Details

9 Intrepid fly fishermen spent a great day on the water at the People's State Forest on Oct. 10.  The temperature  at 7:30 a.m. was 45 degrees, so we decided to drink the DD coffee and eat the doughnuts as the weather and sun got a bit higher in the sky.  Eventually, after a lot of talking tall tales, we ventured out on the Farmington River, fishing at the Pipeline Pool up river from Matthies Grove.  Fishing was great, catching so, so.  Later on about  12:30 p.m. as we were leaving a group of us had an impromptu talk about  Czech Nymph fly fishing techniques from Mike Stuart. 

Pictured in Center photo:  Left to Right:  Dan Price; Jon Goldman; Mike Stuart; Phil Appruzzese; Stan Bastura; Ed Buggie; Malcolm Robertson; Chuck Koteen.  Not shown, Steve Cifirbon.

Details

CFFA's Charter is the “Advancement of Fly Fishing”. To that end, CFFA sponsors two Fly Fishing Sessions every year: Fly Tying and Fly Fishing, "the art of presenting the fly". Our sessions begin with the very basics of fly tying and fly fishing.

The success of these programs relies on the participation of our many members who volunteer to assist with the instruction.  As members explore fly fishing, they learn more and more from their experiences. As their knowledge base grows, the fishing improves. This is what we provide to our students, our fly fishing wisdom and knowledge.  There is no greater feeling than seeing a student catching a trout on a fly they tied.

We offer a beginning Fly Tying Class with seven classroom sessions beginning in January and a beginner Fly Fishing Class beginning in March with four classroom and two on-water sessions.

CFFA Beginner Fly Fishing Class Outline

Beginner Fly Fishing Classes - Learn the ins and outs of fly fishing from casting to line choice, safety and life cycle of insects as well as selecting appropriate fly fishing gear. Four Classroom instruction sessions as well as two days on the water. One casting session at a local pond and one river instruction session on the river with experienced instructor. 

Class 1 - Fly Rods, Lines, & Reels
Why Fly Casting is Different, Lines and Line Weights, Classification of Line Weights, Types of Fly Lines. Fly Rods: Design, Function, Action, Material. Fly Reels.

Class 2 - Characteristics of Trout and Diet of Stream Trout
Many fish can be taken on the Fly. ID Most Common Trout in the East. Trout Survival: Needs, Characteristics, Diet. Aquatic Insects: Mayflies, Caddis flies, Stone flies.

Class 3 - Stream Tactics
Location, Rise Types, Approach, Water Types. Factors Determining Fly Selection: Streamers and Buck tail, Wet and Nymphs, Dry.

Class 4 - Leaders and Knots
Basic Advice on Tying Knots: Backing to Reel, Backing to Fly Line, Fly Line to Leader, Leader to Tippet, Tippet to Fly. It is important not only to select the right knot for a particular job but to tie it properly. Poorly Tied knots will mean lost fish and aggravation.

TBD. Class 5 - Outside Casting Instruction will be held at a pond in East Hartford.

TBD. Class 6 - On-the-River Instruction will be on a section of river that is fly fishing only, no closed season.

Costs:  Applies to Fly Tying Class and Fly Fishing Class. Covers all materials, vises, and instructors.

Adult non-member - $50.00; Adult CFFA member - $40.00;

Youths 16 and under -$30.00; Adults who attend with paid youth may take course at no cost.

Non-members will receive free one year membership to CFFA with each paid class.

Contact: Pete Naples at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

There are no makeup dates for classes missed unless we need to postpone a class because of weather. In that case we would reschedule the class.

CFFA FLY TYING CLASS

Brief Overview of Courses:

This is a beginner class, and is also suitable for experienced tyers who want to find new techniques and refresh skills.  For 2023 we have added a class to provide for beginners who need to understand Tying Basics, including tools, terminology, techniques and materials.  In the past few years, our classes have filled up quickly, so contact Pete Naples, Education Chairperson as soon as possible.  The fly tying class covers the myriad species of flies, life cycle of insects and how to tie specific patterns and the materials available to craft a fly by hand. Great family activity.

Beginner Fly Tying Curriculum Details: 

Class 1:  Introduction to Fly Tying - Tools, Terminology, Materials, Tying Basics.

Class 2:  Tie a Streamer Fly and Nymph Fly

Class 3:  Tying 2 Nymph Flies

Class 4:  Emergers, Klinkhammer and Wet Flies

Class 5:   Dry Flies - Tie 2 Patterns

Class 6:   More Dry Flies and Spinners

Class 7:  Streamer Flies and Terrestrial Flies

All Class Details 

Time:  Evenings, 6:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Location: Pitkin Community Center, 30 Greenfield St. Wethersfield, CT 06109 Room 

*Fees:  Covers all materials, vises and tools. 

Adult non-member - $50.00; Adult CFFA member - $40.00.

Youths 21 and under -$30.00; Adults who attend with paid youth may take course at no cost.

*All non-members receive a free one year membership to CFFA.  $25.00 Value*

Contact: Pete Naples at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

CFFA is a certified 501C3 non-profit organization and is dedicated to preserving and promoting the pleasures and traditions of fly fishing and to conserve our game waters. For more info, please check our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/ctflyfish 

Details

CFFA came together in 1967 when a small group of fly fishermen living in the greater
Hartford area decided that they wanted to emulate the good things being done by
Manhattan's Theodore Gordon Flyfishers.  A few of us were already members of the TGF but knew that we were too far removed to help New York conservation activities.  We also knew that there was a vacuum of sorts up here, and we set about putting a club together.



Some of the early group included: Karl van Valkenburgh, Chris Percy, Vin Ringrose, 
Dr. Bill "Skip" Ellis, Ed Ruestow, and Ted Barbieri.  Chris suggested that some of his luncheon group, the Sportsmen's Club, would be happy to become members, and thus was born CFFA. We were the Connecticut Fly Fishermen' Association then, later changed to Connecticut Fly Fishers to move into the modern world.


One of the Sportsmen's Club members, Blair Crawford, became our first attorney.  He drew up our first by-laws and got us organized legally with the Secretary of State and the I.R.S. Ted Barbieri became our first President, and the rest of us assumed other duties on the Board of Directors.  Things began to happen:  We developed our slogan, our logo, and started to have meetings.

Our first public meetings were held in the basement of a sporting goods store in Windsor Locks, owned by a good friend of Ted Barbieri, who was himself a Windsor Locks businessman.  Joe D'Addario, soon to be a President of CFFA, joined us at the very first meeting.  As our membership grew we moved into various meeting sites, all in the town of Windsor.  These were arranged by Jim May, who early on volunteered to be our Activities Chairman, a post he held for decades.



Our slogan says that we not only promote flyfishing, but that we protect game-fish waters.  We did our best to do both from the very beginning.  We wanted 
to establish the idea of more flyfishing areas, and particularly catch-and-release concepts.  Cole Wilde, himself a flyfisher, was Chief of Fisheries in the '70s
but wanted to go slowly with the catch-and-release idea.  We persuaded him to allow CFFA, with the help of UCONN Professor of Fisheries Walter Whitworth, to study a section of the Jeremy River in Hebron as a voluntary optional catch-and-release area for CFFA members only.  All other fishermen would fish the way they always had on the stream.  We posted special signs to that effect, then went to work.  We spent long hours building habitat enhancement structures and augmented the State stocking with trout which we raised in a cooperative project with Fisheries. We stocked with hand-built floating baskets, spreading the fish evenly through the study zone.  Each autumn we helped Professor Whitworth electroshock the experimental stretch to monitor the surviving fish.



A few years later, when the Willimantic River was ready to be restocked after a hiatus of nearly a decade, the climate for a flyfishing-catch-and-release area had changed.  Thus was created the first such area in Connecticut, later to be named after Cole Wilde, who passed much too young from cancer.  The Willi has become CFFA's "own" over the years.  It was finally restocked in 1976 only after passage of the Clean Air and Water Act of 1970, enabling the town of Stafford to pay for the modernization of their primitive sewage facilities on the upper river. I almost hate to mention this, but perhaps the greatest environmental legislation ever enacted occurred during the Administration of Richard M. Nixon.



In 1971 CFFA's greatest conservation triumph occurred.  In 1970 we had approached Ted Bampton, head of Fish and Game, asking him what we could do for HIM rather than constantly asking what he could do for US.  Ted said that he very much wanted minimum stream flow legislation to protect the resident fish, but the Department's annual bill had been shot down repeatedly by the water companies and the State Department of Health.  Mark Levy, who had replaced Blair Crawford as our attorney felt that legislation could be crafted which declared that taxpayer-funded trout should have enough water to stay alive and well until those same taxpayers and their children had a chance to catch them.  Mark drew up a bill and we got bi-partisan sponsorship from both the House and Senate.  Over strong protest from the MDC and the Commissioner of Health, the bill was passed, the first such legislation in all of the U.S.A. Not forgetting the bass fishermen, a year later we introduced successful legislation (with the same opposition) allowing water companies to permit special-license fishing on their back-up reservoirs.



CFFA started strong and we continue our momentum, determined not to back off anything we feel detrimental to fishing or its environments, all the time remembering
that though we might favor flyfishing and its many delights, ALL fishing is great, great fun!



Written by Vinny Ringrose via Gary Bogli 4-3-14