Award-winning columnist mails it in

By the time this edition of this award-winning fishing column is published, I will be in the middle of a week’s vacation near the Esopus Creek in Phoenicia. N.Y.

It’s a pleasant situation. The best feature of the ancestral estate is the almost complete lack of electronic communications.

We do not have cable or internet. A usable cell signal requires a five-mile drive. And every time it rains, the landline sounds like a transmission from a cold and distant star.

So no streamside updates this time. This edition is filler. Darn good filler, but filler nonetheless.

Here are some websites and bloggers I follow regularly.

Troutbitten (www.troutbitten.com): Produced by Dominick Swentosky out of central Pennsylvania. Extremely detailed advice on gear, rigging, and tactics. This is the man who introduced me to the Bread and Butter nymph, which has become my go-to fly for all freshwater species.

Drew Lookn Fishy (www.youtube.com/c/DrewLooknFishy): This guy has figured out how to spend a lot of time driving around the West fishing and camping out of his truck. Lots of dry-dropper rigs on small and medium-sized streams. Never gives directions, which is good, as these locations are mostly unspoiled. Bonus points for chanting “Hey, bear!” as he makes his way through the undergrowth, and for securing his net to the frame with zip ties.

Alvin Dedeaux (www.youtube.com/c/AlvinDedeauxFlyFishing): The chatty and humorous Alvin Dedeaux is a Texas guide specializing in fly-fishing for bass. Lots of in-the-boat stuff. When I retire, I’m going to hunt Alvin up and spend a couple days on his turf, if only for the running commentary.

At the Orvis website, there is a “how to” section that has lots of good material (www.howtoflyfish.orvis.com).

The king of this particular hill is Tom Rosenbauer, who is to fly-fishing what Bob Vila is to home improvement. (I am not the first to make this observation.)

Rosenbauer has the gift, in print or on video, of making the obscure comprehensible. One video has him with Euro-nymphing guru George Daniels, who writes books I don’t understand.

When Daniels is talking and demonstrating, however, prompted by regular guy questions from Rosenbauer, all becomes clear. Bonus points for shooting this video on the Farmington River.

Let’s wind this up with Connecticut’s own Steve Culton, the courteous and popular proprietor of Current Seams (www.currentseams.com).

Culton is something of a boss fisherman, equally enthused by stripers and wild brookies.

I had the pleasure of fishing with him on the Housatonic a couple years back. Neither one of us did much, which pleased me in a perverse way.

And I learned a lot. You will too.

  
The Esopus, like the Housatonic, is big water for an 11-mile stretch from Allaben, N.Y. to the Ashokan Reservoir. Here an angler is patiently working pockets at the downstream end, below the Five Arches bridge in Boiceville. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

Latest News

'Gather' at Troutbeck

'Gather' at Troutbeck

Romane Recalde speaking about her new business at Gather.

Natalia Zukerman

Hosted by Jason Klein and Sascha Lewis, an ongoing series called “Gather” at Troutbeck in Amenia brings together a curious crowd of local entrepreneurs, artists, and others with a story to tell for an intimate midday chat. On Thursday, Jan. 16, floral designer Romane Recalde, owner of the newly opened Le Jardin in Amenia, took center stage to share her journey from modeling in Miami to cultivating flowers in the Hudson Valley. Gather is a place to share stories, swap advice, and celebrate some of the unique businesses that make our area vibrant — all with a delicious lunch on the side. The gatherings are unconventional in the best way, with no agenda beyond good conversation and community building.

Recalde’s story isn’t just about creating a flower shop; it’s about a complete reinvention of self. “I hated Miami so much,” said the French-born Recalde, recalling her time in Florida before moving to New York. She worked as a model in New York, and eventually met her husband, James. Their pandemic escape to Turks and Caicos turned into a six-month stay, which in turn led them to Millbrook and finally to their home in Amenia, where Recalde’s connection to nature blossomed.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition

Mad Rose opens ‘Assembled’ exhibition
Mad Rose Gallery director Michael Flowers contributed to the gallery's "Assembled" exhibit with a series of collaged landscape photographs
Nathan Miller

Mad Rose Gallery’s “Assembled” exhibition opened Saturday, Jan. 18, with a public reception.

The eclectic exhibition — on view until March 2 at the gallery on the intersection of Routes 22 and 44 in Millerton — gathers together work from a group of diverse artists with decades of experience between them. The exhibition itself is true to the name, featuring photographs, sculptures, drawings and mixed media works in all shapes and sizes.

Keep ReadingShow less
exhibit

The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

The fragile bonds of family: a review of Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters'

Betsy Lerner’s 'Shred Sisters' is written with such verve and poetic imagination that it’s hard to fathom how it could be the author’s first novel. Ms. Lerner, 64, has worked for three decades as a literary agent, editor, and non-fiction writer, but at some point during the Covid pandemic — without any forethought — she sat down and typed out the first line of the novel exactly as it now appears in the book, and then completed it without telling anyone what she was up to.

The novel takes place over twenty years — from the 1970s into the ’90s — and is a kind of guide for that era. It reads like a memoir accompanied by some bouncy dialogue, but is actually a work of what’s called autofiction in which Lerner mixes her own experiences — including her own struggle with mental illness — with things she simply makes up. The fictional narrator is Amy Shred, the younger of two sisters in an upper-middle-class, secular Jewish family living in the suburbs of New Haven, Connecticut.

Keep ReadingShow less
books

Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

Lazy, hazy days of...winter?

This small stream is fishable, despite the wintry conditions. It probably won't be a pleasant or productive experience, but it can be done.

Patrick L. Sullivan

When syndicated columnists run out of ideas they do one of two things.

First they collect the last couple year’s worth of columns and call it a book. These are published to great acclaim from other syndicated columnists and show up in due course in gigantic, ziggurat-shaped mounds at Costco for $4.98 a pop.

Keep ReadingShow less