Hatcheries update, Yale, fishing, and who ordered this cold weather?

Mar3

Happy Monday. I suppose I am one of the lucky ones who doesn’t view Mondays as a collective negative. Such is the fortune of working for yourself at a job you love. (Of course, the money stinks, but that’s a different story.)

I’ve learned that at this moment, we’re in a holding pattern with the hatcheries budget thing. DEEP was surprised to see this manifest, and for now it’s just a line item on a proposed budget. When I hear that it’s time to take meaningful action, I’ll let you know, and what your action should be.

Many thanks to the Yale Fishing Club for hosting me last Thursday. We tied some soft hackles, and at some delicious New Haven-style apizza. While I loved the white clam pie, the potato and bacon was on another level of wonderfulness.

**Now that’s a bird’s eye view! Many thanks to filmmaker extraordinaire Matthew Vinick for lending his time and fine drone photography skills.**

I did manage a couple hours of fishing during last week’s research/photo outing. Total blank. But I’m not surprised, given that fact that there was an active snow melt which was dumping gallons of icy cold water into the system. And today, we have more winter-like temperatures. Thankfully, those are supposed to go away soon.

CT hatcheries proposed cuts, book stuff, Yale Fishing Club

Feb24

Hi gang. You may have seen it on the inter web, or perhaps gotten an email about possible cuts to the current CT fish hatchery budget. That, of course, would be unacceptable, and, of course, it would also be ridiculous given the revenue that’s generated by licenses and trout stamps. I’m searching for a definitive action step for us to take — who to contact and what to say — and I’ll get that out to you as soon as I have it.

I know I’ve already said this a hundred times, but thanks for your patience with this one-post-a-week stuff. I’m making good progress on the book, Fly Fishing Guide to the Farmington River. My recent focus has been on writing about the water. It’s been challenging since I can’t actually get out to much of it due to snow/ice/frozen/no parking, etc. So I’m writing as much as I can from memory. Even then, I still like to be able to get out and reconfirm what I think I know. Lo and behold, this we have a warm spell! I’m hoping to explore this week.

Finally I’ll be teaching at the Yale Fishing Club this week. What a treat to be able to tutor a new generation of fly anglers — not to mention the New Haven-style pizza I’m going to eat.

**Last year. Now, say in your best Thurston Howell III impersonation voice, “…must be a Yale man…”**

TGIF Edition: Speaking at Yale, new Surfcasters Journal article, and exciting news teaser

Feb23

Happy Friday, and and it’s a TGIF kind of day around currenseams HQ. It was a busier than normal week, what with two road hockey weekday games for #3 son Gordo and all the other stuff I’ve got going on.

On Tuesday night, I spoke and taught to the Yale Fishing Club. The Club is run by my good friend and paddle board angler extraordinaire Sean Callinan, and I’m always stoked to be able to teach the next generation of fly anglers. The subject matter was small streams, something near and dear to me, and we devoted plenty of time to preserving and protecting the resource. We finished by tying the Squirmy Worm Jig, which is both easy and highly effective. Many thanks again to the group for hosting me, and the pizza was swell, too!

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new article for Surfcasters Journal. It will be a little different in that it is story oriented, rather than how-to. It’s going to put a smile on your face when you read it. Of course, I’ll let you know when it comes out.

Finally, I just received some very exciting news that’s so big, it deserves its own post. My apologies for the teaser. I’m hoping to be able to share next week. I hope some of you are getting out to fish!

Soft Hackles at the Yale University Fishing Club

Feb14

Class was in session last night on the historic Yale University campus. Only instead of pencils and books, there were vises and hooks. And pizza. What would a little Monday night fly tying be without pizza? Anyway, I did two tying sessions with the members of the Yale Fishing Club. We started each one with an abbreviated version of my seminar, “Wet Flies 101.” And then, we hit the vises and tied a simple soft hackle in the traditional North Country Spider format. Some of the members had only rudimentary tying skills, but we made it a no-fail, no-worry zone, and I think everyone had a swell time. I know the instructor did!