I moseyed down to Housatonic Meadows State Park late Saturday morning on Aug. 16 for a Trout Unlimited smallmouth bass event put on by the Mianus chapter.
“Wait a sec,” you say. “If it’s Trout Unlimited, why are they fishing for smallmouth bass?”
The answer is two-fold.
First, the Housatonic River in summer is primarily a smallmouth fishery. The water is too warm for trout but it doesn’t bother the bass much.The trout are hiding out in the thermal refuge areas and are off-limits until mid-September.
Second, the word “unlimited” suggests wiggle room.
When I rolled in there was a small pop-up tent with the words “Trout Unlimited” on it set up by the upper parking lot. Being a trained observer, I spotted this vital clue almost immediately.
There was a folding table under the tent. It was empty, but it seemed likely there would be food on it at some point.
Trained observers are also patient. I tabled the food question and motored down to the lower parking area, where I beheld half a dozen men with fly rods casting into the low, slow river with varying degrees of proficiency and enthusiasm.
The nearest to me turned out to be Eddie Curtis, who hails from southern New Jersey. “About 15 minutes from Philly,” he said.
Curtis was a fortuitous choice of subject. Chatty and easy-going, he embarked on an angling monologue that included adventures on salt and fresh water and an incisive critique of fish and game practices in his home state.
All the while he chucked lazy downstream casts. On about every tenth one, he hooked a smallish smallmouth bass.
I asked him what fly he was using. The answer -- a black Wooly Bugger -- wasn’t surprising. That’s a standard pattern for this kind of fishing. Almost a cliche.
Curtis was using a black Wooly Bugger with an unusual feature — a little propeller or spinner.Patrick L. Sullivan
But this was different in that it had a little propeller attached just below the hook eye.
I last saw something like this in the mid-1990s in New Mexico, where a rustic saloon I just happened to be in had a small display case of standard trout flies with the same kind of propellers attached. The brand name was “Pistol Pete.”
Curtis said they work almost too well. He jerked his thumb behind him and said “He ties them for me.”
I resolved to catch up with “he” when everybody took a break.
I ambled back to the car and exchanged camera and notebook for rod and vest.
I tried four different flies, two surface and two subsurface, and failed to move anything.
Not anxious to perform the Walk of Shame, I tried a black Wooly Bugger, no propeller.
That did the trick.
Back up at the tent my finely honed instincts proved correct.Food had materialized, in the form of two giant submarine sandwiches, a couple of jumbo bags of potato chips, and sodas.
Gerald Berrafati was in charge of this. He is the chapter coordinator for the Mianus Trout Unlimited chapter, and he was talking a mile a minute about various dam removal and stream reclamation projects in his bailiwick.
Since the state of Connecticut east of New Hartford and south of Torrington is a complete mystery to me, I had only a vague idea where these places were.
But it sounded good.
Antoine Bissieux, who does business as “The French Fly Fisherman,” made a cameo appearance. Some years back he was with a couple of sports on the Hous in similar circs — warm, low, late summer -- and I swapped him a handful of mop flies for a sampler of his perdigon nymphs. If he remembered this he didn’t let on.
The six or eight of us at the tent did a number on the chow and talked some guff between bites. The sandwiches were good. So was the guff.
Warren Nesteruk of Southbury (I think) said his wife was giving him a hard time about having so many fly rods.
I asked how many he had.
“Fifteen,” he replied.
When I informed him I had something like 80 rods, he grew thoughtful, as if my awful example might buy him some space.
Then it struck him.
“You’re not married, are you.”
One loose end remained. I hate loose ends, and I wanted to find the fellow who added propellers to his flies.
But they had left.
So if you read this, Eddie Curtis of south Jersey, drop me a line. I’d like to find out if they really do work almost too well.
Photo by Cassidy Howard
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An aerial view of the damage in downtown Salisbury, where a tree was uprooted in front of the Scoville Library.
No tornado, but strongest warning came too late for Northwest Corner
On Saturday evening, the weather took an abrupt turn just after 7 p.m. as hurricane-force winds whipped through the region, with Salisbury and Falls Village in the direct line of the storm before it moved southeast toward Harwinton and Torrington.
The storms forced last-minute cancellations of fireworks and laser light shows in the area and created hazardous travel conditions with hail, heavy rain and strong winds. Emergency crews responded throughout the evening to blocked roads and downed wires.
Residents referred to the scene as “apocalyptic.”
While many believed a tornado was responsible for the extreme damage, meteorologists said there was no evidence to support those claims. Samantha Lankowicz, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Albany, said the most likely cause of the damage was strong winds.
“We looked over the radar and we didn’t see anything that would suggest there was a tornado – there were no strong signs of rotation,” Lankowicz said, adding that their radar did pick up strong, straight-line winds up to 60 and 70 miles per hour.
Although thunderstorms were predicted, most residents were not notified about the severity until shortly before the storm struck.
Meteorologist Jack Drake, who covers western Connecticut, said the storm was warned as “severe” about 30 minutes before it reached Salisbury, but it was not upgraded to a “considerable damage” warning until after it had already passed through Falls Village. He attributed the delay in part to limited radar coverage in Litchfield County, making it more difficult to assess the storm’s intensity.
Drake described the storm as a “classic discrete supercell” and one of the strongest to hit the region in recent years, estimating wind gusts may have exceeded 80 mph. He said highly localized summer storms remain difficult to forecast.
Crews work on a barely-visible road in Salisbury with trees on wires and the pavement covered with debris.Photo by James H. Clark
Towns declare local states of emergency
The Town of Canaan (Falls Village) declared a local State of Emergency Sunday morning as a result of the storm damage. First Selectman David Barger said the move could help relieve the financial burden of the storm if state or federal funds become available.
On Sunday afternoon, Salisbury, Cornwall, Goshen, Harwinton and Torrington followed suit, each declaring a local State of Emergency.
“We want to be able to utilize all of our resources,” Barger said, adding that town crews have been called in for overtime hours to support the clean-up.
He said he received calls from North Canaan and Kent town officials who offered their support.
“Whether it be with the volunteer fire departments or the department of public works, they stand ready to help us,” he said. “The towns in Region One have really been drawn together with some common problems and common initiatives, and this is one of those things where we’re all working together.”
No injuries reported
As of early Sunday afternoon, state police at Troop B in North Canaan had not received reports of any injuries from the storms.
Sharon Hospital lost power for a short period of time Saturday night but the emergency generators kicked on and services were not interrupted, hospital supervisor Elizabeth Barrows said.
While Barrows could not confirm whether the storm resulted in any injuries, she said the hospital saw a number of visits from patients who were unable to use their portable oxygen concentrators as a result of power loss.
More than 70,000 Eversource customers in Connecticut were without power Sunday morning after the storm. That number dropped to just under 24,000 on Monday, July 6.
Progress was slow in the Northwest Corner. In Salisbury, 93% of customers remained without power as of 1 p.m. Sunday, with 2,792 of 3,006 customers affected. By Monday morning, 80% of Salisbury customers were still without power.
Resident Ben Blackwell directs traffic in Salisbury as motorists navigate road closures. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan
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