Tag Archives: best fly fishing presentations

Back in the CT groove, writing up a storm, TU talks, and small stream advice from the archives

Greetings, fellow currentseamsers. I wish I could tell you that I’ve been out fishing, but alas, no. I’m nearing the home stretch for the first deadline for the Farmington River book, and that’s been my focus. I was visiting #2 son in Ohio over the weekend, took the train, and was able to bang out thousands of words. (I love writing on the train.) I’m really liking what I’ve written so far, and I think you will, too. I appreciate your loyalty and I’m looking forward to not only finishing the book, but getting back a normal posting schedule on currentseams.

On Thursday, October 3 (tomorrow) I’ll be speaking at the Bucks County (PA) Chapter of TU. If you’re in the Philadelphia area, come join the party. The topic is “The Little Things 2.0.”

Next week, October 9, I’ll be celebrating John Lennon’s birthday with an appearance at the East Jersey TU chapter in Rochelle Park, NJ. The meeting starts at 7:30, and I’ll be presenting “Wet Flies 2.0.” If you’re there, please say hello.

The Farmington River continues to run at a very low level. We need rain! The good news is that the water is plenty cold. Lower light will be your best time to fish.

Love me some fall wild brookies. I crossed paths with this handsome char just about one year ago. Those fins! Those haloed spots! Those parr marks! Yeah, I’m a big fan.

Finally, it’s fall, which is a great time to be fishing wild brook trout streams. If you’re going to partake, please read this quick article from the archives, Three Small Stream/Wild Trout Best Practices.

FRAA Awarded the Order of Loaded Pizza (with NE-Style DIPA Clusters) and the Question of the Day

Many thanks to the Farmington River Anglers Association for hosting me Wednesday night. I presented to an enthusiastic crowd of two dozen anglers at Brewery Legitimus in New Hartford. I very much enjoyed the pre-talk pizza, and it’s pure genius to hold meetings at a craft brewery. The subject was tying and fishing wet flies and soft hackles, highly appropriate since the Farmington is a fantastic wet fly resource. We followed up with a lengthy Q&A session that was loaded with some outstanding questions. Here’s one that I think will resonate. Q: How and when to you add weight to your wet fly rig? A: (click here for my article, “Adding weight to a wet fly team.”

Additional Steve Culton talks added to the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show Jan 5-6-7

I’m hoping you’ve already penned in the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show, now less than 3 weeks away! In addition to my Classes, Tying Demo, and Seminar, the show has added three more talks:

Friday, Jan 5, 11am, Destination Theater Room A: The West Branch of the Farmington River. This will be the next best thing to getting out on the water and learning about southern New England’s blue ribbon tailwater.

Two of my favorite things: swinging wet flies, and catch big, fat Farmington River trout. Come to my talks at the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show Jan 5-6-7 and learn how to do both.

Saturday, Jan 6, 1pm, Destination Theater Room B: Modern Wet Fly Strategies. I’ve designed this presentation to replicate a wet fly lesson on the water. Except here, we’ll be doing it in a nice, warm room. If you’re not fishing wet flies, you’re missing out!

Saturday, Jan 6, 3pm, Destination Theater Room A: The West Branch of the Farmington River. Even if you’re a Farmington regular, you’ll probably learn something new about southern New England’s blue ribbon tailwater.

Sunday, Jan 7, 1pm Destination Theater Room A: Trout Tactics For Striped Bass. This is for everyone who wonders if there’s more to catching stripers than cast and strip. There is. And you can learn how to catch more, and bigger stripers if you come to this presentation.

If you want to learn how to consistently catch stripers like this, you’ve got to go beyond simple cast-and-strip. I can teach you how.

Many thanks to the New England Fly Tyers for hosting me

Last night I presented The West Branch Farmington River — Southern New England’s Blue Ribbon Trout Stream to the New England Fly Tyers. NEFT operates out of central Massachusetts, and they are an enthusiastic, dedicated group of tiers and anglers. For understanding that a fed presenter is a happy presenter, I hereby award them the Legion of Potluck Yumminess with Homemade Brownie Clusters. Thank you again, and I hope you’ll invite me back!

“The Little Things 2.0” Thursday night, 10/19/23 at Croton TU

Tomorrow night, Thursday, October 19th, I’ll be presenting “The Little Things 2.0” to the Croton Watershed Chapter of TU. The meeting is open to the public, and you’re invited! Doors open at 6:30pm, and the meeting starts at 7pm. It’s all happening at the Emanuel Lutheran Church, 197 Manville Road, Pleasantville, NY. If you’re a currentseams follower, please come and say hello.

We’re all looking for an edge when it comes to catching more fish. It is my firm belief that the little things are largely responsible for the fabled 10% of the anglers who catch 90% of the fish. The Little Things 2.0 builds on the theme of seemingly insignificant things you can do make your time on the water more productive. As with all seminars in this series, the lessons apply to multiple species fly fishing in fresh or saltwater.

Thank you Basil Woods Chapter of Trout Unlimited (and the Question of the Day)

A late but hearty and heartfelt thank you to the Basil Woods TU chapter from central New Hampshire for hosting me via Zoom last Thursday! I presented my original “The Little Things” to a very enthusiastic group. More and more fly fishing clubs and TU chapters are taking advantage of technologies like Zoom to hire guest speakers like me. If you’re outside reasonable driving distance, you can do the same. For more information on programs, visit my Presentation Menu page here.

Here’s a brief Q&A segment from post-show. Q: Do you arrive at the river rigged for streamers or do you start with emergers? A: It depends. Sometimes I make up my mind well in advance that I’m going to fish a specific method, consequences be damned. For example, there are days in the winter when I’ve decided that I’m going to fish streamers solely because I’m willing to risk catching one large trout — I hope — rather than a bunch of smaller ones. Or maybe I just don’t feel like nymphing. There are times in the spring and summer when I’ll plan to swing wets, and then, as the hatch moves out of the emerger stage, switch to dries. Other times I’ll get on a nymphing kick, and that’s how I’m going to fish — simply because that’s what I feel like doing. So, fish the method that pleases you most. And know that if you want to catch more fish, you’ll need to be fluid in your choice of methods as conditions and time of day/year dictate.

Happy angler syndrome occurs when you a) Fish the way you like; b) Fish the method that is most productive for the conditions; or c) ideally, both.

Kicking off the 2022 Fly Fishing Speaking Season

Happy Monday to all. It’s hard to believe that Labor Day Weekend is nearly upon us, but that’s a fact. I’ve got stripers on my brain, an itch I’m looking forward to scratching in the next few months…plus trout…and steelhead…and can we please get some meaningful rain?

Fall also means this road warrior will be out and about, hopefully at a club or event near you! My first gig will be next Tuesday, September 6, at the Long Island Flyrodders in Levitttown, NY. Despite what the website says, I go on at 7:30pm, with the group’s social festivities/casting lessons beginning at 6:30. Meetings are held at the Levittown VFW, 55 Hickory Lane. The group tells me that all are welcome. My subject is “Wet Flies 101” which is a gateway to wet flies, soft hackles, and how to fish them. You too, can become a skilled practitioner of this deadly art. Hope to see you there, and as always, please come say hello.

So simple, just like a trout’s brain. Wet flies like these soft hackles have been catching trout for hundreds of years, and the fish aren’t getting any smarter. Come learn more at “Wet Flies 101” next week at the LIFR meeting.

A Busy April: Speaking Engagements and the Marlborough Fly Fishing Show!

It’s a busy month for me, between fishing and writing and speaking about fly fishing. Here are the details:

Monday, April 11: “The Little Things” with the Miami Valley Fly Fishers. This is a members-only Zoom. I mention it in case you’re the person in charge of finding a a speaker for your fly fishing club. Thanks to the wonders of technology, we can meet up even if we are geographically undesirable. Here’s a link to my current presentation menu. I’m really looking forward to making some new fishing friends in Ohio.

Tuesday, April 12: “The Little Things 2.0” with SEMASS TU, at the Mitchell Memorial Club in Middleboro, MA. This meeting is open to the public, so if you’re in the area, stop in and enjoy the show.

Thursday, April 21, “Tactical Advantage: Angler vs Trout” with FVTU, at the Back Nine Tavern in New Britain, CT. Another meeting that is open to the public, and a presentation that most people have not seen.

Friday-Sunday, April 22-23-24, The Fly Fishing Show, Marlborough, MA. On Friday 4/22 at 2:30pm, I’ll be the Featured Fly Tier. Come watch me tie up Spiders, Winged & Wingless Wets. (I had a blast doing this in Edison!) Don’t go away, because at 4:30pm I’m presenting my new seminar, Modern Wet Fly Strategies. I think this is my best program to date, and I’m counting on you to be there. Both are included with the price of your admission ticket. On Saturday 4/23 I have a class, Tying and Fishing Wet Flies. This is a chance to get some basic tying instruction, along with tips on rigging and presentation, geared toward making you a dangerous wet fly machine. This is paid class; you have to pre-register to attend. I’m hoping to see plenty of currentseams readers at the show — please come say hello!

You can see me tie the Magic Fly, aka the Pale Watery Wingless, hear about how to fish it, and learn why it makes such a deadly sulphur imitation at the Fly Fishing Show in Marlborough. Plus — need I say it? — tons more information on soft hackles, wet flies, and wet fly fishing.

Currentseams menu and minor content changes

I’ve been doing a little housekeeping on currentseams. The biggest visual change is the menu bar. If you’re on a laptop, you’ll see an expanded menu, shown below, that directly links to pages with essential information. If you’re on a phone, you’ll still have a drop-down menu, albeit a newly expanded one. My hope is that this makes everyone’s life easier.

“About” replaces “About Steve Culton — and Currentseams.” “Guide Trips/Lessons” replaces “Book a guide trip.” I’ve added “Book A Presentation” and “Contact.” “About” retains virtually the same content. Ditto “Guide Trips/Lessons,” which has updated rates; I’m hoping to add a one-page/one-side pdf checklist with basic information that clients can download. The “Book A Presentation” content has been reordered and partially re-written; I’m also hoping to add some more presentations before this fall. As always, I stand ready to help and answer questions.

Edison 2022 Redux: a great show, weather and Covid be damned

With the Edison Fly Fishing Show in the books, I thought it deserved a detailed re-cap. The bad news was that not only did the show have to contend with the still-looming specter of Covid, it lock had a double whammy of an incoming snowstorm Friday night into all day Saturday. The good news is that The Fly Fishing Show continues to be a tremendous experience regardless of what’s going on in the outside world. Where else can you meet and speak to and learn from some of the best tyers and anglers on the planet?

Being a risk-averse kind of guy, I wore my N95 mask both days, even when I was presenting. (I’d say the majority of people attending were masked.) The exhibitor turnout was smaller than usual. (Since I’m not a gear junkie, this didn’t really affect my experience. Give me the Keough booth and Badger Creek, both present this year, and I’m happy.) After a year’s hiatus, it was great to see old friends, and have the opportunity to make new ones. The Friday crowd was lighter than usual due to the impending storm. Saturday’s crowd was small, but surprisingly larger than I’d expected, what with much of the northeast locked down in a blizzard. Sunday was predictably busy, by far the best crowd of the weekend. Looking back, I wish I’d taken more photos. But here are a few to tide you over.

Not a bad lineup! This was Saturday’s schedule in just one of the seminar rooms. Seriously, this has to be the best bargain in all of fly fishing. For the price of admission you get to see and talk to George Daniel, Pat Dorsey, Andy Mill, Ed Engle, Tim Flagler, Joe Cordeiro, and a whole bunch of other great anglers I didn’t mention. I debuted my seminar Modern Wet Fly Strategies on Friday, drew a decent crowd, and we followed it up with some engaging Q&A. Shades of the Sunday ice storm in Marlborough three years ago: I feared that no one would show up for my Finding Small Stream Nirvana gig on Saturday (I had the first slot of the day). Not to worry! Thanks so much to everyone who attended.
The flatwing dudes, Joe and Greg Cordeiro, had a great stash of saddles and longer peacock herl. Since it was a slow day, they helped me rummage through the Keough bins in my never-ending search for a decent red grizzly saddle, which, I’m delighted to say, Joe found for me.
I wish I had a photo of my first ever tying demo at The Fly Fishing Show. Being a Featured Fly Tier was a great experience. You’re mic’d up, you’re on a large screen TV, and the audience sits in front of you. You basically have an hour, and I managed to cover a spider/soft hackle, wingless wet, and winged wet. Since this all happened on Saturday at the height of the storm, I was again concerned that no one would show. Once again, not to worry! I had one of the better crowds, and I believe we all had a good time. Another pleasant surprise was my Saturday class. Since it was a smaller group (thanks again everyone for showing up!) we were able to tailor it to meet everyone’s needs, which was very gratifying. I can’t remember a faster 150 minutes.
The guide booths also represent a tremendous opportunity to learn about a specific fishery. I’m already what you’d call Block Island-savvy, but if you’re not, my buddies Captain Hank (foreground) and Captain Willi from Block Island Fishworks are a fantastic resource for all things Block. We spent a good chunk of time on Friday talking about last year’s fishing, and salivating at the prospects for this year. They do spin fishing, too. A family charter is a most excellent way to spend a day.

And that about wraps it up. Don’t forget that the Marlborough show was postponed to April 22-23-24. I know it’s right when we’d all like to be out fishing, but I encourage everyone to support the show, and take advantage of its opportunities.