Reflections 2007

December 2007
Congratulations to Cliff Dies, winner of this year's fly donation raffle. Cliff was presented with a Renzetti vise, hooks and fly tying materials. 

Thanks to all who donated flies and/or cash for the fly raffle. Your efforts produced an exciting display of quality flies that will be raffled off at the Somerset Show. Please stop by the LIFR boot on January 25-27 to see the display and possibly spend some time manning the booth. It's a fun time and a good way to promote our Club.

November 2007
The annual Fly Tying Symposium was held on November 17 and 18 at the Double Tree Hotel in Somerset, NJ with fly tyers from around the world being represented  Our own Lee Weil was among these elites showing us all how to tie beautiful deer hair bass bugs. 

September 2007
The September Camping/Fishing trip to the Farmington was a typical LIFR outing with about 25 members attending, great camaraderie, excellent food and some rain. Alan Manz ran the trip and did an excellent job organizing the event and preparing the meals.

East Moriches Bay Trip Report by Gordon Mueller
Well, we caught three times as many fish as last year. Bob Picciano. caught a small striper and a big sea robin. I caught a small striper. Both Bob and I cheated and caught our fish on spinning gear. Everyone else got skunked. Bait fish were busting all over the place, literally at our feet. I think they were being harassed by snappers, but we couldn't catch any. Ten people showed up in total. 

The weather was beautiful, but wind was an issue again. At least it was out of the north, so it was at our backs. Herman gets a gold star for arranging for us to park on the Coast Guard premises, which saved that big wade around the fence. 

I owe an apology to the four guys who showed up two hours early. The way I wrote the flyer was that we'd meet two hours before high tide, at 10:30am. They thought the tide was at 10:30 and showed at 8:00am. I should have wrote that better. After the tide went down a number of us had lunch at the Moriche's Diner. 

We may want to try a different spot next year, maybe in the back bays of Jones Beach. These saltwater day trips are convenient and popular, but I'd like to get people on more fish. 

All in all, it was a fun day on the water with good friends, on a beautiful day. Hard to beat that.

August 2007
Thanks to Coreen, Elizabeth and Mike Gelber for organizing and running the August 3-5 Camping'Fishing on the Housatonic. Without a doubt this has to be the most popular LIFR outing as evidenced by the 30 or so members that attended. The food was excellent, the fishing was good, the company was the best there is and (believe it or not), No Rain!

July 2007
On Tuesday, July 12th the first annual "Friends' Trip to the Housatonic" took place with a group of anglers that included LIFR and TU members. LIFR President Paul McCain organized the trip. In spite of the sweltering heat and humidity were taken and released. After a good morning's fishing, the gang met at the Monument picnic area for a lunch of cheeseburgers, hot dogs, beans and sauerkraut.

Thank you to the nine LIFR members who participated in the "Casting for Recovery" retreat on the July 20-22 weekend. Coreen Gelber and Linda Macy represented our club as Casting Instructors while Joe Otterstedt. Mike Gelber, Wolfgang Porte', Nick Friedman Jim Foley, Mike Mirisola and Paul Granger participated as River Helpers  .

June 2007
Our first camping/fishing trip of the year (to the Farmington)  was reminiscent of past and typical LIFR outings. Camaraderie, good fishing, good food and lots of rain and thunderstorms. Again kudos to Tony and Karen Agnese for planning and hosting the trip.

May 2007
Handicapped Fishing Day (by Wolfgang Porte')

On a beautiful day in May, our friends from AHRC joined us again at Connetquot State Park to fish with us. The "Drew Crew" had a ball, enjoying some outstanding fishing, lots of laughs, a picnic lunch and a hike through the woods. As always, Phyllis caught the most fish. We are looking forward to the return visit in the fall.

Special thanks to Bob Stapf, Joe Caroleo, John Christiansen and Lee Weil for their help and for sharing our love of flyfishing and to Peter Yuskevich for the beautiful pictures.

Brewster Trip Report, May 12, 2007 (by Gordon Mueller)

Kudos to Herman Abrams for organizing a great Club trip to the Croton system streams near Brewster, NY. Ten of us got together on a beautiful Saturday morning and had a great time. When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing that you can go trout fishing in the drinking water system of New York City.

Our first stop was the West Branch of the Croton River, just south of Brewster. Unfortunately, the river was running high and fast, which made the fishing tough. Wading was dangerous and getting a fly deep enough to draw a strike proved difficult. Wolfgang saw a young spin fisherman catch a small Brown, but no Club members had any noticeable luck.

Herman thought it was time to try a different stream, so the convoy moved north a couple of miles to the East Branch River. I have a lot of fond memories of this stream, as it was where I caught my first trout on a fly. It was like reconnecting with a long lost friend after too many years apart. 

Almost everyone caught a trout or two, using nymphs, wooly buggers or caddis flies. Most of the trout were Browns, although I caught a nine inch Rainbow on a small black nymph. As a bonus, we also caught a lot of small Yellow Perch and Bluegills, which had probably washed over the spillway of the East Branch Reservoir. There’s a great diversity of species in the East Branch, including Bass and monster Carp.

Traffic willing, it’s only about an hour drive to the Croton system from Long Island. The NYC DEP continues to keep these waterways in great condition. The fishing is more challenging than the Long Island State Parks, but no reservation is necessary and the scenery is beautiful. 

April 2007
As in the past, our club took part in the annual clean-up of the Housatonic River, an event organized by the Housatonic Fly Fishermans Association. and The Long Island Flyrodders.  

A week later, we participated in a clean-up and tree planting event on the Willowemoc.  (This was done in lieu of "Project Access"). Both events were well attended by our members.

March 2007
Thanks to all the buyers and tiers who made our Casting for Recovery Fly Box Sale such a great success. We sold 34 boxes and will donate the money to the Long Island retreat.

February 2007
At the February General meeting, Paul Mc Cain, Allan Manz Lee Weil and Al Battistelli were re-elected as President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Rich Ugolini, Howard Solomon and Joe Caroleo were elected to the Board of Directors.

January 2007
The January general meeting featured the nomination of officers and incoming board members as well as a "Fly Tying Night" with some of the Club's best fly tyers demonstrating.

We'd like to thank those members that contributed to the 2006 fly donation collection. With their efforts we were able to amass well over our goal of 1,000 flies. The flies will be used for various raffles throughout the year and will aid in funding our activities. Tom Inglese had the winning ticket for the "thank you prize", which was drawn at the January meeting. He is now the proud owner of a new Thompson vise, Whiting hackle and an assortment of hooks.

In January, the LIFR exhibited booths at Farmingdale State College and at the Fly Fishing Show in Somerset, NJ. At the end of the latter, the above mentioned flies were raffled off. The lucky winner was George Gould of Westport, CT.