Trout Tales 2016: A Fly-Fishing Celebration
on the threshold of the new season, another gathering of the clan…
•••••••
A Celebration of Trout and Trout Unlimited at
Spillian, a Place to Revel
50 Fleischmanns Heights Road, Fleischmanns NY, 12430
800-811-3351
Saturday, March 26, 2016
1-5 PM Fish Fest $10 admittance (half a donation to Trout Unlimited) reservations suggested
5-6 PM Happy Hour Cash Bar
6-8 PM Dinner $25 plus tax reservations required!
Co-sponsored by:
· Ashokan Pepacton Chapter of Trout Unlimited
Whether you’re a beginner looking to find out more about fly fishing Catskill streams, or you’re one of the “charmed circle” of fly fishermen, we hope you’ll join us for a hands-on, minds-on day celebrating all things trout—try, test, taste, experience, explore…and it all culminates in a fishing feast of old, around the grand table, where we’ll swap fishing tales—some true, some imagined!
- Kids welcome, and free under 15 for the day
- Bring your best fish tale and win best tale-teller of the evening
- Call 800-811-3351 for more information and to make reservations
We’ll have some of the Catskills’ greatest fly fishermen sharing the secrets of casting, fly-tying, reading streams, where to hike into legendary waters and secret fishing spots, cooking trout, the right gear, and more, culminated with a superb trout feast in the evening. (And trout stories. Of course. There must be fish stories.)
If you’ve always wanted to explore trout fishing but didn’t know where to start, here’s your chance! And if you love all things trout and want to get a jump on newest cool gear, come on by.
This is the beginning of an annual tradition. Our first Trout Tales was last spring, an extraordinary collection of some the great fishermen in the area, swapping stories about these glorious streams and beautiful fish, memories woven over a lifetime of finding the poetry of the trout. This year is bigger and better, the weekend before the season opens here in the grand Catskills, the birthplace of America fly-fishing.
This event is a celebration of fly-fishing and of Trout Unlimited, a hugely important conservation and education nonprofit organization. The Ashokan-Pepacton Chapter of Trout Unlimited and its leadership is why we still have fish in the streams in the Catskill mountains. Trout Unlimited members and local guides will be available too answer your questions about every aspect of the fishing experience…and if you want to dive a little deeper, you’ll be able to join Trout Unlimited’s Ashokan-Pepacton chapter—a legendary chapter in the heart of the Catskills, where modern fly fishing was born.
SCHEDULE
1 PM – 5 PM Open Fish Festival ($10 admission, kids 15 and under free)
- A informal, ongoing demonstrations throughout the mansion and on the grounds so you can learn hands-on about trout fishing, or catch up with some of your old pals with their latest gear and ideas.
- We’ll have gear on hand from regional vendors – from reels to waders and more! Check out the toys from Kenco; Fur, Feathers and Steel, and more…
- Munchies will be available for sale and the cash bar will be open in the Tavern.
- Learn about Trout Unlimited, an extraordinary conservation and education organization, and find out how you and your family can become members.
- Starting at 2 PM, an array of expert presenters will give informal 15 minute talks on fly fishing.
Event Guides
Trout Unlimited members and New York State Licensed Fishing and Hiking Guides will serve as your guides to the day. They will greet you as you arrive and help you find what you’re interested in.
Presenters
- 1:30 Ed Ostapczuk, Trout Unlimited Board Member: romance of fly-fishing
- 2:15 Lenny Millen, Trout Unlimited Member: casting demonstrations on the lawn
- 3:00 Mark Loete, Trout Unlimited Board Member: the geological forces that created these great streams
- 3:45 John Hoeko, Trout Unlimited Board Member: the art of tying flies
- 4:30 Will Soter, NYS Guide Association Board Member: cleaning and smoking trout when camping
5 PM – 6 PM Cocktail Hour
- A chance to speak informally with guides, presenters, and other guests.
- Featuring Roscoe Beer, from Trout Town USA, with free tastings
- Featuring the Trout Tail, a mixed vodka (from our friends at Union Grove Distillery) and maple syrup (from our friends at Lazy Crazy Acres). The sap runs just before the trout!
- At 5:30, we’ll do a drawing of a Cahill rod and reel outfit, courtesy of Trout Unlimited (8.5 feet long, 4 piece 5 weight). Winner will be 15 years old or younger to inspire a next generation of fishermen and women.
6 PM – 8 PM Dinner
A grand Trout Tales feast! Come and sit with the living legends of trout fishing in the Catskills. Come prepared with your very best fishing tall tale and tell it to enter into our first-ever Spillian Trout Tales contest for your chance at the silliest Trout Tales Trophy ever to see light of day. Or come prepared to listen and laugh and be awed and fall in love with the trout.
Stay for the weekend!
Call us for special Friday & Saturday night pricing on individual rooms at Spillian. This is an increasingly rare chance to stay with us without renting the whole facility. We’d love to have you. Check out our rooms here and call us at 800-811-3351 to make your reservation.
ABOUT SPILLIAN: A PLACE TO REVEL
A lodge and creative center, Spillian has brought one of the last remaining 19thC hotels in the Catskills back to life. Proprietors Leigh Melander and Mark Somerfield have saved one of the great camps built by the Fleischmanns Yeast family, a stick-style mansion with extraordinary oil murals painted on clear pine paneled walls, honoring both its tradition as a family retreat and a summer hotel. Spillian is an old English word that means 'to play, to jest, or to revel,' and goal of the retreat center is to share a place where people can play with new ideas, imagine past what they think is possible, lightly, and with delight. Available for custom-designed group and corporate retreats, reunions, weddings, and a growing array of workshops exploring how visitors can imagine past what they believe is possible in a variety of disciplines. http://spillian.com
ABOUT TROUT UNLIMITED
Fishing is our passion. Trout are our cause. Healthy waters are our goal.
2009 marked the 50th anniversary of Trout Unlimited. Started in 1959 by 16 anglers in Grayling, Michigan who wanted to protect their local river, TU has grown to 140,000 members in 400 local chapters throughout the country. Today, TU commands a $30 million annual budget and employs more than 120 professional scientists, grassroots organizers, lawyers and policy experts, who, together with volunteer activists, make TU the nation’s leading river and fisheries conservation organization. TU’s mission is to conserve, protect, restore, and sustain North America’s trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds. "Take care of the fish and the fishing will take care of itself." This simple idea launched TU in 1959 and it inspires us still. http://www.apwctu.org