Big Trout on the Farmington, The Way I Like It

I'd sworn off trout fishing during the day in Connecticut this season after I saw fishing pressure, littering, poaching, and unethical behavior by anglers spike on some of of my favorite streams. I mostly followed my own advice until one day in early July when the weather was just too perfect and a buddy asked if Id like to go to the Farmington. With thunderstorms in the forecast, some of my favorite hatches underway, and the flows just right, I couldn't resist. Over the years on that river I've gotten good enough at a hit and run style of fishing. Get into a spot, do what I want to do there, move on. The weather this day was conducive to both head hunting and streamer fishing, all the better for my fishing style.

The first spot was vacant. I hit it thoroughly with a streamer and pulled out a couple rainbows and a small wild brown, then found some heads. A couple modestly sized browns were rising in a flat tail out. I'm seeing an awful lot of super long leader dry fly fishing for these sorts of situations, and I'm sure it works... but so does a 14 foot leader if you know how to use it.

I duped and landed two of those fish and let the third go about its business. Both were wild browns of a foot and change, and very hefty. Both ate the same simple CDC summer caddis. 

Later on, finding fish doing much the same thing in another spot, I switched to a foam back pupa. It worked every bit as well.

With about a half dozen heads successfully hunted, maybe a little more, and some juicy looking fast water in front of me, I switched back to a stout leader and a streamer, a Full Pint, and was promptly rewarded. The bite that followed was one of the most unique streamer bites I've had on the Farmington... fat holdover rainbows one after the other, with a couple wild brook trout in between, through a whole 100 yard stretch of fast pocket water. It was pretty unusual for this river.

After that stretch, the character of the river changed for one bend. The bottom went from large rocks to smaller cobble, in a bend with a nice deep trough and a riffled tailout. I fished the head, cut, and trough of that bend run without a hookup. It was in the shallow, fast, featureless looking tailout where I hooked up. The take itself was unremarkable, but the moments immediately after proved to me that the culprit was the most impressive trout I'd tied into in awhile. It was a brown, and I knew it was a wild fish almost immediately. The fight was absurd, happening entirely in a foot of water or less. For part of it, the fish was rooster-tailing and jumping over rocks heading upstream defiantly, something I'd never had a hooked trout do before. It was wild. Both the fight, and the fish. I was shaking when I got my hands on it... 22 inches of stunning Farmington River wild brown trout, caught with one of my preferred methods... this was my best Farmington fish ever, no question.

That fish left me as violently as it had come, with a shower and a soaked arm. I wouldn't have it any other way, I hope he reaches 26 inches and gets caught only very rarely.

That wasn't the end though. I continued to pick off fish heading downstream until I reached another big flat with some heads on the far bank. I waded into position and picked off the first head with a CDC caddis. Then I got the next, and a third, and then a fourth after that. All mid sized brown trout. I then focused on the real challenge, a sipper doing cycles in a small eddy behind a grass tussock. I assumed it was a nice wild brown, and it definitely behaved like one. I cycled through flies, carefully timing my casts and playing the game I love to play. I may not be a great trout angler, I don't fish for them as much as I used to, nor as much as many others. But if I'm good at anything, I'm good at working bank sippers. I stuck with my guns, watched, made careful moves, and eventually, up she came, for a sulfur emerger. It wasn't a brown, it was a 19 inch rainbow, a very nice looking one.

We proceeded back upstream after I released that fish, hoping to move some of the fish missed earlier. Suddenly came the Isonychias, and the pocket water boiled. I tied on a Iso Cripple, laid a cast against the bank, and let it slide through the shade under an over hanging tree. That fly disappeared in a massive toilet flush like rise, and I lifted rod to feel a very heavy fish. It began darting around in a panic, and it was clear that this was a trout on par with that big brown earlier. When it jumped, it was obviously a very heavy rainbow well over 20 inches, a silver bullet with a pink band. That trout then made the fastest run I'd had a rainbow make in years, and I was powerless to stop it. She broke me off in the rocks. I couldn't help but smile. There's nothing wrong with being bested by a fish like that. 

I'd had plenty of fun anyway. More than enough. I got to do everything exactly the way I like, and that isn't something I can always say. 

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.