Icy Stripers and Salty Brown Trout

The initial goal for today was to get some stripers while there is still snow on the ground. given the slight chance that there would be ice on the water I had a Plan B, sea run brown trout. I have a rather unhealthy obsession with chrome. Any salmonid that spends time in salt water is truly a thing of beauty. It ended up being the case that we did a bit of both.

I was fishing with Mark and Rik today. Mark and I were looking at bodies of water we passed on the way to the striper spot and They had varying amounts of open water. One that is very close to the backwater we were going to fish was pretty significantly open despite having no currant or tidal influence. And yet after hiking in to the spot we found way more ice than expected for a place with significant current. We stayed a bit, didn't catch anything. Then we fished the main river channel once Rik arrived, but that was also unsuccessful. So, it was on to hunting chrome of the trutta variety. 

For those not in the know... fly fishing for sea run browns in CT is a very low yield game. If I had caught one today it would have been my second in three years. I did get a taker, a brief hookup actually. But what exactly it was is uncertain, though I would lean toward trout given the lack of other possibilities in this particular stream.

Our thinking was that the incoming tide and warmth of the sun would push back the ice and give us a window in which to catch some stripers, so as soon as we were done fishing our stretch of the sea run brown trout stream we were on our way back to the spot. Unfortunately Rik could not stay, but we pressed on with hope of cold winter striped bass on the fly. When we got to the spot we found less ice, and as we waded out we both noticed something odd. The bottom seemed harder and less mucky, at least in spots, than it had been in the morning. What the reason for this could be I have no idea. What I do know is that this icy striper fly fishing was not easy. My aggressively tapered floating line saved my butt, I was able to punch my cast into the wind and get the fly into the zone. I caught four or five schoolies. Mission accomplished. With frozen fingers and feet Mark and I finally gave up and vowed to return on the warmest day of the weekend. On that day, we will catch them.