Happy Father’s Day, fellow angler.

I hope you get a chance to wet a line, and may that line come tight to a wonderful fish.

He who taught me as a boy. (The scotch and cigars came later in life.) Thanks for taking me fishing, dad.

Farmington River Mini Report 4/30/15: A good day for wets

My best guess is that everyone looked at the five day forecast and decided that yesterday would be ideal for playing hooky. How else to explain the dramatic reduction in angler traffic today? Not that I’m complaining. I bounced around to several spots on the upper TMA, and fished all by myself for two glorious hours.

Conditions: Cooler than yesterday, mix of sun and clouds, chilly breeze (dammit, I left my fleece vest in the truck). Water 425cfs, 48 degrees, crystal clear. Not nearly as many caddis as yesterday, and that resulted in no takes on the Squirrel and Ginger. Size 12 SHBHPT was the runaway favorite fly. Plenty of midges, and some size 16-18 BWOs. No H bugs. Saw only one rise (as opposed to dozens yesterday).

Yes, dear, you have something on your lip. Hold still and I’ll take it out.

How I fished: three fly team of wets, two size 12 S&Gs and the pictured BHSHPT. The bead was copper tungsten. Mostly casting down and across, but I did some upstream and short-line deep presentations. I caught them on the swing, the mended swing, the dangle, and the short-line deep. A fair mix of standard-issue and Survivor Strain stockees. I stopped counting after a dozen. I say this not to brag (if you were there you would have likewise caught a multitude) but rather to illustrate how good the fishing was on the wet. If Woody Allen fished, he might have said, “80% of success is just showing up…with wet flies..after they’ve stocked the upper TMA.”

“Tell me, Two Caddis Humping, why do you ask?”

Lessons re-learned: If there’s a sudden pause in what has been fairly constant action, check your three-fly rig for tangles. Yep, that’s not helping. Make sure the line lays out flat on the cast. The wind will screw you every chance it gets. If you’re fishing wets, let the new standard-issue stockees take the fly before you set the hook. If you try to set on the bump/tap, you’ll miss the fish. Let them hook themselves. The Survivor Strain and holdover/wild fish will simply clobber the fly. Bless them. Expect a good fight. Some of the new SS fish are shaped like a rugby ball.

The obesity crisis in Survivor Strain browns. For newly stocked fish, they sure can swim. This one had to be coerced into the net.

Getting Wet at UpCountry

Feb3

It’s officially fly tying season, and we kicked off the festivities with a wet flies and fuzzy nymphs class at UpCountry on Sunday. A good group who came armed with many questions and even more enthusiasm. We managed to get through eight patterns covering soft-hackles, wingless wets, winged wets, and fuzzy nymphs. We’ll have an encore performance on Sunday the 8th, weather permitting. Thanks so much to everyone — you truly made the class an easy one to lead.

If you’ve signed up for the February 8th class, dress warmly. The tying room is a wee bit chilly.

All in a half-day’s work. Clockwise from far left: Beadhead SHPT, Dark Hendrickson, Partridge and Cahill, Drowned Ant, PWW wet (Magic Fly), Squirrel and Ginger, Ginger Caddis Larva, GRHE Fuzzy Nymph

Hope to see you this Saturday, February 7, at the CFFA show at Maneeley’s in South Windsor, CT.

200 Followers on Currentseams.com. This calls for a celebration!

Sep21

Yippee! Currentseams now has over 200 followers. Thanks so much for your interest in the site. As always, I’ll do my best to provide you with more of what you like about currentseams.

Speaking of which, we’re going to celebrate with a little giveaway. The prize will be a selection of wet flies — or steelhead flies — or striper flies tied by yours truly. Winner gets to choose. Here are the rules:

1) No purchase necessary.

2) You must be a follower of currentseams to enter.

3) To enter, leave a comment on this thread saying you wish to enter AND tell me a little about what you like about the site, or would like to see more of. One entry per person. Deadline for entering is 11:59pm September 30, 2014. The winner will be chosen at random. The winner will be notified in the comments section of this thread, and will be responsible for sending me their address so I can ship the flies out.

4) All decisions by me are final.

Thanks again for reading.