Spring Swing

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It rained something like 22 days in April in CT. That's crazy. Last year was crazy wet too here in the Northeast, and this is about what we can expect. Warming atmosphere = more evaporation = more rain in places that have always been wet and less rain in places that have always been more arid. Unfortunately this has caused me to have the worst early herring run in the last four years. I haven't been able to get to the places I normally fish because there's been 5 feet of water where there's normally two. That has been insanely frustrating. My home water has had it's hatches, notably the paraleps and hendricksons, either pushed back very late, or they've come off when the water was too high for a good rise. That too, insanely frustrating.
About the only fishing advantage of the perpetual high water on my local rivers has been that it's made the biggest good practice for my short spey rod. When the water's up, I like to pretend it's an actual salmon or steelhead river, and it doesn't look entirely like one. I fish Blue Charms, Sugarman Shrimp, Buck Bugs, Intruders, and other traditional and modern salmon and steelhead flies. And they do catch fish, though I'm not there to catch fish. I'm there to fix my rhythms so that when I do get to fish a stream with wild salmon or steelhead, I won't be unprepared. Frankly, I pretty much skate every fish I hook right in without struggle. That's just what a 11' 6" 8wt does to small hatchery trout. But the takes are still fun.

There are some stretches of water in the area that are pretty well untraveled. Deep in the valleys you can't here road noise. There aren't any houses in sight. And in some cases, seeing any hikers or other anglers is a surprise. Some of the time the best fishing is in these stretches, sometimes it isn't. On my biggest river close to home, the most remote stretch isn't the best trout fishing, but it is the best smallmouth and sucker fishing. Swinging flies, I didn't expect to come across any white sucker, but I did have a bass on briefly. As the water drops and warms even more, that bite will only get better.

At the end of the day, I hadn't caught anything particularly interesting, but I had developed a better rhythm, had vastly improved my Skandi style cast, and improved casting with my off hand on top. I've found it quite easy to be ambidextrous with two hand casting. I'm working on that with single handed casting too but it isn't easy. It's like re-learning to cast again, and it basically is. I have no muscle memory for a casting stroke in my left arm and no hauling muscle memory in my right.  I'll get there eventually.