First Place: Ray Hamilton

Second Place: Rick Perrault

Third Place: Max Kantor

Congratulations! One of the possible prizes is the six striper soft-hackles I tied for my upcoming American Angler article. Ray gets first dibs on them. If he doesn’t want them, Rick gets next dibs, etc. If no one wants them, I will fish them myself. So there. Winners, please email me (swculton at yahoo) and let me know what you’d like. Your other options are a selection of trout streamers, trout wets, or steelhead flies. I also need your mailing addresses. Please don’t post those here.

I would like to thank everyone who entered. Your comments were both insightful and helpful. Best of all, they were just plain nice. It was truly gratifying to hear from so many people, and I feel like I got to know each one of you a little better.

A middle-of-the-night fishing trip toast to the winners. Wait — a toast to everyone. Thank you for your readership and support.