IMPORTANT NOTE: The full version of River Views is no longer just for members. If your emailed copy of River Views ends abruptly look for this quote "[Message clipped]  "View entire message" at the bottom of the page. Clicking there will open up the full issue.

Did you know that back issues of River Views, the monthly newsletter of the HRFA, are available for all to enjoy on our website? Click here, or the River Views banner, to go directly there and catch up on your reading.

Our guest speaker will be Tracey Brown the new leader of Riverkeeper.

Emily McGuckin is the new Director of the American Littoral Society's Fish Tagging Program.Naturally, Emily will speak about the tagging program that she now leads. She will also "dig into" (aka "research") tagging data looking for stripers captured and/or released in the Hudson River estuary and the NY Bight. She will also be checking the records of proficient taggers who are HRFA members. Including guys like Sergio Radossi, Tony Evangelista, Glen Blank, Pete Orenzo, Kevin Morgan, Howard Lehman & John Francesconi.

Emily promises to bring some American Littoral Society swag to raffle off to benefit our club. She will also bring a few items and tagging kits for sale. So bring $.

Wayne Geider at

JANUARY - "Ice Fishing 101" with Scott Havner & Andy Ward. Zoomed live from Scott's man shed.

FEBRUARY - "Fly Tying 101" with Artan Hasanaj. Zoomed live from his shop in Nanuet.

MARCH - "Knot Tying 101" a cavalcade of videos selected by Arnie Ulrich shared by Zoom.

APRIL - "Surf Fishing" with noteable guide & author DJ Muller via Zoom.

MAY - "Save a Million Bass" presented by Steve Liesman an avid striper fisherman. This was our first ever hybrid meeting. We could at last return to the Elks Lodge but it was also shared live via Zoom.

JUNE - "Restoring the Hudson River Shoreline" on location at the PIP with guest speaker Christina Fehre.

JULY - "Give Reels a 2nd Chance" with Dennis Kuntz. Dennis took in reels and surprised us by repairing them for FREE! All he asked was that some money be donated to the HRFA. Whatta guy!

AUGUST - "Catfishing 101" was slated but not sure the talk by Scott Havner & Jeff Christy ever happened.

SEPTEMBER - "Fluking the Jersey Shore" with Pete Musse & Joe Albanese

OCTOBER - Everyone had a chance to share their fishing stories and lies.

NOVEMBER - "Offshore Fishing" with Capt. Scott Klaszewski and First Mate "Joe" of XTC Sportfishing sailing out of Belmar, NJ.

DECEMBER - "Fishing for Stripers from Shore & Surf" with Mr. Poseidon

Tony Dorans won the raffle for the beautiful Mad River Canoe donated by Hudson River naturalist Chris Letts. Scott Havner finally received the prestigious 'Pete Barrett Award' for 2019. (Because of COVID we never had the 2019 Awards Dinner.) Scott ran a 1-day Ice Fishing Derby up in Bethel, NY. We had our month-long Fred Rung Memorial Striped Bass Derby in the Hudson River and its tributaries. Once again Michael Sardinas kicked off the Derby at the Chart House. Art's Tackle n Fly Shop stayed open late to give a free fly tying class. Our Youth Angler Program volunteers conducted kids fishing clinics in Mechanicville & Waterford, NY. They also went to Oradell Reservoir to give kids a chance to fish at the Hackensack Riverkeeper's event. Alex Spindelman introduced us to FishDonkey; he used the App for our first ever Freshwater Bass Derby. Michael Sardinas and son Noah put together a Saltwater Fly Fishing Derby on Sandy Hook, another first. Scott ran another successful Catfish Derby on the Hudson RIver. He says its his last one. We'll see. Arnie Ulrich ran the annual trek to Maine to fish for cod, haddock & spiny dogfish (LOL) aboard the Bunny Clark. We gathered at Cornetta's Piermont, NY for our Annual Awards Dinner with MSNBC Financial Reporter Steve Liesman as guest Emcee. Paul Gallay and Joe Albanese were honored with the 2020 'Friend of the Hudson River Award' and 'Pete Barrett Award' respectively. Chris Letts was also on hand to receive his award as the 2019 recipient of the 'Friend of the Hudson River Award'. Alex put together a Panfish Derby (something else we never had before) with the FishDonkey app. We held the first ever HRFA Invitational. We went up against the Sea Girt Surf Kings. We won and Joe got to talk about "his" trophy. A large contingency of HRFA members attended the JCAA annual dinner. Mr. Sardinas ran two more trips - a return to the Chart House and a Bass & Blues Surf Fishing Derby on Sandy Hook.

We shared some moments of reflection remembering time spent with HRFA members & friends who passed away in 2021. We said goodbye to Michael Cargill, Jeff Dement, Matthew Joseph Miller (Al Miller's son) and Raymond Anthony Zampino.

Carl Bruger has been a writer for this newsletter educating and entertaining us who read River Views for a long time. Here is his latest gem.

Be sure to check out the H.R.F.A. Events Calendar below for this month's member birthday notices, holidays and events.

2022 HRFA membership cards are available now. Plan to pay your dues at the February meeting or fill out the membership form below and send it in or renew on line. Grace period ends in March. Fight for the Hudson.

If anyone would like a current JCAA newsletter please click here > https://jcaa.org/jcnl2102/mainpage.htm

What is HRFA Free Money? Are you a paid member.?

 At every HRFA in person meeting, half of the HRFA portion of the 50/50 money goes into a virtual jar. At the end of the meeting, a paid HRFA members name is picked (from a jar of all paid HRFA members) to receive the money. The name is announced three times. If the HRFA paid member is not present, the money goes back into the jar for the next months meeting. The process continues and is repeated at the next HRFA meeting.

HRFA Free money (split 50/50) for January 11 was $215. From the bucket of HRFA paid members, a name was picked at the meeting.

Arnie Ulrich Membership Chair

HRFA Membership Information

For those people who join(ed) the HRFA in October (or later) of a given year, their new or renewal membership also is covered for the following new year. There is also a generous grace period for those who are unable to update their membership in January, however paying your dues late puts a strain on the records maintenance and consequently the ability of the executive board’s planning of activities and events.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to help (time, skills, or financially) on any particular club projects or events, feel free to email me, Arnie Ulrich ([email protected]) or call me at 1-201-304-4691.

Hudson River Fishing and Boating Public Access <--- click here

So how old is your fish? <--- click here

Have a photograph and/or fishing story you would like to share with the club? If so, we'd love to hear from you. After all, no one wants to see the same members over and over again. Email it to [email protected] and we will do our very best to squeeze it into an upcoming issue of River Views.

One of our supporters The Fisherman magazine is always looking for your fishing photos. No spot burning though. Send them in to [email protected] and you could be famous. Just like these two guys who fished together with Tim Burden on New Years Eve.

While some anglers refuse to stop fishing saltwater for stripers in wintertime others have moved on and started ice fishing. The former (see photo of Mr. Poseidon above) are what many consider fanatics the latter just plain crazy. Here told is an adventure shared by three of the ones (the aforementioned crazies) that love drilling holes in hard water to catch a few freshwater fish.

Wayne Geider, Carl Bruger & Joe Albanese planned to go ice fishing together. They met up at Wayne's house 7:30 in the morning to transfer all the gear to Joe's JEEP. It didn't all fit. They tried to fit it all into Carl's car. It didn't all fit. Rather than waste any more time they drove to Bethel, NY in separate vehicles. Wayne with Joe and Carl driving solo behind them.

The normal practice at Superior Lake State Park is to drive through the parking lot down the incline to the lake. There sleds and all other needed gear are unloaded by the shoreline. Then cars get parked in the lot at the top of the hill and drivers return to slide their sleds across the lake with the others. Sometimes it's more like 'drag the sleds' through inches of snow and slush covering the frozen water. But I digress. The caravan arrives at either a likely looking spot (based on what reckoning is totally unclear) or simply drop off one-by-one from shear exhaustion. Once on location, holes are drilled with hand or electric powered ice augers and lines lowered in expectation of catching something sight unseen through the hard water.

That is the normal practice. On this particular morning, the procedure began slightly different.

Seeing the snow and ice in the upper lot, Joe put his JEEP in 4-wheel drive. As he s-l-o-w-l-y began down the hill he thought maybe it's not such a good idea. When he saw a car in the woods at the bottom of the hill he was convinced of it. It was too late though. Hitting the brakes, even in 4-wheel drive, does nothing on ice. This wasn't just a schmear of "black ice" either. This was an inch thick. As the JEEP gained momentum a person appeared (the unfortunate owner of the wrecked car) frantically waving his arms. Oh, NOW you tell us. It seems unlikely, but somehow the JEEP narrowly missed trees and the other car before coming to rest on a slope by a clearing into the woods.

Unharmed Joe & Wayne exited the JEEP to assess the situation. The first few steps were on snow, but once on the gravel-paved surface it was a sheet of ice and Joe, the genius that he is, went down hard - flat on his back. Wayne asked,

"Are you okay?" To which he replied,

"I think so. Give me a second."

Now, remember Carl? Joe's a little shaky on the exact chronology (Likely suffering from the effects of the fall.) but it was around this point in time that he remembered Carl. But what was it about him that was so important? Oh yeah, that he was trailing them.

With a sense of urgency Joe gingerly stood on the ice and headed up the side of the paved surface, careful to walk in the snow to avoid falling again. He had to warn Carl or there would be a three car pile up. He didn't manage to get very far when he looked up and saw Carl's car rounding the bend. Oh crap. Here he comes sliding inexorably down the hill. Oh, if you could only have seen the look on his face!

Joe, Wayne and that other guy all dodged for cover. Miraculously, Carl managed to turn his car sideways to slow his descent and come to a complete stop before hitting anything, or anybody. Here's the photo of the scene with the three vehicles at rest. The part of the road not covered by snow is a thick sheet of ice.

The guys found out that the stranger had already called 911 and a tow truck. Okay, great.

"Did they say when will they would arrive?"

"Oh, the police cruiser and tow truck already came and left."

Obviously, there was nothing they could do given the ice, now shimmering in the emerging sunlight, still covering the driveway down to the lake. They needed reinforcements. There was no telling how long that would take.

After many frustrating minutes placed on hold and countless transfers to other persons Carl and Joe finally got their calls through to AAA only to be told,

"We only provide roadside assistance. Your circumstance is not covered."

Live and learn, read the fine print and try not to blow a gasket.

Despite the hours long delay, the cost of the tow, etc. the three pals put on their happy faces as they waited to be rescued. After all, no one was hurt. See selfie.

Eventually the tow truck returned with a rope about 100-yards long, lowered it down the icy hill and hooked it up to the chassis of Carl's car while he was trying to unload his ice fishing sled off the back rack.

"What the heck are you doing Carl?" The reply came quickly,

"I'm going ice fishing."

"Well get the heck out of the way before the hook slips off the bumper, and your car slides

down the hill and kills you."

"Wayne, what are YOU doing?" His reply,

"Well, we might as well get our sleds out of the JEEP as long as we're down here by the

lake."

Joe, apparently being the only voice of reason, says,

"No, we will wait to assess the damages once the JEEP is out of the woods. Then we'll decide."

Joe thinks to himself,

"What the hell is wrong with these people?"

Carl's car arrives safely at the upper parking lot. He squares things with the police. And carefully heads down to the lake. Free at last to pursue his misguided passion.

A second tow truck arrives for the wrecked vehicle and starts to wiggle it out; tugging intermittently on front and rear tires. Joe's JEEP is towed backwards out of the woods. A NY Department of Transportation truck finally arrives and spreads some combination of dirt, sand and salt probably. Now, the JEEP can be safely driven up the driveway to the parking lot and the less fortunate car towed away to a repair shop.

Joe provides his license, registration and insurance card to the police officer who notes in his incident report that there is zero damage to the JEEP. So very lucky, when one considers what might have been.

Joe says to the officer,

"Those are two of the guys who introduced me to ice fishing a few years ago."

To which he replies,

"I can think of a million better things to do."

That's from a man who lives up here, who doesn't have to drive over 200 miles round trip to go ice fishing. Ah, what does he know anyway?

Eventually, close to noon, holes were drilled here and there out on the lake. The weather turned warmer under the sun and there was zero wind. Enjoying the beautiful weather, exercise and fresh cold air the guys settled in to await the first bite.

Before they could get too comfortable Joe's phone rang. It was Jeff Christy on the line. He is a fellow HRFA member and an excellent ice fisherman. The conversation Jeff had with Joe really is the prequel to the story you are reading now and it will be published in the next issue of River Views.

As Joe & Wayne reflected on how lucky they are to be physically able to enjoy the great outdoors Joe's cell phone pinged. It was a text from Pat (Carl's wife). Obviously still concerned about her husband, her text read:

"Is Carl okay? Does he need anything?"

"Oh, he's fine. He's ice fishing."

"I'm not surprised."

Only a few small yellow perch were caught and yet, all things considered, it turned out to be a great day full of new memories not soon forgot.

PS. About that other guy, the stranger who arrived first, the one whose car was towed away to a repair shop? In case you're wondering, he was later seen out on the lake fishing too. So, he's also certifiable. Maybe he's got an Uber picking him up later in the day. Or, maybe he plans on staying overnight. Afraid to go home and face the wife.

The fishing January 22nd was slow for everyone on Superior Lake in Bethel, NY. With the allowed species in the derby being practically non-existent. The bulk of the catch were pickerel. However . . .

Joe Albanese, never one to brag, was the only one of the trio to enter a fish into the derby. While Scott caught many more fish, as he usually does, most of them were pickerel. Or, yellow perch he considered too small to enter. In the end, Joe's fish probably won't win any prizes in the derby. According to Joe, "I don't care. It was all for charity. The important thing is I BEAT Scott. And that's all that matters to me, really."

INGREDIENTS

5lb Striped Bass fillet

3 raw eggs

1/2 large green pepper

1 small white onion

3/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

3 cloves minced fresh garlic

3 tablespoons chopped Fresh basil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

3 tablespoons Dijon Mustard

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

By Wayne Geider

Just call our Youth Angler Program Chair Wayne Geider at

We are so grateful for the very generous donation by Patricia and Thomas Alexander in the name of Priscilla Lasher Alexander in the sun of $1000 for the HRFA Boat Restoration Project. We appreciate this timely contribution to our organization. As always, we thank all our members and friends for your help and appreciate your donations.

Due to the restrictions imposed on our lives by the CV19 pandemic our plans are on hold. We hope and pray that in the Spring of 2021 volunteers may start working to refurbish Riverkeeper to her former days of glory when she was the world's first and only riverkeeper vessel. To offer your time and talents contact Dan Harrison at [email protected].

The HRFA hosts an annual fishing contest which runs from January through December and is open to all HRFA members. You have 30 days from the day you catch a fish to send in your entries. So, the deadline for submissions is January. As a member of the HRFA you and your immediate family are eligible to enter fish in any of our categories. Various divisions are available for prizes presented at our Annual Awards Dinner in March of the following year. Website updated daily. River Views newsletter updates below are done around the first the month. * indicates a new club record.