New Years Day 2016

This year I was excited to get into the New Years Day outing that a number of CT's small stream nuts have been doing since 2011. It started with Alan, Pete, and John, and has grown to include Kirk and Mark. This year the conditions on the stream are much better than they were in January of 2015. I didn't even fish New Years Day last year, it was freezing and windy. Today was warm, periodically sunny, and the stream we fished had a healthy dose of fresh water. In fact in the few times I fished it it never looked quite this good.

Mark fishes the bend while Alan, further up, catches some brookies out of the riffles.

My first and only brook trout of the day took the floss Pinky in a fishy looking run. It fought strongly in the fast water and I wasn"t surprised that it was such a gorgeous fish.

John (Apache Trout) hooked and lost a brooky lower in the same run on our way back down stream. Alan did by far the best, taking a number of stunning wild jewels. Pete moved a couple of good fish and was able to get his first brooky of the year to hand. Kirk wasn't skunked either in those first few hours, but his was a fall fish. Perhaps luckiest of all, Mark caught a very nice brooky on a Parachute Adams while I was working one a riser in a very tricky spot. His was in a tricky spot too, and unlike me he was able to swing his fly into position and get the fish to come to the surface for it.

Before we headed back to the parking lot Kirk stepped through what looked like silt and turned out to be deep water. He had to go home to change, but he was back for a wonderful stream side lunch. Mark's soup and Alan's dogs and beans were more then enough to fill us up! Not to mention the cookies and venison jerky... and thankfully John brought drinks because I totally forgot water.

Alan Petrucci Photo

After lunch Kirk, Alan, John and I went down to a lower stretch of the stream and one of its tributaries. The smaller trib got so startlingly low this year that I wasn't expecting to see anything of size out of it.

Kirk got into position at the head of a nice pool while John and I chatted and watched. He had a few bumps on his little bead headed streamer and eventually came tight to a fish. After a few moments I realized what was going on and said "Kirk that's a good fish!" As if he didn't already now. It was making some surprising boils and fighting with defiance. We were trying to figure out what it was. A stocked fish? A brown? The greyish flashes of it's sides had some resemblance of a rainbow. Nope! It was an impressive wild brook trout. Now that makes up for falling in huh! But as Alan said later, that kind of fish sets the tone for a while, and if a fisherman isn't careful they'll be disappointed by average days. 

What a fish!!!