Looking for details of an old fly fishing joke. Your turn to help!

I get a lot of questions on the river and at shows and here on this site, and now I need to ask all of you a question. There’s an old fly fishing joke about two anglers. One is all into latin names and esoteric dry fly types and tells the other angler about his efforts trying to match the hatch. The punch line is that the other angler tells him he caught all his fish on “this little grey bastard”. I’m looking for the specific telling of the joke. I know I’ve seen it online, but I can’t find it. Anyone know it by heart, or have an online reference?

(Late) Farmington River Report: Trout (mostly) open for business!

My apologies or not getting this out last week. I’ll try to be a little more timely. The good news is that the terrible weekend rains mostly missed the Farmington, and the river has been fishing very well. Last week I guided Dan for a late afternoon-into evening session. The focus was on dry flies, and we started off with a hopper/dropper system. (‘Tis the season! And I promise, no more parenthetical statements.) We discovered a pod of trout taking emergers in a shallow run in bright sunshine. When Dan dialed in his cast and drift, his hopper got crushed by a very respectable mid-teens brown. We found another run formed by the confluence of two sections of river, but we couldn’t buy a hit. Even when we switched to wets, it was no dice. My best guess is that they were feeding on something far smaller than what we were throwing.

We ended the session at a classic dry fly pool within the PTMA. Hatch activity (22-24 BWOs, 18-20 Summer Stenos, and later, 12-14 Light Cahills and an absurd number of midges…and I guess I fibbed about the parenthetical statements) was light until 8:30pm, but Dan managed to stick a nice fish on a 22 BWO dry. We used a 14-foot leader-tippet system terminating in 6x to get better drifts in the languid, glassy pool. At 7:30 I was able to join in the fun. As predicted, that wild brown feeding just off the rock in the frog water got stupid as it got dark, and I took him — with great delight — on a size 16 Catskills Light Cahill dry. Both Dan and I had good action until we could no longer see our flies.

The next day, I shot some drone photos for the book with filmmaker extraordinaire Matthew Vinick. I fished for about 45 minutes below and within the PTMA until he arrived.

I was fishing some water in the PTMA I really haven’t spent any time in for at least five years when I connected with this gorgeous creature. She was part of a pod of trout taking emergers, and she chose my Squirrel and Ginger top dropper. Matt and I went to a couple other pools in the PTMA to shoot, and then we had places to be.

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I had 30 minutes to fish before I had to pick up my son at Bradley. So I ventured into some snotty, treacherous water that’s rarely fished. This rainbow hit the Squirrel and Ginger so hard that she peeled off 20 feet of line before I could adjust my drag. The photo really doesn’t do her justice — she was fat and powerful and wonderful, and she just wouldn’t sit still for a picture.

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There’s a happy guy! My last customer of the day was the best. She was feeding in a slot near the shore, and it took some maneuvering to get into a good position to present my team of three. This is where it helps to be physically fit (and carry a wading staff). There’s no way I could have reached her without being willing to wade into some dicey currents. Measured against my net, this is a high teens fish (I refuse to thrust a fish at arm’s length into the camera) that took an Isonychia soft hackle I’ve been prototyping for a year. I’ll publish that pattern soon, but in the meantime, I can tell you this: big fish like that fly. You can see a fly-in-mouth shot on Instagram, probably Tuesday.

Farmington River Report: What a difference a day makes

I fished twice this week, Tuesday and Wednesday, and the days could not have been more different. On Tuesday, I hosted fly tier extraordinaire Lou DiGena from New Jersey. You may have seen Lou at the Fly Fishing Show, or at the IFTS. The river was up a bit, 406cfs in the PTMA and stained from rain. We started off below the PTMA and found some eaters, me with wet flies and Lou Euronymphing. Because of the stain and cloud cover, we decided to give streamers a shot in a popular pool within the PTMA. That was a total blank. Not knowing if there would be crowds for the evening rise (as it turned out, there were not) we headed to a dry fly mark above the PTMA.

I’ve been fishing this pool for a very long time, and I’m here to tell you that the bug activity and rising fish quotient were among the worst I’ve ever experienced. We kept waiting for a hatch that never really materialized. Lou did well to stick a nice brown sipping in some frog water, and I took another at dark when I suddenly saw a riser, but that was it. On the walk out, there were a few midges in the air, but water that is normally littered with spinners was strangely barren. I did see a few bigger Light Cahills and smaller Summer Steno spinners, but no real biomass like you’d expect.

Wednesday, the weather forecasters blanked. They called for showers and light rain starting at 6pm. The showers started at 1:30pm, and evolved into a steady rain that went on the rest of the day. That didn’t dampen the spirits of Kevin, who was taking a wet fly lesson with me. The water in the PTMA was down 50cfs and had cleaned up considerably. We arrived at the spot to see fish rising, and we connected within a few first casts. A couple more bumps and a juvey Atlantic salmon, and then it was over.

Our next move was to head north and fish the water above Riverton, which was running clear and cool in the mid-50s. We found a long slot that held rising fish, but we strangely couldn’t get them to eat, save for one courtesy swipe. The hatch was BWOs (not surprising given the conditions), about a size 20, and the swallows were going to town on the bugs. We gave it a good effort, then moved even closer to the dam.
We had virtually the entire stretch of river to ourselves. We found a boulder field with some very sexy slots and pockets and waded in. At 162cfs, this is perfect height for this stretch of river. During a wet fly lesson we cover a lot of techniques and tactics; there are a few principles that could be considered core, and critical to success. One of them is that presentation makes a huge difference. The longer you can keep your fly in the strike zone, the better your chances of hooking up. We found a run that had a pod of rising fish — again, small olives was the fly — and I reminded Kevin that if he threw a couple mends as the team of flies moved down and across, he’d give the fish a better look at the flies. On his next cast, this happened. Way to go, Kevin! We hooked two more and then called it a very successful day.

Farmington River Report and Tip of the Week

There are precious few absolutes – like gravity or the firmness of the earth – in fly fishing. But certainly this one is unimpeachable: wet flies in the water catch more fish. This is why I recommend that you keep your wet fly team in the water as much as possible, especially when you’re wading to a new position up or down or across stream.

The value of this practice, which I teach in every wet fly lesson, was driven home to me on Wednesday when I was out on shooting photos for the Farmington River book with Derrick Kirkpatrick and Joey Takeman. We’d just returned to the river after a thunderstorm delay, and were crossing a shallow (1-2 feet) riffle. I hadn’t fished yet, but this time I had my rod with me, and while I intended to take more photos, I couldn’t resist stripping out ten feet of line and dangling my team of three (16 Sulphur soft hackle, 16 Diving Caddis, 12 Isonychia soft hackle) in the current below me. Whack! I felt a sharp tug, and although the hook found no purchase, I’d already proven my point. It was a quality take, more like a loud foul than a swing and a miss.

An hour later, on another part of the river, we were walking upstream when I spotted a pod of rising trout across the stream. I told the guys that I had to take a few casts at them. I did, landed two, then began to cross back to the other side — team of three, naturally, dangling in the current below me. Wham! Another hit, and this time a hook set.

As dusk deepened, I left Joey and Derrick to return to the area where I’d seen the pod of trout. As I started to cross the river, a large trout delivered a thunderous hit on one of my flies. It immediately put itself on the reel, and peeled off 30 feet of line as by drag was not set for such a creature. In the gloaming, a spectacular aerial revealed that I had indeed hooked one of the FRAA-stocked 5-7 pound trophy rainbows. Another run, then another aerial, and as I tried to regain some line, yet another aerial. Tremendous sport! 

I wasn’t worried about the hook set as the fish clobbered the fly. I had fresh Maxima 4-pound as my tippet. I was going to land this mini-steelhead. I wish Chad a better picture for you, but I wanted to get her back to swimming. Besides, the light was lousy. And so, off she went.

Great rainbow trout, lousy photo. My net length is 19″ and she did not come close to fitting. I’d guess 22 inches or so. For those who want to know, she took the Diving Caddis. Now, repeat after me: flies in the water catch more fish…

A little bit of this and that, and Farmington River book tidbits

We’re preparing to host a big family reunion, so no fishing for me today. I hope you’ve been able to get out — I have, and the cooler weather this week has been a welcome respite from the relentless cycle of heat and humidity.

To the salt: A shout out to The Saltwater Edge for their Local Singles Program. Even if you’re not a spin angler, you can take a lesson from its energy — reducing striped bass C&R mortality — by mashing down the barbs on your flies. It really makes a difference. Earlier this month on Block Island, I deep hooked two bass on Big Eelie patterns. in both cases, the hook came out with ridiculous ease, with no blood nor visible damage, because I was fishing barbless. Come to think of it, it’s getting close to time to tie up some…nah, we’ll wait…

The Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River book project process continues. I’ll be out on the river a lot this week, both guiding, fishing, and shooting photos. If you see me, please come say hello.

Writing-wise, I’m working on the hatches section, and choosing flies to match. It just occurred to me that most of what gets the attention this time of year is either large or yellowish. Then I remembered, how many times have I seen tiny BWOs (20-26) in the air? How many times has a fishless outing turned because I started fishing a Tiny BWO parachute? The answer is: many. Tiny BWOs may not be the sexiest hatch in midsummer, but they are important. Now, let’s also not forget the attenuata…or the egg-laying caddis…

Catch ’em up.

Block Island Report: Still slow, still picking away

I recently fished 6 nights on Block Island, and this once vibrant shore fishery continues to struggle. I checked my records and found one night in 2018 when I landed 12 stripers; this year I managed 10 stripers in 6 nights with 2 skunkings, which ain’t exactly lighting it up. Once again, the key to success was finding a pattern and hammering away. I spent the first two nights trying to find a pattern, which meant bouncing around the Island, fishing different marks at different tide stages. I had a good moon in terms of darkness, but the tide heights were crappy, which didn’t help. Once I found bass, I returned to that mark at a similar tide stage the next night, although I still had to put in my time to get a couple fish. We left early this year because the fishing was lousy and we had a rain day we could fill with packing. Here’s to better days and a return to glory for this sacred fishing ground.

On the first day, I met — wow, I am so bad at remembering names, so please forgive me if I get it wrong — currentseams reader Caleb(?) sight fishing on Crescent Beach. He told me that the week before, he’d had a fantastic day surfcasting at a popular old school mark. He went back the next day, same tide, same conditions, and it was disaster bad. So goes it on Block. Fish here, fish there, then no fish anywhere. The new inshore paradigm seems to be no schools cruising through, but rather a rogue, random bass. (Insert heavy sigh here.) The sight fishing in the day was generally crappy; I had several days where I saw no bass at all, which is dreadful for early July.
That’ll save me a walk, although I did do the stairs one afternoon for exercise. The weather was generally crappy, with dense fog, high humidity, and a blustery S-SSW wind in the 10-20 mph range, which all but eliminated the south and southwest sides of the Island for the fly rod. Even with my 2H surf cannon, I wasn’t into it, especially for ultra slow fishing. I did fish multiple parts of the Island, but I could only find one specific mark that consistently held the possibility of fish on a certain tide. Even then, that tide was historically the worse of the two, so it was a surprise to me that that was this year’s pattern. Some old favorite, reliable marks failed to produce fish, which was discouraging. I want my old BI back!
One night, at the witching hour of midnight, I ventured out onto a top-secret flat within the Great Salt Pond. Wind was an issue, but I had a moving tide in my favor. I followed my dark-of-the-moon protocol of fan casting and moving a few steps to systematically cover water, but after a while I recognized the futility of it all and headed in. I will typically turn on the light to see what creatures are stirring, and I was treated to a swarm of baby squid, about 1/2 to an inch long, hundreds of them, buzzing around and through my headlamp light cone. Sadly, no diners had assembled. This is a still from a video I shot.
One of my ten bass in six nights. The good news was two slot fish in the mix. The bad news was nothing smaller than 24″, so there were precious few stripers in the 3-5 year-old classes represented. That would fall into line with the miserable recruitment stats from 2020 and on. While the action was less than I’d like, I did get reacquainted with the truculent nature of Block Island stripers. Aside from snook and tarpon, I don’t know another fish that hits a fly harder than a Block Island striped bass. Powerful, crushing eats, and then, once they realize they’re hooked, a bullish, line-taking run. I had several fish work circles around me and/or run along the trough by the shoreline. Simply tremendous sport.

You have questions about Block Island. I have answers.

I get a lot of questions about Block Island this time of year. As always, I’m happy to answer them (unless you want to know my secret spots, which I won’t even tell my mother). For general information, here’s a piece I wrote several years ago. It still stands up today. It’s called “Block Island Stripers From The Shore.”

Not Block, but it could be….

Farmington River Report 7/3/24: Wet fly surprises, not my finest dry fly hour

We had a fishing trip/photo shoot on Wednesday from 3:30-9pm. Delaware River guide extraordinaire Bob Lindquist came down to take pics for the book and an article he’s writing. We (filmmaker Matthew Vinick of “Summer on the Farmington” fame) started off at the bottom end of the PTMA and the action was slow. Little to no hatch activity, and precious few risers. Matthew and I had to work our butts off (he was nymphing then dry flying, I was swinging wets) to put a few in the hoop over 90 minutes. Both of my trout took a large Iso soft hackle.

Matthew had to skedaddle, so Bob and I moved up to a dry fly pool above the PTMA. As I was wading in, an old crusty angler (meant as a compliment) was leaving, commenting that the sulphur hatch was not good. He was right. It never really got started, even later in the evening as sunset transitioned into dark. Id like to blame it all on the hatch, but I don’t think I fished particularly well, mostly because I was being stubborn. Let me explain.

I saw that the sulphurs that were on the water were an 18-20. But I wanted to see if I could get them to take the 16. They generally wouldn’t, and when I put a 20 on I had double the action. I was also committed to fishing the water in front of me, which, due to varying currents seams and speeds, was difficult to maintain a quality drift. Sometimes I like a challenge, you know? But my fish worthy-drifts were few, and even when I did fool fish, I came away with nothing. I rose six trout and stuck none of them. Ugh! Finally, I moved down a few feet to more drift-friendly water, but by then it was too late. (Stubborn Steve pays the price.)

I should mention that I had some surprising success on wet flies in some very slow-moving water pre-7pm. Two trout, two crushing hits, both on LaFontaine’s Diving Caddis size 14. Later, the pattern that the trout seemed to like best was a size 20 sulphur comparadun. As it got darker, I switched over to a size 12 Usual. Unfortunately, the typical dusk feeding orgy never manifested, and both Bob and I commented about the lack of spinners on the water at dark. So it goes.

The Diving Caddis wet. I’ve been tying these without the rib, and using tan caddis Prism dub for the body. The trout are all in favor.

Very Late Farmington Report: A Successful Wet Fly Lesson, then wait, wait, wait until all hell breaks loose

George and Michele took a wet fly lesson with me on Tuesday, and deserved much better than what they put into it. We started out in the lower end of the PTMA. The water was perfect for wet flies, but there was no hatch activity and virtually no visible feeding. We had a good, long streamside classroom session, but we had to scrap for the few touches we received. George and Michele both did an excellent job of getting their flies where they needed to be, but you can’t catch what doesn’t want to eat.

So we zipped down below the PTMA and were greeted by: more of the same. The fish were a little more active, but still no real hatch, nor feeding. Although both George and Michele put trout in the hoop, they didn’t get rewarded for the fine level they wet fly fished at. Our fishing window was 1pm-5pm, and to prove it wasn’t them, I swung wets for 90 minutes, 6pm-7:30pm, above the PTMA, and managed only two trout. Not good. At 7:30 I switched to dry, and proceeded to….wait. Nothing happened. 8pm. Still no rises. Finally, I moved downstream 200 feet, where I found a couple risers and landed them both. From 8:30-9:15pm, all hell broke loose, and it was a trout on every cast, even after I could no longer see the fly. Caddis 16-18, little Sulphurs 16-18, and midges filled the air and littered the surface of the water.

This is typical for this time of year when the hatch is delayed. If you want to catch fish, my best advice is to wait it out, then take advantage of the dusk feeding frenzy.

This was the scene on the walk out. The photo really doesn’t do it justice; there were thousands of bugs in the air and on the water, and the trout were eagerly gulping them down. Fly selection was irrelevant; I took them on 16 The Magic Fly, 12 and 16 The Usual, and 12 and 16 Catskills Light Cahill.

Managing the hot weather on the Farmington

Summer is here early, and with a vengeance. The good news is that we have solid summer flows coming out of the dam at a favorable temperature:

However, note that the water temperature spikes five degrees by late afternoon, just from the release of the dam down to the measuring point at the bridge in Riverton. It doesn’t take a math whiz to reckon that once the river reaches Collinsville, the water is going to be significantly warmer.

This is where you and a good water temperature thermometer come in. If you don’t have one, you should get one. (I use this IR wine thermometer, $30 from Amazon). There is some debate about what the cutoff temperature for fishing is; 67-68 seems to be the number. My present policy is to call it at 67; that is, if it’s 67 or higher, I won’t fish for trout.

Also note that evening, night, and early morning are going to be your best times for find favorable temperatures; what’s more, those coincide with low light periods, which are generally good times to fish.

Finally, this time of year sees explosive feeding activity, starting around 7:30pm and building exponentially into dark. Don’t make the mistake of leaving the water at 8:15pm. You’ll be missing the best dry fly fishing of the day.