February Meeting - This month’s meeting of the Catskill Mountains TU Chapter will begin at 6:15 PM on Wednesday, February 17^th at the Gander Mountain Store in Kingston. In our pre-meeting get together, that will run from 6:15- 7:15 PM, Frank Baker will do a fly tying demonstration showing his favorite techniques for making Compara-Duns. At 7:15 PM, our guest speaker for the evening, Diane Galusa, will discuss her latest book, Another Day, Another Dollar: The Civilian Conservation Corps in the Catskills.  Published in August 2008 by Black Dome Press, the 224-page book describes the history of the Conservation Corps and includes 100 documentary photographs from the era. The author is a former journalist and newspaper editor and has written five books exploring local and regional history. Among her other books is Liquid Assets, The Story of New York City’s Water System (1999, Purple Mountain Press), the first comprehensive account of the development and construction of the vast network of reservoirs and underground aqueducts that ensured the survival of millions of people and radically altered the life and lands of many upstate communities. Employed at the Catskill Watershed Corporation in Margaretville as Communications Director and Education Coordinator, Galusha is president of the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, Delaware County, and of Woodchuck Lodge, Inc., the historic Roxbury summer home of naturalist John Burroughs. After the meeting the author will be available to sign copies of her book that will be available for purchase.

Fly Fishing School - Registration for our annual fly-fishing school will take place in the lobby of the UCCC gym at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, March 9^th. The class will run for five consecutive Tuesday nights and will be taught by NYS licensed guide Bob Sills who has over 35 years of fly fishing experience. The cost of this class will be $50.00 for teenagers, 16 and under, and $75.00 for adults. No equipment is needed but if you already have a fly rod, please bring it. In the spring, this class will conclude with a day on the stream where students will have a chance to hone their newly acquired skills with fellow chapter members who have a wealth of experience on local waters. To register for this class call Bob Sills at 338-4292 or Ron Urban at 339-5938.

Fly Collection Shadow Box- At our January meeting, chapter members approved the construction of a fly collection shadow box that will be used as a raffle item at our Conservation Banquet in October. Chapter member Harry Newton has most generously volunteered to construct the box and we now need to fill the box with 200 flies.  All chapter members are encourage to tie 10-15 flies that will be included in this collection. Please bring your newly tied flies to our regular meeting or mail them to, Ron Urban, 146 Bayard St., Port Ewen, NY, 12466. You can contact Ron at: Ronsgonefishing@aol.com or 845-339-5938

 2010 Catskill Fly Tyer Guild Rendezvous- The Guild will be holding their annual rendezvous at the Rockland House Restaurant on Route 206 in Roscoe on Saturday, April 17^th. This event will run from 10:00 AM to 3:30 PM and a reception will follow at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor. The event will conclude with an informal dinner for both fly tyers and attendees at the Rockland House. Some of the tyers at this event will be Bob Mead (Praying Mantis), Dave Brandt (ties a Royal Wolff in his fingers), creative fly tyer Fishy Fullum (chapter member) and Dick Talleur from NC. This event is a great opportunity to meet and learn from the very best fly tyers.

Trout Waters Youth Camp- The chapter would like to sponsor a student this year at the NYS TU Council’s weeklong camp on the banks of the Delaware River near Fish Eddy. If you know of  a person who is interested, age 14 to 17, contact President Ron Urban at: Ronsgonefishing@aol.com or 845-339-5938. You can go to the web page to learn more about the program at: http://web.mac.com/avkurt/TroutWaters/Welcome.html

Send Me Your Email Address – Every month our chapter spends over $75.00 mailing hard copies of this newsletter through the US mail to chapter members who have not supplied me with their email addresses. Please help out and sign up for email delivery. Send your email address to emeyer001@hvc.rr.com   We need this money for conservation related projects!                                  

                                                 Submitted by Ed Meyer – 2/10/10