You’ll find this pillow on the couch in the TV room. I cannot vouch for the great fisherman part. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that I married very, very well. I really did. We’re celebrating our fourteenth anniversary today.
Category Archives: General Ramblings
A Sulphur Emergence in March
Would that it were so. But for now, I’ll have to be content with two dozen of the Magic Fly (Pale Watery wingless wet) sizes 16 through 20, waiting in the wings. June still seems like a long way off. But you can never have too many sulphur emergers — especially the Magic Fly. If you’re new to this pattern, you can find the recipe and a tying video on this site. You’ll be glad you did.
I’ll drink to a warm June evening when the sulphurs are coming off in numbers and the trout are getting stupid.
I also see we’re getting near the 300 followers mark. Of course, once we reach it we’ll do another fly giveaway.
Coming soon: another trout streamer. Think out-of-the-box.
Speak up about Kensington Hatchery funding
I was forwarded this a few minutes ago. These are the words of Bruce J. Rich, President, CT Fly Fisherman’s Association:
“The deadline for submitting testimony regarding the Public Hearing on DEEP’s budget is Monday March 2, 2015. Note that “testimony” does not mean you wish to speak. Testimony can be in written form only and sent via email to (SC’s words: please cut and paste this email address: apptestimony@cga.ct.gov).
In the Subject Line write: Testimony to Appropriations Comm. for the March 2, 2015 Public Hearing on Hatchery Funding
Note that the committee prefers to receive email testimony as an attachment to the email, preferably in pdf form (although MS Word form should suffice).
Attached is my updated testimony in pdf form which you may use all, or part of, in your message. Just be sure to replace my name & address with your own. Note that your message can be very short, but it’s important at this time to get as many people as possible writing to support keeping Kensington Hatchery operational.
Don’t squawk later, get busy now.”
Here is Bruce’s letter in pdf form: Testimony submitted to March 2
“My great, great grandaddy came from the Kensington Hatchery.”
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.”
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. 
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.
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).
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.
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.
Merry Christmas from Currentseams
currentseams.com 