The Battenkill Fly Fishing Festival
May was a fly fishing-filled month. It started with Chihiro and me traveling from Buffalo to visit my family in Saratoga the first weekend in May, which corresponded with the Battenkill Fly Fishing Festival. The festival was held in Arlington from Thursday, May 2nd, to Sunday, May 5th. We decided to get tickets for Saturday since this would ultimately give us a day to attend. Tom Rosenbauer, the sage of fly fishing himself, would be the headliner that day. Chihiro would finally be able to see the person behind the podcasts she often has to hear on car rides with me. However, Saturday also featured a discussion about John Atherton’s fly patterns by Mike Valla. I have wanted to meet him since I acquired several of his books and learned that his wife Valerie was my sixth-grade science teacher.
Chihiro and I took the hour or so drive from Saratoga in the morning, crossed the Hudson River, and passed the hills, farms, and small towns on the way to the Vermont border. Just past the village of Cambridge, we reached the New York stretches of the Battenkill and followed it up into Arlington. After finding parking, we arrived at the festival site just in time for Tom Rosenbauer’s talk. I have to give him a lot of credit; he seems to have a level of patience that I would struggle to achieve. Many of the questions he received are questions he has likely answered a thousand times or more before.
Following Tom’s lecture, Chihiro and I toured the vendors’ tents, which included artists, fly shops, rod makers, and several non-profit organizations dedicated to stream and fish conservation. As we were walking around, I recognized my former teacher and walked up to introduce myself. We chatted a bit, and she introduced me to Mike.
I showed them the Japanese Fly Fisher Magazine containing an article about Mike’s book, The Founding Flies, which I found in a Tokyo bookstore in January. They were both surprised that I had brought it to the festival to share it with them and were excited to see that Mike’s book had made its way into a Japanese publication. They later followed up and told me their friend from Japan had worked to get the article published in the magazine. They also shared that their friend translated the article for them and said that the article stated that Mike’s book is being translated and will soon be published in Japanese.
Chihiro and I attended Mike’s lecture, “The Peculiar Impressionistic Fly Patterns of Illustrator John Atherton,” where Mike explained how Atherton’s artist background influenced his take on fly tying. Drawing heavily on the impressionist movement in art, Atherton used variegated colored materials and rarely used monochromatic ones in his flies. Having not known of Atherton beforehand, I found Atherton’s take on fly tying, along with the materials he would use, fascinating. I wanted to learn more about Atherton and his flies, so I purchased copies of Atherton’s book, The Fish and the Fly, and Mike’s, The Founding Flies. Following the lecture, we met back up with Mike and Valerie. Mike signed my copy of the latest book, Fly Fishing Guide to New York State: Experts’ Guide to Locations, Hatches, and Tactics, and I gave him the Japanese Fly Fisher magazine.
After saying goodbye to the Valla’s, Chihiro and I grabbed a bite at A Crooked Barn Charcuterie’s food tent. We both ordered their corn dog, which consisted of their house-made brats and cornmeal batter made with duck eggs. Suffice it to say these were not your average corn dogs and were made even better with their maple bacon whiskey mustard. We finished our day with a short drive up the road to Manchester, where we stopped at the American Museum of Fly Fishing and the Orvis Flag Ship Store. The museum was free with the Festival admission. We walked through the exhibits and admired the great collection of historic flies tied by the greats of fly fishing. From there, we drove back to Saratoga, having had a good time at the festival and meeting Mike and Valerie. My only regret was not planning any time to fish the Vermont stretches of the Batten Kill.
The Battenkill Fly Fishing Festival Read More »