On Wednesday, September 18th, 2019 there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for the first section of Lower Macungie Township's Greenway trail at Spring Ridge Park. LLTU Chapter President Scott Alderfer will be saying a few words during the event. This trail will improve fishing access to the stream, particularly as future sections are completed. We hope to see you there!

Our monthly chapter meeting will be WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2019, at 7:00 PM. As usual, we will meet at the Wildlands Conservancy in their Education Building. We’ll give you an overview of some of the programs we have planned for this year.

Our guest speaker for this meeting may be a familiar face for many of you. It’s our chapter secretary, Eric Wilby. Eric will be presenting about salmon and steelhead fishing in and in the vicinity of Salmon River in Pulaski, New York. Eric has been fishing the Fall run of salmon in this river for nearly 15 years. He has also made separate journeys to Salmon River to fish for steelhead from late Fall through early Spring. Eric typically heads up to Pulaski three or more times each Fall for the salmon run.

We hope to see you at Wednesday night’s meeting, and feel free to bring a friend. We will have pizza and soft drinks available, so don’t worry about trying to eat dinner before you come to the meeting.

 LLTU's Spring Conservation Project this year will be a stream cleanup on the upper Fly Fishing Only section on the Little Lehigh.

Meet up location will be at Macungie Road and Krick Lane (see map), in Lower Macungie.  This area is within the Millbrook Farms Development, which is under the control of a Home Owners Association. The HOA allows anglers access to their property to fish on the Little Lehigh, so LLTU is including the Millbrook Farms section of the Little Lehigh in our cleanup to show our appreciation.

When we meet up, we will be splitting our group into two cleanup crews. One crew will work on the Millbrook Farms area, and the second crew will deploy a short distance upstream to the start of the upper Fly Fishing Only area at the Wild Cherry Lane bridge. Please meet at 9 AM at the Macungie Road bridge (at Krick Lane) so we can discuss safety, hand out garbage bags, and get a head count. We expect to be finished by noon.

Lower Macungie Township has agreed to haul away the trash that we pick up, and we are grateful for their assistance.

 Waterways Conservation Officer Travis Miller was our featured speaker for our April chapter meeting.

WCO Miller covers Lehigh County for the PA Fish & Boat Commission. He spoke about enforcement issues, water pollution issues, stocking, and conservation projects. He also answered specific questions from attendees.

We look forward to having WCO Miller speak at one of our meetings again next year.

Our March 2019 chapter meeting featured LLTU's vice president, Dave Roth, as our guest speaker. Dave's home water is Cedar Creek in Allentown. But he frequently heads to bigger waters such Lehigh River, Upper Delaware River, Salmon River, NY, San Juan River, NM, and the many fine trout waters in and around Yellowstone National Park.  Dave shared his experiences with us of the Yellowstone area and offered tips for anyone planning a trip to that destination.

The four Lehigh Valley TU chapters partned once again to present our annual Fall Event on December 4, 2018. 

Our guest speaker this year was Don Baylor speaking about fly fishing in the Pocono Region. This program will discuss fishing in the major drainages of the Poconos, including major streams and small headwater wild trout waters. Don is a highly regarded aquatic biologist,angler, educator, and artist. The event also featured several raffle prizes and door prizes.

After having had to cancel our February and March chapter meetings due to snow, we were able to hold our scheduled April chapter meeting on April 4, 2018. Rescheduled from both of the previously cancelled meetings, LLTU member Barry Dobil was our guest speaker.

Barry reminisced about the history of fly fishing and the evolution of the fly rod. He is a connoisseur of bamboo fly rods, both antique ones and ones he has built himself.

He has shared video of his workshop, which is equipped to machine the very specific and precise tapers necessary to turn raw bamboo into a fine tool for casting a fly. And not just any bamboo. The best bamboo fly rods are made from Tonkin cane, from the Tonkin region of northern Viet Nam.

Barry showed off some of his vintage fly rods and reels as well as providing refreshments.

If anyone would like to share some of their fly fishing anecdotes or techniques or fishing related stories as a guest speaker at one of our upcoming chapter meetings, please contact us at info@LLTU.org.

If you weren't able to join us for our annual multi-chapter fall fly fishing event on December 12, we hope you'll try to make next year's event. We heard positive comments about our featured speaker, Adam Nidoh of A&G Outfitters. His presentation was titled, "Fly Fishing the Lackawanna River for Big Browns".

Keep your eyes open for news about our joint Spring Event, coming up in March. The Spring Event will also be jointly hosted by LLTU along with the Monocacy, Forks of the Delaware, and Hokendauqua Chapters.

LLTU held a Fly Fishing Youth Camp on the Jordan Creek (a Little Lehigh tributary) on Saturday, June 3. Due to heavy rains early in the day, our attendance was lower than the number of youth who had signed up. 

Nonetheless, the youth who braved the rains learned about how fly fishing differs from other methods of fishing and then received hands-on instruction in knots & rigging, reading the water, entomology, fly casting, and fly tying. Fortunately, the weather cleared by lunchtime.

After lunch the kids had an opportunity to try out their new skills on the water with our members serving as guides. 

Thanks to the Lehigh Valley Chapter of Safari Club International for a generous educational grant that we used to purchase lunch and beverages for the Youth Camp attendees and volunteers.