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Fly-fishing class back for a second year
Belleville's two resident fly-fishing experts -- Jim Laing and Brad Eilering -- are ready to dole out more knowledge about their passion to the general public. The pair will teach "Introduction to Casting a Fly Rod" beginning Sept. 16 at Southwestern Illinois College. Offered through SWIC's community education series, the class will benefit casters at all levels with lessons on equipment, casting, presentation and lore. It's the second year Laing and Eilering, who have fly-fished all across the United States since 1991, have taught the class. It was such a hit last year they decided to offer it again, this time with a beginners and advanced class. "I think what makes it successful is us being able to help people find the local waters here and get them started," Laing said.
EPA may ease rules for water transfer
Fishermen scored a victory this year when they successfully argued sediment and heated water flowing out of the Schoharie Reservoir was ruining trout habitat in a world renowned fly fishing stream, the Esopus Creek. The New York City De-partment of Environmental Protection was ordered to pay as much as $5.75 million in civil penalties, and it had to get a Clean Water Act permit for its Shandaken Tunnel piping system, which transfers water from one part of the Catskill mountains to another. The permit requires the city to develop strategies for protecting trout habitat in that portion of its vast upstate drinking water collection system. The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of undercutting the basis for the argument used successfully in the case by Trout Unlimited, Riverkeeper and the New York Attorney General.
Native brook trout are in hot water
My first brook trout arrived on a frosty late-spring morning in mountain water so cold it made my fingers tingle before going completely numb. No bigger than my hand, the brookie was a work of art to rival New Hampshire's Chocorua Lake, its home just before I enticed it to swallow my fly and to which I would return it moments later. Its olive skin peppered with blue-ringed red dots and a rakish orange belly is a vivid image that has stayed with me for more than 25 years. If I had a lick of artistic ability, I could draw that fish from memory. Since arriving here 18 years ago, my encounters with brookies have been fewer and farther between. Some of that has to do with the other fish that occupy my time: white perch, croaker and, of course, striped bass. (Let's not even mention menhaden, OK?) But even when I've carved out the time, it's been hard to do a meet-and-greet with Maryland's only native trout.
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