NEW MEMBER PPCTU GUIDE
Welcome to membership in the Potomac Patuxent Chapter of Trout Unlimited (PPCTU). Whether you are new to the area or just new to fly fishing this area, the information provided on this page and other pages of our website will help both beginning and experienced fly fishers.
Fly Fishing
Orvis has an excellent website for getting started in fly fishing. Whether you're new to fly fishing or not, you should check out our Fly Fishing Techniques page for several articles that have been published thus far.
In addition to the Orvis site and these articles, you can rent instructional videos from our library when you attend our chapter meetings, obtain stream side instruction through our Mentor Program, and join other members on outings that are scheduled throughout the year.
An excellent source for fishing Maryland streams is the Guide To Maryland Trout Fishing The Catch-and-Release Streams by Charlie Gelso and Larry Coburn. The third edition was published in 2014 and you can purchase a copy at one of our chapter meetings or in local fly shops. This book provides access maps, fishing techniques, and key hatches on our local streams.
Finally, our Stream Conditions page provides general information on water flows, important phone numbers concerning conditions on specific streams, and information on reporting poachers to the appropriate authorities. In addition, maps and USGS flow gage links are provided for many of our favorite Maryland streams.
Fly Tying
If you're interested in learning how to tie flies, each winter we hold a fly tying class. In addition to this class, our January chapter meeting is our annual fly tying demonstrations meeting where 6-8 members demonstrate their fly tying skills. During the first half hour of most other chapter meetings, somebody demonstrates fly tying at our Tying Bench. Many of the patterns that were demonstrated at past meetings are available at the Fly Tying page. At our chapter meetings, you can rent instructional videos on fly tying. Finally, the Gelso-Coburn book referenced above provides fly tying information.
The PPCTU Forum
The chapter operates the PPCTU Forum that all members are welcome to join. Over 150 members make use of this opportunity to post email messages to the group and receive email messages posted by others. The information that you find here is great stuff that you can't find anywhere else. The forum topics cover all aspects of trout fishing and will improve your knowledge of the sport, so don't be left out.
To subscribe, send an email from the email account you want added to the forum, to
There are several options as to how messages from the forum will come to you. The default is for the forum to send you each message posted to the group as it arrives. A second option is to receive a daily digest, a single email message containing all the messages posted during the last day. A third option is no email delivery, using instead an online archive of messages. However, attachments that go out with messages via the other options are NOT kept in the archive, so sometimes you miss out on some things with this option. Lately, forum traffic has run between 100 and 300 messages per month. If you would like to use one of these options and aren't familiar with how to change this setting, or if you encounter other problems with using the forum, send an email to
There's one more option that wasn't previously mentioned, and one that you should seriously consider even if you don't want your mail box full of trip reports, information on local streams, tying hints and all that other wasted space. There's also an option to receive important announcements only. These would typically be last minute cancellations of meetings due to inclement weather.
It should be noted that if Montgomery County has canceled ALL evening (not just school) activities due to the weather, our meeting will be canceled.
The Conservationist
As a new member of PPCTU, you will receive up to 8 issues of our chapter publication via email. It is published eight times per year in the same months as our chapter meetings (January through May and September through November). Past issues are available in the Conservationist Archive.
About our Annual Supporting Contribution (ASC)
As a Chapter we are not allowed to assess dues or fees for membership. Along with other fund raising events, we therefore ask for a $20 Annual Supporting Contribution (ASC) each September, to sustain the chapter's administration costs, educational programs, and community service projects. For more information please refer to the About Us and Join PPTU pages.