Tag Archives: fly fishing

A civilized outing at the private fishing club

Being an internationally famous fly fishing personality (or not — but let’s go with the former for the sake of the story) gets me all kinds of cool invites. Yesterday I took advantage of the opportunity to fish some private club-owned waters.

It’s a challenging stream at this time of year, with no canopy, low flows, clear water, and brilliant sunshine. The stream wanders through the woods, mostly longer flat runs and shallows, but pockmarked with intriguing bends, riffles, deep dark holes, and plunges. It’s on the large side of small, or the small side of medium, depending on your point-of-view.

The fishing today was tough. I fished a dry/dropper and streamers. One bump on an olive Squirrel and Herl, and one nose bump on the dry, but I was finally able to connect with a hefty rainbow on spider dropper. My host, John R, managed three. Many thanks for a glorious day on this gorgeous piece of water.

My catch has a great fish story. See that pile of rocks to the right? I had made a cast into the center of the pool from the back side of the pile, and was crawling forward a few feet to get into a better position to manage my drift. When I looked up, my dry fly was gone. So I set the hook, and to my delight found a fat rainbow attached to the North Country spider dropper. Painfully slow currents and mirror-like surfaces made the fishing a triple black diamond challenge.

PB061332.jpeg

~

Here’s my host John doing battle in the same spot. Many thanks for the invite, kind sir. And if you, dear reader, have issued a similar invitation, I plan to take you up on it — this is simply the one that worked best for me on this day. I appreciate all the offers!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

~

They’re called classics for a reason. Once again, Our Lady of the Blessed Snipe and Purple did not fail me. Funny thing! On a day where hatches were at a bare-bones minimum, I saw a little black stone, size 18, crawling on my waders moments after I took this photo.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Farmington River Report 11/5/19: Early fireworks

I guided Drew today, and to celebrate Guy Fawkes’ Day we started off with a bang: two trout on two casts! Drew is new to the Farmington and relatively new to trout fishing, so given the time of year and conditions (cold, 310cfs) our task was to cover some water and work on the nymphing game. The specific method was indicator nymphing, drop shot rig, and we went with a sz 14 Frenchie Variant and a sz 18 SHPT. The trout liked both, the Frenchie being the favorite.

First cast, the indicator merely twitched. Look for a reason to set the hook on every drift!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

~

Second cast. At this point it was proposed that we quit and go get coffee and doughnuts. The motion failed.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

~

Angler traffic was light, and we did not see any other fish hooked today. (Thanks to the one gentleman who offered to share the water!) We hit four marks and found fish in two of them. Four trout to net, a few more lost at hookset, and we called it a very good day.  Nice job, Drew!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

My tying bench is a mess (oh, like yours is all neat and clean?)

There comes a time every year when I declare my tying bench a disaster area. I’ve been busy churning out flies for clients and myself all summer, and there’s never any time to put things back where they belong — let alone sweep up that mountain of shaved deer hair. OK, if you’re one of those few who keeps things neat and tidy, I humbly bow before your uncluttered presence. For me, a clean tying area is going to have to be a winter project.

Live and in the studio. No edits!

MessyDesk

~

Oscar Madison bench, Felix Unger results. Some bugs for the Farmington this week.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

“The Little Things” from July/August 2015 American Angler

We’re going back a few years for this one! “The Little Things” is the first in a series of articles — and presentations — on seemingly insignificant things that can have a huge impact on your fly fishing success. This piece first appeared in the July/August 2015 issue of American Angler. Noteworthy: not everything in this article is in my original “Little Things” presentation. To read it, there’s a link to a pdf below. Enjoy!

TheLittleThings

LittleThingsSpread

 

Steve Culton is now (finally) on Instagram

My goodness, sometimes I move at a glacial pace. (Remember glaciers? We used to have them everywhere it was cold…) But never mind. You can now find me on Instagram at stevecultonflyfishing. This location will be more quick hit copy and visual reference than the detailed articles you find on currentseams. And on the flip side, more situational shots from fishing trips or events in near real time.

While I’m hoping to cultivate new audiences, I encourage all my loyal readers to follow me on Instagram. There will certainly be material there that doesn’t make it to currentseams. Thanks, and I’ll see you on the river or at an event soon.

Yeah. That’s me.

IMG_4272

 

 

“Wet Flies 101” in Bridgeport November 19

Someone recently asked, “When are you going to be presenting Wet Flies 101 again?” I have your answer: Tuesday, November 19, Nutmeg TU, 7pm, Port 5, Bridgeport, CT. If you’re interested in this highly effective and underutilized subsurface method, Wet Flies 101 provides an overview and gateway into this ancient and traditional art. Hope to see you there!  You can find the Nutmeg TU Facebook page here and their website here.

This nearly two foot-long wild brown is one of the best fish I’ve ever taken on a wet fly — and provides testimony to the devastating efficiency of the method.

Wet Flies 101

Farmington River Report: Not as low, still a bit slow

I guided Glenn and Magnus yesterday from 10:30-2:30. The river was uncharacteristically quiet within the Permanent TMA — we saw only three other anglers the entire day. It was cool and damp and cloudy, perfect for tiny BWOs, but the only bugs appearing in numbers were caddis. Water was 160cfs and leaves were a factor. We fished a combination of indicator nymphing/drop shot and streamers, and although we stuck several fish on both methods, it was not a good day for getting trout to the hoop. Nonetheless, a pleasure fishing with you, gentlemen. (For those fishing streamers, white was the hot color yesterday. I like white when there are colorful leaves in the water.)

Magnus working a run at the head of a pool. We had a brief flurry of activity here, sticking two fish in the space of 5 minutes.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

~

Glenn waiting for the strike…here it comes…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Road Warrior: Three presentations this week!

Three days, three presentations, all of them different: the first freshly updated, the second an oldie but goodie, and the third making its debut! Here’s where you can find me this week:

Tuesday, October 15, 7:00pm, “West Branch Farmington River,” Thames Valley TU, North Franklin Fire House, 5 Tyler Drive, North Franklin, CT. This presentation has been updated with new photos, video, and content that reflects current regulations and trends. For more information, here’s the TVTU website.

Wednesday, October 16, “Wet Flies 101,” Capital District Fly Fishers, Colonie VFW Post 8692, 140 VFW Road, Colonie, NY. This is my intro to the wonderful world of wet flies. Wet flies have been fooling trout for centuries — and the fish aren’t getting any smarter. The link to the CDFF Facebook page is here.

Thursday, October 17, “The Little Things 3.0,” Farmington Valley TU, Whinstone Tavern, Stanley Golf Course, New Britain, CT. The world premier of The Little Things 3.0! Pay attention to the seemingly insignificant details, and you’ll catch more fish. You can find their website here.

Hope to see you, and if you’re a currentseams follower, please be sure to tell me.

A very good-natured reminder: C-O-L-T-O-N makes reels. C-U-L-T-O-N is me. Just sayin’. 🙂

LittleThings3.0

 

Updated October 2019: The West Branch Farmington River Presentation

I spent most of today updating one of my oldest presentations. The West Branch Farmington River sports new video, photos, content, and is current with new regs as of fall 2019. If your club is looking for a comprehensive overview of southern New England’s blue ribbon trout stream, this is the presentation you’ve been looking for. You can find out more about this and my other presentations here.

Screen Shot 2019-10-11 at 6.09.15 PM

~

In case you missed it, I have an article about the Farmington River in the most recent issue (Sept/Oct 2019) of Eastern Fly Fishing. You can get a copy direct from them here.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tip of the Week: The wrong fly presented correctly is better than the right fly presented incorrectly

I know, it’s a bit of a mouthful. But it’s so true. And it’s played out multiple times in my last two trout outings. “The Wrong Fly Presented Correctly…” strategy is part of my new presentation, The Little Things 3.0, and I wanted to share it with you so you can catch more fish on your next trip.

Situation A: I’m fishing a snotty dump-in at the head of long pool with several feet of depth. I see small (size 16) caddis and tiny BWOs and what looks like a smaller (size 16) sulphur in the air, and a few swirls of rising trout. Problem: I’ve only got my streamer pack with me; the only wet flies I have are big size 10 white fly soft hackles from a summer smallie trip — not even close to what’s hatching. Nonetheless, I rigged up a makeshift wet fly team of two on 8-lb fluoro. Not ideal on a number of fronts — the fly is way too big, it’s the wrong color, the leader system is clunky at best. And yet, I was making it easy for the buyer to buy — and sometimes that’s all you need to do to make a sale.

This handsome brown proves that it’s rarely a bad idea to feed the fish something that looks alive and good to eat (even if it’s the wrong size and color and species) — as long as you feed it to them the same way they’re taking their food. 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

~

Situation B: Long, languid water, hardly classic wet fly structure or speed. You’d think dry fly all the way on this mark. The trout are smutting on tiny BWOs, producing gentle rise rings, the kind you see with midges or Tricos or — tiny BWOs. I’ve been fishing streamers, so I’ve got an 8-weight WF line — a really bad choice for this kind of water. I do have some smaller BWO wet fly patterns this time, and so two of them go on the team of three. But I like to give the fish a choice, just in case. So I tied on a size 12 Squirrel and Ginger top dropper. This fly is 10 sizes larger than what the trout are feeding on. But I’m fishing in the film, using a mended swing and dead drift to bring the team of flies to hungry mouths, just like the naturals. You can see where this is going…

Bingo! Wrong fly, right presentation, big brown. Go forth and do likewise. Oh, yes — the same rule holds true for stripers.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA