Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Frost and Dry Fly Brook Trout


Yesterday I met up with Kirk and Alan to show them a new stream. It was going to be a lovely day, no clouds and very little wind and warming up quickly. When we got to the parking area we were greeted by some of the most amazing frost I have ever seen.



The stream we were about to fish is one of numerous low gradient, spring fed streams in the area. Those springs keep the water just a bit warmer and help keep the ice off the water. That, combined with the massive population of brook trout in many of these stream, lead to excellent fishing when the freestone streams aren't fishing very well.

The night before I had told Kirk to bring dry flies. The fish in this stream are very surface oriented. What I wasn't expecting was that dry flies ended up being the most productive method all day! Out of the three of us, Alan caught the most fish (no surprise there) and most of those were on caddis and Stimulators. I myself used Stimulators and a Puterbaugh Caddis, fishing primarily downstream. The brook trout were stacked up in certain pools and runs, as well as deeper riffles. It was not unlikely to catch five or more out of the same spot.





This male was my best of the day, ad isn't he dressed to impress? He ate a Royal Stimulator skated at the head of a pool.




We all caught a lot of fish in the morning, often returning to the same pools over and over. After a while we decided to move, which turned out to be a bad decision. Kirk and I tried a few spots without much luck.


Sometimes you can't finish the day with a bang, but with a dry fly day like we had, in December, with a couple of good friends, how can you complain?

12 comments:

  1. Nice job gents!! Rowan the second to last brookie has outstanding blue halos!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Pete,
      Yeah that little one had some impressive coloration!

      Delete
  2. Rowan it was nice fishing with you and Kirk. It was a frosty start but the brookies heated up and that's all it took to make for a warm outing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alan,
      It was surprising how quickly they started looking up!

      Delete
  3. NICE stream and those are beautiful gems that came out to hand. Your frost photos are gems to!!!
    Tie, fish, write and photo on...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Cliff,
      I think it is fair to say that nature made photography very easy on this day!

      Delete
  4. When we lived in Old Saybrook, the Hoar Frost was sometimes over an inch long. Perect conditions are a really cold below 10F night followed by a still air situation with just a slight amount of moist marine air coming over the already superchilled grasses. Same thing would happen in the river valleys in Maine when I was at school. Mailboxes decorated around all the edges with 2" long icy filligree.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those are some real beauties Rowan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Howard,
      Hard to find an ugly wild brook trout!

      Delete
  6. Rowan
    Amazing stream, and colorful brook trout taken---thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bill,
      One of many amazing streams in the area!

      Delete