Category Archives: General Ramblings

Rivers of Recovery Fundraiser

As the proud father of a Marine (Bill is also a veteran of Iraq), I wanted to share this with my readers. These are the words of veteran and fly fisher Dan Laffin:

“Hi All, A few of us are throwing together a fundraiser for Rivers Of Recovery at 6:30 on March 9th at the Delamar Hotel in Southport. Rivers of Recovery is a non profit organization that brings veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan fly fishing throughout the country. I think a lot of you know the healing properties of fly fishing and the program has certainly helped me a ton.

We’re going to try and raise funds so we can start a chapter here in CT. We have a great location with so many VA hospitals within a close proximity and we will host vets from our communities on our rivers. There is no charge to attend the fundraiser, but know that anything you donate will directly support local veterans. We’ll have some raffle prizes and a silent auction but being our first year, it will be pretty small.”

Rivers of Recovery E-Flyer

You can read more about Dan’s story in the winter issue of Anglers Journal.

Positive waves amidst a seemingly endless winter

Snow. Cold. More snow. More cold. Ditto, ditto, et cetera, et cetera. Stand sure, folks. Spring’s coming. You can see it on the trees — just look at all those buds. If you have forsythia, the stalks are green and the buds are very well-formed, even in this ponderous sub-Arctic snow-making nonsense.

By the numbers, we are just over one week away from March. Eight weeks away from Opening Day (in case you still use that as a marker). Hendricksons will be hot on its heels. And stripers will be on the move well before that.

Hopefully you’re keeping busy doing some reading or tying flies. I’ve just been busy. But I am working on some new material for the site that I hope to have out soon. As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for following currentseams.

Wearin’ of the green. From May last year. IMG_1342

Farmington River Report: A good time to tie flies

I drove along the lower Farmington TMA yesterday, and it was either frozen over, framed with shelf ice, or filled with slush.

Of course, the closer you get to the dam, the more open water you’ll find. Still, I’m going to save my chips, wait for a wee thaw, and tie some flies.

Take heart, cabin feverish types: Hendrickson spinners are just a little over three months away.

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Paul’s Striper Fly Selection

Paul was the lucky winner of the Currentseams 200th Follower Contest. He had his choice of striper, trout, or steelhead flies, and Paul went with the striped bass fly selection. He also mentioned that he was a big fan of the spring cinder worm hatch, so I tied up a bunch of Orange Ruthlesses, my favorite clam worm fly. I also included some sand eel patterns, some soft-hackle/flatwing baitfish, and a classic sparse bucktail.

Starting clockwise from bottom center: the Orange Ruthless, a single-feather flatwing; a Big Eelie in the Bruiser color template; the Golden Knight, a matchstick sand eel bucktail; a juvenile herring bucktail, unnamed, tied so sparse you can read a newspaper through it; a soft hackle/flatwing hybrid in Ray’s Fly colors (a good fly on a bright day); and a soft-hackle/flatwing hybrid in Easterly colors (tailor-made for a gray-green rainy blow).

Paul's Flies

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to take my time with these.

We’ll have another fly giveaway when we reach 300 followers. Thanks to everyone for your support, readership, and kind words.

Odds and ends on a cold January night

I built a fire last night because I didn’t feel like turning on the downstairs heat. While an open fireplace is considered to be an inefficient method of heating, you can’t beat it for ambience. I did manage to raise the temperature five degrees, and it felt rather grand to stand on the hearth. No fire tonight, but I’m staying warm with a nice Italian red (Caparzo Sangiovese Toscana 2013, an absolute steal at $11.99).

Farmington River: If you’ve been out fishing, good on you. Me, I’m saving my chips for warmer weather. And transferring my fishing energy to tying.

Steelhead: There is a sense of derring-do about embarking on a single-digit temperature adventure, but see “Farmington River” above.  If you’re not aware, there’s been a fish kill this season on the Salmon River. Here is the latest theory: http://wrvo.org/post/fish-die-salmon-river-could-be-caused-vitamin-deficiency

Small streams: I’ve driven past a few, and after the last two nights they are looking more like frozen tundra than running water.

Stripers: I used to fish for them in January. Right now, the pragmatist in me is crushing the romantic. Not that the romantic really minds.

Currentseams: I see we have surpassed the quarter-century mark in followers. Thank you all for your readership and support. If you’re new, stop by and say hi. The shortest distance between two people is a hello.

I remember this day. It was about 400 degrees in the shade. Tonight, not so much.

Smallstream canopy

So, whadja do this year?

Well, here we are. A little over one day left in 2014. I hope the year was good to you. Mine didn’t suck. I got to fish about 100 days — not too shabby for a guy who really loves his wife, has three jobs, and two kids playing travel sports. (I don’t have an exact count on the number of outings because I am grotesquely behind in my journal. Like, August behind.) I did a fair amount of writing, teaching, speaking, and guiding, too. All labors of love.

And, of course, there’s currentseams. The site had over 50,000 views this year, and we’re up to nearly 250 followers. I’d like to welcome the new people, and say thank you to everyone who took the time to read my scribblings. (No, Paul, I have not forgotten about you, and yes, I have started your striper flies.)

Part of what I love about my job is the chance to interact with the angling community on a personal level. So, to that end, please come say hi in the comments section. Tell us something you learned this year, or maybe about that one that got away, or even better, that one who didn’t.

I’ll start things off. I was fortunate to have a number of fish challenge for the highlight reel. But if I had to pick one, it would be my new personal best thirty-pound striper from the shore from spring. That cow had my rod making noises I’d never heard nor imagined it could produce. Good stuff. Learning? I try to find something new on every trip, so it’s hard to pick one. But I’ll go with this: if the steelhead aren’t biting in the run you’re fishing, move on.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Happiness is twice thinking you were snagged on the bottom — and twice discovering that you were not. Lousy photo, pretty spiffy striped bass. Maybe for our next contest we can try to guess how many herring she had in that tummy.

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Happy Thanksgiving from currentseams

I hope everyone had as nice a Thanksgiving Day as I did.

Among my many blessings are all of you who read and follow currentseams. Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment on the site. Thanks to those of you who travel to see me speak. And thanks to those of you who have taken a class with me or let me be your guide. I truly appreciate it.

And of course, thanks for being fortunate enough to catch and release amazing fish like this.

Big Steel 11:14

We have a winner!

The winner of the 200th Follower drawing is Paul Gross.  Congratulations, Paul! You’ve got email. Please respond so I can send out your flies.

Thanks to everyone for entering, and thanks even more for following currentseams.

A quick note to currentseams followers

Busy busy busy around these parts. (Although last night while you were sleeping, I was slogging around the ocean in search of a 30-pound striper. She never came out to play, but I know where she hangs out. Finally got to bed at 3am. Dragging today.)

The 200 followers contest: I have not done the drawing yet. What I really wanted to say was thanks to everyone who took the time to offer comments and suggestions. It is truly gratifying to hear from so many of you, and to be able to put some words and thoughts to names.

I am currently at work on a steelhead article for American Angler. It should be out in a couple months.

Speaking of articles, I am going to try to post some of the older ones I’ve written on the site soon. Yeah, I know, you’ve heard that before. No, but I am. Really.