Meeting- (Last day for Taxes) Wednesday night will be a brief business meeting beginning about 6:45 PM. Afterward we will have a b great presentation from another well-known fishery but one not many of us consider. Frank DeGrazio is a licensed New York State fishing guide and an avid fly angler. He hails from Carmel, New York, where he lives. For about last 20 years, he calls The Croton Watershed his home waters, especially the East and West Branches of the Croton River. He is a guide and fly tier for The Angler’s Den fly shop in Pawling, New York. He loves to fly fish for a huge variety of species and is often found chasing trout, salmon, steelhead, carp, stripers, and bass just to name a few. Frank enjoys traveling around New York and New England, fishing a great deal in fresh or saltwater from the shore or kayak. Frank is also known as Hendrickson Spinner, and is an active contributor to a variety of fly fishing social media outlets including his new venture on www.theflypatch.com. He has written fly fishing articles for Live The Wildlife TV Show’s online magazine. His website is www.hendricksonspinnerflyfishing.com. He is a high school special education teacher by trade, which provides him with lots of time to fish and pass on his knowledge to others.
Frank will be making a presentation on fly fishing The Croton Watershed, focusing on The East Branch of the Croton, and the West Branch below Croton Falls Reservoir. He will also touch upon a few of the other rivers that are all a short distance away. The abundance of various food sources, the wild and stocked brown and rainbow trout, and pressure, can at times can make these rivers technical for even for the experienced angler. His vast knowledge will shorten the learning curve for us newcomers, and sharpen the skills for the more experienced angler. He will be discussing, regulations, access points, safe wading, hatches, and equipment, including various rigging techniques that are successful on these little gems. Frank has developed and used many successful seasonal “go to flies” that he will share during the presentation. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to learn about one of Southeastern New York’s little unknown treasures.
Some fish are very adaptable and will live almost anywhere there is sufficient oxygen in the water and food to eat. Some, like the Death Valley pupfish, are extremely restricted, found only in small remnants, less than an acre in size, of their prehistoric domain. In our region, we enjoy plentiful habitat for selective fish species like trout who rely on cold, clean water to thrive.
FISH 2015, the fourth annual issue, focuses on fish, their environment and how we can work together to insure the exceptional water quality trout enjoy is also available for people to drink now and in the future.
Stef Kroll of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, in “If fish thrive in it, it’s good for you to drink,” introduces us to the science-based decision-making behind the Delaware River Watershed Initiative and how finding fish and other indicator species in our waters is a good thing!
In “The confluence of fishing, economy, and river protection,” Jeff Skelding discusses the role fish play in helping to organize people to protect their environment. Prized trout, though they’re unaware, attract people who care about the rivers. Peter Kolesar has persistently divined the numbers seeking common ground between the political, economic, and municipal interests of NYC water users and the multiple interests of river dwellers, animal, vegetable and human. “Of river flows, fish and interstate politics” dives into these waters explaining how decisions made in NYC and Trenton affect our river and our lives.
Getting back to fish as the object of our desire, Judd Weisberg in “Sharing my love of fly fishing” describes how he got hooked as a young boy and how he passes it along to new generations of fisherwomen and fishermen in his guiding and instruction. This year we on the entire Delaware River Main Stem and branches targeted by trout fisherman from the Cannonsville and Pepacton Dams down to Mill Rift. Useful information includes access points, parking areas and local merchants serving you as you enjoy the river. Get wet with FISH and see the world as fish do. From: The River Reporter
