TU VISITS THE WESTFIELD

May 9, 2006 - The annual Council camping & fishing weekend at Indian Hollow Campgrounds on the East Branch of the Westfield River is May 19-21. This is a great weekend event for all of the members of Trout Unlimited and their families and friends from Massachusetts and R.I. to spend time in a beautiful setting fishing for trout on a classic New England trout river. The Corp. of Engineers maintains the campgrounds in a meadow on the banks of the river. There is running water, clean restrooms (men's and ladies) with hot showers. There are picnic tables and plenty of room for your tents and/or campers. The campground has been reserved exclusively for TU. In addition to fishing for trout stocked by Mass F&W and holdover browns and native brook trout there will be a BBQ lunch provided free for all attendees on Saturday, a raffle for a fly rod that will benefit Red Brook, and a huge bonfire on Saturday night. Representatives of all chapters will be present and usually there is a guest speaker from TU National. This is a fun event for families and kids to spend fishing together and for members to meet other TU folks from across Mass & Rhode Island. For further information please contact chapter president Paul Bakstran @ 978.838.7345.

THE MILLERS
Would you like to know just how fantastic the angling has been on the Millers lately? Next time you run into Tony Gribbons of Holden ask him to reveal his secret fly. A fellow angler turned him onto a Fran Betters pattern called "The Usual" and he and his dad have been experiencing success with the fly-fished either dry or wet! Their area of concentration has been from Wetstone Brook to the Irving Paper Company.

THE FARMY
I spoke with trout zealot, Rudy Cheko recently and he revealed that the inhabitants of the Farmington River have reverted to their old tricks of becoming very difficult to take during non-hatch/spinner fall periods. The fish have become conditioned to afternoon mayfly/caddis fly hatches acompanied by evening spinner falls and are virtually untouchable during other periods.

THE FLIES
While anglers are still engaging the Hendrickson (14)/Red Quill (16) hatch, it is certainly in its final stages. The upcoming week should feature BWO's (18-22) and bring caddis (14-16) to the forefront. We continue to preach the importance of Caddis flies to the trout's diet. It is found in virtually all of the state's watersheds and becomes even more relevant we revert to our nighttime hatch sequence.

Good fishing and safe wading,
JB