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Reflections 2002
December 2002:
Well, it’s now official! The 2002/2003 Long Island Flyrodder Winter Tie Night series is under way. Thanks to some arrangements made by Paul McCain we had a great place to gather and the first session was a huge success. There was a good turnout of tying junkies. Everyone managed to find the restaurant without problems; I just followed the LIFR sticker on the truck in front of me. It started right on schedule, and some early birds had their vises set up and were well under way when I arrived at 7:30. Plenty of elbow room and electric outlets made for good tying conditions, in fact the overhead lighting was sufficient to allow me to forego setting up the lamp I had brought along.
After tying a few damsel flies I worked up an appetite just in time for the buffet which was comprised of an assortment of delicious Mexican nosh food including steak quesadillas, baby back ribs, chicken fingers and other delicacies that I didn’t have room to sample. After all that food we were re-inspired and put our noses to the grindstone (or vises) to tie more flies. Before we knew it, and all too soon, it was time to pack up our tools and sweep up the feathers and bits of flash.
Time flies when you’re tyin’ flies. Those who showed up to sit as spectators were convinced to bring their vises to next month’s session. I think I speak for all those who attended when I say it was a great way to spend a few hours on a winter night, trading patterns, materials and tying tips. So if you’re an F.F.F.F. (fellow feather and fuzz freak), drop by and “tie one on” with us, and be sure to bring your appetite.
Lee Weil
The Flyrodders had their annual Holiday party at the December 3 meeting. Traditionally there is no business conducted or a scheduled speaker, just a casual get together. Along with a review of the past year, there were many plans discussed for the coming year. Many members brought in home cooked goodies along with the holiday cake and coffee supplied. There was a visit by a special guest, Santa Claus. He was able to find time in his busy schedule to distribute grab bag gifts and question members on the accuracy of their fish stories. Fortunately Santa was a little hard of hearing and not able to check on the reported sizes of the fish caught.... everyone is safe for another year.
November 2002:
On November 2nd, the Long Island Flyrodders gathered together for our annual Dinner Dance celebration to enjoy each other’s company and honor the members whose combined efforts made for another successful year. This year’s festivities took place on familiar ground, the Levittown VFW Hall where our general meetings take place each month. The change of venue allowed the club to lower the price of tickets and at the same time express our support for the VFW hall. This also meant more work involved such as table preparation and buffet service. Kudos go out to President Paul McCain and Wayne Becker for doing a fantastic job in that department. The menu consisted of several main courses, including a dish prepared by our own Chef Paul featuring salmon in an excellent lime and cilantro sauce.Throughout the evening the Flyrodders presented many members with awards to display the club’s appreciation for their involvement in club trips, sports shows and other functions. These are the guys who step up to the plate whenever and wherever they are needed. The honor of Member of The Year was presented to Wayne Becker and Reels of Appreciation were given to Len Melnik, Don Shea and Mike Friedland.
The highest honor bestowed by the Flyrodders is the Ancient Order of Anglers award, and this year it was given to three of the club’s finest and most faithful – Al Westbrook, Dan Van Buskirk and Gil Padovani. The committee had some fun when doing this presentation, as they managed to conceal the identities of the recipients by telling each one to keep it a secret from the others, thus making for quite a surprise when the names were called.
This year’s special Dinner Raffle prize winner was given the choice of cash or a 9’ 5 weight G. Loomis rod. The lucky dog was Bob Skoy, who chose to accept the rod (surprise, surprise!)
Once again those who attended shared an evening of warm camaraderie and a chance to raise a toast to all the hardworking members of the Flyrodder family. Congratulations and a job well done to the guys who made it all happen.
Lee Weil
October 2002:
Only a couple of members showed up for the October Montauk trip. Is there something wrong with October? For the past three years, our October trips have been a bust: Either they had to be cancelled for lack of participation or very few people signed up. It's unfortunate because October is one of the best months to fish, either in fresh water or in the salt.
The Gian Padovani special memorial issue of the Flyrodder was printed and mailed to the membership. The publication featured tributes to Gian from several members, a bit of Gian's artwork, a photo gallery of Gian's ashes being scattered on the Ausable River and the last article that Gian wrote for the Mountaineer, the NC newspaper for which he was a regular contributor. Morty Schneiderman did a fantastic job in putting this special edition together and is to be congratulated.
September 2002:
| The Susquehanna, PA
camping/fishing trip that was scheduled for September 9-11 was cancelled due to
lack of participation. We suspect the reason was that it was scheduled to
coincide with the first anniversary of the WTC tragedy.
On September 14th, a bench honoring the memory of Gian Padovani, a past LIFR President and Flyrodder Editor was dedicated at Caleb Smith State Park. LIFR members. friends and family attended the ceremony. |
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Thanks to Lee Weil, the fishing/camping trip to the Farmington turned out to be a success. We had a good turnout (24 members), fantastic weather and good food. The only problem, of course, was the drought. The water was very low and warm and, as a result, not many fish cooperated. Still a few were taken here and there. On Friday evening , Lee Weil caught and released six fish which was probably more fish than all the other members had combined..... The following is Lee Weil's report:
This year the Long Island Flyrodders decided the 2002 Farmington trip was so nice we’d do it twice! So on September 20th we headed to Winsted once again to camp at Austin Hawes campgrounds and fish the Farmington River. We were blessed with decent weather, with temperatures in the low 80’s and partly sunny skies. In spite of extremely low water and challenging fishing there were some nice fish caught. Bob Skoy reported a 16 inch rainbow taken behind the camp on a dry fly, and Peter Yuskovich also took a good sized fish on a black woolly bugger. Jeff Farrell found himself in smallmouth territory, taking a total of three on Saturday night on a parachute B.W.O., proving that you CAN catch bass on tiny flies.
Sunday night saw tough fishing, but Joe
Otterstedt managed to trump a nice brown on a White Wulff. The prize for
catching the most unusual species without a doubt goes to Linda
Macy. She took a keeper sized brown bat on a dry fly, playing the bat
skillfully before releasing it to fly another day. The bat was not impressed
with Linda and swam away without so much as a goodbye wave. Anyone wanting more
information on catch and release methods for bats can contact Linda at the next
meeting.
As for the culinary award, it goes
to chef Tony Agnese for Friday night’s outstanding beef stew, served with
choice of rice OR noodles! Bob Piazza
also provided some excellent venison chili, (thus endangering himself into being
recruited to cook next year), and with grilled chicken on Saturday we were in no
danger of starving. One thing about the Flyrodder camping trips is true; you DO
eat well. The stragglers who decided to stay for dinner on Sunday had Mexican
food to round out the menu before hitting the road or the river.
Lee Weil
August 2002:
As evidenced by the 43 members who attended, there's no denying that the annual club fishing/camping trip to the Housatonic is our most popular event. Thanks to Paul McCain and Don Shea who did all the cooking and cleaning, our members were able to spend more time on the river catching loads of bass and some trout. While nymphs, streamers and woolly buggers were the flies of choice during the day, white Wullfs were the killers from dusk to darkness. Every night from 8:00PM to well after dark, and incredible hatch of white flies would emerge. It was like looking at a snow blizzard!
Much work goes into planning and executing a trip such as this one: selecting the right dates, making reservations, assigning sites, planning the meals, setting up kitchen and dining areas, cooking, cleaning up and takedown. We are lucky to have Paul and Don in our club. Thanks guys!
July 2002:
Our 3rd annual L.I.F.R. club trip to the Peconic River had a great turnout, with 12 members who launched canoes and johnboats at the DEC launch site, located just off of Rte. 25A in Riverhead, in their quest for largemouth bass. As in the past, we set out at 6:00 a.m. from above the dam and fished our way past the Fisherman’s Deli up river to the spillway. In spite of the heat, with temperatures soaring up into the high 90’s, the fish were cooperative and there were some good sized bass caught, in addition to some huge bluegills.
Mike Lackey had a nice largemouth on a green and white deerhair frog from off the bank in front of the red Pagoda, which I caught on film as we passed by. Joe Otterstedt, also fishing a deer hair frog, took a very large bass over 20” from the shallow cove across and downstream from the Fisherman’s Deli dock. I picked up two bass on a small white popper and missed at least a dozen on the same fly. Even the late comers did well; Frank Chin and John Menendez had several good sized fish after 10:00 and Paul McCain showed up after 11:00 and still found a few bass willing to stretch his line. Most of the fish caught were taken on deer hair patterns in white or yellow, or small cork poppers and foam Gurglers. The rods used ranged from 5 to 8 weights, with 1X or 2X tippets to handle fish hooked near the abundant lily pad beds.
Jeff and I quit at noon and after loading our canoe onto the truck we headed for the Snowflake ice cream stand across the street. The perfect way to finish up a day of summertime bass fishing is to top it off with an ice cold root beer float, and after all that paddling you can afford the extra calories.Lee Weil
June 2002:
Kudos to Allan Manz for running another fantastic fishing/camping trip to Connecticut's famous Farmington River. The fishing was excellent with several big trout taken. This is truly a beautiful area to camp, fish and enjoy the scenery. The 24 club members who attended were certainly not disappointed.
May 2002:
As in the past, we had a good turnout for our annual trip to the Ausable River and the Hungry Trout Motor Inn and Restaurant. This year, however the trip had another significant meaning: Gil Padovani delivered a streamside eulogy for Gian Padovani and then Jerry Bottcher and John Gerbitz waded across the river and scattered Gian's ashes near one of Gian's favorite fishing spots.
April 2002:
April is a busy month for the Flyrodders with two trips on the schedule for NY and PA. On April 27th, the Long Island Flyrodders headed up to the Willowemoc River in Livingston Manor for our annual Project Access Trip. A total of 15 members participated in the efforts to reconstruct the paths along the stream, which enable anglers in wheelchairs get down to the banks. Each winter the surfaces erode and need to be filled in and leveled. We took turns shoveling and rolling wheelbarrows of dirt down to the banks, and Mike Friedland once again came through with a gasoline powered tamping machine (which is a big improvement on the old method of lining up the LIFR’s and having them do “the Stomp” up and down the paths.)
Work was done on Hazel Bridge and the Covered Bridge picnic area, where we subsequently held our Annual Project Access Barbeque. We were blessed with great weather and after lunch, set up and cooked by new member Joe Croce and his son Dan, most of the crew went off to don their waders and search for some cooperative fish. This was not so easy, as the water temps ranged from 46 to 50 degrees and in spite of a prolific hatch of March Browns, Quills and Hendricksons the fish were slow to respond. Joe was rewarded for his cooking efforts and took a very impressive 16” brown from Hendrickson’s Pool on a Blue Dun in the late afternoon.
He paid dearly for this feat at our annual Rockland House dinner where he was the target of the traditional abuse that the Flyrodders heap upon the head of anyone who is fortunate enough to have landed the only fish of the day. Congratulations Joe, and welcome to the club!
March 2002:
The March 22 steelhead trip to the Salmon River in Pulaski had to be cancelled due to inclement weather and high water levels. Our next club trip is scheduled for April 22-24 to the Yellow Breeches in Pennsylvania. This moderate size scenic river holds plenty of good sized trout and it's a pleasure to fish. Contact Lee Weil if you are interested in going.
Also scheduled for April 28 is our annual Project Access involvement on the Willowemoc. Let's have a big turnout and, if you can, bring shovels and rakes with you.
February 2002:
At the February meeting, Paul McCain, Allan Manz, Lee Weil and Cliff Dies were elected to the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Also Gordon Grimes. Stu Minsky and Wolfgang Porte' were voted in as three year term board members.
A special Flyrodder issue in memory of Gian Padovani, past LIFR President and Flyrodder Editor is scheduled to be published in April. If you wish to contribute an article, please send it to Bob Skoy. Suggested size is 150-200 words. Also, Gian's ashes will be scattered on the Ausable River on Sunday, May 19. This date coincides with our annual trip to the Hungry Trout. We hope to see as many members as possible for this event.
January 2002:
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May your new year be a healthy and prosperous one. The following people were nominated for 2002:
President - Paul McCain
Vice President - Allan Manz
Treasurer: Cliff Dies
Secretary - Lee Weil
Board Nominees: Gordon Grimes, Al Battistelli, Wolfgang Porte and Mike Wolyniec
