Guide Trip Reports

 The day after Thanksgiving I had Trish and her father out for a Rhode Island trout trip. The conditions were pretty good to get fish to chew, though I'd found the late season to be a bit difficult on these waters. The flow was just where I like it, and with cloud cover to help improve the bite I figured we'd have a good shot. Our best bite window ended up happening late in the day when the water temperature peaked; not at all atypical in the late season. Trish hooked two very nice rainbows, one of which got the slip, and a stunning wild native brook trout. The Ausable Ugly got all the action. Thank you, Rich Garfield!

Only one client jumped on my Black Friday deal for a broodstock Atlantic salmon trip! Mike got a pretty day for early December, but the wind was howling. We powered through it and were able to effectively cover water. I had him fish a Butterfly, a Sugarman Shrimp, an Ally's Shrimp, a Mickey Finn, and a Sunray Shadow.  Why all the fly changes? Well, we moved a whole bunch of finicky salmon. Unfortunately those salmon were shy to come back, even with resting and fly changes, and only a couple actually made contact at all. Despite the fact that we didn't get a salmon to hand, Mike left the trip with a new set of strategies and a better understanding of where salmon might hold in a river. I was just glad to have a client move a bunch of fish on the first trip I've guided for broodstock salmon. 

Yesterday, my client Brian and I had the perfect December day for small stream fishing. He wanted to focus on reading water, so I took him to a varied and typical CT freestone and a smaller brook trout stream. I did my best to impart as much of my small stream holding water knowledge and how to approach it, and in the process Brian caught a whole pile of beautiful little wild brown trout and brookies, with a holdover rainbow in the mix as well.

So far it's been a great late salmonid season! I've got tons of open dates and the long term forecast shows a lot of very mild weather ahead, so whether you're interested in broodstock salmon or trout there is a lot of opportunity coming up. Shoot me an email at brwntroutangler@gmail.com to book a trip!

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.