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!

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.