Category Archives: General Ramblings

“Striper Moon: A Legacy” film is now online

Director Lorri Shankar’s film about Ken Abrames, “Striper Moon: A Legacy” is now online. You can see the original film poster here. The link to the film, on Google Drive, is here. Enjoy!

A still from the opening of the film Striper Moon A Legacy.

900 Followers Contest Swag

Congratulations to Glenn, Zak, and Steve. As I write this, their flies are en route, and should be in their hot little hands by Monday. In case you’ve never won, I thought this would be a good time to tell you a little bit about the process of how you get your swag.

Wets, soft hackles, striper flies, and striper/steelhead flies adapted for sea-run cutthroat trout. Good stuff, all of it. Clockwise from far left: shrimpy fare, Ray’s Fly Featherwings, two sets of Soft-Hackled Flatwings, doubles of the Ruthless and the Eelie, and center, some of my favorite, most productive soft-hackles.

Once I notify the winners, I ask them what they’re most interested in receiving. Not all requests are doable, but I try my best. A good case in point would be Zak’s flies. He wanted flies for sea-run cutthroat trout. After rummaging through my hook stash, I reckoned I could make it work. So even though I’ve never tied up flies for sea-run cutthroat trout, I was happy with where I ended up. I hope Zak is, too.

Which brings us to volume. All winners do not necessarily receive the same number of flies. This is a function of time, labor, and materials cost. So, if you’re like Glenn, and asked for soft-hackles and wets for trout, you’re probably going to get a dozen flies. Steve wanted some early season striper patterns; those are more involved and the materials harder to source, so I sent him a half dozen. If someone wanted a complex pattern like the Countermeasure, it might be as little as three. As one of my kids’ teachers used to say, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.”

Enjoy your weekend, and catch ’em up!

New menu item: a guide trip checklist

As the demand for my guide services increases, I’m trying to figure out how to make things easier for everyone. So I created a “Preparing for Your Guide Trip” checklist/infographic and added it to the menu bar at the top of the homepage:

The checklist, shown below, is also available as a pdf under the “Guide Trips/Lessons” link. I’m hoping that you find it helpful!

A good, healthy fishing breakfast

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you already know that I’m a food and wine guy. Now, I love a charcoal-grilled cheeseburger as much as the next person (or, since we’re talking about breakfast, a sausage and egg and cheese sandwich). But I try to eat healthy as much as possible. A good example would be this delicious, easy-to-make breakfast. It’s been my pre-fishing breakfast for a long time.

I think the industry term is “Serving Suggestion.” I make the tomato juice a Virgin Mary version with hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire, and (antioxidant-rich) horseradish.

It’s based on the kind of breakfast you’d see served in many Latin American countries: brown rice, red beans, an egg and little bit of reduced-fat cheese. You’ve got your fats, your fiber, your carbs, and your protein. Serve it with a glass of tomato juice, and you can add a veggie to that list. It comes together in about ten minutes, and it will keep you going on the river until snack time. If you don’t want the cholesterol from the egg, remove the yolk. Or make it two egg whites for a low-fat, extra protein punch. Your favorite hot pepper sauce provides some flavorful heat.

You need 1/2 cup Minute brown rice, 1/3 cup small red beans, an egg, 1 tbs. reduced fat cheese. While the rice is cooking, rinse the beans in a sieve. (You can keep the extra beans in a sealed container for a few days.) I steam the beans on top of the rice about five minutes into the process. Fry the egg, plate the egg and rice & beans, and sprinkle with the cheese. (One tablespoon is not a lot of cheese. That’s on purpose.) Enjoy!

The ASGA Road Show comes to CT Weds March 16

The infographic below just about says it all. I’ll be posting more on the ASGA position for ASMFC Amendment 7 soon, but in the meantime here’s a great way to have fun and get informed. You can register for the event here.

Currentseams menu and minor content changes

I’ve been doing a little housekeeping on currentseams. The biggest visual change is the menu bar. If you’re on a laptop, you’ll see an expanded menu, shown below, that directly links to pages with essential information. If you’re on a phone, you’ll still have a drop-down menu, albeit a newly expanded one. My hope is that this makes everyone’s life easier.

“About” replaces “About Steve Culton — and Currentseams.” “Guide Trips/Lessons” replaces “Book a guide trip.” I’ve added “Book A Presentation” and “Contact.” “About” retains virtually the same content. Ditto “Guide Trips/Lessons,” which has updated rates; I’m hoping to add a one-page/one-side pdf checklist with basic information that clients can download. The “Book A Presentation” content has been reordered and partially re-written; I’m also hoping to add some more presentations before this fall. As always, I stand ready to help and answer questions.

And the 900 Followers Contest Winners are…

Yesterday afternoon I dumped all the entries into a bucket and had my independent panel of one randomly select three winners: Steve M, Zach G, and Glenn D. Congratulations! The winners have already been notified by email. Now, to the vise…

I’d like to thank everyone who entered, and everyone who reads and follows currentseams. I see we’re only 65 people away from 1,000…so get a friend to subscribe and we’ll be doing this again soon!

Could be some small saltwater baitfish in someone’s future. These flies were part of a suspension rig I used this past fall. As always, droppers are the fastest way to find out what the fish want.

Lights! Camera! Action! It’s the world premier of “Summer on the Farmington”

Thursday night was the world premier of director Matthew Vinick’s film, Summer on the Farmington. The venue was Brewery Legitimus in New Hartford. Good choice! They had a large private room reserved for the event, with a dedicated bar, plenty of seating, room to socialize, and a food truck outside for people like me who get cranky if they don’t eat. (I had two delicious chicken tacos for 12 bucks.) The beer was likewise yummy; I thoroughly enjoyed my Dr. Strangehaze NE Style IPA.

We (I was accompanied by my beautiful wife) arrived early so we could socialize. How wonderful to see so many old friends, and to be able to enjoy being out for an evening of entertainment. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to say hello — I often forget names, but I recognize the faces and it’s a pleasure to get reacquainted.

Almost showtime. There was a palpable sense of anticipation in the audience before the film. Those are dry fly legends Drew and Don Butler in the third row, third from right and far right, respectively. Between them, Don and Drew have somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 consecutive months of catching a trout on a dry fly on the Farmington. You could learn a lot from those two, which is why I pick their brains every chance I get.

To the film. There’s a certain challenge to being unbiased when you’re judging a creative product that you were a part of. But, viewing a work of art is an inherently emotional experience, so I suppose I’m allowed to think and feel what I think and feel. And I thought and felt that Matthew’s film met — and exceeded — my expectations.

The film remains true to its title as it follows several Farmington River guides and anglers from the first day of summer through the last as they fish the river with dry flies. The footage is outstanding, from sweeping aerials to mayflies dancing on the surface to subsurface shots of trout feeding (worth the price of admission alone — props to Director of Photography John Kozmaczewski). But it’s not all just dry fly fishing. You get segments on the genesis of the tailwater, the creation of Trout Management Areas, the Survivor Strain Program, and more. Vinick has clearly done this homework, drawing on a rich assortment of knowledgeable sources, from DEEP staff to fly fishing store owners/managers. I heard more than one appreciative comment on the crisp pace and excellence of the editing.

Lo and behold, there I was, leading off the film. Our shooting day was a challenge; I learned later from cast and crew that my day was, by far, the worst in terms of actively feeding fish. In hindsight, I like that. If life isn’t fair, fly fishing certainly isn’t, particularly on this river. You get what you get and you don’t get upset. Matthew tended to use my interview bits as lead-ins to new subjects, and I liked that, too. Any time you see yourself on camera or hear yourself speaking, I think the tendency is to be overly self-critical, but I was very pleased with how the director used me in his story.

While the juiciest bits of the film are the action sequences, Vinick does an exceptional job of showing the fishing experience in its entirety, warts-and-all. You see the refusals. You see the swings and misses. You see the LDRs. Best of all, you get to see the tragicomic reactions when things don’t go according to plan, which tends to happen a lot in fishing. (Overhead, whispered by a nearby audience member during the film: “See, those are professional guides, and they miss fish too!”) Yup. We all put our waders on one leg at a time. And of course, you get to see the triumphs. There are some beautiful fish in the Farmington. Thanks to them for playing.

Farmington River guides in triplicate. That’s Mark Swenson surrounded by Steves (Hogan on the left); all of us appear in the film. Vinick uses the frenemy banter between Swenson and fellow guide Antoine Bissieux throughout the film, whether they’re gearing up, fishing, or hanging out at UpCountry Sportfishing. If you’ve ever spent any time around them, you know they’re not acting. Hilarity ensues!

Many of you will be wondering about future plans for Summer on the Farmington. Here’s what I can tell you. It will probably have another showing , time and place TBD. It may go to DVD or be streamed, but I have no further details. I wish I had better information to share, but when I find out more I’ll let you know.

All good things must come to an end, and so it was with the premier screening of Summer on the Farmington. The film was shown in two segments with a brief intermission, and when it was over we all rose and applauded. This is your humble scribe with director Matthew Vinick. Many thanks to Matthew and his crew, DP John Kozmaczewski, and applause to those who appeared on-screen to tell the story: Steve Hogan, Mark Swenson, Antoine Bissieux, Torrey Collins, Don and Drew Butler, Brian Eltz, Dave Goulet…and to anyone else I missed mentioning. And of course, here’s to the river. We are blessed to have such a wonderful resource. Well done, all!

Writing about stripers, the contest, still no fishing, and other amusing Saturday diversions

Hello, all. I haven’t posted in a while, but here I am. Part of it was wanting to leave the contest post up to maximize exposure. I see we’re now a quarter of the way to the magic 1K followers mark — won’t that be exciting? In the meantime, you can still enter the 900 followers contest — but you’ve got to be a follower, and you need to leave a comment on the original post. Thanks to everyone who’s entered — I appreciate your feedback! I may do a Zoom around some of the questions and topics you’re interested in, kind of a currentseams potpourri. Stay tuned.

I’ve also been busy writing a piece for Surfcaster’s Journal where I’ll be the guest columnist for their fly fishing section. It’s about using floating lines and greased line swings and large flatwings to wreak havoc during the spring herring run. SJ is an online ‘zine, so subscribing or buying that issue will be the only way to read it.

And can you believe it? I still haven’t gone fishing this year. Ten lashes unless I find a remedy. In the meantime, I hope you’re getting out, having fun, or preferably both.

Pondering the question of the day, very likely “When the heck am I going to get my sorry butt out on a river again?”

It’s a Fine Nine Hundred Followers Celebration!

Happy Wednesday, fellow Currentseamsers. It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so let’s share the love as we celebrate currentseams.com reaching the 900 followers mark! Suffice to say I couldn’t have done it without you, so thank you for being part of the Fine Nine Hundred. As usual, we’re doing a flies-tied-by-Steve giveaway. Here are the rules:

1) No purchase necessary.

2) You must be a follower of currentseams to enter. (If you’re not one already, you become a follower by clicking on the Sign Me Up button below the “Follow Blog via Email” header, at the top right if you’re on a laptop, and at the bottom of the scroll on a mobile device.

3) To enter, leave a comment on this thread that responds to at least one of these questions: What would you like me to write about? What questions about fly fishing or tying can I answer? What flies that I tie would you like to see video of? One entry per person. Deadline for entering is 11:59pm February 28, 2022. Three winners will be chosen at random. The winners will be notified in the comments section of this thread or by email, and will be responsible for sending me their address so I can ship the flies out. Sorry, I can only ship to U.S. addresses.

4) All decisions by me are final.

Thanks again for reading and following currentseams.

As Steve Winwood sang, “Gimme some lovin’…”