Nutmeg TU welcomes you
The 2019-20 season is about to start, and we are planning to have a variety of activities that you and your families can participate in.
We will continue our programming with member meetings and monthly fishing trips, and, will be upping our game with additional conservation work.
Starting Sept. 17 we will kick off the year with a saltwater fishing roundtable, headed by four local experts. In October we will learn about Sea Run trout fishing in CT with Ron Merly (state record holder) and in November we will learn from Steve Culton about how wet flies can improve our trout fishing. December will be our annual Potluck dinner featuring John Kovach’s (our communications and event coordinator, and head of the TU CT Council) famous gumbo, along with fly tying, knot tying and some great raffle prizes.
We all love to fish. On Sept. 8 I’ll be leading a trip along the Cascades section of the Mill River in Fairfield. In October Ed Grzeda (our membership chair) will be leading us on a saltwater outing and on Nov. 16 Alex Ziemkiewicz will show us the secrets of Campville, and hopefully hook into a few salmon.
Gian Morresi is leading our conservation efforts. On Sept. 14 we will have phase 2 of the revetment project along the Mill River on Congress Street to rebuild the banks and deepen the river. In the same area we will be putting in temperature loggers and start an annual macro invertebrate program to measure the health of the river. The invasive species along the Mill, where we sprayed and removed knotweed a few years back, have returned. Our goal is to put together a team to go in there monthly to whack the knotweed back, and give the non-invasive trees a chance to prosper and then naturally inhibit the growth of the knotweed. We are working to replace/repair the sign of Ford Road, place monofilament receptacles and much more.
It is very disheartening how people, fishermen included, do not respect nature and tend to leave their trash, bait containers etc. and expect someone else to pick it up. Unfortunately, that someone is often TU. Last year we had only one river cleanup and with your help, we can do more this year.
Our TIC program has been very active, with 15 local schools participating. After many years of great work our TIC coordinator, Dave Edgeworth, has decided to step down and we are looking for a new coordinator. If you are interested in TIC and love to work with kids, this program might be for you.
We are working to increase our membership and diversity. Thanks to Jerry Goldstein (our VP and Treasurer) last year we supported two local fishing derbies and want to do more with families, veterans and women. In fact, TU CT is planning a women’s only outing for next spring.
If you are interested in joining the board or volunteering for a one-off event, let me know rhrosen@aol.com . We can use your help. And if you think there are things we should be doing, or doing differently, we’d like to know that as well.
Looking forward to meeting many of you soon in the coming year.
Rich Rosen, President, Nutmeg TU