Spring Guide Season Update

 Everything is happening all at once at this time of year, really. I've been out here and there after whatever is most appealing to me that day. Today I was out salmon fishing, which has the biggest time limit as, at least in the Shetucket, the salmon seem to get weird right when the stocked trout go in. I had four grabs, one of which resulted in a break-off (don't let those wind knots go unchecked!). All took light colored flies: one a white bugger, the other three a white and black Sunray Shadow.  There's a big rain event coming so it'll likely be just this week and then done. If we're lucky and they hold off the trout stocking, maybe when it drops back down I'll open up a few days to clients. 

Suckers are on the move, and I've been targeting them when time avails. They're exceptionally easy at this time of year, very difficult in others. If you're interested in learning to target these tricky, hard fighting, and often large native fish, perhaps even looking to get a trophy fish pin or even beat a length record, the next three weeks are prime. Another often overlooked native is also exceptionally active right now. This is perhaps the best time of year to target very large chain pickerel, and I'll take clients for them as well. These are short windows for the big, big fish, so if you're looking for one don't wait.

Of course the truck trout are being dumped around the state now, much to my... eh, I'll leave the complaining for another day. You all know how I feel about hatchery trout as a fisheries management strategy and ecological problem anyway (if you don't you certainly will eventually). But they're here so we may as well stick some fur and feathers in their faces. The mouse bite is happening. Some years it starts in February. I'm talking about the daylight mouse bite, not the night bite... but that doesn't mean night fishing isn't going now too. It is, but it's focused on streamers and wet flies. However you're interested in targeting trout, be it at night, in daylight, on dries, on nymphs, on streamers, on mice, on wets... you name it, I'll do my best to put you on them. If I don't feel I'm the guy for what you're looking for I'm sure I know someone that is. 

On that note... Noah is now Captain Noah. He'll be starting to run trips on his new skiff very soon. If slamming perch, crappie, bass, carp, or bowfin on light spinning tackle or cane poles is more your thing, I can put you in touch with him. He and I were out last week after big panfish. He lost a monster yellow perch right at the dock, which was a bummer. Though we got some nice fish we didn't land any of the real monsters, but the numbers were certainly there. 

That leaves the two things that I guide for often that aren't really going that crazy yet: smallmouth bass and carp. We're on the cusp. It will get crazy, and it'll get crazy soon. I've already got guys waiting for smallmouth trips, so don't wait too long. I've gotten most of my really large smallmouth in April and May in recent years. With water temperatures approaching 50 in a lot of places already this promises to be an early season. Carp are moving shallow too, and like smallmouth early is better for the bigs.

Like I said, it all happens at once this time of year. Don't let the season pass you by!

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, Noah, Justin, Sean, Tom, and Mark 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.

Big Unfriendly Trout

 Back around the holidays, I was able to make a bit of time to get out on the water with my good friend Joe. Boots and I hadn't gotten on the water together since July so it had been a long time coming. It was to be a simple morning fishing local trout water in relatively mild though damp winter weather, both an enjoyable setup and the sort that has the fish a bit active. The water was a bit low for the time of year and the fish were spread out a bit, meaning we'd have a slow pick rather than finding fish piled up in typical wintering holes and laying the hammer on them. 

Most of the fish were typically sized stockie rainbows, but I was aware that there were some large browns in one of the short stretches we fished. I saw one, actually, just a short time after we arrived. Then a bit later I found two more milling around with each other. We both took shots at the fish, and I was shocked neither ate one of Joe's worms. Eventually I laid a drift past the smaller of the two with a Walt's Worm under an indicator and saw the tell-tale white mouth flash. I set the hook and the fish angrily dropped out of its lie shaking its head. The other one decided to follow. For much of the fight, the two fish were almost glued to each other. I tried to get Joe to cast at the follower but he insisted I land my fish first. I really hoped he'd hook one of these big yellow monstrosities as well, but I also respected that he didn't want to mess up the chances of me landing mine. There's a lot to be said of a fishing buddy that will forgo a shot to make sure you land the fish you've got on. 

This big broodstock Cortland strain brown was vibrant but very domestic looking- shaped like the schedule fed animal it was. Both Cortlands and Romes, which were originally produced in hatcheries in NY then brought to CT, often have the almost marbled pattern that this male did, and I regularly see them mistaken for tiger trout which they most certainly are not. Male seeforellens produced in CT hatcheries regularly have this patterning too, though less extreme. Frankly the domestication seems to be to some extent accentuating this trait, as I've seen it in wild trout but never even close to this extreme. I could imagine some koi-like genetic art being done with brown trout. That might be pretty cool, though I'd rather not catch them in rivers and lakes that have wild native fish. 

We tried for awhile to find and tempt the other Cortlands, and I had two follows with a streamer by another one, but it wasn't to be. We spent the rest of out time talking about life and fishing and landing the odd rainbow here and there. It was an enjoyable, relaxed, pressure free morning on the water, something I always need to balance out the intensely focused trips.

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.

Surprise Giant Rainbow

 On one of my salmon outings this November, I was working my way through a shallow run that I sometimes move a salmon or two in with a conehead Ally's Shrimp. I must credit Ben Bilello for my knowledge and use of this fly, which has become a top five fly for me for CT broodstock salmon. When the water is low and warm I fish a very small unweighted version, but in the moderate to high flows that dominate November and December the conehead has the way to go. On this unfortunately sunny, breezy day the conehead Ally's had already moved one nice salmon that never actually touched the fly, nor would it come back. I'd tried to play the rest and re-tie game but that fish just wasn't having it. 

Now, working down this run, I was starting to think this day was going to end in a skunking. Then suddenly I was tight. The fish had hit in the deepest, fastest slot, somewhere there's often fish but in a place I've always had trouble fishing a fly well when the water is up, just due to the casting distance and angle. I feel like I've cracked the code now though, as I was able to make it work even with my 5wt by adjusting my position a bit. 

The fish was head shaking a lot and felt heavy, but wasn't acting out like some salmon do. I gained line as it lazily came towards me, throbbing a bit but seeming not to know what was going on. Once it got about twelve feet from me the fish came up, and instead of the colors and patterns I could expect to see on a broodstock salmon I saw an awful lot of pink. There was a short standoff in which time the fish gave me enough time to decipher that if was, in fact, a preposterous rainbow, before it decided to try to take some evasive action. Gigantic though she was, this was still a domesticated stocked trout and I made fairly quick work of her. 

What this really made me want was the opportunity to swing big flies for native rainbows, be they steelhead or just big non-migratory ones. These hatchery fish just don't fill the void for me. It's unfortunate that I have to to drive clear across the country for that. 

For now, though, if you want to pull on some of these guys, book a trip! They're decent practice for a lot of other fishing situations, especially now that they've settled into at least somewhat "natural" trout behavior. I spey cast for them, tight-line nymphs and streamers, indicator fish, and of course if they're rising some dry fly fly fishing is on the docket... either whatever method you'd like to focus on or whatever will work best that day, your pick. And although this particular day wasn't great for the broodstock salmon on the Shetucket and this season has been weird overall, if you book during warm and cloudy conditions I can probably get you on some fish. We're at least moving a couple on every 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.

Late Fall and Winter Trout Season

 We're progressing into a colder weather pattern here in New England and the fishing is changing. Dropping water temperatures and higher average stream flows mean generally slower fish behavior. That doesn't mean slower fishing though. It actually took me a fair bit of time to really dial in the late season trout bite on my local waters. Part of what it took to dial that bite in was just incessant bobber fishing and small but stupid heavy streamers. Since that isn't a fishing style I liked for a long time, I ended up missing out on a large amount of the season. Once I did pick it up though, I covered copious amounts of water to figure out where the wintering holes were, and when I did find them I found loads of trout stacked up. 

 

I then of course wanted to answer a question: could I catch these trout at night? It turns out the answer was yes. Even in the dead of winter, with fine tuned strategies and slow ad methodical approach, I was still able to pull on fish after dark.

If you are looking to improve your success during the late season, or learn new water and techniques, I'll be booking trout trips throughout the winter. Both daylight and nighttime trips will be available- hand warmers included on all trips, haha! 

A big thank you goes out to those of you that booked me already this year, you've all been fantastic and I greatly appreciate your business. I hope I'll get to see some of you folks again! 

In the meantime, I'm considering starting a series of zoom classes on fly fishing strategies, fly design, and reading water. If that sounds interesting to any of you, please comment to let me know. 

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.

Connecticut Tiger Trout: Hypocrisy

CT DEEP stocked tiger trout this year for the first time in a number of seasons. Tiger trout are a hybrid between brook trout and brown trout, and though they do occur in the wild, they do not occur naturally because nowhere on the planet do native brook trout populations overlap with native brown trout populations. I've caught stream born ("wild") tiger trout in CT twice. I've seen two others caught by friends, and photos of others. But most tiger trout caught by anglers in CT are hatchery fish. DEEP stands for "Department of Energy and Environmental Protection." What is a state agency in charge of environmental protection doing placing non-native, non-natural hybrid salmonids in a large number of bodies of water? It certainly has nothing to do with protecting the environment, though thousands of fisherman haven't the slightest inkling of that and are more than happy to have fish to catch. And tiger trout are prized fish. The state stocks fewer of them, just as they stock fewer 24 inch trout than 10 inch trout, so they aren't as easy to catch as the average rainbow. But that's pretty much the only reason any hatchery trout is harder to catch than any other hatchery trout, because they're all starting from the same baseline when they leave that truck and enter the river... except that tiger trout are a hybrid and their hybrid vigor is expressed by voracious eating. I've had hatchery tigers take more than a dozen whacks at a mouse in daylight, get hooked, come unglued well into the fight, then come back and slap the fly again the very next cast. This is a problem. Not only is the state stocking an unnatural hybrid trout, they are stocking one that is a voracious and indiscriminate feeder into waters with native species, sometimes even at-risk native species. This is extremely hypocritical of an environmental protection agency. But they are payed to do what the people ask. And the people evidently want more tiger trout. 

In mid fall I was fishing on local waters, catching plenty of both non-native hatchery fish and native hatchery fish (brook trout, in this case), including tigers. The tigers were impressive looking fish, and I'd hesitate to call them ugly. Plus they were fun to pull on. I couldn't help but feel there wasn't anything legitimately special about them. It didn't take any special knowledge or skill, they were there and if I put a fly past them they ate it. Really they shouldn't have been there. If I could have snapped my fingers and caught nothing but fallfish this day, I'd gladly have done so. I do understand that many anglers would be thrilled to catch these tigers and would scoff at the idea of catching fallfish instead. But that's the whole problem. And it's a huge problem. 

Male hatchery brook trout

Female hatchery brook trout.

The irony is, though I'd gladly see not only tiger trout but all hatchery trout in CT gone, I still post photos of them, write about fishing for them, tie flies for them, and will even guide for them. I profit off of them. But I can't promote nor support any such stocking program. Am I a hypocrite too? Maybe a little. But I'm a wild native fish advocate first and foremost. It's why I'm now on the board of the new Connecticut Chapter of Native Fish Coalition. I want to see meaningful change, and the recognition of the importance of the fish species that have always been here. Although extremely unlikely, I dream of the day every cent spent on raising and distributing non-native hatchery fish is spent instead on habitat restoration, study, and education for native fish species. 

That would be an incredible thing. I can only hope, and fight. And that I will do. 

Later the same day after I'd caught those stocked tiger trout, Noah and I fished some different streams. We caught nothing that hasn't swam in CT waters since the glaciers receded and fish took their hold on the rivers left behind. These species belong here. They're important. I was far more excited by them than I was those tiger trout.

I hope over the years my passion and reverence for wild fish and especially wild native fish has been clear in these pages, these hours upon hours of writings about fishing and about life. And I hope to continue that as long as I can. In the final hours of 2020, I'd like to thank all my patrons for aiding in the continued existence of this blog. I really could not keep this going without your help. Thank you so, so much. And to everyone who reads and comments, thank you as well. I hope 2021 treats you all gently -we deserve it. Happy New Year everyone. 

 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, and Geof 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. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien 

Ending Winter Night Trouting Big and Ugly

I kind of expected my winter night fishing to improve when the state began stocking. At least in terms of numbers, not quality, I'll take holdovers over freshies any day regardless of size. Last year, in March, I able to catch stockers at night more or less as soon as they were dumped into the TMA's, so I had no reason to think anything would be any different with fresh stockers going into the river in February. I was wrong, I've continued to catch fish but not as many as I was when there were literally hundreds fewer fish in the river. Is it odd that the freshies wouldn't be into night feeding? Only a little, given that they were in fairly similar conditions in March last year. Is it odd that the holdovers became harder to catch? I'd say no to that. If it was just you and 3 other family members living in your house and suddenly somebody dumped 25 idiots in through the roof, you'd probably freak out too. The only improvement was with mousing, but that wasn't happening after dark. It's been a strictly daytime method thus far this winter.

I slogged through hours of no takes on the night of the 24th, just hoping for something. It wasn't happening. I fished spots that have been productive at night this winter and spots that I hadn't fished at nigh but had done well in during the day. I fished places I knew trout had been dumped in just days before. I hooked and lost one fish that, because it spent a lot of time airborne and though was clearly not more than 15 inches took me on a downstream shuffle, I'm convinced was a fall holdover. But I went a good two hours without so much as a nudge that wasn't definitely the bottom. Then I hooked up. At first it was just heavy, then it was on the surface rolling around all lazy like. Before I even turned a light on it I knew it was just an ugly breeder and almost certainly one I'd caught already, possibly more than once. That was exactly what it was. 

Unfortunately, that's how my winter night trout season is going to end. With a big, ugly, 3rd time recapture broodstock rainbow. I wish I could have devoted more time to night fishing wild trout water this winter, but what little is close enough for me to visit regularly doesn't lend itself to safe or productive winter night fishing. It's all small, fast flowing, bouldery freestones. Next winter I'm committed to catching some wild browns at night, I don't care what size they are. 

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, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Some Entirely Synthetic Fish

If you aren't familiar with Anders Halverson's book An Entirely Synthetic Fish, I highly recommend getting a copy. Halverson's book ultimately explores how humans have altered and interacted the natural world, with rainbow trout being the focus.

I've grown up fishing in a part of the country where there really aren't wild rainbow trout, and where hatchery trout are dumped into streams and ponds throughout the year under the guise of creating fishing opportunities. At first I didn't question it. It was what was normal and it must be the right thing to do, after all I could catch tons of trout just five minutes from home. Then I found wild trout, almost as abundant though smaller, and other species born in the river and inhabiting the same waters as trout were being stocked in, and I began to question things. The years have progressed and so has my opinion of trout stocking. I am more anti-stocking now than I have ever been. I know we can do better. I know we could have healthier wild trout populations in a lot of rivers if we stopped stocking over top of wild fish. This has been proven time in time again, in Montana, in Pennsylvania, even right here in CT. You've seen photos of the beautiful wild trout I've caught in all of those places right here on Connecticut Fly Angler. If that's not incentive enough, this should be: here are some of the entirely synthetic fish I've been catching lately.

Actually, all of these hatchery broodstock rainbows were caught on the same day. I caught others as well that didn't come in front of the lens. Did it take a lot of skill to wrangle all those big trouts? Not really, no. These fish were fresh from the trout factory. They were no harder to fool and only faintly harder to bring to hand than the smaller fish that were all around them. To put that into perspective, in a length of river in which there were less than 10 of these large broodstock trout, I caught six in one morning. In a stretch of wild trout river I've been fishing for four years that probably has less than 10 wild brown trout over 20 inches, I've hooked exactly four trout over 20 inches and landed none of them, because the all outsmarted me.
Which of those two sounds more appealing to you? It may well be the six big ugly slobs in one day, and that's okay I guess, to each their own. But which is right? Which is the way things should be? Which is more rewarding? Take a look back at those photos of those broodstock rainbows, then look at the following photos of fish born in the stream they were caught, fish that would benefit in numerous ways from the cessation of stocking adult trout, and consider those questions again. Which fish do you want to catch? It's a very easy answer on my end....

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, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.