show up in spite of some pretty steady rain during the whole event. Even I was surprised at the attendance! Most students brought rain jackets, ALL got wet, and ALL HAD A GREAT TIME AND LEARNED A LOT ANYWAY! Of course, we would have cancelled the outdoor casting portion on the roof if there was thunder/lightning for obvious safety reasons, but a little rain never hurt anyone. Besides, we got to explain to our new fly fishers what good “fishing weather” really looks like! Most were relieved just to be out of our recent heat wave for a while. I had a family of six representing three generations in one of my groups (2 grandparents, a father, 2 boys and a girl) so that was pretty cool. We had a fabulous turn out for Fly Fishing 101. We were booked solid from 9 till 12. We had a young couple from California who bought Clearwater outfits. A couple we were just staying at one of the local camp grounds who stayed over to take the class. As well as a couple who spend the summers here in Ennis that had been thinking of taking up fly fishing and now they have. We have people booked for every Saturday in July

4

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The Camp-Site Sports Shop 1877 New York Ave.

Huntington Station, NY 11746. Tel 631-271-4969

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CSICAGAIN CHARTERS

LIGHT TACKLE AND FLY FISHING ON THE NORTH SHORE, MONTAUK AND ORIENT

Custom Scout 235 Huntington, CSH and Northport Full day Half Day or 2 hour ‘quickies’

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Phone: (516)383-0508 E-mail: Csicagain@hotmail.com

Captain Robin Calitri

Spread Creek Dam will be demolished to improve trout habitat and return the area to a

more natural state. By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Just north of Triangle X Ranch and a few miles down a gravel road, a 13-foot-tall, 125-foot-long concrete and metal dam rises from Spread Creek’s cobbles. Located just outside Grand Teton National Park and surrounded by national forest, it seems a monstrosity — out of place with the surrounding environment. The structure is clearly crumbling. Four decades’ worth of water has scoured holes in the dam’s concrete apron large enough for a tree trunk, or a person, to fit through. The closed metal floodgates leak water through the spillway, and the rickety metal walkway and railing have begun to rust. Fish pool at the bottom of the dam, some jumping in vain at the structure’s concrete apron. “This is a complete barrier to fish passage,” said Sue Consolo-Murphy, Grand Teton’s chief of science and resources management, who led a recent tour. Now a restoration project is underway, one that will return Spread Creek to a more natural flow. The dam will be removed, opening some 50 miles of Spread Creek and its tributaries to free movement of native Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout. Federal and state wildlife managers call the species

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The Long Island Flyrodders, Inc.

meets the 1st Tuesday of every

month at the : VFW Hall,

55 Hickory Lane in Levittown

(N’ of Hempstead Tpke & W. of

Jerusalem Ave) Visitors are welcome.

5

“sensitive.” The National Park Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department identified the dam as a priority for restoration. The Spread Creek area is vast. The north and south forks of Spread Creek drain the Mount Leidy Highlands and parts of Togwotee Pass. They circle the landmark peaks of Mount Leidy and Grouse Mountain and comprise an important part of the Jackson Hole backcountry: a timbered mountain drainage 40 miles long and 15 miles wide. Forty-three years ago, the Spread Creek Dam was part of an ambitious irrigation project that would have shunted water to pastureland around what is now the eastern portion of Grand Teton National Park. Back then, there was little worry about cutthroat habitat. There was no such thing as endangered species like grizzly bears that fed on them. The challenge was for ranchers eking out a living. Over the years, however, the need to divert water from Spread Creek has gradually diminished, rendering the dam obsolete. Restoration will be possible only through years of conservation work and interagency cooperation. Significant ranch lands encompassed by Grand Teton when it was expanded in the middle of the last century are now public. “By acquiring most of the lands in the Elk Ranch area, we acquired most of the water rights,” Consolo-Murphy said. Grand Teton manages the dam, although it is located on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The massive structure has two irrigation diversions; the south ditch now serves Triangle X Ranch and Moosehead Ranch and the north ditch serves the park. Some grazing rights remain there. The amount of water diverted — right now the maximum water right is 60 cubic feet per second — is a pittance compared to the overall capacity of the dam. “The way this is designed, you could shut the river off,” said Nick Kraus, a project engineer with Quadrant Consulting. Both the Triangle X Ranch and the Moosehead Ranch agreed to a project that will demolish the dam this fall. Under Kraus’ supervision, construction crews will use a hydraulic hammer to cut the dam into pieces, which will then be removed from the stream bed or buried. The $500,000 project, which officials said will start in mid-September and finish “before the snow flies.” It also will restore the stream bed to its historic elevation.

Diversion structures will be moved upstream to a more suitable location and built to allow fish movement and to fit in with the natural environment. “To create the diversion, we’re using boulders that will span the river,” Kraus said. Gates will divert water into the existing irrigation ditches. Water from the south gate will actually travel to the north ditch through a pipe buried underneath the river. It’s restoration to more of a natural condition,” Consolo-Murphy said. “And it’ll be a simpler, safer system to maintain.” Once the project is complete, the new structure will allow an isolated native cutthroat trout fishery above the dam to mix with trout from the rest of the watershed,

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(Continued on page 6)

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The Prince Nymph Flyfishing Royalty

By Jack Pangburn

The Prince nymph does not actually imitate anything specific in the fish food chain, however it does have a number of component elements that seem to delight trout. Peacock herl, speckled brown hackle, reflective ribbing, and white wing materials make-up those attractor elements. The Prince can be tied in versions to imitate the nymphs of mayfly, stonefly, dragonfly and the smaller damsel fly. When tied in the proper sizes and body shape the fly is also an effective pattern for simulating scuds, caddis pupae, cased caddis and the tiny midge pupae. All things considered. It is no wonder that the Prince Nymph has become the most popular selling fly in fly shops around the country.

Mearns Prince (nymph) Hook: Long Shank ex. Mustad 79580 Size 12 Thread: Black and Red Tail: Golden Pheasant neck tippets Body: Peacock herl Weight: Optional Rib: Oval gold tinsel #12-14 Wing: White calf tail Collar: (male) Mearns Quail hackle Head: Red thread varnished

Bead-Head Prince

Hook: Long Shank Mustad 79580 #14

Bead– Head: 1/8” gold bead

Thread: Black 10/0 (Benecchi)

Body: Peacock herl

Rib: Rainbow thread tinsel

Wing: White goose biots

Collar/Legs: (male) Mearns Quail

said Scott Yates, director of Trout Unlimited’s Wyoming Water Project. The project really boils down to genetic diversity, said Rob Gipson, regional fisheries supervisor for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. “The biggest benefit is, when it comes down to long-term survivability of Snake River cutthroat, you’re connecting 50 miles of habitat,” he said. “You’re getting that genetic exchange that hasn’t been there since the dam was constructed.” While fish are currently able to drift downstream over the dam, they can’t return to their native spawning ground in the upper portion of the creek. Hence the fish gathering in the pools at the bottom of the structure. “The more genetic diversity you have, the better the chance the species has to adapt to change whether climate change or catastrophic fire,” Gipson said. “We like to think long-term, too. We’re here for the long haul, and genetic diversity is important in that regard.” Both Yates and Gipson said there is little risk of a nonnative species like rainbow trout making its way up the watershed and contaminating the genetically pure cutthroat trout population there.“In the Upper Snake

(Continued from page 5)

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Please Patronize Our Friends and Supporters

Bradley Custom Fly Reels - www.firbrookflies.com, (845) 439 4046 , Rich & Barb Bradley Capt. Brett Greco – Fly Fishing Guide MT & FL, www.grecosonthefly.com, (406) 640 2627 Capt. Eric Lund - Islamorada flats fishing - ewlund@hotmail.com - 305 393 0663 Camp-Site Sport Shop - campsiteLI@aol.com , (631) 271 4969, Richard Siberry Charles Neuner - Fine Hand Crafted Split Bamboo Fly Rods, (631) 598 3863 Cross Current Guide Svc. - Joe Demalderis - Orvis Endorsed www.crosscurrentguideservice.com Delaware River Club - www.mayfly.com; (570) 635 5897 Fins to Feathers Ltd. Taxidermy - (516) 847 0087, Rich Hooks & Brooks Guide Service - www.ny-fishingguide.com, (631) 589 0065, Mark Malenovsky Northwoods Rods - (516) 221 5599, Jay Mooney - Peter Harris - Making bamboo...affordable Long Island Flyrodders – Meet 1st Tuesday @ VFW 55 Hickory Lane, Levittown @ 7:30, www.lifr.org Massage Therapy - (631) 585 4855, Jane Ferlise Orvis Greenvale - www.orvis.com/intro.asp?subject=546, (516) 484 1860, Dean Tsantilas Powers & Marshall - Real Estate Analysts & Consultants, (516) 248 5511, Ted Powers Sawdust & Stitches - shadow boxes, art and more - http://www.sawdust-stitches.com (717) 774 3893 West Branch Anglers Resort— www.westbranchresort.com; (607) 467 5525

Holiday Rod Raffle

Thomas & Thomas LPS Fly Rod

9'0" 4 weight, 3 piece Retail Value $695

Drawing - Tuesday, Dec 21, 2010 at our monthly meeting

Raffle Tickets are...

$5 each 3 for $10 10 for $20

Send check made payable to Trout

Unlimited to:

Tom LoProto

C/O L.I.T.U. 68 Murray Drive

Westbury, NY 11590

Name…………………………………….. Street…………………………………….. Village………….State…...Zip………….. Phone(optional)…………………………..

River, we have a fairly intact hydrology,” Yates said, explaining that cutthroat, not rainbows, favor the large fluctuations in water flow that are present in places like Spread Creek. “There are not many rainbows above the Gros Ventre.” Gipson agreed that the threat from rainbows is small. “You could make that argument for any connected habitat, but the benefits far outweigh the potential negatives,” he said. And trout aren’t the only beneficiaries of the dam’s removal. “This could benefit non-game species too,” Gipson said. Sculpin, longnose dace and mountain suckers also will have more freedom to move in the watershed. Trout Unlimited’s Wyoming Water Project secured the funding and will oversee removal and restoration. Numerous groups have coordinated expertise and funding under the Trout Unlimited umbrella, including the Jackson Hole One Fly Foundation/National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, Wyoming Game and Fish and the Jackson Hole Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott called the dam removal “an historic step toward correcting a long-term disruption to fish migration and an important action for restoring Spread Creek’s hydrology,” and she praised cooperation, including that of the water users. Gipson also appears satsified. “It’s been a great collaborative process for us,” he said. “It’s nice to see what can happen when agencies and the landowners are on the same page. “It’s nice to have something that is a large project. But it’s relatively small and doable. The bang for the buck is definitely there.”

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Tuesday, November 19,

2010 @ 7:30pm

DATED MATERIAL

PLEASE DELIVER

PROMPTLY

Peter Dubno

Montana 2010

Publish

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f Tro

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John F

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Freep

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Monthly Meetings

On the 3rd

Tuesday

At 7:30 PM

Hicksville VFW

Hall

320 So. Broadway,

Hicksville, NY

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Cattaraugus Creek 2010

10

Oak Orchard