Slamming Housatonic Smallmouth

 The Housatonic is the most well known place in CT to fly fish for smallmouth, and mostly because its an exceptional numbers river. 18 inch and larger bass are fairly rare, but it is very possible to catch 40 fish averaging 9 inches in a day there. I'm a bigger fan of less well known rivers and lakes where there are are some 16-20 inch bass but fewer fish overall. The Housatonic is still fun though, and I try to make it out there at least a few times each year. Last week I drove to Northwest CT to storm chase and found myself with quite a bit of time before storms fired. I had enough time to climb up to a rattlesnake population in particularly rough terrain, then rig up the 5 weight and seek some Housatonic smallmouth bass. I walked in to my favorite spot and promptly started catching bass averaging far bigger than I'm used to catching on this river, and lots of them. 

A white Woolly Bugger was all I needed, and it seemed everywhere I cast it it was intercepted by a 10-15 inch smallmouth. The combination of aggressive mid/post spawn behavior, hot and muggy weather, and incoming cold front really had the fish going wild. Eventually I found a really nice one too,  a rare Housatonic 18 incher, and it put up one of the best smallmouth fights I've ever had featuring a blistering downstream run and half dozen jumps. 

As the day progressed the bass just kept coming. By 4:00 I had a ridiculous tally of  47 smallmouth, with an average size of 13 inches. It was an absurdly fun day, and I was one fish right up until the end, when I took a moment to check the developing weather situation and immediately had to move into chase mode. 

Just minutes after I released the last fish, I was barreling towards a line of severe thunderstorms in my 4Runner. For the rest of the evening, I had ample opportunity to intercept gnarly and sometimes quite photogenic storms. I chased them from the NY line all the way to the CT River. It was a phenomenal day, to say the least. 

Smallmouth bass are one of the species I'm most interested in guiding clients to during the summer months, on the Housatonic and other systems throughout the state. My knowledge base for targeting trophy bass dates back to well before I'd ever caught a trout, so I've got quite a lot of smallmouth experience under my belt. It you're interested, email me at brwntroutangler@gmail.com.

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.

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