Hello from a new guy!

[Eight Thumbs]

I just wanted to say hello to everyone and introduce myself. Many of you are probably wondering why a guy from South Carolina has joined this form. The answer is simple. I was born and raised in CT. Grew up in Windham Center. I actually used to sneak in and fish the Frog Pond (of local fame). Spend most of my summers in Madison CT with my grandmother. I started tying flies when I was 12; that BTW was in 1957. I like to tell people that I started tying when all dry fly hackle was bad. I actually tied a few flies commercially for Nassiff Arms in Willimantic.

I've been in South Carolina for about thirty-three years now and fish pretty regularly even through the mild winters. I'm kind of a rare species down here because I fly fish on the large lakes like Hartell (670 miles of shoreline). People are use to fly fisherman on the trout streams (yes we have good one) but not on the lake. I had a cute little 15-16 year-old yell to here friends "Look that old guy thinks he's going to get a fish by throwing that string around." I also row rather than paddle and that gets some interesting looks as well.

Anyway, its nice to hear some fellow Yankees talk about fishing. I've fished a lot of the major areas in the state and its alway nice to hear how things are going. Don't get me wrong, I love South Carolina but I sure do miss stone walls and village greens. A special Hi to any graduates of Windham Center School. Best of luck to all. Eight Thumbs

[treehooker]

Howdy Eight Thumbs

I grew up in Willimantic and Columbia and used to do business at Nassiff's frequently, though you had moved by the time I bought flies there in the late 70's. I remember haggling with Dick for some dusty old copies of Fly Fisherman magazine he had laying around forever, arguing that he was never going to sell them, so he might as well let me have them at a reduced price. I irritated him so much he finally gave in. I still have 'em.

If you haven't been up here for a while, I think one of the things you would find most changed is the pace of development. Many of the dairy farms have been given over to suburban housing. Route 6 out by the airport is really developed with businesses--a huge Wal-Mart, fast food joints, etc. The footbridge over the Willimantic has been replaced with a traffic bridge with four frog sculptures--its pretty neat actually.

There's a picture of it on this website:
http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/br-frog.html

We still have the village greens and and the stone walls, but there are fewer cows.

[Troutfitter]

Welcome !!

[Eight Thumbs]

I'm glad that you guys don't mind a transplanted South Carolinian hanging around and butting into conversations once in a while.

Treehooker, thanks for the info on Willimantic. I spent a lot of time there. My friend and I use to go into Willimantic on Saturdays at 7am and hang around until the YMCA openned. We use to explore the far side of the footbridge around the river. Boy did that river get dangerous during the spring flood. Of course that made it all the more attractive to kids

I use to stand in front of Dick Nassiff's board of fly tying material for hours and figure out the best way to spend my apple picking money (15 cents for each bushel).

When you said that the footbridge has been converted to traffic do you mean the one by the old American Thread building or the one toward the end of town that crossed the rail yard and the river? I hope they left the footbridge.

Catch a couple trout for me this season. Eight Thumbs

[DA]

I'm not from Willimantic originally, but we lived at the top of the hill on Bricktop Rd from 1962-65. We had three kids, and my brother, his wife and their two kids lived in the apartment downstairs. My wife's brother and his wife lived in a trailer in Mansfield. We guys were all students at Uconn and worked part-time. Our wives worked part time after we got home from school. I had a part-time job on campus that payed me $15 a week(not a typo :lol: ). We had great fun even though all of us were broke. On Friday nights we'd get together to play cards and split a six pack of beer among the six of us. I had just started fly fishing and was so excited the first time I caught a trout that I invited my brother-in-law and his wife to supper to share the trout with us. I caught the trout at the bend pool on the Little River downstream from the Rt 14 bridge. I still have some of the fly tying items that I bought at Nassiff Arms.

[treehooker]

Sorry to say, Eight, that the footbridge is no more. That new bridge crosses the river directly across from Jackson Street opposite the Jilson House. The road's been re-routed and you can't cross the river between the buildings at the Thread Mill anymore.

The Thread Mill now houses a collection of smaller businesses. If I'm not mistaken, there's an aquaculture business in there which raises tilapia