For your enjoyment, I present a little Monday light reading. Here’s my story from the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show two weekends ago. Believe it or not, Edison is this weekend!
And that’s a wrap! See you next year. And see you this weekend at the Edison show.
Many thanks to the Farmington River Anglers Association for hosting me Wednesday night. I presented to an enthusiastic crowd of two dozen anglers at Brewery Legitimus in New Hartford. I very much enjoyed the pre-talk pizza, and it’s pure genius to hold meetings at a craft brewery. The subject was tying and fishing wet flies and soft hackles, highly appropriate since the Farmington is a fantastic wet fly resource. We followed up with a lengthy Q&A session that was loaded with some outstanding questions. Here’s one that I think will resonate. Q: How and when to you add weight to your wet fly rig? A: (click here for my article, “Adding weight to a wet fly team.”
If you’ve always wanted to take a wet fly lesson with me, this is the next best thing to being on the water! Class is in session next Saturday, Jan 27 at 2pm at the Edison Fly Fishing Show. Instead of sitting on a picnic table bench next to the Farmington River, we’ll gather in a cozy meeting room and learn all about tying and fishing wet flies. This is a a great opportunity to get some quality instruction at the fraction of the cost of a guide trip.
My plan is to offer a combination of video and real-time demos. If the group wants, I’ll demo-tie some wet flies so you can see what goes into building an effective soft-hackle, wingless wet, or winged wet, from construction to materials; demonstrate how to build a traditional three fly team; show you how to prevent that rig from tangling; talk about essential wet fly gear and tackle; and more. Of course, you’re going to want to learn how to present wet flies and catch more fish. Yep, we’re going to cover that, too.
You must sign up for this class in advance. You can only do that on the Fly Fishing Show website, here.
New year, new kind of class at the Fly Fishing Show in Edison, NJ. Rather than a tying class, it’s now the closest thing we can get to an actual lesson in the salt! I’m really excited about the change, and everyone who attended my class in Marlborough gave it rave reviews. So, instead of spending a few hours on a salt marsh or estuary, we’ll gather in a cozy meeting room and learn all about tying and fishing presentation flies for striped bass. If you’ve ever wanted to fish with me, but have been unable to do so, this will be a great opportunity to get some quality instruction.
Jeff took this class at Edison last year. Here’s what he’s been doing since then! Photo by Jeff Carson.
What are presentation flies? They’re flies that rely on specific materials — mostly natural — specific construction — mostly sparse — and specific presentations — to create the illusion of life. Presentation flies are highly impressionistic. They look alive and like something good to eat, even when at rest. Most of all, you don’t need to strip them in, ad nauseum, to get stripers to eat them. In this class, I’ll talk about materials and construction and, if the group wants, demo at least one pattern.
So, how and where do you fish such patterns? We’ll cover that, too. I’ll show you how to build a saltwater team of three flies; we’ll discuss different bait and feeding scenarios; we’ll talk about the different kinds of water where presentation flies shine; and of course, we’ll dive into presentation — you know, that thing you do when you’re not treating your fly rod like a glorified spinning rod.
You must pre-register for this class. You can do that here.
This Wednesday night, 1/17/24, I will be speaking at the FRAA meeting at Brewery Legitimus in New Hartford, 7pm. The talk will be “Tying & Fishing Wet Flies.” This is a good one, folks, and if you’re not already tying and fishing wet flies, you’re really missing out. If you are, I bet you’ll learn some stuff you didn’t know before. The meeting is open to the public, and of course, what a treat that it’s at a craft brewery!
The timing on this is serendipitous as I’m feeling much better (as of Sunday noon I was no longer contagious). The FRAA’s scheduled speaker had to cancel, they asked me to fill in, and here we go. I haven’t spoken to the FRAA in very long time, so I’m looking forward to presenting. This is my only (as of now) scheduled local speaking event this winter, so I hope to see you there!
I most certainly picked this up in Marlborough this weekend, either at the show or at a restaurant. And I’m fully vaxxed and did plenty of masking. They say this current strain is particularly virulent, and so here I am in bed. My symptoms first appeared yesterday and steadily worsened today. If you took one of my classes or attended one of my talks, and were in close proximity for an extended period, I wanted to let you know. I hope everybody is feeling well, and I hope to kick this thing’s butt by NFL playoff Saturday!
The road warrior is back home after a splendid weekend at the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show. No time today for an in-depth report, but that will come later this week. In the meantime: Thanks for coming to see me. Thanks for all your kind words. And I’ll see some of you in Edison in three weeks!
It’s going to be a fun and busy weekend January 5-6-7 at the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show. As you can see, I’ve got a full boat of talks, classes, and tying demos. Here’s a PDF:
And here’s a jpeg in case you can’t see the pdf:
I’m hoping for a strong turnout from you, my readers. And may I add a not-so-subtle plug: classes are a fantastic way to improve your fly fishing game. These are structured as if we’re doing a lesson on the water, only we have the benefits of video and protection from the elements, and they’re a fraction of the cost. You can register for a class here.
And as always, please come say hello!
When I was a kid, I counted every fish. That continued for a few decades, along with a resurgence when I started fly fishing. Numbers was how I measured success.
As I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I find the energy has drifted away from “how many? and moved toward other questions. Were the people nice? Were there any people at all? Did I enjoy myself? Did I fish well? I think on a subconscious level, I still track numbers. Everyone likes catching a lot of fish, right? In the case of a dwindling supply of stripers, numbers tell a story outside of personal pride. But if it’s just about numbers, sooner or later you’ll be disappointed. If there is a state of Nirvana to be reached in fly fishing, surely it cannot be connected to volume.
Steelhead are different.
They can be maddeningly difficult to hook and land. One day they’re eating, the next day they’re not. You can do everything right during a battle and lose the fish (and that may be your only hookup of the day). The conditions under which you fish for them can be downright unpleasant, if not brutal. And, more often than not, you’re jockeying for position and territory, first finding it, then maintaining it, something that I do not enjoy.
It took me 40 hours of fishing time to land my first steelhead. Then it took me about 13 years to land the next 99. Astonishingly — at least to me — it took me just 2 and 1/2 years to get to 200.
Part of it was good fortune — being able to find and fish water that held a lot of willing steelhead. Part of it was a renewed commitment to steelheading, due to some very good runs in recent years. Part of it was branching out to new waters. A lot of it was newfound skill and acumen and careful observation and study, thanks to guide friends Bob Packey and Row Jimmy, who present a master course in steelhead fishing every time I head out with them. Gentlemen, I have learned so much from you!
And so, dear reader, you’ll forgive me for counting each and every steelhead. In fact, I hope you’ll celebrate along with me. 200 in the hoop!
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Many thanks to you, my readers, for subscribing, reading, asking questions, and, most of all, for your support, kind words, and enthusiasm. I wish you a happy and prosperous new year, and the tightest of lines in 2024.
#4: Wesley’s First Trout on the Fly. Helping someone learn how to catch more fish is the non-monetary reward for being a guide. Helping someone catch their first trout on the fly, doubly so. But when it’s an eight-year-old kid doing it in front of his father, well, that’s something special. Wesley, who just about came up to my chest, was an unsure wader, and who can blame him on a big river like the Farmington? But once he found his “happy feet” place, he took direction supremely well, especially the part — we were indicator nymphing — about looking for a reason to set the hook on every drift. Suddenly, it wasn’t the bottom, and next thing you know, the rainbow is in the hoop. Fantastic job, Wesley!
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#3: Guiding Members of Project Healing Waters. When PHW — here’s their website if you want to learn more or donate — reached out to book me for a large group outing over several days, I said yes. But I wasn’t sure how it would all go down. I wanted it to be good for everyone, and for everyone to feel like they got something out of it. And then, there was the weather and the flows to worry about. As it turns out, much fretting over nothing. What a great group of enthusiastic anglers. The energy was: we are happy just to be here, standing in a river, learning from you. Any fish hooked and landed are gravy. Well, we did some campsite picnic table classroom stuff. We did on-the-water lessons. We did small talk and life stories and fishing stories. And yes, we caught some fish. Thank you, PHW, for making my job not only easy, but also enjoyable. And thank you for your service.
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#2: Appearing on the Orvis Podcast. It’s the gold standard of fly fishing podcasts. So when Tom Rosenbauer called me to set up a recording date, I was only slightly delirious. We recorded “How To Swing Soft Hackle Wet Flies with Steve Culton” one day, and a week later it was live on the air. In case you missed it, you can find it somewhere here. It’s the next best thing to taking a wet fly lesson on the river with me. And right now, a heckuva lot warmer. If you like it, send Tom and email and tell him.
currentseams.com 