Currentseams now has over 1,000 official subscribers — and it’s all your fault. Really, I can’t thank all of you enough for your interest, your readership, your passion, your enthusiasm, your comments, and especially for your kind, giving nature. I like very much what this site has become, and that’s in a large part due to your participation. Yeah, I wish I had more tying videos. Yeah, I wish I had more essays and articles. Yeah, I need to update some stuff (like my wet fly team diagram). But that’s something to aspire to.
Of course, we’ll have a drawing to celebrate. But not right now. Summer is upon us, and we’ve all got cookouts to attend, vacations to go on, and fish to catch. My plan is for something later in summer. Of course, as a subscriber you’ll see it first here. In the meantime, if you’re not a subscriber — ten lashed with a cane rod — now’s a great time to sign up. Be sure to follow me on Instagram @stevecultonflyfishing, too. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!
It’s as easy as that. (Sorry, this isn’t a live link. The real one is off to the side or the top or the bottom, depending on your device.) Who’s going to be 1,012?
I fished for pleasure Wednesday evening, timing it so that I arrived at the mark on the lower river just as the thunderstorms were ending. There were a few small branches littering the roadway, but the water was surprisingly clear and free of debris. As I’d guessed would happen, I beat everyone else to the water and was able to secure some prime real estate. The river was quiet as I entered at 6pm, but the surface soon became dimpled by the tells of feeding fish.
This particular mark appeals to me because it’s a mix of moving runs and seams, eddying pockets, and a glassy pool bordering frog water. All of these places hold trout, and you’ve got to tailor your presentation, leader & tippet, and fly selection to meet the needs of each. Oh, and it all shifts and changes as daylight fades. It’s a difficult mark to get right, but when you figure it out, the rewards are great.
A healthy mid-teens Farmington brown taken on Mike Lawson’s Mayfly Cripple.
Wednesday night’s hatch window was textbook early summer. I had trout sipping spinners until dark, and I had trout slashing at emergers from 7:30pm until 8:45pm. I took fish on five different flies: Usual size 20, Magic Fly size 16 &18, Sulphur spinner size 20, classic Catskills Light Cahill size 12 & 14; and a new pattern I’d never fished before, Mike Lawson’s Mayfly Cripple in sulphur colors, size 16. I’ve never really gotten into the whole cripple thing, and the two times I’d fished this fly this year, the trout have largely ignored it. Not on this night. I stuck three good fish on it, and now it’s in my top rotation. The pattern is basically a Pheasant Tail bottom half with a sulphur dry top half that includes a thorax, hackle, and synthetic wing. (I’ll give you a pic and recipe soon.)
Say howdy to Mister White-Gloved. Iso time is a good time for all. This time of year, if you hear a take that sounds like someone threw a bowling ball into the river, chance are it was a trout feeding on Isonychia. Try a Hackled March Brown wet on point.
On Thursday I gave Brett a wet fly lesson. What a difference a day makes! We got a late start, so our window was 3:45-7:45, which should have meant a ton of bugs and visibly feeding fish. The bugs barely materialized; we saw a few sulphur, some tan caddis, and a couple Isos. Rises were few and far between, and none of the fish was in a regular feeding rhythm. Nonetheless, Brett slayed ’em. We stuck four at the first mark and I don’t know how many at the second — we easily put a double digits in the hoop. They ate every fly on the team (top dropper, Magic Fly size 14; middle dropper, new Squirrel and Ginger diving caddis prototype size 14; point fly tailed Partridge and Light Cahill size 14). We experienced a sequence where four consecutive fish took the diving caddis. More and more, I’m seeing evidence that this is a critical component of the three fly team. Brett did a fantastic job with his presentations and hook sets. If I were the trout, I’d be concerned.
I often hear apocryphal, unsubstantiated reports of wild rainbows on the Farmington River. So when Brett landed this fish, my curiosity was off the charts. Vivid coloration, unique spotting, minimal scale damage, parr marks…could it be?Could be…but isn’t. A closer look at the tail reveals a structure far too short and stubby for a wild fish. The anal fin also reveals the kind of shredding you’d find from repeated scraping against the bottom of a tank. Still, a striking creature.
Back in the lonesome, isolated days of the pandemic, I mentioned that I’d never read Gary LaFontaine’s masterwork, Caddisflies. Currentseams subscriber Mayson Neel would have none of that. So he found a used hardcover copy of Caddisflies in fantastic condition (the book is out of print) and had it shipped to me. I started reading it, was intrigued, but like so many other projects, finishing it just fell by the wayside.
Cut to this winter, where I cracked it open, found my trusty yellow highlighter, and started anew. I’m happy I did, because I can tell you that what I’ve learned has resulted in dozens of trout caught, for both me and my clients.
I have so much to share about Caddisflies — I really can’t believe I ignored this book for so long — but I’d like to start with LaFontaine’s Diving Caddis wet fly. The female of many caddis species dive to the streamed to lay their eggs, encased in a gleaming bubble. LaFontaine writes, “Both the brightness and the action of the diving female are enough to make a wet fly imitation necessary…(the fly’s) pure Antron filaments, hanging free over the back, reflect more light.” He goes on to list four primary patterns, plus eleven secondary ones. I was dumbfounded to see that there isn’t a tan caddis pattern in the group; the closest we get is a tan/pale green version. So I made up my own tan diving caddis variant:
LaFontaine Tan Diving Caddis (Steve Culton variant)Hook: Standard wet fly size 14-20; Thread: Tan UNI 6/0; Body: Tan Caddis LifeCycle dubbing, small gold wire rib; Underwing: brown partridge feather fibers; Overwing: 20-30 tan sparkle yarn filaments; Hackle: One turn brown rooster hackle
Tying notes: LaFontaine specified the Mustard 7957-B hook; I went with my standard issue heavy wet fly hook, the TMC 3769, size 14. He doesn’t include a rib, but I like the segmented look it creates. While he specifies Sparkle yarn for the body, the LifeCycle dubbing makes a fine stand-in with its blend of natural and synthetic fibers. I plan on trying a few without the rib, and using the sparkle yarn, chopped up, to create a rougher, buggier body. I found it curious that he chose stiff rooster hackle, but LaFontaine explains that the fibers “Stand out from the body and add vibrancy to the moving wet fly.” Many of the photos I’ve seen of other ties feature a collar using several turns of hackle, but LaFontaine is adamant that the collar be kept sparse.
Although I’ve only been fishing this fly for a month, I’ve had several outings where it was the only fly on the team of three that was getting eaten…or the fish chose it by a wide margin over the other patterns.
Spoiled, selfish children have a habit of poor behavior when the game isn’t going their way. Their frustration reaches a boiling point. Then they grab their ball and storm off in a petulant frenzy. The result is that the game is over and ruined for everyone. The spoiled child in this case is the person (or people) in charge of making the flow decisions for the West Branch of the Farmington River. And once again, they’ve decided that if they’re miserable, everyone who uses the river for recreation should be miserable.
For years, it’s been no secret that the MDC doesn’t care about managing the West Branch as a viable tailwater fishery and recreational resource. For over a year now, their unconscionably selfish reaction to not wanting any further financial responsibility for Hogback Dam has been to release only the minimum flow as-required-by-law. Anglers be damned. Canoeists, kayakers and tubers be damned. Business who depend on robust river flows be damned. Fish and wildlife be damned. It’s their ball, and they’re taking it away in the name of corporate greed.
What’s wrong with this picture? As the flow drops like a stone toward the bare minimum — and let’s note that the reservoir is nearly full — you can see that the dicks at the MDC are releasing nearly 200cfs less than they normally do. Score one for corporate weasels!
If it’s all too confusing, this one-page, one-side sheet explains the legal flow requirements for both Colebrook and Goodwin dams. We thank the Farmington River Watershed Association for providing it. And we damn the MDC for reducing flows and damaging our river, simply because they can.
In the meantime, we can only hope for rain up north, which would require the MDC to release more water — and more rain locally, which would bump up the Still River.
You haven’t heard from me this week because I’ve been busy. Some family stuff, some business stuff, and, oh, by the way, fly fishing the Farmington River. I fished Monday late afternoon into dark; Tuesday 7pm-dark; and yesterday I guided Max in the afternoon, then finished off the day all by myself till dark. Rather than divy the days up, I’ll give you some hard data to digest. But first, yesterday’s session with Max.
Max wanted to learn the ancient and traditional art of wet flies, and after several years of missed connections, we finally made it happen. It was worth the wait, as conditions were nearly ideal for wet fly: 165cfs in the PTMA and 247cfs downriver, water running clear and cold and plenty of bugs. We started off in the PTMA, and sulphurs were the story. We spent the first hour doing a streamside classroom, then entered the water around 3pm. In the space of an hour we stuck six fish. Like many anglers new to swinging wets, Max found the hook-setting process a challenge — you’ve got to wait before you set and let the fish do most of the work. We moved downstream below the PTMA and once Max found his “are-you-still-there?” equilibrium it was lights out. We stuck a bunch more, and Max did a great job of getting his flies over feeding fish and managing his drifts. Well done!
Not the river’s prettiest rainbow, but a good fish nonetheless. She actually went 15″ and gave us a proper display of mykiss obstreperousness. She was feeding in about 18″ of moving water; we saw the rise, and Max delivered a perfect strike over her lie. Three of the last four fish we connected with, including this one, took a size 14 tan LaFontaine Diving Caddis. (Droppers are the fastest way to find out what the fish want.) Be advised, trout, there’s another wet fly flinging fish-catching machine in the making.
Now to my observations. This is a wonderful time to be fishing the Farmington. You’ve got actively feeding fish and bugs from daylight to dark. Witnessed: sulphurs, tan caddis, dark grey caddis, March Browns, Isonychia (well below the PTMA) midges, BWOs. All three days saw a prodigious number of sulphurs on the water and in the air from late afternoon to about 8pm.
The lower water and cooler temps aren’t hurting the wet fly fishing; but you’ve got to pick and choose your locations. Any wet fly success I witnessed and experienced came in broken water 1-3 feet deep that was moving at a brisk walking pace. Slower, languid water, even when loaded with active feeders, proved unproductive. The trout in the slower water seemed to be be keyed on spinners (present even in the late afternoon) and I had only a few half-hearted tugs to show for my wet fly efforts. Faster water was money, even when there were no visibly feeding fish.
Surfcaster Extraordinaire Toby Lapinski scored this 20+” wild brown on a Light Cahill soft hackle in — you guessed it — faster water. A lovely fish, and nice pecs! It was one of two large browns he picked up on Tuesday swinging wet flies.
Finally, the evening dry fly bite was been vexing me (says the guy who was featured in a movie about dry fly fishing on the Farmington). We all put our waders on one leg at a time, folks, and I’m your proof. Monday, it was a lot of bad luck: I had about a dozen swings and misses by the trout, connecting with and landing only three. Tuesday, I hooked and landed a trout on my first dry fly cast; it was all downhill after that. The slot I was fishing was far less populated with rising fish than the night before; there were more swings and misses, and I only stuck one more fish into dark. Then a wind and rain squall blew in and stopped the feeding dead in its tracks.
And for dessert, we have…
Last night, I had the place all to myself…and about 400,000 size 16 Sulphur duns and spinners that littered the surface of the run I was fishing. My target drift lane bordered frog water and classic glassy dry water. The fish seemed to move at will from sipping spinners to slashing at emergers, and sometimes doing both. Duns were everywhere on the water and were largely ignored. With so much food in the water, I again had trouble buying a strike, let alone trying to figure out what they wanted. In 90 minutes I was able to hook and land two trout, one on a size 16 Magic Fly fished dry and the other on a size 14 Light Cahill. At 8:45pm, the feed went from an 11 to 1-and-done. I think the cold weather has changed the usual pattern of feeding long after you can see your fly.
Get out there, folks. It’s really, really good, even when it seems like it isn’t.
On Thursday I had the pleasure of fishing with Andrew. Andrew had asked for a wet fly lesson, and he couldn’t have picked a better day: water on the low side of medium and clear & cold, hot, sunny weather…well, maybe it could have been a little bit better on the hatch intensity scale, as we really didn’t see much aerial bug activity, nor actively feeding fish. Nonetheless, the subsurface bite was tremendous. We started off in the PTMA with a stream-side Wet Flies 101 lesson, then headed to the water. In one hour we stuck six fish (while the anglers above and below us blanked). We finished up below the PTMA and were faced with the same situation: very little bug activity and virtually no active feeders. But the bite was off the charts! I have no idea how many trout we stuck. Like many new wet fly anglers, Andrew found it challenging to let the fish set the hook. But he did a great job of casting and presentation. Awwwright, Andrew!
The first of many for Andrew. We fished a three fly team consisting of a sz 16 Magic Fly top dropper, sz 14 tan Diving Caddis middle dropper, and sz 14 tailed Partridge and Light Cahill on point. Unlike my experience Tuesday night, all Andrew’s fish came on the creamy mayflies.A historical — and hysterical — moment. Andrew took a spunky rainbow, and as we were admiring it in the net, he haphazardly let his leader dangle in the current a rod’s length away. Bang! Another rainbow took the point fly with fierce conviction. I’ve experienced many wet fly doubles, but none like this one!
After our session ended, I headed downstream to meet surfcaster extraordinaire Toby Lapinski for the evening rise. The mark was basically dead at 7pm, which did not bode well — it should have been simmering with rises and the air should have been dotted with creamy mayflies. Absent any action, I headed upriver to swing a team through a snotty run, and was rewarded with 8 fish in a half hour. As with Andrew, all of the action came on the creamy mayflies. The dry fly bite finally happened at 8pm, but it was probably a 3-out-of 10 on the scale, and there was no real dusk feeding frenzy. I’d ended up in the some frog water where the majority of risers were smutting on tiny flies and spinners. Since I was feeling lazy, I didn’t bother tailoring my leader and flies to that situation; as a result, I rose only 7 trout on my size 16 Magic Fly, Usual, and sz 12 Catskills Light Cahill, sticking 2 and landing 1. But that was fine with me. Toby had similar results. This weekend cold front won’t help matters, but I expect the Sulphur hatch to build over the next week. Hopefully, before long, we’ll be in that early summer dry fly nirvana.
Neville has been following me for some time now, all the way from England. While he’s on holiday in the States this week, we had the time to meet up in Rhode Island for a lesson. We met at his rental in Point Judith, and tied a deer hair shrimp, my Grass Shrimp Solution, a Big Eelie, and then a Mutable Squid. That kept us busy for a couple of hours. Then we geared up and headed to an estuary to practice the greased line swing and its associated tactics. The tide was wrong, but we had moving water, and we even had a swing and a miss when Nev was stripping in his line to make another cast. (Teaching moment: the bass that chased his Ray’s Fly was small. Stripping a fly is a great way to attract small striped bass.) Neville is a very enthusiastic learner (he recorded much of our session on his phone) and I have only the highest amount of respect for those who dive into a subject with such eagerness and passion. Well done, Nev!
All the way from Merry Old England! Here’s Nev putting his TFO TiCr five-weight through its paces. He’s well on his way to becoming a dangerous striper-catching machine.
Fans of the movie Patton will instantly get the reference. In this case, I’m not talking about military literature, but rather LaFontaine’s fly fishing masterwork Caddisflies, which I have been studying the last couple months with renewed vigor. We’ll get to that in a moment.
I fished last night for less than two hours, but it was almost non-stop, spectacular wet fly action from start to finish. The mark was a section of the lower river, running at 328cfs and about 60 degrees. Hatch activity was at best moderate. Observed: Vitreus size 12, Sulphur size 14-16, midges, and tan caddis size 14-16. Rise activity was minimal. I fished a three fly team of a Magic Fly (heavy hook) size 14 top dropper, a LaFontaine Diving Caddis tan variant size 14 middle dropper, and a tailed Partridge and Light Cahill size 14 on point. My first three fish took one of each. From about 7:15-8:30, I have no idea how many trout I hooked. It was one of those nights where if I made three drifts without a tug, I wondered if maybe it was over. (The the answer was always no, it isn’t.) Here is the magic of the evening: this was the first time I fished the Diving Caddis, and of the over two dozen trout I landed, the vast majority came on the caddis.
Also noteworthy: there were very few visible rises, and not a ton of bugs. But clearly, there was a significant feeding event taking place subsurface — and the featured entree was egg-laying tan caddis.
The idea behind the Diving Caddis is to emulate a female egg layer, encased in a silvery bubble of air. This specific pattern is not in Caddisflies, but obviously the trout appreciated my creativity. My variant was tied with tan thread on a size 14 hook. Body was tan Lifecycle Caddis with a small gold wire rib. Underwing was brown partridge. Overwing 30 fibers of tan sparkle yarn. One turn brown rooster hackle tied hanging back to ward the bend.I had the Farmington hat trick. Most of the fish were stocked rainbows, but there was also a hefty stocked brook trout, along with a bonus 6″ wild brookie. I also had four wild browns, which was gratifying since this section of river no doubt got torched during last summer’s heat and drought. Love me some paddle pecs! Almost all of the takes came in swirling pocket water on the dead drift, although I did have a bunch on the dangle, too.
I guided Jerry and his 8 year-old son Wesley on Friday. Both are very beginning fly fishers, and neither had ever fished the Farmington River before. But, this a great time to fish the river, and we had outstanding weather: sunny, 70 degrees, flows at 270cfs in the PTMA and 435cfs downriver. On that day, 11am-3pm, the story was caddis, caddis, and caddis. Wesley hooked up first, then dad, and we ended up with five in the hoop. What a tremendous job for both anglers. Well done, gentleman and lad!
As you can see, Wesley is a little guy. After I rigged him up, I held his hand as we waded out to the spot, telling him that I had him in case he slipped. “Do you trust me?” I asked. “No,” he replied, without a moment’s hesitation. Too funny! (Photo by Jerry Ezold)Wesley’s first Farmington River trout! He did a great job of managing his drifts (we started off with indicator drop shot nymphing) and especially with looking for a reason to set the hook on every drift. I had both father and son fishing an Electric Caddis larva on point; Wesely with tan, and Jerry with bright green. Both worked. There are many versions of that fly bouncing around the web, so I’ll try to get you the recipe I use soon. It’s produced every time out.After spending the bulk of the time at one mark, we moved to a second within the PTMA to finish the session. I switched both anglers to a two-fly wet fly team. I had both fishing Mike Lawson’s Partridge Caddis Emerger in tan on top and both connected. (This was the first time I had ever fished that pattern, which was designed for Henry’s Fork but of course works very well back east.) Jerry scored this gorgeous wild brown on his point fly, my bead head Squirrel and Ginger. A great first time on the Farmington, guys, and you were both a pleasure to fish with. (Photo by Jerry Ezold)
The Farmington River is now moving into late spring/early summer mode. The hatches will begin to transition to heavier in the evenings, although caddis will still come off mornings/early afternoons, with egg layers returning later in the day. As you may have read, I am totally booked for June. Here’s hoping you get out to fish, and if you see me, please come say hello.
Edward Ringwood Hewitt was one of the leading innovators in American fly fishing and fly tying. The Skating Spider…Bivisisble…Neversink Stone…these are all Hewitt creations. Hewitt was obsessed with finding out everything he could about what made fish eat. To wit, he created a list of seven factors that made a pattern successful, and ranked them in order of importance. Gary LaFontaine, another keen student of feeding behavior and effective fly design, lists them in his masterwork Caddisflies. Number one is the light effects of the fly, above and below the surface. Number seven, the least important, is accuracy of imitation of the naturals.
So it should come as no surprise that The Grass Shrimp Solution, a ridiculously simple pattern constructed of a few strands of bucktail, some braid, and a hen feather, excels at fooling striped bass. It has no eyes, no tail, no carapace. But it does have the essential bite triggers that stripers are keying on. In Caddisflies, LaFontaine makes a very big deal about what fish are looking for when they’re feeding; it’s often a single, essential characteristic of the natural. The Grass Shrimp Solution offers a translucent silhouette when viewed from below; the soft hackle and sparse feelers provide movement; and when held on the dangle, the fly creates a wake just like the naturals. Impressionism. It’s what’s for dinner.
If you placed the Grass Shrimp Solution in a shop next to patterns with shells and eyes, no one would buy it. Fortunately, striped bass don’t browse through fly bins.
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