Fly benches, books and tippet rings at fishermen’s flea market

RIVERTON — Ever been to a fishermen’s flea market? Me neither.

So I saddled up Saturday morning, April 2, and went over to Riverton, near the spot where the Still River joins the West Branch of the Farmington River, and had a look around.

It was hard to miss Harold MacMillan, erstwhile proprietor of the Housatonic River Outfitters fly shop, which is now closed.

MacMillan is still doing business as HRO, concentrating on guide services and collectibles, and doing it from his home.

In Riverton he was busy trying to move leftover store inventory. There was a lot of it.

One young man asked for tippet rings. MacMillan said he had them. Somewhere.

He ducked down and commenced rummaging.

He emerged holding a plastic bag.

“You build rods?” he asked.

“Yes,” said the young man.

“Here, on the house,” MacMillan said, tossing the young man the bag, which was filled with what appeared to be reel seat hardware.

“Thanks,” said the young man.

“They’ve been hanging around the store since forever,” MacMillan said as he searched in another bin for the tippet rings.

Jason Bouchard was selling his handmade fly-tying benches, handsome things made of maple and mahogany, for $125.

He said he was relatively new to fly-fishing and tying, and decided to use his skills with creating architectural drafts on computers to design and build a fly bench that could be used on a TV tray while watching a ball game.

He was particularly proud of the vise clamp, which a friend makes for him.

Andrew Tomer of Hookset Hoodlums was presiding over a table of T-shirts, ballcaps and sweatshirts.

He said he and two fishing buddies decided “instead of buying other people’s apparel, we’ll do our own.”

That was in 2019, and it seems to be working.

John Liberati specializes in books on hunting and fishing. He said he has been a bookseller and collector since 1980.

He said he enjoys the hunt for rare and unusual books as much as the selling.

His wife took some convincing, however. Liberati said when he returned home from his first book auction with seven titles at a cost of $260, his wife subjected him to a searching gaze and then advised him to get a new hobby.

The danger of events like this is, of course, spending money on things I don’t need. To counter this peril, I deployed a strategy that was strongly suggested to me by then-Executive Editor Cynthia Hochswender, after I came back from a tag sale in Kent, triumphantly bearing the sheet music to “Mairzy Dotes,” among other treasures.

Ye Editor said, sternly, that in future I was to leave my wallet in the car and bring no more than $20 in cash to tag sales, flea markets and the like. When I pointed out that for a double sawbuck I could have had not just “Mairzy Dotes” but “Moon River,” “The Surrey with the Fringe On Top” and “A Bicycle Built for Two” (with enough left over for a hot dog), she gave me a piercing look — similar, I suspect, to that sported by Mrs. Liberati back in 1980.

Over the ensuing years, this strategy has proven effective. I ambled out of the flea market having spent precisely zero dollars and zero cents, and with an enjoyable 90 minutes’ worth of conversation in the can.

Housatonic River Outfitters (www.dryflies.com; 860-672-1010); Jason C. Bouchard (860-307-7901; jcbouchard68@gmail.com); Hookset Hoodlums (www.hooksethoodlums.com); John Liberati Books (johnliberati@charter.net; 860-238-7729).