Tag Archives: Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River

Seven early season fly fishing strategies

Happy Tuesday. I’m sure we’re all chuffed that it’s April, with winter (despite subfreezing temps tonight) in the rearview mirror. The glorious promise of a new season is spread before us like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Since I haven’t written anything instructional in a while, here are some considerations for April fly fishing in the northeast, submitted for your approval.

A handsome April rainbow, taken on a mini-jig streamer. Run silent, run deep. Photo by Toby Lapinski
  1. Be prepared to go deep. The water is still plenty cold, and will be even on the warmest, sunniest April day. It may also be high. Which means that unless the trout have a reason to be active surface feeders, dries will be challenging. Your highest percentage plays are going to be dead-drifted nymphs and jig or traditional streamers, dead drifted, swung, or stripped.
  2. The fish aren’t spread out. Generally speaking, the fish aren’t everywhere; rather, they will pod up. So where you catch one, you’ll likely catch another. An exception would be large, alpha wild browns. Look for them in the prime lies at the heads of pools, dump-ins, and even some whitewater.
  3. Pick and choose your dry fly days. Just because it’s warm and sunny doesn’t mean the fish will be feeding on the surface. Rather, look for specific hatches and hatch windows. Hendricksons, caddis, and BWOs will all be hatching and, in the case of the mayflies, spinning and falling. If you must prospect with a dry, a nymph or wet fly dropper is almost never a bad idea this time of year. Of course, if there is hatch and feeding activity, rock on.
  4. Don’t poo-poo junk flies. High water, off-color water, stupid stockers — these are all compelling reasons to fish Squirmy Works, Mops, and other ghastly creations.
  5. Be (ware/aware) of shadow hatches. I write about this in greater detail in the book. Just because the Hendrickson are hatching doesn’t mean that the trout are eating Hendricksons. Know everything that is likely to be a food source and you’ll catch more fish.
  6. Be courteous to other anglers. It can get crowded out there. Try to share the water when possible. Ask if you can fish near someone. Good fishing karma comes to those who are polite. And in a matter of weeks, the crowds will begin to thin out.
  7. May comes next. Another topic that’s covered in the book. You think it’s going to be high 70s and sunny, and all too often it’s 50s and cloudy and windy. May is caddis month. So get those boxes filled on your April off days.

Is this a great time of year to be a fly fisher, or what?

Here I am: book stuff, fishing stuff, schedule stuff…

A little random potpourri day on currentseams. I had written a post similar to this one, which was supposed to go live on Tuesday, but somehow WordPress ate my draft (don’t you just love when technology fails?). So here we are.

I received about two dozen requests for personalized copies of the book through me, and that’s enough for me to proceed. My next steps are to figure out how much all this will cost me (mailers, postage — probably media mail) so I can then pass the cost along to you. (How’s that for transparent business practice?) I’m hoping to have that information out by the end of the month, and if you want a signed copy from me, you still have plenty of time to let me know. I won’t ask for money until I get all those ducks in a row, and hopefully I can get books out to you before the official release day of August 4.

Fishing time has been scarce for me this spring, especially on the striper front. I didn’t go once from January through March. Normally, I’d go at least once a month in January and February. But every time I had a time and tide window, it was either sub-freezing cold front misery or a disgustingly high water. I’m really looking forward to being able to swing some flatwings in April. If the elements allow!

March can be a productive big-bass-on-the-fly-from-shore window. Not this year. At least, not for me.

On our local trout waters, it’s a tricky time of year. You basically have two options: targeting stocked trout or targeting wild and holdover trout. I must confess that playing the stocker game is fun for a while; however, I have a limited interest for that. Wild or stocked, the trout will tend to remain stacked up this time of year, even though it’s beginning to warm up and we’re seeing more bug activity. They’ll begin to spread out sometime in April. Bug-wise, think little dark stone flies and midges and caddis, which are plentiful food supplies. Of course, the Hendricksons will be the first big glamour hatch of the year, starting on the lower Farmington in about two weeks. But after last year‘s disappointing showing, that hatch remains a big question mark. We shall see.

Mrs. H, missing the middle fork of her tail.

I did get out to a small stream last week after the rains, but the water was high and cold. There were no bugs and the air temp in the 30s didn’t help. I went out this week in much warmer temperatures and a little bit lower water, and what a difference a week made. But I’ll give you more on that in a post next week.

As a newly minted member of the Regal Vise Pro-Staff, I’m working on a wet fly piece for their website (which is currently under reconstruction). I have no idea when it will post but I’ll let you know. Also look for a future blog post for me on the J. Stockard website, where I’m also a Pro Tyer.

Finally, many thanks to the Yale Fishing Club for hosting me on Tuesday night. It’s always a good time, and I’m a sucker for New Haven style pizza — well done, group! They’re going to fish the Salmon River in New York in a couple weeks, so we tied up some Blood Dot eggs which will serve them well.

Farmington River book news: August 4 it is, pre-orders, and who wants to buy a signed copy directly from me?

The Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River is getting closer. I had my first conversation yesterday with my book publicist. (I’m going to let the fact that I have a book publicist go to my head for about 15 seconds — it feels good — and now I can get over it and move along.) We have a lot to talk about.

As was foretold by fearless forecaster Chuck G., the official release date is Tuesday, August 4. That’s about 4 months of wait time. If we keep busy fishing this spring and summer, it’ll be here before we know it.

There will be multiple ways for you to get a copy. The first is to pre-order from your favorite bookseller. (The publisher encourages pre-orders.) You can also inquire at your favorite fly shop to make sure they’re aware of the book release. I will be reaching out to several popular fly shops in the state to set up book signing/promo events. (Naturally, I’ll tell you about those here and on social media as they come to fruition.) If you attend the Fly Fishing Shows in Marlborough, Edison, and Lancaster, the book store at those shows will certainly be selling copies. If you’re taking a lesson from me, or having me speak at your club, I’ll try to always have a few copies with me.

Then, there’s this way, which is beginning to roughly take shape: get a copy directly from me, which I will personalize and sign and ship to you. The cost is TBD; the cover price is $39.95, plus I’ll have to add on shipping/materials cost. While I’m researching that, if you’re interested in going this route, please do this: Send me an email or reply to this thread saying that you’re planning on getting a personalized copy from me. I need to gauge the interest before I commit to this. Also, please note, if this happens, it will be a one-time situation deal. I have no desire to be an online merchant. Payment will likely be by cash, check, or P2P payment app like Venmo or PayPal. There may be a chance that I can get these copies out before the official release date, but don’t quote me on that. Sorry, no international orders — way too hard.

It’s all tremendously exciting. And I thank everyone for your patience and interest and readership.

The new official release date for the Farmington River book is…

August 2026. I know we were all hoping for June, but it is what it is. Believe me, I’m ready to have the Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River out right now, but I don’t get to make these decisions. So we’ll all have to be patient.

I do have a call scheduled tomorrow with the publicist, and if I learn anything new I will pass it on post haste. I’m still working on how to make a limited number of copies available on currentseams — the idea being to get you a personalized, signed copy of the book. I need to work out the numbers and then gauge interest. That’s all I have to share right now, other than Tom Petty being right (I you know, you know.)

I don’t know if it will be August 1, but I’ll try to find out tomorrow. Good thing we’ll have four months of prime fishing between now and then to keep us busy!

Lancaster Redux and no fishing today.

I should be out on the river today with two clients, but I could tell yesterday from the rising gauge heights and the rain yet to come, we’d be cancelling. So here we are today at currentseams.com headquarters. Aside from high water, I’m sure this cold front and wind isn’t doing the bite any favors. We’re looking at almost 1,800cfs in the PTMA. It feels really good not to be second guessing my decision.

Back from Lancaster, and it’s bittersweet now that show season is officially over for me. I still have three talks this spring — one this week at the Cape Cod Flyrodders — but I never realized how much I love doing the Fly Fishing Show until I thought about this being the last blast until IFTS in November. I’d never done the Lancaster Show before this year. Here’s what I can tell you. It has a very chill, comforting vibe. The people are pleasant and inquisitive and enthusiastic. It’s a small show, which adds to its charm. I can’t wait to do it again.

Saturday was typical busy for me at the FFS, with two talks and a class. The wild card this weekend was that my wife was with me. She planned to golf while I was doing my thing. At 10am Saturday, I made my way up from my tying table to the seminar room. That’s when I discovered that my laptop was missing. Rut-roh. It’s in the Jeep! Fortunately, I had the talk on a thumb drive, was able to borrow a laptop (thanks, Emily!) and get it configured with the projector (thanks, Frank!) and start just about on time. I can’t thank the show staff enough for coming to my rescue. I didn’t know what to expect, but I drew a great crowd for my 10:30am Modern Wet Fly Strategies talk. The post-talk Q&A was likewise excellent. Meantime, my wonderful wife came back to the show to drop off my laptop, which I had in time for my noon Farmington River talk. Another strong showing, so, as they say during a rock concert, “Thank you, Lancaster!”
Sunday was far more relaxed; I had only my tying table (a FFS first for me) and another noon Farmington talk. I took the time to put my money where my mouth is when it comes to learning. I had Lou DiGena show me how to tie his wonderful crayfish jig pattern, the CE (Close Enough) Crayfish. I had Fritz Miller demonstrate how he ties in bucktail to form a thin, veiled collar (Fritz also sells some exceptional bucktail). I asked Bart Lombardo about tying small poppers for smallmouth. The Fly Fishing Show remains a tremendous opportunity to watch and talk and ask questions and learn from the best.

And then, it was over. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat about wet flies. Thank you to the girl who was so excited to see a Snipe and Purple that she was jumping up and down (you made my weekend!). Thank you to Fritz Miller and Alan Rupp for being such swell tablemates. Thank you Heather Purvis for the fly. Thank you for the opportunity to talk and teach and share the wonderful sport of fly fishing. See you at the IFTS in November.

FVTU Chapter awarded the Merit of the Cheeseburger with IPA clusters

What a treat to return to see my friends at the Farmington Valley TU Chapter last night. FVTU understands that a fed presenter is a happy presenter, and I relished my delicious burger, piled high with mushrooms and onions, washed down with a tasty Headway IPA draft. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you! The subject was “Wet Flies 2.0,” which takes a deeper dive into the subject. This group is filled with many dedicated, inquisitive anglers, and I particularly enjoyed the post-talk Q&A session. There was a palpable excitement in the room for the Farmington River book, and I’m planning on returning in the fall for a talk on the book and the river.

Photo courtesy of an unknown FVTU member. The meeting room at the Back Nine Tavern in New Britain is a terrific venue for presenting.

Taking control of my tying bench

I tend to be slightly messy in my workspace, whether it’s tying flies or writing about fly fishing. I think it adds a creative, mad-scientist je ne sais quoi to the experience. But, there’s a point where messy looses its charm and morphs into the dreaded enemy of productivity. Worst case, it threatens your sanity. I’m generally a happy guy, and no one wants or needs to get pissed off when they’re tying flies. But writing the Farmington River book meant that I had less time to do other things, and one of them was to organize my work/tying room in the basement. This month, I finally got the toolbench under control and hung up a shiny new pegboard. My bigger tools and other implements of destruction are now all neatly stored in their proper location on metal shelving. That left my tying area.

BEFORE. Good lord, what a disaster. Messes grew exponentially, like a snowball rolling down a hill. While I had vast stores of tying materials in boxes, many of them were crammed to the point of being too hard to find that hackle when you needed it. What’s more, the system of box-stacked-upon-box was frustrating as hell: pick it up, move it elsewhere, find another box, re-stack it, arrrrrrrgh. Time to put an end to this madness!
AFTER. Much better! Room to breathe, and, truth be told, this is a work in progress with some organizing still to be done. But this is a much more ergonomic workspace. The question you’re probably asking is, “What the heck did you do with all those boxes?”
TA-DAH! Enter the Uline Wire Picking Cart. It measures 48″x18″x69″, with four angled shelves and one top rack. That’s plenty of space to hold materials bins, hook boxes, and threads and wires. But its best feature is that it’s on wheels. So all I have to do to access it from my chair is to roll it next to the desk. It’s a sturdy build with a very smooth roll, and I can reach the vast majority of boxes from my seat, which delights my lazy side no end. I’ve strategically placed the boxes I use the most on the lower three angled racks.

As I use the cart and test drive the work space, I’ll revisit the subject and let you know how it’s working in a future post. But for now, I’ve got flies to tie…

Steve Culton Winter-Spring 2026 appearances update and Lancaster Fly Fishing Show March 14-15 schedule

I hope this Monday finds you happy and healthy and ready to fish! Or, at least think about fishing. I believe we’ve all had enough of this particularly loathsome winter, and the warmer weather this week should continue the melting trend. I haven’t fished since the first week of January, and I could really use some time on the water. The Farmington River beckons….

No fishing doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. I spent most of last week working on my tying area, cleaning and organizing, and I think I’m in a place where I’m ready to tie with a minimum of frustration (where the heck is my patch of rusty deer belly hair?) You’ll get to see it all in a future post/video etc. I’m also gearing up for the Lancaster, PA, Fly Fishing Show, now less than four weeks away, so for those of you in the area, be there or be square. Talks, classes, tying — I’m going to be doing it all. This will be my first time at this show, so I’m hoping for a strong turnout.

I’m looking forward to reconnecting with my friends at the FVTU Chapter this week. Note also the rescheduling of the Cape Cod presentation. If you’re the person in charge of hiring speakers for your club, I do in-person and Zoom presentations. Send me an email or call me, and we’ll get the ball rolling.

I’ll be posting more details on Lancaster here and on Instagram — @stevecultonflyfishing if you’re not already following — in the coming weeks. Thanks as always for reading, and for your enthusiasm.

Thank you all for another terrific CFFA Expo!

I still owe you an Edison Show report, but I wanted to take a moment today to say thank you to the CFFA for hosting me on Tyers’ Row, and for the opportunity to speak about the Farmington River. The Expo drew a good crowd, and I had a seemingly constant stream of people at my tying table. On the the things I look forward to most at this show is being able to connect with fellow tyers, vendors, and people in a scaled-down setting. The CFFA show always has a pleasant, chill vibe. I made off with some of Charles McCaughtry’s wonderful fly fishing-themed art greeting cards, some beads, and a small pack of indicators to try for low-water steelhead situations.

The highlight of the day was my standing-room-only presentation on the Farmington River. Thanks so much for coming out to see me, and I hope you buy the book when it comes out in June. Stay tuned to this website for details as they come in!

Hot off the press: the Farmington River book is at the printer!

This book-writing thing is like the building of Rome: it takes time. While I finished writing the “Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River” months ago, there are dozens of post-manuscript submission steps that must be completed — proofing galley pages, correcting mistakes, reviewing and re-reviewing — to ensure that we print a quality product. Yes, there will probably still be some errors, but hopefully, those will be minor.

And now, as you read this, the book is at the printer! So now, we’re at printing, then binding, and hopefully I get my advance copies in a couple month. As of this writing, the scheduled release date hasn’t changed, and that’s June 1. Of course, I will update you here and on other social media channels as new and better information comes in.

I’m looking forward to sitting under this sign, pen in hand!

I’m still undecided about when and how I might sell books from this site. There may be a mass pre-order, which would likely be cash, check or Venmo only, then out go signed copies into your hot little hands. I first need to research the costs of doing that business. Again, you’ll find out here once a decision is made.

I love the positive energy and anticipation I’m feeling from people who are really looking forward to the book. Believe me, I share your excitement!