Thank You!

I hope all of you that celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday and spent time with the people you care about, or maybe some time taking care of yourself too. I enjoyed a hike with my Mom and my brother, we had quite beautiful weather for it.

Photo Bombing the Berkshires

I'm feeling thankful for this little community lately. CT Fly Angler is no big deal. This month we just topped half a million total page views, which is what some less than viral Youtube videos get in a months time but whatever. I'm amazed I get an audience at all, frankly. That I have between 200 and 300 people coming here most days, a few frequent commentors, and a handful of people actually giving me money so I can keep doing this blows my mind. Thank you all! To express my gratitude I'm going to be getting a little more active as far as exclusive content on Patreon. Starting next week, I'll be posting one excerpt from my fishing log each week I can, with as little redaction as I feel comfortable sharing. This should give my patrons a good idea of how I collect and record data, which is very important to my own angling success, as well as little tidbits of valuable information about what conditions I look for to target certain species as well as little tidbits, funny stories, sketches, and photos that wouldn't ever see the light of day otherwise. Whether you give only a buck a month, 10, or more, you'll get access to a weekly or nearly weekly log write up. 

I'll also probably do a giveaway soon. I don't know what, probably some flies, some stickers, or maybe a print. I also don't know when but probably before the end of December. In any case, thank you all for sticking around. I appreciate the opportunities this blog, and by proxy all of you, have given me. 

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, Chris, Brandon, and Christopher, for supporting this blog on Patreon.

That Creek

There are some streams that I know for a fact have held wild trout recently enough that they should still be there but which haven't revealed themselves to me. There is one such stream that I've fished on and off for six or seven years without catching a single salmonid. It looks good, I know people that have caught wild trout there, and the fishing was always good, but I never caught a brown or brookie there. Sunfish, fallfish, white suckers, bass, and chain pickerel made up for the apparent absence of trout, but I was always a little confused that I couldn't find these mythical wild trutta purported to live in this stream. This was "that creek", that weird place I couldn't quite figure out.

Then, on a day not unlike many others I'd visited this place, doing nothing I hadn't done here many times before, this happened:

I was a little taken aback, so many years of troutlessness in this creek and then this little one shows up in the first minutes of the trip. I released it and said thank you. After that, things were business as usual again. I didn't see another trout nor evidence of them, but caught plenty of beautiful fallfish.

A few days later I was back, and virtually the exact same thing happened. I almost immediately caught a wild brown trout, this time a long, lean, spawned out hen.

And then, as with the previous trip, it was pretty much back to business as usual, though I did find a couple probable redd sites.

I'm very intrigued by this creek, I always have been. I have my suspicions that it holds some very large browns. Most of it's length is fishable and it's exactly the sort of stream I'd expect a few wild browns north of the 20 inch mark to reside in. Beyond that it has this weird super winter active fallfish population. I'm not sure why, but the wintertime behavior of fallfish varies drastically from stream to stream. In some the virtually go dormant in the coldest months and become impossible to catch, in others like this one it's about as good a season as any to go looking for them. I've no idea why that is.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, Chris, Brandon, and Christopher, for supporting this blog on Patreon.

The Challenge

Give me a stream brushed in from the banks and above.

Or give me a shoreline swept by a storm, with crashing waves and stinging rain in a strong southwest wind.

Give me a large wild trout sipping with slow deliberation.

Send in the blackest and coldest of nights.

Tell me there's a fish that just can't be caught on the fly.

Or show me one that grows no more than a few inches long.

It's these things that motivate me. These things keep me at the vice for hours every night, or in bed unable to sleep, pondering a way. It's the challenge that makes fishing worthwhile. Don't chase reports or beg for spots. Don't only do what you already know will work. Be willing to fail, practice hard, and most importantly, learn from everything.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, Chris, Brandon, and Christopher, for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Shoulder Season

November sits in a shoulder season for a number of things in CT fishing. Migratory striped bass fishing out front may last well into December but I consider mid November till Christmas the shoulder season for that. Most wild trout are post spawn and can get into weird moods in November, and this has always been one of the most frustrating trout fishing months for me, tied with January and August for my least favorite CT trout fishing months. Panfish fishing can be... weird, especially the last half of the month, but at times quite good. Same with black bass. And carp.

It's this shoulder season that drives me nuts, as it's mostly a string of really mediocre days, often in uncomfortable weather as I'm not yet used to the cold after a summer and early fall of wet wading and kayaking in just shorts and a t-shirt, with the odd stupidly good day mixed in every once in a while. The days are short, the weather is inconsistent, and the fish are in transition. I'd like November a lot more if I hunted, frankly. Though I'm fishing a lot and rarely skunking, it's a tough month to cobble together a report that I think is actually worth reading. But I've found something recently that should have been obvious.

If you aren't totally over fishing for stocked trout, and honestly I'm pretty close to being sick of  doing it during the day, hatchery rainbows, whether stocked this fall or holdovers from last year, might well be the most consistently obliging fish in CT in November. I've been catching copious amounts of them fully accidentally lately while targeting other fish.
This is how it has been: Fallfish? Nope, have an ugly rainbow. Big wild brown trout? Here's some rainbows. Smallmouth? How about a bunch of rainbows instead?

So... no, I'm probably not going to go target these crazy little buggers this month even though they seem pretty exceptionally active and easy. At least not during the day. And it doesn't seem to matter as they keep finding me anyway. Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not a fan of stocked rainbow trout. Catching a broodstock or big holdover at night or on a dry is cool but I'd sincerely rather catch a 12 inch fallfish than a 16 inch stocker rainbow. Don't let my distaste for them take anything away from you though, if you enjoy catching stocked rainbows, enjoy! They're fun and they're great practice, and some aren't all that ugly. Go out and catch some this month because everybody is hunting and most of the TMA's aren't getting fished that hard. Streamers from 1" to 3" in olive, white, yellow, or orange in various permutations will work, eggs will work, beadhead softhackles fished deep and slow with the strip-tease method will work. Enjoy.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, Chris, Brandon, and Christopher, for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Fall Herping Conclusion

***AN ENTIRELY FISHLESS POST***

Hyla versicolor

Things are rather cold now. Well before the time I'm writing this the chances of going out and finding much in the way of amphibians and reptiles had already predictably diminished. For the first time in years I'm feeling pretty depressed about that. When I was little, the distinct lack of bugs and snakes and frogs made the winter months a drag. Now I have fishing, which is perfectly wonderful though sometimes physically uncomfortable here in New England in the winter months. But I'd found my way back to herping, gradually at first but then quite suddenly this year, and I'm feeling deprived to the extent that my planning of possible winter trips is taking snake finding opportunities into consideration rather than just fish. But it wasn't a bad fall for me here in CT looking for herps, especially considering I'm basically starting from scratch with this pastime. Though I've always been a habitual roller of rock and logs and catcher of snakes and turtles, my technical knowledge when it comes to finding snakes is still limited.

Pantherophis alleghaniensis

This fall got me into the swing of things. I saw more timber rattlesnakes than in the previous six years total, found my first Eastern hognose snake, and caught and photographed plenty of other species of snake, salamander, and frog that I have plenty of times previously.

Ambystoma opacum

Instead of just rolling the occasional log or lifting the odd board, I went out specifically to find new locations with discarded boards or tin, collapsed structures, and other trash and some natural sight where careful lifting could reveal any number of species. It payed off to some degree. I found snakes, though none of the species I was really seeking.

Storeria dekayi

More often that not I only found the typical assortment of local salamanders, the most abundant two species being red backed and northern two lined.

Eurycea bislineata

Plethodon cinereus

Milk snakes remained elusive. Smooth green snakes remained elusive. And I never saw a copperhead this year. But I saw at least one timber rattlesnake every time I went looking for them, and I do not get tired of being around these animals. They are so incredible. Just to sit next to one for a few moments absolutely makes my day every time.

Crotalus horridus

This winter, perhaps more than any other I can remember, I'll be antsy for the days to get longer and warmer and the ground to thaw.
I love winter fishing.
But not enough to pretend I wouldn't rather tomorrow be the first day of March.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, Chris, Brandon, and Christopher, for supporting this blog on Patreon.

An Unforgettable Striper Day

There's a lot of things that make a fishing day good, or great, or even one you'll remember forever. There are some days burned into my memory. Though a particularly big fish or rare fish or catching an awful lot of fish sits at the core of most of those memorable days, it's the places, the people I was with*, and the other things I saw that package the day and make it truly remarkable.

*Or sometimes not. May 7th, 2019, is memorable in part because I got to catch a fish I'd worked hard for years for, and not a soul was around at all to see it happen.

November 11th, 2019 ticked off all the boxes.

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin 

Noah and I rolled up to a little Western CT Cove, where Captain Ian Devlin told me to meet him, and almost immediately spotted gulls frenzying and schoolie bass popping at the surface. Before Ian even rolled up, Noah had landed three fat young stripers. 

But in short order we'd eased out of the cove, and were soon flying south on Ian's 17'6" Lake & Bay Palm Beach, towards waters completely unfamiliar to Noah and I. The weather was glorious, the sort of November day I'm always wishing for but rarely ever get to spend on the shoreline, and this time of year the fish don't care if it's sunny. 

We breezed by a small blitz on the way into the first cove. This was going to be a pass fish to find fish, leave fish to find fish sort of day, because Ian knew we could afford to do what many anglers wouldn't consider, and he was hell bent on showing us as much of his home waters as the short late fall day would allow. And, quite frankly, there were bass basically everywhere we went. There were menhaden too, both the juveniles being flushed out of the backwaters by dropping temperatures and adults milling around un-molested in big schools in some of the coves. I saw more adult bunker this day than the whole rest of the year, with not a big cow bass or gator bluefish on them. That was sad to see, but at least the bait was there at all. And the schoolies? Hahahaha! Thank God for them. 

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin

With many juvenile Atlantic menhaden's live being ended by gull and striped bass, Ian, Noah and I cast our artificial imitations into the fray and more often than not, came out of it attached to a fat, healthy, hard fighting fish. I may at times say I'm tired of schoolies, but put me in front of a blitz like this and give me a camera or a fly rod and I'll be as happy as I've ever been at any time in my life. 

Bill Dance Style

Ian let my play with a few new toys, prototype rods he's been working on. Ian, along with Mark Sedotti and Steve Rajeff, were responsible for the G. Loomis ShortStix rods. Short rods are very poorly represented in the fly fishing world, and I'm not talking 5'-7'6" light trout rods. Those are plenty well accepted. But short rods well tapered are perfect for saltwater and distance casting applications. The two short prototype rods I got to fish with took a little getting used to but in no time I was getting that big "thunk" at the end of most casts, the sound of the line going taught right to the reel, the sound that means that cast could have gone a lot farther. It'll be exciting to see what comes of these rods in the future.

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin

After fishing three pretty typical late fall blitzes in not altogether "odd" looking scenery for Noah and I, we motored up to a big school of bass breaking with tons of gulls against a piece of shoreline that felt more like a lake shoreline than a bit of Long Island Sound. With the the lighting now perfect and the water dark we had ample opportunity to watch most fish take our offering, that is if we were facing the right direction. Gills flared, mouth wide open, fly gone... it doesn't get old. The lighting made for some beautiful photos too.

 

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin

We got our fill there and moved onto the next spot. Same scene transpiring in front of a different backdrop. This spot would prove to be what I'd hoped for Noah all this fall. See, Noah's personal best striped bass is rather small, and whereas my comfort zone in looking for big striped bass revolves around seeking out big fish specifically, because I've done it successfully especially considering the state of the fishery, putting up two fish hovering just below or at the 20lb mark and one likely over 30 on the fly with precious little experience having not caught a striper more than 10 inches in length until August of 2016. But Noah's much more confident and happy weeding through tons and tons of smaller fish to find one of the larger ones mixed in. That certainly isn't an invalid strategy for breaking his PB, though it definitely isn't the way to catch a really big fish if that's the goal.

We'd each gotten a few fish out of this blitz already when I turned around to see Noah's rod bent double and drag screaming. Soon he had his biggest striper at the boat. 

Shortly thereafter action slowed with slack tide approaching, and we moved on again to where, as Ian put it "the biggest biomass was". That was the truth. 

Ian stuck a pretty good one here, with an adult menhaden adult the gullet and at least one more in the belly, yet still ready to eat an EP baby bunker fly.

His fish had a few followers. Noah and I each hooked one, and the result was a triple header with each fish being from a different year class. We saw a decent range of sizes this day,  all chunky and healthy. It's going to be a lot of fun fly fishing around here if most of these fish make it to maturity. But with the near complete lack of the previously abundant 2011 year class now, it's a bit of a crap shoot.  

Students from three classes we'd all like to see graduate above slot after their respective senior years.

After a little while we again scooted west and found yet another batch of blitzing fish to bother. I was starting to get in an experimental mood and fished a large Slammer hoping to weed out something big, spurred of by Ian's gluttonous fish with the adult bunker in it's throat. I got a few to eat the big fly, two times resulting in visually spectacular boat-side strikes, but it wasn't really working the way I'd hoped. When we moved again, I decided it was time for a Gurgler on the 5wt. With the bass pushing up only a dark shallow mud flat, that proved to be a good move.

 Shallow water, visual eats, and fun battles on the 5wt with low to mid 20" saltwater predators is one of the things I love most in fishing. It was an absolute blast and I stuck with that the rest of the day though I could have caught more and possibly bigger with a different tactic. It was just flat out fun.

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin

Photo Courtesy Ian Scott Devlin

Eventually we'd basically run out of Long Island Sound, so we turned around and started back east. We hadn't run out of fish though.

Alas the autumn evening light though does not last, and soon we were back at the launch. From 7:00am to 5:00pm we'd fished, and seen a lot in that time. Noah and I saw new water to us, very different water, and lots of it. We'd found and fished blitzes from the start of the day right up until the end. We'd caught a lot of beautiful healthy fish. I got to spend the whole day with two people I care about, fishing, laughing, enjoying some very cool natural phenomena in a beautiful part of the country. Yup, November 11th 2019 was one for the books.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, Chris, Brandon, and Christopher, for supporting this blog on Patreon.