Part Time Home Water

My Dad recently moved, which is great for a number of reasons. One of which will bring some new and interesting posts to this blog. For the past couple years I have been able to learn some of the waters around his previous home, and some of the ponds are particularly fishy and I plan to visit them again. But now I have a whole new set of ponds and streams to fish, and though the ponds most likely have the same assemblage of common fishes found all over CT, the salt water fishing has been traded for streams. There are a number of small wild trout streams that I already know and have fished, but there are a couple promising spots that I now will have the opportunity to really learn, and there is one river in particular that I am very excited about.

Yesterday I spent a few hours doing a preliminary exploration of a large portion of the watershed. This was pretty much urban water and there was LOTS of trash, but the water was clear and did not smell. I have caught both brown trout and brookies in far dirtier water, so I was at least hopeful. In the end all I ended up seeing were suckers, dace (very few) and sculpins. No salmonids. The only fish I caught there were two small suckers. The small stream flows into a larger river that I know for a fact has wild brown trout and is stocked in the spring as well. It looks like extremely good streamer and dry fly water, and I did see one trout rise today. I am very much looking forward to learning this river.

By far the coolest thing I saw all day was a hawk that was seemingly trying to get something out of the grass. It was stomping its feet on one spot and pulling at the grass. I suspect it had found a mouse and in a brief tussle it had gotten tangled in the grass. It was really something to see such a large bird that close, especially given the fact that it wasn't injured. The only other times I've seen hawks or owls that close they were either captive or injured or both.