Tangled Lines looks back on 2024

Tangled Lines looks back on 2024

The Esopus Creek in the east-central Catskill Mountains

Photo by Gary Dodson

It rained a lot in 2024, and then it didn’t.

That’s the Tangled Lines 2024 recap in a nutshell.

With recent changes in angling regulations in my two main stomping grounds, Connecticut and New York, the idea of “trout season” is now more of an idea than a legal reality.

Poor conditions, not regs, keep me inside. This includes high water, low water, muddy water, and ice chunks floating in high or low, possibly muddy water.

Let us not overlook the angler’s poor condition. In 2024 the Tangled Lines medical beat was established, and how.

Out in 2024: Ice cream. Chips. Bread. Pasta, unless it is made entirely from chickpeas, comes in an orange box and costs a lot more than the regular stuff. (Also — don’t overcook it. The difference between al dente and al mush is about 12 seconds.)

In: Salad. Fields and fields of…salad.

It’s been a tough slog. I am considering starting a nonprofit advocacy group, the Society for the Suppression of Salad. We could march in the Memorial Day parade, waving styrofoam cheeseburgers.

But I did drop about 30 pounds, and kept it off.

A shout out to yoga mastermind Samantha Free of Millbrook Yoga. I described my lower back pain to her. She took one look at my feet and saw I was pronating.

Between deploying an inexpensive corrective insert in my shoes and the stretches and moves Sam showed me, I no longer stagger around like a decrepit man in his early 60s.

Now I lurch around like a klutz in his late 50s. Might not seem like much, but I’ll take what I can get.

The new and improved me voyaged into the wilds of western New York at the end of April, catching the end of the steelhead run in the Salmon River in and around Pulaski.

I managed to land a steelhead. The fish struck me as a little tired out but I put it in the win column anyway, if only because I did it in the most offhand manner possible short of sitting in a lawn chair on the bank with a bobber, a worm, and a piece of line tied to my foot.

I spent more time than usual this year prowling the Catskills outside of my usual Esopus watershed, with mixed results.

And then everything dried up, except for one quick blast of rain in early August that didn’t do much in Connecticut but brought the East Branch of the Delaware in New York up about three feet. This was not helpful.

Switching to bass lake mode for August, I noticed a persistent pain in my right (casting) shoulder.

At first I chalked it up to slinging gigantic, heavy flies such as the Chupacabra, which is like casting a wet sock.

But it soon became clear that something was wrong.

Hello, rotator cuff!

The doc sent me to another low-key miracle worker, physical therapist Mike Mangini in North Canaan, and I am pleased to report I can, once again, inform fellow motorists that they are Number One with a simple, rotator cuff-dependent gesture.

I don’t believe in setting goals or making elaborate plans for fishing. Too often the goal is silly, like catching a big lunker largemouth with a one-weight rod. (It could be done, like tap-dancing in roller skates, but why?).

Or the plan falls through because the fellow who was going to take me to the secret place disappears, leaving no forwarding address.

Instead, for 2025 I will concentrate on simple things. Getting better with longer, finer leaders. Learning some form of two-handed cast without getting buried in minutiae regarding shooting heads and grain weights.

And finding ways to do more with less. I am tired of rummaging around in the pack or vest du jour, looking for the only fly that will work.

Because they all work — if you do it right.

Latest News

Village will not pursue local ICE law; packed meeting reflects division

A crowd of 55 people crowded into the NorthEast-Millerton Library Annex for a marathon discussion regarding placing limits on police interaction with federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Photo by Aly Morrissey

MILLERTON — On Tuesday, July 29, the Village of Millerton Board of Trustees held a widely anticipated public meeting to discuss whether to limit cooperation between the Millerton Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The meeting followed a resident-led request to consider a local law aimed at protecting immigrants, including those without legal documentation.

Originally scheduled to be held at the village offices on North Elm Avenue, the meeting was moved last-minute to the NorthEast–Millerton Library Annex to accommodate a crowd of 55 — nearly triple the attendance at the initial discussion in May.

Keep ReadingShow less
Millerton’s Presbyterian church sold in May

Habitat for Humanity assisted in the construction and sale of this house at 14 Rudd Pond Road for $392,000.

Christine Bates

MILLERTON — Official Dutchess County property transfers for the four months ending in May are fascinating from the sale of the former Presbyterian Church on Main Street for $420,000 to the $300,000 sale of 8.3 acres of the historic Perotti farm for $300,000 where major barn restoration is now underway.

Actively listed properties at the end of July include 14 parcels of land ranging in price from $60,000 for a five-acre lot to six parcels over a million dollars. 15 single family homes are on the market including an $11,750,000 estate on Moadock Road and four village homes for under $500,000.

Keep ReadingShow less
Storms down trees, knock out power for downtown Millerton

Heavy storms knocked down trees on Century Boulevard, South Center Street and Park Avenue Friday, July 25.

Photo by Olivia Valentine

MILLERTON — Heavy rain brought down trees on Park Avenue, South Center Street and Century Boulevard, causing blackouts across the village on Friday, July 25.

The Millerton Moviehouse cancelled film showings for the afternoon following the outages, as stated in a release sent out to Moviehouse supporters over email Friday afternoon.

Keep ReadingShow less