The Best Small Stream Spring

This spring has been something special. There are a few areas in which the conditions have given me the short end of the stick, my home river for one, where the high water both suppressed the rise activity and made covering water effectively difficult. But other small streams are fishing as well or better than I've ever seen. 

On Sunday, I visited a small southern CT stream that has been a favorite of mine since Alan Petrucci showed it to me a number of years ago. I visited it a couple times this winter and did not do well. But I was determined to fish it during prime dry fly time this spring, and I had a good feeling about my chances. This stream and it's tributaries have produced some of mine, Alan's, and Kirk's biggest CT brook trout. 

I found it in fine form Sunday morning, water barely touching 60 degrees, and at a perfect flow. I saw a riser within minutes of getting within sight of the water. I tied on a rig one can hardly go wrong with: an Ausable Bomber above a beadhead Soft Hackled Hare's Ear. 

It took but a few casts before the bomber plunged under, and I soon had a ten inch wild char at hand. The very next cast had much the same result.

And it didn't take long to find one willing to take the dry, either. Oh yes, this was to be a glorious day.

Spiderwebs hanging over the river were loaded with mayflies. Sulfurs, light cahills, vitreous, and march browns were most abundant.

This fine specimen was to be my biggest of the day. The photo does a poor job of demonstrating this handsome male's true stature. This was a large fish for a CT small stream, though not the biggest I would see today.

In one large bend pool who's depths reach about four and a half feet, I planted my flies in a bush that hangs over. Carefully wading out to retrieve them, I saw an absolute behemoth of a brookie, a fish that was 18 inches at the smallest and probably three pounds. It was an astonishing sight, even though I knew this stream had potential to produce such a fish. Believe it or not I didn't feel the need to catch it at that moment, and I haven't thought about it much since. I may go after it, I may not.

I was retracing my own steps and catching the fish I'd missed on the way up when i hear a familiar voice. I looked up to see Alan approaching. He'd been having a great morning too. We chatted for a bit and continued our own ways.

This spring truly has been exceptional in a number of ways. With nights remaining fairly cool I foresee a decent early summer as well, especially if we continue to receive rain.

The only fry fly one must have if they seek wild brook trout. 

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