The 2015 Fly of the Week initiative seeks to raise money for Trout Unlimited, to continue it’s conservation efforts in the Catskills, and the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection, to restore it’s historic fly fishing collection that was destroyed in a 2011 fire.
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.
The Ashokan-Pepacton Chapter of Trout Unlimited helps protect the Catskill waters where the sport of American Fly Fishing was born. Those same waters are delivered to New York City via the world’s largest totally natural & unprocessed water supply system.
We need your help. Please donate at least $10 today to help us keep our waters clear, and our fabled history something to be experienced as well as remembered.
The Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection @ The Phoenicia Library
Occupying a cozy reading room on the second floor of the Phoenicia Library, The Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection opened on April 1, 1996. Built by local volunteers in the style of a rustic cabin, the Parlor was filled with fishing lore, tackle, flies, historic artifacts, photos, memorabilia, and a core collection of books, which grew to become the largest circulating collection of books on fishing in the Northeast.
In March 2011, a devastating fire destroyed the Phoenicia Library and the “Angler’s Parlor” along with it. Nearly four years later, in January 2015, the rebuilt library has re-opened at 48 Main Street in Phoenicia, New York. Although all the books and rods were lost, the collection has received generous donations and is in the process of re-building it’s collection. Still, we need your help. Book and artifact donations as well as funds to replace priceless items lost in the fire are still desperately need to help re-build what was once a one-of-a-kind collection.
>> DONATE TO THE ANGLING COLLECTION TODAY
Also lost in the fire were set of “hatch charts” that have been re-created as an online resource by Trout Unlimited board member Mark Loete and a team of master Catskill tyers. Every Friday, for the 35 weeks of the 2015 fishing season, 2015 Fly of the Week will highlight one of the flies donated to the re-created hatch charts. Flies and their recipes will be presented around the time they are most likely to be hatching on Catskill rivers, so check-in every week to find out what to tie-on to tie-into some Catskill trout.
