Wednesday is Earth Day -- the 50th anniversary -- since its inception on April 22, 1970, when 20 million Americans from all ages and demographics joined together to demonstrate against air and water pollution, and to demand the protection of our environment.

The success of the first Earth Day has been attributed to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts in the early 1970s.?

?Thanks to these protections, our Catskill waters still contain the coldest, purest, most highly oxygenated waters necessary for ideal trout habitat; we are grateful to those who worked so hardto pass these laws to protect our environment.

Past Earth Day celebration events ranged from river cleanups to invasive species removals, but with social distancing now in place, Earth Day has gone “digital.” Virtual events, environmental lectures and films, will replace hands-on activities. For a catalogue of official events, visit earthday.org. ?????

To celebrate this important day, start with a walk outside. Pick up litter around your house or along roads and trails. Weather permitting, plant a tree, start some organic vegetables and flowers (especially ones that attract bees, butterflies and birds.) Cut back on plastics - recycle items from your kitchen and household (such as the plastic boxes from lettuce, spinach, greens -- fill with moist soil to start your seeds in a warm place, and use the lids to keep in moisture.) Think about ways you can conserve water and electricity - and most importantly, respect our beautiful environment.????????? It's been a fairly wet week, ending with about five inches of snowfall on Saturday - and at this writing, the Beaverkill at Cooks Falls is flowing at 966 cubic feet per second, which is just about the average flow of 956 cfs over 105 years of record-keeping.

Last Monday evening the Beaverkill exceeded 13,000 cfs; but has been steadily dropping all week. Water temperatures ranged from 48 degrees last Monday evening down to 38 degrees Sunday morning, and while there are Quill Gordons, Blue Quills and Blue-Winged Olives about, it's still a bit chilly for good mayfly hatches.

Interestingly, as I walked our horses through the snowy wooded trail up to their summer pasture on Sunday afternoon, I was surprised to see black flies [gnats] out in full force! It seems early as they often appear in May, which is why some refer to them as “May Flies” but they are not the Ephemeroptera orderof Mayfly that fly fishers anticipate when fishing fortrout.

A favorite fly we use in the early season when most of the trout are still feeding below the surface, and conditions and fly hatches are less-than-stellar, is the Zug Bug nymph. It doesn't really imitate any one fly in nature but is pretty ‘buggy' looking and can be fished with success during the entire trout season. ????????

This unusually-named fly was devised in West Lawn Borough, Berks County, Pennsylvania, by J. Clifford Zug, way back in the 1950s.

An avid fisherman, he wrote “I designed this fly for some of the big cannibal brownies that inhabited the stream at Old Red Brick Mill Trout Club, Speonk, L.I., N.Y. What it looks like we don't know - nor do we care, but the nymph works all over the country.

On my first day with the Zug Bug I took five big brown trout from Speonk Stream…” His fishing buddy Frank Keim jokingly gave the Zug Bug its name, which has stuck ever since. ????????Here is the pattern for the Zug Bug as tied by its creator, Cliff Zug:

Hook: #10 or #12 wet fly hook, 2x long

Weight: Wrap a few strands of 1/64 lead wire over the upper part of fly

Tail: three peacock sword feathers

Body: full body of peacock herl, ribbed with oval silver tinsel.

Hackle: sparse coachman brown

Wing: two tiny wing stubs place over the hackle.

Head: fairly large, black thread, tied off with whip finish.

Give the head several coatings with transparent lacquer to make it quite shiny.

Judy Van Put is a long-time member of the NYS Outdoor Writers Association, and is the recipient of the New York State Council of Trout Unlimited's Professional Communications Award.