Antoine Bissieux « currentseams.com

I tend to look at fly fishing as one big, fun, science project. Figuring things out, making new discoveries, trying a new fly or method that produces good results — these are just a few of the rewards that await the curious angler. As most of you know, I’m a teaching guide, and my guide trips are lesson-based. The guides I use when I fish for pleasure know the marching orders: tell me when I’m doing something wrong, show me how I could do it better, teach me things I don’t know (or have forgotten). No matter how good you think you are, we all have something to learn. That’s how you get better.

Since I’m a put your money where your mouth is kind of guy, on Monday I accepted 2025 Orvis Guide of the Year Antoine Bissieux’s gracious invitation to tag along and participate in his class with French world champion Bertrand Jaquemin. We won the weather lottery with a good flow and gorgeous weather. The class began at Orvis in Avon at 10am, and we were on the river about 12:30pm. It was gratifying to see that other people include off-the-water classroom as part of their lessons.

**I can see this method working for pressured or skittish steelhead in low, clear water. Hmmmmmm……**

The focus of the class was long-leader upstream presentations to pressured trout. Although the business end of the rig is a small nymph, the presentation and drift management was not unlike an upstream dry or wet fly drift. I’m guessing after the fact — I don’t have the leader with me — that the leader was about 15 feet long. It includes a sighter, which I had trouble seeing — that’s a problem with a sighter — until Bertrand ran it along a knife edge to curly pigtail it. Visual acquired! While I didn’t connect with a fish, I did see the benefits of this style of fishing. More practice time on the water is needed before I can render a better judgement on the method. (I prefer to be lazy and work downstream. This is upstream, and requires stealth and vigilance.) I’m not arguing that it’s not productive; I’m just not sure it’s right for me. And happiness and confidence catches fish.

I was dopey enough not to take pictures, so my bad. Many thanks to Bertrand and Antoine for sharing their knowledge.

In case you haven’t heard, veteran Farmington River guide Antoine Bissieux was just named the 2025 Orvis-Endorsed Fly Fishing Guide of the Year! In addition to being an exceptional guide, Antoine is also a friend and a contributor to the Farmington River book. You’ll get to see a few of his favorite fly patterns, and his wisdom will be sprinkled throughout the text. Congratulations, Antoine. We’re all tremendously excited for you.

From a photo shoot for the book this past August, Antoine patiently scans the water looking for a rise or the signs of a lurking trout. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to draw from Antoine’s knowledge and experience. When we’re out doing these shoots, I’m not only working — I’m also engaging in professional development: watching, learning, and just enjoying being on the river talented anglers like Antoine.

Speaking of anglers who know what they’re doing, I spent Wednesday afternoon on the river shooting Torrey Collins from UpCountry Sportfishing. We had a slow day; a cold front came through the night before, which was strike one. Bug activity was light (strike two) but we did see midges, early stones, and some olives. Torrey was Euronymphing, and we hit the lower end of the PTMA, and then two marks below it. It was a few stocker rainbows until Torrey connected with an archetype wild Farmington brown, a handsome buck in the upper teens. What was eye-opening to me was where Torrey caught him. I’d never fished there before, but I’ve driven past it hundreds of time without giving it a second thought. The more I write this book, the more I learn about the river — and the more you’re going to learn when you read it.