The Last Day of the Season

March is here. The only full month during which the state limits what waters we can fish. From here until opening day of trout season, some ponds and a lot of streams are no longer on the table, to "protect" freshly stocked trout. It's an annoying policy, especially for someone like myself who doesn't much care about protecting hatchery trout and loves to fish unstocked, small, wild brook trout streams. Most of those streams aren't managed and are therefore also closed. That's kinda lame....
Anyway, Mark Philippe and I decided to make the best of the last day of the season and hit a number of wild trout streams that will now be closed until opening day. All three streams we fished are places I've fished for years now and know pretty well, but they've also changed massively over the last year and a half through all the huge swings in flow, so it's almost been like fishing new water.

The first stream did not treat us well. We moved nothing. That's a first for me, I always catch something there, and oftentimes it's a pretty big wild brookie for CT. This time the fish seemed absent, which is strange. The bright bluebird sky may not have helped the situation.

The next stream had changed in more ways than one, and some of it can be blamed on man. A lot of trees had been cut in one area, leaving the stream entirely exposed with no cover other than the rocks themselves. It was not a pretty sight, this stretch of water used to fish very well and now it seemed vacant and probably was. Determined to break the skunk I pushed upstream to a culvert pool, and it gave up the goods: a gorgeous dark purple brookie, the kind of fish I had come to expect from this stream. 

We fished the third and final stream for a short time. Mark broke his skunk there, in a culvert pool much like I had. I got a secnd brookie, the same size as the first but very different in appearance. It had a beautiful olive back, lots of red spots, and a subtle pink color of its stomach and fins. I caught it in a pool that I'd never caught a fish in before, because it didn't used to exist!

A few winters ago I got a gorgeous brown under this tree. I've fished it on every visit since hoping for a repeat, but it has never come.

The fishing wasn't fast and furious, but we didn't get skunked... that's enough for me. It wasn't a bad way to close the long season.

If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my only Patron, Erin, for supporting this blog.