Tangled Lines

Since the endless rain has turned the fall 2018 fly-fishing season into a soggy mess, I thought the best way to wrap things up would be to go to the Phoenicia, N.Y., library to hear Joan Wulff speak.
Wulff, widow of the innovative angler Lee Wulff, is a legendary figure in the sport. Clocking in at about 5 feet flat, she can outcast most men. 
She set a distance record in 1951, casting a fly 161 feet. Most modern fly lines are 90 to 100 feet long, incidentally.

Sometimes you’ll hear fishermen speak cryptically about “little blue lines.”
They are referring to the little brook trout streams that show up on maps as, you guessed it, little blue lines.
That’s if they show up at all.
I fish three little blue line streams in northwest Connecticut on a regular basis. One of them is listed in the Connecticut state angler’s guide. One of them is on private property and you need to ask permission. And one is so secret that I hesitate to even mention it.

By the time you read this a mystical event of epic proportions should be underway on the Housatonic River.
I refer to the White Fly Hatch.
This burrowing bug, which goes by the moniker of Epheron leukon, is unusual among mayflies in that it emerges, mates, lays eggs on the water and dies, all in the same night (according to the Wisconsin Fly Fisher website).
That’s a depressing prospect for an ambitious mayfly, but for the Housatonic fly-rodder it is cause for joy and merriment.

Many of you have written to say, “Hey, how do you make a leader for Euro nymphing?”
Actually it was one of you.
As requested, I will keep the writer’s name out of it, even though it was Hiram Snodgrass of West Tibia, Vt. According to the Essex County Argus-Democrat & Home Shopper, Snodgrass is embroiled in a land-use dispute centered on his attempt to build what he calls a “micro-casino” in a cow pasture, but he is finding the time to keep up with angling innovations.