Tag Archives: fly fishing

Dispatches from the writing front (and other destinations).

My keyboard has been getting a workout this winter. Lots of articles in the pipeline right now that will be appearing in 2014. Among them:

Matching the Hatch with Wet Flies (American Angler)

Downstream Wets in Small Brooks, Building a Wet Fly Team, Salmon fishing for Stripers (Mid Atlantic Fly Fishing guide)

Bugs Department and Farmington River Survivor Strain (The Drake)

A story/essay on a year-long striper adventure (FlyFish Journal)

Not to mention the regular, wonderful (it doesn’t suck, does it?) content featured here on Currentseams.

Anyone else bloody tired of winter? Stand by. Spring is coming.

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Speaking of soon-to-be regular (I hope) content, I just completed my first successful tying test video last night. I’m hoping to do a bunch of these this year. Stay tuned for the first one, coming soon.

The Dark Hendrickson Winged Wet

We had spent the morning nymphing, but as the hour hand worked its way toward eleven, the bite slowed. One o’clock would be the visible start of the Hendrickson hatch — you can set your watch by it on the Farmington — but I figured right now was about time for creatures to be stirring a foot below the surface.

I rigged up a team of three wets, with a Dark Hendrickson on point, and began walking down a long, three-foot deep run. When I got to the tailout, I encountered an angler reclining on rock, enjoying the warmth of the late April sun. I hailed him and asked how his fishing had been. He told me he hadn’t yet wet his line. “Waiting for the Hendrickson hatch to start,” he explained.

Oh, it’s already started, I told him. “I don’t see anything coming off,” he said. I shook my head. You can’t see it yet. It’s going on below, and it’s going to be a good one. See my friends up there? I’ve been catching them all the way down the run, just swinging wets. They’ve been keyed on this fly here.

The Dark Hendrickson Winged Wet is a legacy American pattern that has been fooling trout for over a century. I’ve been fishing it only a fraction of that time, yet I couldn’t possibly tell you how many trout I’ve taken on it. This fly would easily make my Top Ten Wets list. Match the size of the naturals (about a 12 on the Farmington), then drift, swing, or dangle it over rising fish, and hold on.

The Dark Hendrickson Winged Wet

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Hook: 2x strong wet fly
Thread: Grey
Tail: Dark blue dun hackle fibers
Body: Muskrat fur
Hackle: Dark blue dun hen
Wing: Lemon wood duck

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Tying notes: I like to use darker muskrat fur, particularly the soft grey underfur. Pick out and discard the black, stiffer guard hairs when you snip off a patch. A little fur goes a long way, and if you happen to have an entire skin, you’ve got enough fur to keep your great-great grandchildren in Hendricksons. Keep the body thin; the hero of this fly is wing. Be sure to leave plenty of room for the head and the wing; you can see on this fly that I just about made it. (Although the trout won’t care a lick.) To form the wing, I usually fold a small section of wood duck over itself with the dull side facing in, but I don’t get too crazy about trying to make every fly perfect. Make the wing about as long as the bend. If you don’t tie this fly, please start. You’re going to be happy you did.

Looks like the Hendrickson hatch has started.

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The Dark Hendrickson Rogues’ Gallery

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“Wet Flies 101” at the Mianus Chapter of TU March 11

We are busy, busy, busy here at currentseams. (Busy is good.) My next presentation is Tuesday, March 11, at the Mianus Chapter of TU, Waveny Mansion, in New Canaan, CT. Doors open 7pm. Hope to see you there.

North-country spiders, part of my “Wet Flies 101” presentation

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Thanks TU225 for hosting me

Many thanks to the Narragansett TU Chapter for being such gracious, welcoming hosts. I think that was my biggest crowd to date. It’s always gratifying to be able to talk and teach at the grassroots level. Thanks also to everyone for the follow-up emails.

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Here I am

I have not disappeared (like this brown is about to).

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I’ve been on a little vacation. Even starving writers occasionally get to go somewhere warm and breezy in the middle of winter. Yes, I managed a little fishing. Yes, there will be a story. But for now, these three items:

On Wednesday night, February 26, I will be presenting “Wet Flies 101” to the Narragansett Trout Unlimited chapter. You can get directions from their website (tu225.org).

Saturday, March 1, I will be at The Compleat Angler in Darien, CT, from 10am-2pm to present a tying demo, “Flies for Small Streams.” I will be covering wets, nymphs, dries, and streamers, along with tactics and presentations. Directions at compleatangleronline.com.

Last but not least, I just finished an article for American Angler on matching the hatch with wet flies. It will be in the spring trout issue.

As always, thanks for reading.

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

2/4/14 Farmington River Report: Sunny with a chance of trout

Today was going to be the warmest day of the week. I had to go to UpCountry to pick up my new vise. Chance of a couple hours of fishing, 100%.

Of course, I wasn’t the only person who thought it would be a fine afternoon to fish the Upper TMA. Spots A and B were on lockdown, so I settled for C. And C it was on the old grade point scale, with the guy in spot A bailing trout, the guy in spot B catching a few less, and me coming in with a rock-solid average. Still, hard to complain about fishing on a weekday when the sun is out and there’s only a little ice in your guides. Especially after I lengthened my leader and added another BB shot to adjust for the depth of the water. I indicator nymphed with a size 18 (2x short) soft-hackle BHPT on point and a size 16 (2x short) BH Squirrel and Ginger as top dropper. They liked the S&G. Best fish of the day was a some-teen inch Survivor Strain brown with riveting black spots and fins the size of a barn door.

Didn’t see any bugs. Water temp was 35 degrees. Air temp just under freezing. Flows about 350-400.

A failed attempt at an art shot. But I like the effect of the water, the sunlight, and the spotting in the upper left. This was the Survivor Strain brown. I couldn’t distinguish an elastomer, but the adipose fin was clearly clipped.

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After getting locked out of my first two chosen spots, I headed to a third. Crapass. This guy was fishing right where I would have been swinging streamers. So I figured I might as well get a good photo out of it.

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Currentseams one year later: where we’ve been, and where we’re going

January 31 marked the first anniversary of this website. WordPress sent me a little reminder valentine, which is nice because it had completely slipped my mind.

I was unsure what to expect when I started currentseams. People had been suggesting to me that I start a blog, but I hated that word. Blog, to me, sounded like some affected entity that had the massive potential to come off like, “Dear diary…today I went fishing!” Not for this man. I knew I needed a website for my guiding, fly tying, writing, and speaking business; I was blowing it off because there was no way I was going to put a out sucky product. Finally, I ended up at WordPress, found a format I liked, and waded in.

And here we are, 112 (Really? Wow!) followers later. I want to say thank you to all of you. I appreciate your readership.

Looking to the present and future: in addition to the more of the same high-quality content, I have some new ideas for currentseams. One of those is that I am starting to add outside links to other sites. These will be fly fishing industry-related, anything from shops to magazines to other blogs. I’m starting with UpCountry Sportfishing and Great Feathers. UpCountry is the primary shop I teach out of, and your single source for all things Farmington River. Great Feathers has a comprehensive selection of wet fly tying materials, including some harder-to-find hooks. You can find the links in the right hand column of currentseams.

The second bit of news is that I am close to (finally!) doing a some tying videos. I think the wait will be worth it.

That’s all for now. Thanks again for reading.

P.S. When I ran the 100th Follower contest, I really enjoyed hearing from so many of you. Feel free to leave a comment (especially some of the new folks). I read them all.

I’m way happier about the one-year anniversary of currenseams than I look here. Really. Honest.

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The Un-Dead of Winter

One from the archives. I wrote this several years ago to remind myself that Pete Seeger was right. Not to mention Paul.

The Un-Dead of Winter

By Steve Culton

© 2009. All rights reserved.

I was heading out of the office on a freezing January afternoon when the receptionist, noticing how I was dressed, asked me if I was going fishing. I told her yes, and she responded with an incredulous, “In the dead of winter?!?”

I smiled in affirmation, but on the way to the stream, her words got me thinking about the bum rap winter takes when it comes to natural rhythms  — and angling — especially if you plan on forsaking the homey comfort of the ice fishing hut in favor of wading. The reality is, fall is when things die. Winter is when life begins. And it truly is a wonderland, alive and well and overflowing with vitality.

Step into your backyard or some nearby woods. The trees and bushes are already covered with buds, nature’s amazing automated leaf and flower systems, full of life (in the dead of winter!) and waiting for the warmth of spring to pop. As I write this, the mercury is well below freezing, yet my forsythia is as green as a springtime lawn, stems so bud-laden I can only imagine the yellow riot that awaits me in April. Mountain laurel and rhododendrons proudly display the evergreen banner, and from my window I can see a cardinal and his mate searching for seeds in the compacted snow.

An exquisitely parr-marked Farmington River brown. Even on a cold January afternoon, she was more than happy to chase a swung fly.

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Even on the small stream I was fishing the day our receptionist questioned my sanity, there was life in the air and beneath the water. Though the high never made it past 30 degrees, size 14 charcoal grey midges flitted about. Wild trout were holding low on the river bottom, ready to gobble any food that came tumbling along. It started to snow, and as my cigar smoke drifted slowly into the windless air, creating a tapestry with the chunky flakes, I felt as alive and happy as I would be sipping lemonade a warm July afternoon.

A few weeks later, I was fishing a salt estuary in Rhode Island. The temperature had plummeted into the low twenties, and a bitter west wind tormented the exposed skin on my face. Yet, there were snails and grass shrimp and, as this was the new moon, perhaps even clam worms doing what they always do: living. (The stripers, sadly, were living somewhere out of casting range.)

What mysteries remain uncovered along the frozen banks of our rivers and shores? You don’t know if you don’t go.

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I used to view winter as a time to store the rods and gear and prepare for the reawakening rituals of spring. No longer. I’m out on our streams and rivers and in the salt, almost always gloriously alone, left to my thoughts, the wonders both seen and unseen, and the bounty of life that reminds me spring is on the way.

Farmington River report 1/17/14

Today was a pretty darn nice day for January, and there was no shortage of anglers taking advantage of the last of the thaw. Plenty of vehicles in Greenwoods, Woodshop, along Church Pool, and in the lot. The upper TMA was running about 550cfs, clear, and in the low thirties. High air temp was low forties (no ice on the guides — huzzah!), abundant sunshine, and a good southerly breeze that kept most of the dry fly anglers away. Not much to write about in the way of hatch activity. I nymphed from 11:30am to 1:00pm under an indicator, and the trout preferred the smaller of my two flies, a size 22 (really an 18, 2x short) soft-hackled BHPT. Always a happy moment, landing your first Farmington River brown of the year — or for that matter, landing a trout in January. An angler below me  also did well on small nymphs. Switched over to streamers and ventured to some different water, but could find no takers, though I did speak to another angler (Colin — pleased to meet you) who told me he had gotten into two trout on streamers. The cold is coming, so get out while you can.

Remnants from the last ice age — about two weeks ago.

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