Proclaimed eggs, leaky waders and lost boots

Gary Dodson worked the East Branch of The Delaware River in late October.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Gary Dodson worked the East Branch of The Delaware River in late October.
I spent the third week of October at the Tangled Lines Western HQ, in Phoenicia, New York. Everything was low, even the Esopus tailwater, so there was a lot of making do.
One morning I spent dredging the famous Chimney Hole on the Esopus, hoping to provoke hits on streamers, junk flies and big nymphs in the depths. This produced precisely bupkis.
I noticed some splashy rises in the shallower water and switched gears, abandoning the sink tip/short leader for a nine foot 4X leader with an extra two feet or so of 5X tippet. Naturally I forgot to bring a box of specks. Thank you, Dr. Boing-Boing.
The closest thing I had to a speck was a size 18 standard Adams dry fly.
It was maddening. The closer I got to the strike zone, the more the zone shifted.
Finally I hit it. Lo and behold, instead of the shiners I was half expecting, a wild rainbow came to hand. Nothing spectacular in terms of size, maybe 11 inches if I squinted, but feisty and seriously reluctant to be caught and admired.
These are the “silver bullets” of yore, and in the three or four years since New York stopped planting thousands of brown trout in the river, they have increased in size. So where I used to catch a mess of six to eight inches, now they are 10-12 inches.
And they have an almost entirely silver body, with just a faint red line. Hence the name.
Gary Dodson picked me up one morning early and we went on the long drive to the two Delaware tailwaters. The West Branch was too high and murky for our delicate sensibilities, meaning we were afraid of falling in and drowning.
The East Branch was crystal clear, and low. We worked a stretch where we tried everything, and failed. Some graffiti on a sign in the parking area warned us about this but we chalked it up to sour grapes.
Dr. Boing-Boing struck again — three times. First Gary was disassembling his breakfast sandwich as he drove (he doesn’t eat a lot of bread, and definitely not the kind from McDonald’s). The egg fell out and disappeared under the driver’s seat.
Since it was quite warm and sunny, and when we were fishing the truck was locked up, I reminded him several times to retrieve the egg before it proclaimed itself.
Then I discovered my waders were leaking. A post-mortem revealed the good news — an easily patched puncture, instead of an insidious and ultimately unfixable seam leak.
Finally, as we rolled into the gas station in Margaretville to refuel and plan the next move, we noticed we’d just driven 75 miles with the truck tailgate open. I panicked for a moment, thinking my boots were gone.
Then I remembered I was wearing them.
Back at HQ, my all-purpose guy came and took down a dozen dead ash trees that were menacing the new roof.
We have a new roof because a dead ash tree fell on it two years ago. There is nothing like waking up at 3 a.m. to a waterfall coming out of the ceiling.
This fellow plays the excavator like a musical instrument. Observing, I had several anxious moments but Dr. Boing-Boing did not make an appearance.
And they left me with a lot of firewood to split in the spring.
Over the years I have assembled quite an angling library. My late father bought and read widely, and I have added to the collection. It could fairly be described as “swollen.”
I was bemused when browsing George M.L. LaBranche’s “The Dry Fly and Fast Water” (1914).The author was complaining about specks (the tiny flies that cause so much consternation to the angler), drought, and having to fish with long leaders downstream so the fly is the first thing the trout sees.
If you pared down the prose and added a couple of bad jokes, it could have been a Tangled Lines column.
Back in Northwest Connecticut, I noticed that the state went ahead and stocked the Blackberry, despite the lack of water.
It’s worth a quick prowl, if for no other reason that the bones of the stream are exposed. Assuming I remember what I saw, this knowledge will come in handy once normal service is restored. (Same goes for the Housatonic.)
I spent a thoroughly frustrating 90 minutes chasing trout up and down the Silty Pool. Similar to the Chimney Hole experience, the trout were making a visible fuss, although it was directed downwards. I could see their fins and tails as they nosed around gobbling whatever was on the menu.
I drifted an assortment of speckly things down to them on a long, fine leader. The more I drifted, the more they shifted downstream a few yards.
Finally I said to hell with it and Wooly Buggered them. This can go one of two ways.
Either they say “Hallelujah! A square meal at last!” and hit the fly so hard the knot breaks.
Or they say “Eek!” and go into Witness Protection.
Guess which option they chose?
The legal case, if approved by the court, would nullify a 2024 zoning regulation change that allows hotels in the RR1 zone via special permit application.
LAKEVILLE — At nearly 11 p.m. on Monday night, Oct. 20, Salisbury’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-1 to approve, with conditions, Aradev LLC’s controversial application to redevelop the Wake Robin Inn.
The decision came more than 4 hours after the meeting began at 6:30 p.m., and more than a year since Aradev submitted its first application to expand the longstanding country inn. The approved plans call for a new 2,000-square-foot cabin, an event space, a sit-down restaurant and fast-casual counter, a spa, library, lounge, gym and seasonal pool.
Aradev withdrew its first application in December 2024 after P&Z indicated it would likely deny it based on concerns about sewer approval, noise levels and the general size and intensity of the proposed development. During a pre-application meeting held with Aradev in January 2025, the Commission informed the developer that those three topics were the cruxes of both P&Z’s and the public’s objection to the first proposal.
The nine-page, 40-condition draft resolution that was ultimately approved on Monday night states that in the revised application, those “three major areas of concern have been addressed.” The document, which is available for public viewing on P&Z’s “Meeting Documents” web page, lists a number of changes that have eased doubts: a reduction in the number of auxiliary cabins, a tightening of the central campus that brings external elements like the spa and pool closer to the core of the development, a thorough sound analysis and noise pollution mitigation plan, approval from the town’s Water Pollution Control Authority, and moving the “event barn,” once planned to be a free-standing structure, into the main inn building expansion.
In the Commission’s deliberations following the closure of the public hearing for the revised application in September, several commissioners expressed their satisfaction with Aradev’s responsiveness to the commission’s and community’s concerns. During the first deliberation session on Oct. 7, Chair Michael Klemens said he found the new plans to be “much better designed this go around,” though he did qualify that the proposed development was “still large.”
At the same meeting, commissioner Allen Cockerline voiced his approval of the renewed application’s technical details, such as its sound survey, a robust stormwater management plan, and relocating the event facility inside the main building, which he described as a “very, very positive move.”
Vice Chair Cathy Shyer, though, felt differently. “The bottom line is, this is a big development,” she said during the Oct. 7 discussion. “It’s as big as the last one.”
During the seven public hearing sessions that took place in August and September, cries that the revised application had not mitigated in any meaningful way its most invasive components — namely, the “inappropriate” size and scale of the development in a rural residential (zoned RR1) neighborhood — were a common refrain from neighbors of the inn.
Over the course of those seven meetings, and an additional six during the hearing process for Aradev’s first application last year, P&Z heard hours of testimony from the community, the vast majority of it in opposition to the project.
Shyer echoed those sentiments at the Oct. 20 meeting: “Some things just don’t belong in some places.”
She expressed her frustration at the Commission for its debate over conditioning the approval to remove three of the four cottages in the site plans, which she felt was a red herring towards the broader issue. “This project is so big and so intense that taking three keys away is not making any difference.”
The meeting eventually took a 45-minute recess to allow Land Use Director Abby Conroy to draft a new resolution that included the stipulation to remove the three cottages, leaving only one still included in the plan. Upon resuming the meeting at 10:30 p.m., Klemens asked for a motion to approve the resolution, which was followed by a lengthy silence before Cockerline eventually offered it up. The vote passed 4-1, with Shyer voting no.
The moment marked the end of an application process that has seen heightened emotions, community organizing that includes two petitions against the project with hundreds of signatures each, and litigation against P&Z for a regulation change that allowed the proposal to see review in the first place.
The legal case, if approved by the court, would nullify a 2024 zoning regulation change that allows hotels in the RR1 zone via special permit application. Klemens said that, because of this, “the applicant is proceeding totally at its own risk.”
P&Z’s attorney Charles Andres stated that he believed it was unlikely Aradev would even be able to begin construction in the next several months as the case sees court review: “It’s highly unrealistic that they will proceed while that is still pending.”
SALISBURY — Amanda Cannon, age 100, passed away Oct. 15, 2025, at Noble Horizons. She was the wife of the late Jeremiah Cannon.
Amanda was born Aug. 20, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York the daughter of the late Karl and Ella Husslein.
She was widowed at the age of 31 and worked as a bookkeeper for the Standard Oil Company and other oil companies in New York City until she retired at age 72.
Amanda moved to Noble Horizons in 2013 to live near her daughter Diane and son-in-law (the late) Raymond Zelazny.
She enjoyed her time in the Northwest Corner and was an avid nature lover, albeit considered herself a native New Yorker as she was born and resided in NYC for 88 years.
She was a faithful parishioner of St. Mary’s Church in Lakeville and attended Mass regularly until the age of 99.
Amanda was the grandmother of (the late) Jesse Morse and is survived by her daughter, Diane Zelazny, her grandsons, Adam Morse, Raymond Morse and his wife Daron and their daughter and her great granddaughter Cecelia Morse.
A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Thursday, Oct. 23, 11 a.m. at St Mary’s Church in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Mary’s Church.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.
LAKEVILLE — Barbara Meyers DelPrete, 84, passed away Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, at her home. She was the beloved wife of George R. DelPrete for 62 years.
Mrs. DelPrete was born in Burlington, Iowa, on May 31, 1941, daughter of the late George and Judy Meyers. She lived in California for a time and had been a Lakeville resident for the past 55 years.
Survivors, in addition to her husband, George, include son, George R. DelPrete II, daughter, Jena DelPrete Allee, and son Stephen P. DelPrete. Grandchildren; Trey, Cassidy, and Meredith DelPrete, Jack, Will and Finn Allee, and Ali and Nicholas DelPrete.
A Funeral Mass was held at St. Mary’s Church, Lakeville, on Saturday, Oct. 4. May she Rest in Peace.
Ryan Funeral Home, 255 Main St., Lakeville, is in care of arrangements.
To offer an online condolence, please visit ryanfhct.com
SHARON — Shirley Anne Wilbur Perotti, daughter of George and Mabel (Johnson) Wilbur, the first girl born into the Wilbur family in 65 years, passed away on Oct. 5, 2025, at Noble Horizons.
Shirley was born on Aug. 19, 1948 at Sharon Hospital.
She was raised on her parents’ poultry farm (Odge’s Eggs, Inc.).
After graduating from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, she worked at Litchfield County National Bank and Colonial Bank.
She married the love of her life, John, on Aug. 16, 1969, and they lived on Sharon Mountain for more than 50 years.
Shirley enjoyed creating the annual family Christmas card, which was a coveted keepsake.She also enjoyed having lunch once a month with her best friends, Betty Kowalski, Kathy Ducillo, and Paula Weir.
In addition to John, she is survived by her three children and their families; Sarah Medeiros, her husband, Geoff, and their sons, Nick and Andrew, of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, Shelby Diorio, her husband, Mike, and their daughters, Addie, Lainey and Lyla, of East Canaan, Connecticut,Jeffrey Perotti, his wife, Melissa, and their daughters, Annie, Lucy and Winnie, of East Canaan. Shirley also leaves her two brothers, Edward Wilbur and his wife Joan, and David Wilbur; two nieces, three nephews, and several cousins.
At Shirley’s request, services will be private.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Sharon Woman’s Club Scholarship Fund, PO Box 283, Sharon, CT 06069.
The Kenny Funeral Home has care of arrangements.