Almanac for 2026 · No. 10 · Autumn, October

Curamenti

A slow almanac of the fly rod

The journal

Notes written slowly, to be read on the bank

Each entry tries to be the thing you wished somebody had told you plainly, with the hook sizes and water temperatures left in. No tackle reviews, no heroics, no secret rivers. 15 entries, about 14,000 words, newest first.

Species · latest entry

The Lady of the Stream: Grayling in Autumn

When the leaves come down the grayling comes into her own. Where the shoals lie, what they eat, and how to treat them.

· 4 min read

  1. Species

    The Lady of the Stream: Grayling in Autumn

    When the leaves come down the grayling comes into her own. Where the shoals lie, what they eat, and how to treat them.

    · 4 min read · 893 words
  2. Reading water

    Reading a Riffle: Where Trout Actually Sit

    Most of a river is empty. How to find the few square feet that are not, before you make a single cast.

    · 4 min read · 880 words
  3. Conditions

    Spate Rivers as They Fall

    A rain-fed river rises in hours and clears over days. Somewhere on the way down there is a window when it fishes better than at any other time.

    · 4 min read · 921 words
  4. Fish care

    Wet Hands, Short Fight: A Release Checklist

    Letting a fish go is not the same as letting it live. The handful of habits that decide which it will be.

    · 4 min read · 890 words
  5. Casting

    Casting Faults and Their Cures

    Five things go wrong with a fly cast, and each has a plain mechanical cause. Ten minutes on a lawn with a scrap of wool will mend most of them.

    · 4 min read · 936 words
  6. Conditions

    Low, Clear Summer Water

    When the river shrinks and warms, the fishing day moves to its two ends and the first piece of tackle to reach for is a thermometer.

    · 4 min read · 937 words
  7. On the water

    The Evening Rise, and Why to Arrive Early

    The best hour of a summer day is also the easiest to waste. A plan for the last of the light.

    · 4 min read · 899 words
  8. Fieldcraft

    Approaching Unseen

    A trout sees the world above it through a small round window, and it feels the bank before it sees you. Fieldcraft begins with knowing how both of those work.

    · 4 min read · 918 words
  9. On the water

    Small Streams: Fishing Water You Can Step Across

    A brook two metres wide asks for a short rod, a short leader and a great deal of kneeling. It gives back more than its size suggests.

    · 4 min read · 889 words
  10. At the vice

    Six Turns and a Whip Finish: Tying Your First Pheasant Tail

    Two materials, one hook, and the three mistakes everybody makes. A patient first lesson at the vice.

    · 4 min read · 884 words
  11. Method

    The Upstream Dry Fly: One Fish, One Cast

    A floating fly cast up to a rising trout is the simplest method there is, and the least forgiving. Most of it is decided before the line leaves the rod.

    · 4 min read · 933 words
  12. Method

    Nymphing Without an Indicator

    Take the float off and watch the leader instead. It is harder for a week and better for ever after.

    · 4 min read · 923 words
  13. Method

    Wet Flies and the Swing

    A few turns of silk, one soft feather and a cast made across and down. The North Country spider is the lightest of flies and one of the oldest ways to fish a spring river.

    · 4 min read · 915 words
  14. Habits

    Keeping a Fishing Diary

    Five minutes with a pencil at the end of each day, and in a few seasons you own the best guide to your river that will ever be written.

    · 4 min read · 868 words
  15. Species

    Grayling in Winter: Three Hours of Daylight

    Frost on the gate, ice in the rings and a fish that feeds for a short while around midday. A cold-weather day is brief, and it asks for care with both hands and fish.

    · 4 min read · 940 words

Found a mistake, or have a question? Write to the almanac.