There are two species of salmonid native to CT waters, as most of you know: Salvalinus fontinalis (Brook Trout) and Salmo salar (Atlantic Salmon). Of the two, only brook trout are still present in consistently wild populations. My favorite fish can be found in some absolutely gorgeous places, in fact, rarely are the found in garbage filled urban streams. Today I visited one such place. It hosts three water falls. Bellow the first are a mix of stream resident brookies, suckers, fall fish, and the rarest: salters and sea run browns. I happened to see a young sea run brown today. Unfortunately I have not caught one yet.
I talked to the gentleman that allows me to fish this water today. We had a very nice conversation about native fish, sea run fish, and catch and release. It was a good conversation and I look forward to our next.
The fishing was stunning. Fish were rising in every pool. On the way up I fished the bomber and did very well. On the way back down I fished a little calf tail streamer and caught the ones I missed. Each was stunning and there were a lot of them.
I think I recognize that stream from earlier in the year and if I'm correct, it produced well back then too. It seems like that gentleman must have been an interesting person to talk to I like the subject matter. That stream is gorgeous with it's waterfalls and some of the pink spots and blue halos on those brookies rival any others I have seen. At least you got to see a sea run brown, so you know they are there. You mentioned salters...have you ever caught one there? Salters are extremely rare in CT and if you didn't already know, SRBTC partnered with Ron Merly to search for salter streams in CT and they found no streams to have any sort of significant population.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
DeleteYes, that's the stream. Three years ago I found a dead 16 inch male brook trout with a huge kype at the mouth of this stream. At the time I did not recognize it as being a salter but thinking back that has to be what it was. It is a good distance from actual salt water but the lower part is technically tidal water. I don't think there are any significant numbers, or even consistent runs, but from time to time they show up.
The "bomber".
ReplyDeleteWell done.
Thank you.
DeleteMagnificent catches! You were so fortunate to have a talk with the land owner, as they can, most of the time, shed light on the streams history. As you know, nature finds a way so if it's connected to salt water the salters will make the run at some point. Thanks for the trip on a great stream.
ReplyDeleteTie, fish, write and photo on...
Thank you. You speak the truth.
Delete