Homewater and a New Rig

I wanted to test some gear today. I got a nice new setup for Christmas, a rod perfect for short nymphing and turning over long leader: a TFO 10 ft. 5 wgt with a RLS+ reel. I also wanted to get back to my home water and fish it before the flow drops off again.

There were no drifting leaves when I got there and the water level was just a bit bellow what I consider perfect, and it didn't take long for a little wild brown to slam my Ausable Ugly and complete the christening of my new outfit. I'm liking the new rod. It's very long, sensitive, and turns over a big dry like nothing. Even though I only caught a few browns today (I think 5) I hooked a decent number and lost some good sized ones. Plenty of salmon parr took the fly too. One of the fish I lost was a very good brown, maybe 12 inches, that came up and smashed the Ausable Bomber. It was a tiny bit better than I expected, but there are definitely fewer and smaller fish than there used to be in this stream. It was still great to catch some gorgeous stream born fish out of my favorite river in the world.