Two Streams Not Fished... Until Today

Fishing new water and determining what is there is one of my favorite thing about small stream fishing. There is a word document that I have been building for 4 years now, though it started as a notebook, that has 53 wild trout streams in it from CT alone. Today I added one more.

I fished two streams that I have been looking at for years but never got around to fishing, partly because I thought their location was much too close to lots of industrial activity. Today I finally said to hell with it, why not.... The bigger stream kept some water this summer and gets stocked with trout in the spring and the smaller one interested me the first time I saw it through a fisherman's eyes about six years ago.

I started with the bigger stream as I had no idea whether the small one even had year round flow. This river reminds me a lot of streams in North Western PA. The sedimentary substrate and shallow riffled sections just feel familiar. It seems almost like a stream where steelhead should live. However, I suspect the large number of dams on this stream and its tributaries has damaged its fish populations. I couldn't even find any fallfish. Maybe this is one to fish in the spring... it looks like epic streamer water!

Given the lack of fish there I did not have high hopes for its little brother. I worked my way up the a short section by a dog park knowing I had very little time left. I found a nice deep plunge pool bellow a culvert:

I knew that if I was going to catch a fish anywhere in this stream it would be in this pool I worked it over for about five minutes with my olive UV frenchie before it got chomped. Upon setting the hook I could see a substantial creature at the end of my line. I immediately expected it to be a holdover trout that came up from the bigger stream. When I landed it I realized it was something much more impressive, a fairly large wild brown from a very small stream. 

I was pretty blown away by that fish. I had to leave shortly after that but I am going to return tomorrow with Mark Alpert to see what else we can find there. I'd like to find some brook trout, as it looks like the kind of place that should hold at least a few natives.