Fall Guiding & Updates

 It's been a hot minute since I rolled out one of these. The last one I did was in June? Woooh boy, I'm a mess. But the fishing is pretty good. I guess I'll go over the summer's worth of work. 

Carp, carp, and more carp. Then some more carp. I put a lot of people on carp. Some regulars, some new guys... so many carp. Here's a small selection for you:

Dar's RI fully

Joey's not-a-bowfin

Connor's mop eater

Johny's 22 pounder

JK's dock demon

Hayden's first bubbler

Speaking of carp, if you're a freak for the Cyprinus like I am, it's going to be worth your while to check out United State of Carp. The first issue is soon to come, with an article by yours truly. It'll be a photo heavy publication, well styled as far as I can tell, and I'm looking forward to it and to working with Joel more in the future!

The carp are far from done for the year, of course. If you'd still like to get on some, especially if you'd like to learn late season tactics, there is time... basically until the waters freeze over, there's always a shot. But I'm ecxited for the change of season and the change of target that comes with it. CT's niche stocked salmon season is rapidly approaching. I anticipate DEEP to put the first of the season in very soon, I'd say any dat after October 15 is a guaranteed shot if you'd like to get a day on the calendar now. It'll be walk and wade only for a little while, until the water is up. 

This fall I'm also very keen on stillwater trout trips. This is something I've been doing more and more of myself and with friends, but its hard to convince clients to fish anything but rivers for trout. I find that crazy, honestly. Some of the best big trout fishing in the state currently is on lakes, not rivers. It just takes a fly angler leaving their moving water comfort zone a little bit. The rivers are there too, of course, and the Housatonic, Farmington, and Salmon will all offer great opportunities over the coming months. I've been on a dry fly bender as well, with no intention of letting up. 

As for the salt, at least for me, it's been a hot mess. My fall weakfish bite either didn't happen or just not when I was there. My clients have boated some fluke and had some shots at blitzing bass, some tailing dogfish, and a couple short opportunities at hard tails, but it has been really kicking my teeth in the few chances there've been to get out, for me. 

So, the freshwater fall agenda persists: there is still great carp fishing ahead, there is still great smallmouth bass fishing ahead, and the pike, salmon, and trout offer a plethora of opportunities I am thrilled to offer to my clients! 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, Collin, and James for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog and access more informative content, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version!

June Guiding Updates & Patreon Setlist

 May was a productive month with clients with a decent array of variety and some big fish here and there! Of course, it always is, May is one of those months in Connecticut when it is pretty hard to pick what exactly to do any given day, for my own personal fishing. I did no trout trips at all in April but had a few in May, starting with Frank and Brandon. It was a mixed bag day, mostly nymphing, one cool spot and stalk with a dry, and a nice tiger trout on a mouse. Then David and Kalil came down from Massachusetts for a great day with a lot of catching shotgun nymphing the riffles of one of Connecticut's more underrated trout rivers. 

Kalil Boghban Photo

Kalil Boghban Photo

The carp spawned in bursts throughout the month, not always in the same places on the same days. The only time it pretty much screwed me was when I had Tom Cole out, and in unusual form two fish were hooked and lost out of the only feeders we found. Carp don't often come unpinned after they're suck, and I saw that both weren't fouled very early on. At least the fish viewing that day was spectacular, with hundreds upon hundreds of carp of all shapes around us, under us, even splashing us at almost all times.

The next day I had Blake, who coincidentally had a similar situation when he booked me last year, where every hooked fish managed to slip away un-netted. This time was different with multiple large carp and plenty of channel catfish caught. Most exciting, though, was this gorgeous little mirror carp!

Also getting in on the carp success in May was Michael, with his largest freshwater fish on the fly....

... and Dar, with some excellent big lake action.

To keep the variety up, shad were also heavily in the program this May. I love American shad, but for my own devices I'd gladly go make one annual pilgrimage a year for the species. Sometimes clients pull me out for them though, as Jeff and Tony did this year. For two days we slugged it out with rain and cooling temperatures. It was harder work than I like shad fishing to be but fish were caught regardless.

I'm skipping a fair bit, here, so as not to crowd out this post too much, but it was a great month with great clients and lot of good fishing. On to June, which we are now almost halfway into. I'm going to get a little bit personal, now. The start of this month has been a disaster for me. With some very expensive and necessary repair investments done on my generally trusty set of wheels, I promptly got into a car wreck that has left me with both light physical strain, significant mental trauma and stress, and a financial burden that is turning out to be far worse than it even seemed it might be initially. This has left me in a tough place for June. If you are looking to book a trip, please understand that it my take me some effort in scheduling. Walk and wade trips will be much, much easier to accomplish than canoe or raft trips, though I can at least do canoe trips here and there, it'll just take some scheduling and working things around to make sure I can borrow appropriate wheels. Because I am in such a sticky financial situation I very much would appreciate any trips I can get on the books at all, as this is setting me back on a few things I'd intended to do this year, including getting a second raft which would have hugely boosted my ability to furnish fun and exciting float trips. If you can find room in your schedule and any of my normal early summer warmwater fare- (bass, carp, bowfin, catfish) or saltwater species (scup, fluke, blackfish, stripers), as well as wade trips on the Farmington and a handful of other rivers remaining cool enough for trout -appeals to you, I'd be massively appreciative of your booking. I can't promise the easiest scheduling process but will do my absolute best. Thank you for your understanding while I work this out. 

So far this month the fishing has been good and promises to continue being. Some bowfin, catfish, and carp have found their way to the net. I did something I don't usually do much anymore and made some casts at carp one day, resulting in the largest fantail I've ever personally set eyes on. It ate the fly before it made it to the bottom on a fast cruise in clear water. It was a spectacular eat and in many respects on of the best carp I'd ever caught... so no complaints there.

Levi Opsatnic Photo

As for Patreon, we're already on a nice roll this month. Here's the setlist: 

Cow+ Posts: 

Get In Loser, We're Going Gar-ing

Videos: 

Multidisciplinary Smallmouth Nymphing

Casting Under & Into Brush

Weekly Posts:

Surface Analysis

Thing Carp Eat Sometimes

Using Soft Glass to Set Hard

Stand In Cold Water

Quick Tips:

TBD

Walt's Durability

Walt's Profile

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, and Collin for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog and access more informative content, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version!

May Patreon Setlist

May is a month of much fishiness, and so will it be with the content over on Patreon....

Cow+ Posts: 

To Bead or Not To Bead

Crappie & Ramp Catch, Forage, and Cook

Videos: 

Casting With Slopes Behind You

Hunting Giant Fallfish

Weekly Posts:

Weather Analogs

Spinners or Duns?

Questioning Authority

Beast Fleye Simplification

Quick Tips:

TBD

Thanks as always to everyone that supports me over there! The link to Patreon is to the right of this post in the side bar, in web version; not mobile. 

Spring Highlights, Updates & Guiding Schedule

 This has been quite a whacky, wild, rollercoaster ride of a spring thus far. The weather has been pretty much bananas, with wild temperature swings and swaps back and forth between dry conditions and more normal, wet spring weather as well. The fishing has been more hit than miss, though by my personal standards it has been a bit frustrating. In terms of prolonged flooding, this spring has been a bit of a dud. The Connecticut is still up currently but did not get all that high for all that long. Turns out, and average snowpack in CT, below in most of MA, and average in VT and NH coupled with a quick early melt in March and inconsistent rains in early April do not make for the perfect floodplain season. This doesn't ruin the carp fishing, but it does deprive me of some of my favorite spots for one season. Believe it or not the lack of flooding has bigger ramifications for my early season smallmouth fishing, which was good but not great this year. The bigger impacts on carp fishing quality came from the temperature swings and wind. There were a lot more one and two fish days than I typically like, but my standards for carp fishing are also pretty high anyway. Here are some highlights....

The first properly netted fish (we had one throw the hook and get out an hour prior) of the season was Dar's big and super long barble-d fantail. Not a bad way to start. For a couple weeks he'd be the only one putting fish in the net, including on a couple good high numbers days (9 one day, 7 another.) 

Most difficult conditions bested goes to Ben, he got a modest wind one day then and absolute howler the next with fish in a very neutral mood, but still managed to put good carp in the net. 

 Weirdest catch goes to Dar with a one-eye blind common on his 6th session with me this spring. Again, fish were in a neutral mood this day after a very cold night, it was a tricky bite. 

Mike picked a day perfectly, as the air temperature sky rocketed and fish went into a very aggressive feeding mode, he ended up with a perfect bunch of commons, mostly bubblers. 

The next day Joey stole the title for most fish landed with a perfect dozen, mostly scrappy mid sized commons with one epic little fantail for variety. The fish began early spawning activities that day but most were still feeding. 

Spawning behavior made things trickier for the Idaho guides team of Jack and Luke, but Luke managed his first carp- a beautiful slot machine bubbler fantail -then another perfect common. Jack fooled a fantail on day one and a monster common for the flooded woods on day two. Jack has managed to bring the big fish luck two years in a row, tow commons early in 2025 were some of the biggest floodplain fish I've ever netted and his fish this year was no different. You know they're big when holding them up off your knee makes your arms shake instantly.

As for smallmouth, both Dar and Dave caught their personal biggest with me this season, and Art got the job done with some aggressive chasers. 

My schedule has a few holes I can fill in the coming week or so, the water is still up and the carp are still back in the woods for now. If we get rain enough, this can persist well into May, but that isn't particularly likely this year in my opinion. So we're likely to transition into my typical flats and river edge late spring and summer fishing, which is still very engaging and in my opinion does offer shots at some much larger fish. We're also coming into prime time for post spawn pike, smallmouth streamer trips, and soon enough, bowfin. I've been seeing a few bowfin already but none have stuck around long enough to provide shots. Soon, though, they'll be all sorts of rowdy. Flows remain fairly amicable for trout float trips in the larger rivers and any shots of rain could put the Salmon, Willimantic, and others in play as well. I have to keep a couple fairly large blocks of time open in early May, but I do have availability in the latter half of the month. June only has a handful of booked dates and is primo for anything and everything on the warmwater front as well as Farmington floats when flows allow. Let me know if anything piques your interest! 

brwntroutangler@gmail.com 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, and Collin for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog and access more informative content, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version!

April Patreon Setlist

 Fun stuff on the way for Patrons this month! Continuation of the Semotilus saga, forecasting sneaky spring fronts, and all sorts of other goodness....

Cow+ Posts: 

The Secret To Affordable Fibers

Targeting Northern Studfish on the Fly

Videos: 

Crappie Magic

Hunting Giant Creek Chubs

Weekly Posts:

Backdoor Cold Fronts

Mapping Surroundings for Better Casting

Wetflies for Stillwater Risers

Fly Lines for Close Range Carp

Quick Tips:

TBD

Thanks as always to everyone that supports me over there! I understand that this is a difficult economic time for just about all of us, and it isn't lost on me that the service I provide is essentially a luxury service, so every supporter is hugely appreciated. Do let me know if there's anything I can do to make your experience on Patreon better and more educational! Of course, I'm always going to cover topics I find most interesting and relevant, even if they're weird and counter to the classic angling culture and traditional "gamefish", but I'm always open to input. 

March Patreon Happenings

Over on Patreon this month I'm starting a new Collection (series) on chubs... that's right, something absolutely nobody asked for! I'm here for the needs of the people whether they know it or not, and I've determined that everyone needs more Semotilus and Nocomis in their lives. The first post available to all tiers comes out next month and covers the diversity and distribution of the Semotilus genus within Connecticut, to be out March 9th. One of the two monthly videos will chronicle efforts to catch the largest creek chub I can in Connecticut. Down the road I'll delve into as many chub species as I can with this collection, detailing their biology, identification, and how to catch them on the fly. 

The "Forecasting for Anglers" collection will also be built upon this month, with a cow+ tier post on locations that warm up fastest in the spring publishing later today (March 2nd) and an all member weather analog post later in the month. The other weekly posts include a sunfish ice fishing post tomorrow and a final post to be determined. The other bimonthly cow+ tier post is on targeting early season bowfin, and the other video will be one in the Small Stream Streamer Fishing Masterclass. 

As always, if you support me over on Patreon, thank you! It really does keep this whole thing going. If any of you ever has an idea for a topic you'd like to see covered, don't hesitate to reach out and ask as I'm always open to new ideas and it is a lot of work to come up with them on my own. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, Truman, Collin, and Josey for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog and access more informative content, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version!

Late Winter Update & March Guiding Schedule

 Two consecutive great ice years for Connecticut, what a treat! I've been greatly enjoying putting the hours in to get much better at hardwater pursuits, traveling a little further afield, and putting in as many consecutive hours out there as possible. Noah and I have been ice camping when the opportunity arises, even in some very harsh and cold conditions. It has been extremely enjoyable and I've been very okay without casting a fly into open water in a couple months. 

Lake trout are a fish that is growing on me more and more, both in open water and on the ice. They're aggressive but also moody, capable of producing blitz level feeding windows and long, slow periods just as easily. They're very pretty too, and they don't taste bad at all either... in my limited experience of exactly one laker kept. They're oddly like small bluefish in flavor. Tremendous fish, all around. We just need to figure out big lake wild rainbows and landlocked salmon next. 

On the home front, I've been doing quite well with big bluegills, not as well with crappie as I'd like, not as well with perch as I'd like, and laying into the stocked trout because, well, of course... that never changes. On the crappie and perch front I do have a hard time believing that over harvest and the now limitless regulations aren't at least partially to blame. Time will tell, but there certainly don't seem to be as many big crappies and perch in popular locations as there were even five years ago. This probably isn't an audience to whom preaching selective harvest would make any difference to, but man... I wish people were a little more conservative with their trophy panfish harvesting. 

On to March, though. The mud month is only seven days away, and it promises to be a very muddy March this year. There's a potential blizzard on the way as I write this, and still 2-8 inches of snow on the ground from the big January storm depending where in Connecticut you are. This is good; very good in fact. We went into winter with a big deficit and depleted aquifers, the more snow we get the better. It's good for river health but also good for floating. It looks like March will present a number of opportunities to float rivers, both for trout and Atlantic salmon. March is my personal favorite salmon month during the Connecticut season. Fish are often well spread, can be aggressive, and if you do want to keep one it is definitely the best time to get one that has much better flavor than they do when they're first put in. I'll be doing floats basically whenever the weather allows, as the ice is now leaving and many days in the long term forecast exceed 40 degrees. If you'd like to try it, let me know!

John Kelly caught this show stopper with me back in December.

When the Salmon, Willimantic, and Farmington are floatable I'll be doing those as well. As it stands those aren't, but they should come into form soon. The Salmon is still iced up heavily and at the least the Merrow Rd. gauge on the Willy is reading "ice effected, so for now it's a waiting game. We had a lot of fun on both rivers last year, though, and I'm looking forward to putting the NRS down both again in 2026! The Farmington is the Farmington... if you want to fish it I'll take you. 

Alternately, the carp season is coming and coming fast. Most years we do have great fishing in March, odds aren't bad that the same is true this year even though it feels cold now. April is filling in already. If you want dates in April, reach out ASAP while I still have some schedule flexibility. It's shaping up to be a really tremendous flood plain season. It sort of always is, though. If you haven't experienced that fishery, you owe it to yourself to do so!

Pete with a good un'

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, Truman, Collin, and Josey for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog and access more informative content, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version!

Early Winter Guiding Updates & Report

 Hey all! We're shifting into winter mode for sure now here in Connecticut, and with that comes some slight programs shifts. Let's start with the late fall recap, though. November was a fair month for clients with a few good catches, with some good some decent chunks of time for me to get out and do my own thing. Water levels were up and down, providing both good wading and a few floatable days on the Shetucket. My client Dar hit the best window I've had yet with a fairly steady bite until the water started to rise and shut things down for the day. 

He was also with me for a good flow window on the Housatonic. The fishing there has been a bit spottier when it's been high enough to float, likely because the fish had gotten comfortable in low water lies. 

Later in the month, Levi and I did an exploratory float on some big water without much idea of what to expect and low and behold! Big river Connecticut wild brook trout!!! A couple more floats down the same waterway, one I've wade fished here and there over the years, and I anticipate some more revelatory discoveries will come to light. I'm already impressed by the productivity of some stretches of these rivers that can't be reached any other way and don't see any stocking. Trout move, never forget that. 

The fish of the month of November goes to Connor Ferris, though, with a striper closing in on 20lbs. She was a gorgeous fish, and thankfully as she might have been one of the last of the year as weather does not look likely to provide safe and productive windows for canoe based stripering through December. Great work Connor! 

As for personal fishing, I've had a few real duds when it comes to mid distance and long distance trips, and some fairly poor success close to home as well. That all shattered  with this big hen on a twitched Ausable Ugly. Yes, she's a lake run fish, and yes, I know they get a lot bigger and nicer looking... but I don't get over to western New York that much and I'm taking her as a minor victory. Not my victory really, but almost cooler, on the same trip Noah managed his lifer laker when we took the canoe out over some of the deeper water that boat has ever been on. 

That salmonid-heavy program will continue into the winter here as we gear up for the next couple months of fishing. Three month NOAA temperature outlooks suggest slightly warmer than average conditions in Connecticut, but the early polar vortex breakdown doesn't make it feel that way at all and lakes and ponds are already freezing up. We'll see, if this winter shapes up at all like last I may just start guiding ice trips finally! But for now, the program is all about trout and Salmon. The big Atlantics went in the Naugatuck and Shetucket last week, some really nice looking fish this year, and as conditions shift I'll continue offering either walk and wade or raft floats on the Shetucket as flows permit. The Farmington doesn't yet look like it's going to provide us many floatable days, and the Housatonic has been a bit fickle for my liking, but that could change with just a couple of storms. If we get the water a few of the Eastern CT rivers are in play (Salmon, Willimantic, Quinebaug), so if you see that we've got some rain incoming and are interested in floating, reach out and I'll show you a side of Eastern CT trout fishing few know! Barring that rain, all of the TMAs are in play for wade trips. If you're looking to up your game for winter trout fishing regardless of tactic, just let me know and I'll set you up for success. It'll be a fun season, there's still a lot to love here in the cold times. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, Truman, and Collin for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

October-November Guiding Updates

 Hey folks! It's fall, right? Spastic weather aside, it is, I guess. We're in drought conditions, streams are very low, and the leaf hatch has commenced. So despite the temperature aggressively flip-flopping and the disappointing lack of good storms, it is indeed fall here in southern New England, and that brings a few changes to my guiding program. This late summer/fall transition period certainly wasn't unproductive though, with a few really cool highlights. I did as many big river floats as I could, and they all had their moments even on the slower days. Though smallmouth were the primary headliner, pike and stripers made plenty of showings as well. 

Greg with a nice one on a soft plastic

Barred up aggressor for Andrew

Schoolie for Dar... we were seeing a few much bigger than this!

Javier's pike put on a good show waking off the bank.

And of course there were plenty of good carp too. Late summer often gives up a few really good ones and this year was no exception. Winner goes to JK with this record breaker:

The carp are, of course, still going. It isn't as predictable at this point in the year, so I wouldn't recommend trying to book for them unless you have some flexibility with your schedule. Warmer days, especially after warmer nights, will be much better. 

In the salt, I'm still plugging away at the multispecies trips. They've got a heavier weakfish bend this year than last, they're becoming even more widespread and abundant. We're getting them both in daylight hours and at night, and some pretty nice ones are showing this year too. That's keeping me around the creeks and rockpiles. There are bonito and albies around as well, and when on anchor at rockpiles it's not at all out of the question to get shots at them from the canoe. Tautog season opens October 10th and I'm more than equipped to put you on your first fly rod blackfish! I do light tackle jigging for them as well, both shore and canoe based in shallow waters taking an approach very few others are. It's an interesting game, if you care to try it!

Jason with a good fly rod tautog

Jonathan's lifer weakfish.

And its salmon season again. Just like last year we're in drought conditions and the Shetucket is quite low, so it will be walk and wade trips only for the foreseeable future. This low water does provide shots to catch them on dries though, and that's always fun. If you have a flexible schedule, it's always best to try to hit an evening window or a cloudy or even rainy day, that's when we do our best, but conditions aside I can always put you in front of a salmon with the best flies to get the job done. I'll be taking Salmon bookings right into winter, and if we do start getting water enough to float I'll be doing float trips in the NRS, so look forward to that! 

Mark with a late season salmon from a productive float.

Aside from those saltwater and salmon targeted trips, there are other options coming up as well including kokanee, stillwater trout, and a continuation of the warm-water floats for bass and pike. I love this season, it's one of those times when there's just so much that can be really good it can be hard to decide what to do any given day. I love the fall but it does go fast. Don't let it slip you by!

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, and Truman for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.