Reverse trolling, salty guides and smash burgers

Gary Dodson worked the Salmon River on a cold morning in April.
Patrick L. Sullivan
Gary Dodson worked the Salmon River on a cold morning in April.
I went back to the Salmon River in and around Pulaski — pronounced Pulask-EYE — New York for a couple of days in late April.
My mentor in these things, Gary Dodson, is my main Catskill fishing buddy. Last year he convinced me to go to the famous Salmon River and chase steelhead, and I actually caught one on a fly rod.
I did not do this on this trip. But I did catch one. More on this in a moment.
Day one we hit it at dawn, and it was cold at 35 degrees, plus a gentle breeze from the Arctic Circle that made everything just so.
The river was high enough at about 1,400 cubic feet per second to make for some tricky wading.
We covered almost all the Douglaston Salmon Run area on foot and tried everything we could think of, Gary with his two-handed rods and me with a single hand 8 weight.
The result was nil.
After a solid six hours of this we stumbled back to the truck and returned to our little lodge, where we ate something and then we made a critical mistake.
We both decided to rest our eyes for just a little while.
That was at about 2 p.m. We both woke up around 5:30 p.m., and quickly concluded that the strong, manly course of action was to skip suiting up again and instead go to the restaurant at the Tailwater Lodge in nearby Altmar, where I resumed my study of the American Cheeseburger platter.
They call it a “smash burger” now, but it’s the same basic thing, and it’s still very good.
Upon our return I watched an exploitation flick from 1974 called “TNT Jackson.” Gary, who has no taste in these matters, sacked out.
Day two was considerably warmer but we still got skunked. However, we didn’t go at dawn so by early afternoon we were not completely knackered.
We had mangled a bit of lunch and were contemplating the afternoon’s strategy when Gary’s phone rang.
It was Salmon River guide Marcus Mcgivney calling to say he had the afternoon free and did we want to go for a boat ride.
We did.
This was a first for me. I have never fished with a guide, or from a drift boat.
We set off from the fly-fishing only area, keeping an eye out as the radar showed some slight unpleasantness developing over Lake Ontario.
Marcus has been doing this a while, and it shows.
The first thing I noticed was that he has a version of the Grateful Dead logo from the “Steal Your Face” album on the side of the boat. It’s got a fish on it and the lettering reads “Steel Your Face,” not “Steal.”
The first thing he noticed was the flow was greatly reduced. He checked his phone and sure enough, the release from the dam upstream was way down from the morning.
We set off and fooled around with our fly rods a while, getting still more bupkis.
Then Marcus asked if we wanted to try plugging.
We did.
Gary had described this to me, but it was so far outside my experience he might as well have been lecturing on contemporary dance trends in Paraguay.
Marcus described the following method as “reverse trolling,” and that’s about as close to it as I can get in a family newspaper.
Here’s the gist. There are three sturdy rods equipped with level line reels in holders on the port and starboard sides of the boat, plus one over the bow.
The plugs are big nasty-looking lures with treble hooks. They are let out to specific lengths — 20 feet, 30 feet — in front of the boat.
The sports — that’s Gary and yours truly — sat up front watching the rods. The guide — Marcus — manipulated the boat as the plugs wiggled and shimmied around downstream.
In regular trolling a lure or bait is towed behind a boat.
This is the opposite.
Eventually a steelhead gets fed up with looking at the plug shimmying and wiggling around and hits it.
And then it’s pure pandemonium. One of the sports has to deal with the rod that’s got the fish on while the other reels in the other rods so everything doesn’t get all tangled up.
Gary had done this before so when the first one went off on his side he got it in with a minimum of fuss.
When it was my turn I did everything wrong. We still managed to get the fish in but as Marcus said afterwards, “You have to forget everything you know about fishing.”
The physical strength involved in maneuvering the boat around with a set of oars, no motor, is considerable. Then there’s the monitoring of the three plugs. Add to that his knowledge of the river’s topography, plus the habits of steelhead, and you’ve got what separates the modestly-talented amateur — me — from the pro — Marcus.
As we moved from spot to spot, he also spoke at length about restoration efforts along the river. He hailed other guides in other boats, chattered with anglers on the banks, occasionally offering some quick tactical advice, and kept up a stream of commentary that was extremely entertaining.
It was also pretty salty. You’ll have to wait for my memoirs for the unexpurgated version.
If you want a memorable experience Marcus does business as Grateful Adventures LLC, 352-348-7721 or Mmcgivney@paulsmiths.edu.
In light of rising local interest in the centuries-old game of Backgammon, Wednesday afternoon backgammon instruction and play sessions are being offered at The Hotchkiss Library of Sharon. The first such session was held on Wednesday, Aug. 13, attracting two enthusiastic participants, both of whom resolved to return for the weekly sessions.
Expert player and instructor Roger Lourie of Sharon, along with his equally expert wife, Claude, led the session, jumping right into the action of playing the game. Claude chose to pair with Janet Kaufman of Salisbury, a moderately experienced player looking to improve her skills, while Lourie teamed himself with Pam Jarvis of Sharon, who was new to the game.
In 2023, Lourie formed Backgammon of Northwestern Connecticut with two objectives: to promote the game in the northwest corner of the state and to teach it to children and adults interested in learning. In addition to the Wednesday sessions at The Hotchkiss Library, an informal, casual group meets at Le Gamin in Sharon every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon.
Acting as co-chairman is Ed Corey who leads the Le Gamin sessions, offering advice and instruction. Both Corey and Lourie play competitively and have distinguished themselves by winning tournaments. There are no fees for participation at either Hotchkiss or Le Gamin. Children, ages 8 and up, are welcome to come and learn the game, along with adults of any experience level.
Lourie says that he can teach a person to play competitively in three lessons.
Sessions at The Hotchkiss Library will continue until the end of the year and perhaps beyond, depending on interest. Lourie will be the instructor until mid-November, when expert player Ed Corey will assume responsibility for the sessions at the Hotchkiss Library.
“We’re hoping for more people and also to see youngsters participating and learning the game,” Lourie said.
“The beginner can be the expert with the right dice,” said Lourie, explaining that it is a game combining chance and strategy. An understanding of mathematics and probability can be helpful.
Lourie summarized the randomness of dice and the strategy of poker. “I want to know the proper etiquette,” Kaufman offered, intent on knowing more about the proper moves, although her play indicated a credible level of skill.
Stopping in to observe the Hotchkiss session, executive director of the library, Gretchen Hachmeister said, “We know that people come to library game sessions. People love games, getting together to learn something new.”
Lourie learned the game under extremely unusual circumstances — as a detainee in a Soviet prison during the1960s missile crisis, while working in Naval Engineering to decipher code for the U.S. Office of Technological Security.
Imprisonment was not terrible, he said. There was predictable questioning by day when he repeated daily the details of his cover story. But at night, the guards — many the same age as the detainees — had finished their shifts and of interrogation.They unplugged the cameras to brew tea and the backgammon games would begin. That was how Lourie learned the game and became an expert.
Board games date back 5,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia. Modern backgammon goes back to 17th-century England, having evolved from a 16th-century game called “Irish.”It grew in popularity in the 1960s, leading to formation of a World Backgammon Club in Manhattan. And then in 2023, Backgammon of Northwestern Connecticut came to be.
To learn more about the Backgammon sessions at The Hotchkiss Library, visit: www.hotchkisslibraryofsharon.org or contact Lourie directly at Rlourie@gmail.com.
Pantry essentials at Dugazon
You are invited to celebrate the opening of Dugazon, a home and lifestyle shop located in a clapboard cottage at 19 West Main Street, the former site of The Edward in Sharon. The opening is Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m.
After careers in the world of fashion, Salisbury residents Bobby Graham and his husband, Matt Marden, have curated a collection of beautiful items that reflect their sense of design, love of hospitality, and Graham’s deep Southern roots. Dugazon is his maternal family name.
“My Louisiana roots come from my mother’s family in Baton Rouge via New Orleans where many of my memories of cooking, food, antiquing, flea markets, hospitality, entertaining, originate,” Graham said.“Being raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, enhanced the importance of community, family, friends and regional cultures, forming the essence of Dugazon.”
Graham and Marden sat on the front porch telling the story of their shop’s evolution. With its wicker loveseats and geraniums in bloom, the old porch invites visitors to linger.
Matt Marden and Bobby Graham open Dugazonat 19 West Main St.in Sharon on Aug 27. Jennifer Almquist
“Bobby has been talking about Dugazon ever since our first date 21 years ago,” Marden said smiling. “I could not be more thrilled that his dream has finally become our reality.”
Graham laughed, then shared their hope that Dugazon embodies the spirit of lagniappe, a French concept of “adding a little extra to bring unexpected kindness, generosity and delight into everyday life.”
Marden worked at Staley-Wise Gallery in New York City. “Town & Country” recruited him to cover men’s fashion. He became fashion director of “Details” magazine and later style director for “Esquire” magazine.
Graham spent 30 years at Condé Nast as a Fashion and luxury advertising sales executive for “Vogue,” “GQ,” “Vanity Fair,” “AD,” and “The New Yorker.”
Within their light-filled shop, unique antiques and vintage cookbooks mix with kitchen necessities such as wooden spoons and cutting boards. Dugazon is bursting with elegant and functional items ranging from designer John Derian treasures to Louisiana hot sauce, luxurious table linens from Milan-based La Double J, and pantry essentials including Café Du Monde beignet mix, Mam Papaul’s jambalaya fixings, and various jams.
Scandinavian 19-inch tapered candles from creators ester & erik are available in 30 colors. Other offerings include vivid naïve paintings by New Orleans artist Alvin Batiste and paper goods designed by Graham’s first cousin, Carey Marden Shaulus.
Alvin Batiste paintings and ester& erik candles on display at Dugazon.Jeff Holt
“Dugazon becoming a reality has been a lifelong dream that comes from deep in my creative soul,” Graham said.“My experiences and memories from my roots, family and friends is what Dugazon is all about. Being able to share this with the world means everything to us.”
Dugazon opens Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m.and will be open Wednesdays through Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Phone: 860-397-5196
Instagram:@dugazonshop
Website:www.dugazonshop.com
A giant fish that sold at Trade Secrets, the high-end home and garden show held at Lime Rock Park, is just one of the creatures that Matt Wabrek of Birch Lane Rustics in North Canaan, creates by welding old tools and pieces of metal together.
The fish was so well liked by browsers at Trade Secrets that he received commissions for others.
Besides the satisfaction he gets in making his pieces, Wabrek said, “I really like to see people happy and enjoying themselves. It brings people happiness to see something they like and might want to buy.”
Wabrek did structural ironwork for 25 years, working up and down the East Coast from Arlington, Virginia, to South Station in Boston.He recalls putting up a truss over the train track in Boston.
But in the back of his mind, he always had the thought of using his welding skills for other purposes.
A few years ago, when a cherry tree fell in his yard, he didn’t want the wood to go to waste. Using both his woodworking and welding skills, he milled the wood and then made metal legs for a table.From what was left, he made several charcuterie boards.
From that beginning, he went on to make sculptures, welding together creations to inhabit both garden and home. He uses old shovels, hoes, picks, hammers, wrenches, horseshoes, rakes and pieces of metal he finds at tag sales, junk shops, estate sales and the local landfill to craft his whimsical creatures.
Matt Wabrek’s metal fishProvided
He gets ideas from looking at each old piece of metal.
“Teeth from a sickle bar? I see a bird’s beak,” he said, pointing to the piece.Lifting a hinge from a neat pile in his studio, he said, “These will be dragonflies.”
He still makes tables with welded metal legs that are sculptural in themselves.His studio holds saws, shovels, and propane tanks with silhouettes of trees and other shapes cut into them — plasma cut from his own designs.
In addition, Wabrek makes chairs from old skis, recalling his days as a ski instructor.
“I like to make things, whether it’s a garden fence or whatever.I must have a creative bone somewhere,” he mused.
He recently began a new interest: making spheres. A completed one, made of old wrenches, has a temporary place in his yard, along with fish of varying shapes and sizes, jelly fish, crabs, dogs, snails, and many kinds of birds — including a woodpecker that perches on the side of a building, and long-legged cranes.
Wabrek is happy to make any of his creations on commission. He is currently working on a support for an old tree that he will craft from metal.
Birch Lane Rustics will be at arts and crafts shows and pop-up sales in the area in the coming months. To find out where or ask about sales or commissions email mcwlu15@gmail.com or call/text 860-248-9004.