February 2022 Update

Join us on February 10, 2022 for a presentation through the TU Events Center at: https://tu.myeventscenter.com/event/Fishing-The-Beaches-Of-Fairfield-County-With-Jeff-59743

Fishing the Beaches of Fairfield County with Jeff Yates
Questions? Contact Event Organizer

Join friends from the Hammonasset Chapter of TU at our monthly gathering - this month on Zoom - as we learn about Fishing the Beaches of Fairfield County.

Join Jeff Yates, author, guide and Trout Unlimited staff member as we explore the shores of Long Island Sound from Greenwich east to the Housatonic River.

Jeff will lead us on a journey along the coast using maps and aerial imagery to identify where striped bass can be targeted on flats, tidal outflows, marshes, inlets and more. He'll also cover many of the major habitat and water protection issues impacting the Sound and things we can all do to make a difference.

You'll leave knowing where to find stripers in all tides and conditions - and how to use mapping tools to identify even more locations on your own!

Jeff is the national Director of Volunteer Operations for Trout Unlimited and has held nearly every volunteer TU position on the board of his local Mianus Chapter and the Connecticut Council.

He has been fishing the waters of Connecticut for more than 30 years and has been guiding for nearly two decades. His book, Fly Fishing Fairfield County: Secrets of Suburban Streams, details the great trout fishing available in the southwest corner of the state. Learn more at www.flyfishingct.com.

A Message from the Vice President

I hope that this message finds you well and that you are warm! The heart of the winter season is here and to at least some extent, my usual routine is taking place. I usually get out to downhill ski a few times each winter, but the pandemic put a hold on that last year. This year, I splurged and rented a condo for an extended ski trip to Quebec. I had said that I was going to return a better skier for having been able to ski most every day for a month, or broken.

Well, after about the first week I got run into by another skier, fell and tweaked my right knee. The second week was relegated to planning an RV trip in March, attending various online meetings, and resting my knee (but I have been eating well!). Fortunately, my knee is on the mend and I should be back on the slopes or snowshoe trails by the time you read this.

I know that members have been attending the fly fishing/fly tying shows that have returned. I hope to get a rundown from Chapter President Kevin Fuller on how the Edison, New Jersey show fared with the storm that occurred in the middle of it. As you are probably aware, the Marlborough, Massachusetts show has been postponed to April. That’s good for me, as I would have had to miss it this year otherwise. A bunch of us usually attend this event.

It looks like there will be a good “hard water” season this winter. If that's something you do, the annual No Child Left Inside® Winter Festival is Saturday February 5th from 10am to 3pm at Burr Pond State Park in Torrington. There is plenty of ice and I am sure the CTDEEP CARE Program will be catering to a very large crowd for this winter classic event!

With the state of the pandemic what it is, we have decided to try a Zoom regular membership meeting for this month. I expect that we will have a brief rundown of things a few of us have been pursuing for the Chapter prior to our speaker, Jeff Yates. I hope you can join us on the 10th at 7:00 p.m.. Sign up for free tickets using the link above. Thanks for your continued support of Trout Unlimited and for your understanding if Chapter activities are not what they have been in the past.

Best,
Rick Huntley

Food for Thought by HCTU Board Member, Scott Tabar

If you’re a reader of the Trout Unlimited Open Forum you may have seen a discussion regarding “grip and grin” photos. I have taken my share of photos especially when I first started fly fishing. I admit I enjoy the photo of the fish I've caught mainly because these photos let me relive the experience of places I’ve fished. I don’t take photos now although I’ll record the places I fish. It’s a personal choice. Naturally for catch and release to be successful it depends on the proper handling of those fish. Trout Unlimited promotes, “ keep 'em wet” and “Hold no fish out of the water” to educate anglers of the proper handling of fish, especially trout. Does an angler who takes his two trout home for dinner or the angler who hooks and releases twenty fish do more harm? What does playing these fish do for their mortality? Conversely Mother Nature is also harsh for fish with estimates of twenty, thirty or forty percent of stocked fish dying of natural causes. Numerous fisheries around the world embrace catch and release fishing to protect vulnerable species but not all.

In Switzerland and Germany the practice is considered inhumane and ban catch and release. These countries do care about the fish population but their approach is different. Like we do here in the US there are clubs and government organizations that clean rivers and work to improve habitat as well as to educate anglers. Germany in fact requires that ti get a fishing license one needs to take a course and pass an exam. In addition Germany regulates the number of anglers allowed to fish certain waters. It is also illegal to release back into water fish that are above the minimum size. Here in the US the National Park Service in Yellowstone National Park has reversed decades of catch and release regulations. They have introduced mandatory kill regulations on rainbow and brook trout on the Lamar River to protect native species. The Park Service also encourages unlimited taking of non-native species including brown trout in some park waters. But there are novel approaches that both preserve fish populations and still let one enjoy the fishing experience. Consider this gentleman who has been practicing fishing without a hook for twenty years. He cuts the hook off his flies.

Basically he’s fly casting and no fish are harmed but he gets to experience what he likes best about fly fishing. Enjoy the video https://www.facebook.com/581663241901303/posts/4647970525270534/

To further muddy the waters there’s this book by Douglas Thompson called, “The Quest for the Golden Trout: Environmental Loss and Americas Iconic Fish.” I haven’t read the book but I’m going to request copy from my library. Here’s what the author says: “The angler’s dream of fishing pristine waters in unspoiled country for sleek, healthy trout has turned fishing into a form of theater. It is a manufactured experience—much to the detriment of our rivers and streams. Americans’ love of trout has reached a level of fervor that borders on the religious. Federal and state agencies, as well as nongovernmental lobbying groups, invest billions of dollars on river restoration projects and fish-stocking programs. Yet, their decisions are based on faulty logic and risk destroying species they are tasked with protecting. River ecosystems are modified with engineered structures to improve fishing, native species that compete with trout are eradicated, and nonnative invasive game fish are indiscriminately introduced, genetically modified, and selectively bred to produce more appealing targets for anglers—including the freakishly contrived ‘golden trout’.”

All this has led me to more questions than answers and I think the subject needs further study if we are to become the best stewards of our rivers that we can be. I’ll leave conclusions to people more knowledgeable than I. In the meantime I will practice catch and release being as careful as I can not to harm the fish. Despite this I sure the fish would rather I had a different hobby. I still believe in the efforts of Trout Unlimited to improve fish habitat.