May was a productive month with clients with a decent array of variety and some big fish here and there! Of course, it always is, May is one of those months in Connecticut when it is pretty hard to pick what exactly to do any given day, for my own personal fishing. I did no trout trips at all in April but had a few in May, starting with Frank and Brandon. It was a mixed bag day, mostly nymphing, one cool spot and stalk with a dry, and a nice tiger trout on a mouse. Then David and Kalil came down from Massachusetts for a great day with a lot of catching shotgun nymphing the riffles of one of Connecticut's more underrated trout rivers.
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| Kalil Boghban Photo |
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| Kalil Boghban Photo |
The carp spawned in bursts throughout the month, not always in the same places on the same days. The only time it pretty much screwed me was when I had Tom Cole out, and in unusual form two fish were hooked and lost out of the only feeders we found. Carp don't often come unpinned after they're suck, and I saw that both weren't fouled very early on. At least the fish viewing that day was spectacular, with hundreds upon hundreds of carp of all shapes around us, under us, even splashing us at almost all times.
The next day I had Blake, who coincidentally had a similar situation when he booked me last year, where every hooked fish managed to slip away un-netted. This time was different with multiple large carp and plenty of channel catfish caught. Most exciting, though, was this gorgeous little mirror carp!
Also getting in on the carp success in May was Michael, with his largest freshwater fish on the fly....
... and Dar, with some excellent big lake action.
I'm skipping a fair bit, here, so as not to crowd out this post too much, but it was a great month with great clients and lot of good fishing. On to June, which we are now almost halfway into. I'm going to get a little bit personal, now. The start of this month has been a disaster for me. With some very expensive and necessary repair investments done on my generally trusty set of wheels, I promptly got into a car wreck that has left me with both light physical strain, significant mental trauma and stress, and a financial burden that is turning out to be far worse than it even seemed it might be initially. This has left me in a tough place for June. If you are looking to book a trip, please understand that it my take me some effort in scheduling. Walk and wade trips will be much, much easier to accomplish than canoe or raft trips, though I can at least do canoe trips here and there, it'll just take some scheduling and working things around to make sure I can borrow appropriate wheels. Because I am in such a sticky financial situation I very much would appreciate any trips I can get on the books at all, as this is setting me back on a few things I'd intended to do this year, including getting a second raft which would have hugely boosted my ability to furnish fun and exciting float trips. If you can find room in your schedule and any of my normal early summer warmwater fare- (bass, carp, bowfin, catfish) or saltwater species (scup, fluke, blackfish, stripers), as well as wade trips on the Farmington and a handful of other rivers remaining cool enough for trout -appeals to you, I'd be massively appreciative of your booking. I can't promise the easiest scheduling process but will do my absolute best. Thank you for your understanding while I work this out.
So far this month the fishing has been good and promises to continue being. Some bowfin, catfish, and carp have found their way to the net. I did something I don't usually do much anymore and made some casts at carp one day, resulting in the largest fantail I've ever personally set eyes on. It ate the fly before it made it to the bottom on a fast cruise in clear water. It was a spectacular eat and in many respects on of the best carp I'd ever caught... so no complaints there.
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| Levi Opsatnic Photo |
As for Patreon, we're already on a nice roll this month. Here's the setlist:
Cow+ Posts:
Get In Loser, We're Going Gar-ing
Videos:
Multidisciplinary Smallmouth Nymphing
Casting Under & Into Brush
Weekly Posts:
Surface Analysis
Thing Carp Eat Sometimes
Using Soft Glass to Set Hard
Stand In Cold Water
Quick Tips:
TBD
Walt's Durability
Walt's Profile
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, Javier, Ryan, Dar, Eric, and Collin for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog and access more informative content, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version!
