April Guiding & Updates

 Being a fishing guide in New England comes with it's fair share of wild cards. This is one of the more chilly, prolonged early springs we've had in a while, and it has made things interesting. Not bad, necessarily, but different. Bites I though were temperature dependent started before the water was "warm enough" (I wrote about this on Patreon), and I've had to stay really on top of things to stay in the game. Happy to say, though, even though a couple clients were stuck on what I might otherwise have considered poor condition days, we've consistently made the best of it. Here are some highlights: 

Trevor got invited along with his friend Jack and got a rather excessive first fish on the fly rod, this heavy and very spastic common on a warm but rainy morning. 

Brian Saunders took the first big-bug bass of the spring on a white Heifer Groomer. This fish measured the magical 20 inches. 

Brian Cowden takes the prize for prettiest carp so far this season with this heavy male, and taken on a day when it never got above 43 degrees and the carp forced us to search some of the thickest habitat.

So no complaints here, really. Every day has had it's highlights and a few have been extremely good. On my off days I've been taking every chance to use the NRS I've been borrowing from Drew Price, a boat I may very well end up owning. It extended my salmon season in the higher flows on the Shetucket and I'm now putting it down every trout stream I can when the flows bump. 

 

My prognosis for the rest of April is a bunch more carp and bass, because that's pretty much what I'm booked for. Unless you're interested in a night trip, I'm pretty much plum full till May. Next month I do have some open dates. The 2nd, 4th, and 5th currently are free. I have a bit of uncertainty mid-month as I may end up away for close to ten days, and some clients have already taken their dates, but from the 26th to the 31st I'm certainly open as well. Once I'm certain of that mid-month period though I'll update you all. During that time frame is an anything and everything smorgasbord. Want trout? We can do that. Want carp? Obviously. Big smallmouth? Heck yeah. Pike, suckers, largemouth, weakfish, stripers... just ask. May is a great month, one of the best. It will also be chaotic, so grab dates while I still have a fair amount. 

Over on Patreon, I'll be focused on my "Rowan Learns Wet Flies" series, as well as some more weather analogs and a few Small Stream Streamer Fishing Masterclass videos. I may start a weekly fishing-weather forecast there, if that would be of interest to the folks that support me over there. If you aren't subscribed, please do! I try to get out at least 4 different posts a week, and they're more how-to focused and informative though I post some short stories there as well. 

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Franky, Geof, Luke, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, Mark, Jake, Chris, Oliver, oddity on Display, Sammy, and Cris & Jennifer, Hunter, Gordon, Thomas, Trevor, Eric, Evan, and Javier 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.