Tag Archives: CVTU

Thank you, CVTU (and a couple more small items)

Many thanks to the Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited chapter for being most excellent hosts last night. The presentation was “The Little Things,” and I couldn’t have asked for a better audience (especially the gentleman in the front row who laughed at all my jokes). Thanks also for the pizza — a fed presenter is a happy presenter — and I’m looking forward to “The Little Things 2.0” with you all in the future.

I have a really fun job. Much better than desk work.

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Next up: “The Little Things,” Tuesday, January 17, 7pm, at Thames Valley TU, Bozrah, CT. Like above, this is the original Little Things. From the TVTU website: Fly tying starts at 6:00 p.m. and the meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. Meetings are open to the public and there is no charge so come and join us. For directions and stuff, visit thamesvalleytu.org.

And I see currentseams.com is edging its way toward 500 followers. We will, of course, be giving away some goodies to celebrate!

Pizza is your friend: Thanks to CVTU for hosting Wet Flies 101

When you travel around the northeast making evening presentations to fly fishing clubs, you learn to keep a stash of protein bars in your case. Especially if you get grumpy when you’re hungry.

Or, you could just present to the Candlewood Valley Trout Unlimited Chapter. They trot out a spread of cheese pizzas, and invite you to have at it. So, thank you, CVTU for being such gracious hosts. I really enjoyed presenting “Wet Flies 101” to such an engaging group.

One of the many gorgeous creatures you can expect to catch with wet flies.

CUFarmyBrown 7:13

I also thought I’d make this thank you note a little more appealing to those who weren’t in attendance. At the end of each presentation, I open the floor to questions. Here are a few topics we covered.

Q: Where do you attach weight to the leader if you want to quickly sink the flies?

A: One BB shot to start, just above the knot that forms the middle dropper.

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Q: When your team of wets is downstream, how do you re-cast them? Do you water load the rod and shoot them upstream?

A: It depends on where I want to make my next cast. If it’s upstream, and doesn’t require a precision or a long cast, yes, I’ll water load the rod and shoot the whole works. But mostly, I like to aerialize the line before I cast. Still, I like to keep false casting to a minimum.

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Q: How long do you dangle?

A: Shocking! I can neither confirm nor deny the rumors. But seriously, the issue is how long do I leave the flies dangling in the current below me? If I know a fish is there, I might leave it for several minutes. I might also animate the flies by slowly raising and lowering the rod tip, perform a hand-twist retrieve (with the rod tip raised), or sweep the flies back and forth in the current with side to side mends.

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Just a reminder that my next presentation (also Wet Flies 101) is to the Narragansett (RI) TU Chapter, Thursday, February 26. You can get directions at their website, tu225.org.

Saturday, March 1, I will be doing a small stream tying demo at the Compleat Angler in Darien, CT. Their website is compleatangleronline.com