Connecticut Fly Angler: The Streams Not Fished- The White Mountains

Look at a map of any remote area in the North East. Consider all of the rivers. Often these will have trout. Now narrow your focus to small ones. These are the most probable to hold wild fish. Now look for sections of these waterways that are hard to get to: Thick brush, no trails, no roads. This is what one of the streams my father and I fished in the White Mountains was like. It was a tributary to a bigger river, although it flows into a part of the river that not stocked an very hard to fish. It also happened to be on the far side of the river, in a basin with a few trails and only some dirt logging roads. This Basin sits at around 1200 feet. The brush is impenetrable. The river we had to cross (without waders) to fish this little brook was, this weekend, cold. It couldn't have exceeded 45 degrees. The little brook was slower and warmer, but not by more than five degrees.

It is streams like this that even locals don't bother with. They can get land locked salmon, big Brook Trout, and big Browns in other easier to get to and fish rivers. Even the small stream buffs have plenty of other options that aren't so taxing and obscure as that little brook. If you are going to come from a-far, why would yous bother. That stream may probably have been fished at some point, but not recently. The Brook Trout in there now have never seen anything with a hook in it.

The stream was vary slow, with granite gravel bottom and vegetation. There was mud, some big rounded stones, and all sorts of nooks and crannies concealing fish. The Banks were steep, but that hardy mattered considering the safest mode of travel was wading. There were plenty of beaver dams forming great holes. Often the water was still, but it had brook trout in it anyway. In CT this water would be too arm for char. Insects were absolutely everywhere. Bug spray did little to stall the black flies, deer flies, and mosquitoes. Caddis, a ridiculous amount of midges, and Green Drakes were emerging.

The trout we caught ranged in size from 2 to 5 inches. We probably could have caught bigger on small buckctails but had plenty of fun on dries. They weren't skittish, and they took flies readily with gusto. I used a Parachute Adams, my father used the same as well as a Griffiths Gnat and a Stimulator. Some fish ate from bellow, others jumped down on the flies. Brookies do this sometimes to prevent food from taking off. Almost every cast resulted in a take.