May Meeting - This month’s meeting of the Catskill Mountains TU Chapter will take place on Wednesday, May 20th at the Gander Mountain Store in Kingston. A saltwater fly tying demonstration will begin at 6:00 PM with Dr. Bill Shaw and Ed Meyer tying striper flies. Bill will be tying sand eels and Ed will be tying silversides patterns. Our guest speaker for the night will be Mick Flaherity, Head of Fisheries for DEC Region 3. Mike will be discussing issues related to the Esopus Creek and other watersheds within NYS. 

June Meeting – Chapter Fishing Outing – Wednesday, June 17th – Instead of having our normal chapter meeting at Gander Mountain we will enjoy a night of fishing and camaraderie on the Esopus Creek. We will meet at Onteora High School between 6:00 and 6:30 PM and will then depart to a variety of different locations on the river. At the end of the evening we will then meet for pizza and share our tales of the evening’s exploits at Brio’s in Phoenicia or Winchells Corners in Shokan. The rain date will be Thursday June 18th.

April Meeting – At our April meeting Ben Murdock from the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development gave an informative presentation on the rather large number of invasive species that now   threaten our local forests and waterways. A short list of these species include the Northern Snakehead Fish, the Asian Longhorn Beetle, the Emerald Ash Borer, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid,
the Fruit Tree Tortrix Moth, Didymo, and a number of different viral and fungal pathogens.  DEC currently has a task force that is trying to prioritize the level of threat posed by each these different species. Their goal is to create an action plan and to propose regulations to confront the threat posed by these species. One recently enacted law now prohibits the transportation of firewood more than 50 miles to limit the spread of these insects that are now damaging our forests.

DEC Confirms Presence of Didymo in Esopus Creek – This is about the worst possible news that we could receive but it is now a fact that we have to learn to live with. Hopefully at this month’s meeting Mike Flaherity can give us some a better understanding of the long- term implications of this new infestation of the watershed.  Any time that you fish the Esopus or the Delaware system be sure to soak your felt soled waders in a Clorox solution and to wash off any other items that might contain clumps of algae. As I drive back and forth between NYS and CT rivers this as become a normal part of my fishing routine.

Telemetry Study – As an additional part of the ongoing research that is being conducted on the health of the Esopus Creek, a new research initiative will begin this year that will place electronic monitoring tags on trout in the Esopus Creek. This new study is being jointly conducted by the DEC, DEP and USGS and has been funded for a one year period.  Recently in talks with the study’s authors, Conservation Chairman Norm Turner discussed the possibility of extending the study for an additional year with funding being supplied by our chapter, the Asokan Pepacton Chapter and TU State Council. It is currently proposed that the two chapters each kick in $2000  with State Council contributing an additional $4000. The purpose of the study is to access the effects of the portal on trout populations. Trout will be tagged above and below the portal and data will be collected examining movement, growth and survival of both stocked and wild trout. This study will hopefully give us some much needed scientific data to help us better understand why wild trout populations have dropped so precipitously over the last decade. At this month’s meeting chapter members will be asked to vote as to whether to fund a second year of this program with $2000 of chapter money. Please attend and make your voice heard. 

Fishing Tip – With the Hendrickson hatch being disrupted by that week of unseasonably hot weather this year I just couldn’t seem to find a prolific hatch of bugs with rising fish anywhere. One thing that I did notice on a number of different rivers was the presence of drowned spinners drifting throughout the water column. One tactic that I did employ with good success was fishing spinner flies with a weight and indicator. When fishing a double rig with a nymph and a  spinner almost all of my hook ups were on the spinner.

Send me your email address for a virtual cyberspace newsletter – emeyer001@hvc.rr.com