Monthly Archives: October 2026

At FRAA Weds Oct 21 and the Instagram reel that lost its mind

I’m back on the book promo trail this week as the Farmington River Anglers Association hosts me Wednesday, October 21 at 7pm at Brewery Legitimus in New Hartford, CT. The subject, of course, will be the “Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River.” If you don’t have a copy, I’ll have some with me, and if you do, bring it along and I’ll be happy to sign it. This is a must-attend talk if you fish the river — no matter what your level of expertise, I guarantee you’ll learn something — and you get to enjoy a local brew while you listen. That’s a double win!

Old photo. I ditched the traditional vest for a chest pack years ago. This massive rainbow was taken on a wet fly, and if you come to the presentation, the “wet fly guru” will tell you what it was.

So. This summer when we went for our traditional family walk out to Block Island’s Sandy Point, I shot a video of some seals with the commentary about the irony of the government being able to protect seals, but not stripers. (If you’re unaware, striper stocks are generally suffering, and the from-shore striper bite on Block has absolutely cratered since the seals took over.) I kept the reel in my back pocket for a future posting, which turned out to be last Friday. I figured it would be an underperformer, since it’s just some waves and beach and seals with my background commentary. Holy firestorm, Batman! That reel got more views and more comments than anything I’ve ever posted on Instagram. Some of the comments were partisan political (the presence of seals is not the fault of either major party.) Some were misguided (while menhaden are a crucial striped bass forage in general, menhaden have very little presence on Block Island and have nothing to do with seals being there or stripers being scarce from shore.) And some were commiserating, both from a Block Island and Cape Cod perspective.

If you’re not following me on Instagram, you should @stevecultonflyfishing. Then you won’t miss any future excitement. The content I post on Instagram is unique to that social medium, so you won’t be double-dipping between here and there.

Hope to see you Wednesday night.

Farmington River Mini-Report 10/13/26; Croton TU awarded the Legion of the Cheeseburger with IPA Clusters

I guided Owen on Tuesday. Owen is pretty much a beginner, but very enthusiastic — just the kind of student I like to teach. We spent our afternoon on the water from the Riverton bridge to several hundred yards above. It was a chilly, overcast day, and we started off with some indicator nymphing. That was surprisingly a blank — and then a trout slashed at the indicator. We tied on a mini streamer, but no love. A bait angler below us got into two fish, but we decided to head upriver.

At the next mark, Owen locked into a fish on the nymph rig, but the trout sadly became unbuttoned. By this time, there was a decent amount of trout-eating-emergers activity. It was caddis action, and I was surprised by the last on tiny BWOs. We moved over to wet fly, and were rewarded with some bumps, and then an eat. It might have been the ugliest stocked rainbow I’ve ever seen in this river — ragged tail and fins, fins missing, scales gone AWOL — but it was exciting to see Owen connect with his first Farmington River fish. We headed upstream again and got one more bump, but that was it. Great, job, Owen!

So, Owen lands his first Farmington River trout, and I get to present the Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River to a roomful of enthusiastic anglers. I’ll drink to that.

Then last night, I spoke to the fine people of the Croton Watershed TU Chapter. Croton TU knows that a fed presenter is a happy presenter, so they are hereby awarded the Legion of the Cheeseburger with IPA (Singlecut) Clusters, and all the privileges associated with that honor. According to the chapter president, the crowd was excellent, and from my point of view, very enthusiastic and welcoming. We had a good post-talk Q&A session, and I want to thank the people who bought a copy of the book. I’m already looking forward to my return.

Next up: Wednesday, October 21, Farmington River Anglers Association, 7pm, Brewery Legitmus, New Hartford, CT. This meeting is open to the public. And it’s at a brewery! If that’s not a doubleheader sweep, I don’t know what is. More info is here.

Croton TU this Thursday kicks off a flurry of book appearances

After a couple of weeks’ respite, I’m back on the speaking trail this Thursday night. It’s the first of three speaking gigs this month, all dedicated to the best book on the Farmington River, my Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River (he said most humbly). Of course, books will be available for purchase and signing, and if you’ve already bought a copy, bring it along and I’ll sign it with a smile. Here are the details:

Thursday, October 15, Croton Watershed TU, 7pm, Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Pleasantville, NY. This meeting is open to the public. More info can be found here.

Wednesday, October 21, Farmington River Anglers Association, 7pm, Brewery Legitmus, New Hartford, CT. This meeting is open to the public. And it’s at a brewery! If that’s not a doubleheader sweep, I don’t know what is. More info is here.

Tuesday, October 27, Crossroads Angers, South Foxboro Community Center, Foxboro, MA. According to their website, “Steve is a real character and this promises to be an entertaining affair.” Who am I to argue? Guests — unless you’re a member, that’s you — are always welcome. More info, right here.

I love my job, and if you come to to see me this month, I’ll prove it. Fly tying, and writing about and teaching fly fishing are all passions, but I think speaking to groups and presenting at shows is my favorite.

Small stream mini-report and yes! to some rain

I fished a favorite small stream last Friday and the water was painfully low. Those of you who are acquainted with me know that I detest low water. On this day, it meant that the longer, deeper pools had precious little movement. Sometimes the only discernable flow was at the extreme upper end of the head. Leaves were a problem, not because they were interfering with drifts, but rather because they had amassed in large quantities on the surface, essentially creating a sheet of leaves. Great for fish to hide under; not so great if you’re trying to present a fly to them.

This is what I’m talking about. That lower end looks like a pile of leaves on dry land; they’re actually resting on the surface of the water.

My solution to the low flow/leaf problem was to fish a dry-dropper in the faster sections, and to go heavy subsurface with micro-jig streamers. Both produced fish, although most of the dry/dropper hookups were on the trailing bead-head nymph rather than the dry. I’m all about watching wild fish slash at the dry, but there’s something cool about using it as a strike indicator — now you see it, now you don’t. Set that hook!

I’m not sure yesterday’s rain qualifies as a blowout, but it certainly should have been enough to move some leaves. The Farmington gauges bumped up a bit, but most of it was generated by the Still River. I expect the Farmington to be in excellent shape for most of the week.

A very late Farmington River mini-report from 10/2/26: When the going gets tough, the tough fish a mini-jig streamer

I guided Anthony last Friday and we had the blessing of a glorious Indian summer day. Sunshine, good flows, warm air, and…leaves. Organic matter in the water was only an occasional nuisance, but I expect that it will get exponentially worse in the next couple weeks, especially if we have a breezy day. (This is why I typically end my traditional wet fly fishing around mid-October.)

But back to our day. We swung the hell out of a team of three wet flies, but the locals just weren’t having it. We hit two marks below the PTMA (many thanks to the angler who shared water with us!), then headed below Collinsville. Same story in two other marks. Up to this point, we’d had a few bumps, very likely from small fish, and no real eats. There were a few tiny BWOs in the air, some caddis, and then a smattering of Isos, but this was a day where the fishing was great and the catching stunk. Anthony deserved far better, as he was making multiple dozens of fish-worthy casts, mends, and presentations.

I’d finally had enough. I knew there were fish in front of us, and if we couldn’t get them to come up to a wet, let’s try to get them deep. I clipped the Iso fly off point, and added a black and silver mini jig streamer. Voila! We also banged up a decent smallmouth. Way to hang in there, Anthony, and we’ll get ’em next time.

A wild brook trout and striped bass doubleheader

It’s been like forever since I’ve played a doubleheader. And it really wasn’t looking good to start. I’ve been suffering through a series of random back spasms over the last few weeks, and the morning — Tuesday — I was planning on going, one snuck up on me and blasted my lower back. But I decided that movement was probably a good thing, bending over and uneven terrain be damned, so I loaded my ice packs and heating pad in the truck and headed for the Litchfield hills.

I’ve hadn’t been to this stream in about a year, and in a situation like that, on the drive I’m generally obsessed with questions like, what has changed? Will it be better, or worse? What will the flows be like? Well, not much had changed. There were, as usual, some randomly-placed-by-Mother Nature branches in the water that completely cocked up a pool or run. Despite last weekend’s rain — it didn’t deluge everywhere — the water was on the low side of medium, just barely what I would call decent. But there was cloud cover, and there were fish on the hunt, along with some active hatches. I fished a dry (ARF Humpulator size 14) with a size 18 2x short BHPT dropped off the bend by a foot of 5x. They mostly wanted the dry, including the one rising fish I targeted, but I pricked several on the dropper. I would have liked more water in the system, but you take what nature gives you and do your best. Cigar? Rocky Patel 55 Robusto. It was delicious.

You can see the full video of the release if you follow me on Instagram @stevecultonflyfishing.com. I put all kinds of unique content on Instagram, from fishing experiences to instruction to tips, so following me is a worthy addition to your social media experience.

Since no backs were harmed in the making of the wild trout expedition, I got reckless and decided to go striper fishing. Surfcaster extraordinaire Toby Lapinski and I travelled to a top-secret location on LIS, and although we had favorable wind and surf — the water had cleaned up nicely from the storm — the bass didn’t get the memo. Toby took the only hit of the night, but even that was momentary. I wish I could tell you that we were bailing 20-pounders, but I don’t get to make that call. I’ll end here: in what universe can it be late September, and I have yet to catch a striper this year?!? Eight trips. Eight blanks. Not even a courtesy tap. Yeesh.

And now, I gotta go use the heating pad.