Varied Tactics for Catching Trout at Night

My distaste for the social media trend of "mousing" is not a secret. Of course, I haven't exactly prevented the perpetuation of that trend with this blog or my writing elsewhere. I enjoy catching trout on big dry flies that imitate rodents and amphibians. But what I enjoy more is understanding trout behavior, and only slinging rodents at night doesn't give much of a picture of nocturnal trout behavior. It isn't the best way to get the most or the largest trout at night either. If an angler wants to get the whole picture, sure, they should fish mice. But they should also tight line, swing wets, drift and strip streamers, fish dry flies by audio, and creep pushers along gravel shelves. I consider myself skilled at each method and I apply each one conditionally, and sometimes use three or four different tactics in a single night. Flexibility is important. 

On a recent night outing I utilized mice, streamers, and wet flies and caught fish on each. It was classic conditions for a night bite. The water was low but not too low, and warm but not too warm. There'd likely been a hatch or spinner fall at dusk. American toads were calling from the slack areas and mice had been crossing the road on my way to the river. Unfortunately I'd be fishing water that lacks wild trout in targetable numbers, but I wanted to stay practiced. 

I started out with a Master Splinter to see if the fish would be in a mouse mood at all. Some nights, and often some years, they aren't remotely as interested. Other years they go wild any time good conditions present themselves. This seems to be a good year. Fish came to the mouse shockingly frequently, as stocked trout do some nights. Its rarely if ever like that with wild fish. 

The oldest, and quite possibly most effective method for catching nocturnal trout on the fly is swinging wet flies. Methodologies don't differ that much from the same fishing style done in daylight, though the flies are typically bigger. On this night, winging a wet fly produced the largest fish. 

The streamer went on last, a black Marabou Muddler. That took its share of fish as well. Often, that is the most effective large fish method at night. What is the takeaway here? Be well versed. Don't follow the crowd, it will just come at your own expense. Mousing is fun and it does work sometimes, but it isn't everything. 

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, 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. 

Small Flies and Double-Handing for CT Broodstock Salmon

 The early season for CT broodstock Atlantic salmon the last few years has come with very low warm water. These conditions are less than enjoyable and prevent me from fishing for these salmon the way I really want to: traditional flies, swinging, spey casting. Though this isn't a real salmon fishery, I like to fish it like it is. About the only upside of the early season low water and warmth is the opportunity to get the fish to take a dry fly or riffle hitched wet, witch of course still falls in the bounds of classic Atlantic salmon tactics and is also very exciting. This year I was finally able to actually put time into this fishery and go at it on my own, and I badly wanted to get one on a dry. That said I also wanted to catch fish. So when I moved a small salmon twice with a Bomber, then couldn't get it to rise again even after a ten minute rest, I did what I knew would work and two hand retrieved a tiny Mickey Finn over it and the fish quickly obliged. 

Pinkie out for Salmo salar

 The fish was small but a firecracker. It spent a lot of time in the air and tried to make some runs, though it wasn't even close to heavy enough that I couldn't turn it without any fear of my 8lb tippet failing. The take was the highlight, I love when an Atlantic wakes up on a fly that on or just under the surface, and it always feels nice to come tight when two hand retrieving saltwater style. This is an underutilized method on freshwater rivers. I'd picked it's use up for broodstock salmon from my friend and experienced salmon fisherman Ben Bilello (actually my use of basically every tactic in the post should be credited to Ben) some year back and have applied it effectively on both salmon and trout since. Sometimes keeping the fly moving more or less continuously is very important. In this sort of fishing, down and across swinging for fish willing to move for the fly, it means the angler isn't relying on the pace of the current to set the speed of the swing. I can get the fly swinging fast in water it would otherwise be moving uncomfortably sluggish.

The next run down yielded no moved fish to a hitched wet, so I made another pass at it with the same little Mickey Finn. I sent another small salmon airborne there that didn't stay pinned. Later on, I moved another with the bomber before it went silent until, again, a two handed Mickey got it up and stuck. Once more it was a fantastic fighter though not at all a big fish. 

Always pinkie out.

My confidence with fine wire hook size 10-14 Mickey Finns for early season broodstock salmon is three fold. First off, red and yellow can do no wrong with these fish for the first month and a half of the short season. Second, small fine hooks are much easier to bury in a fish's mouth. Third, once they're in the fish they're more inclined to stay there. Perhaps some of this confidence originates in the first adult salmon I caught, my only true sea-run Atlantic, which was taken on a size 14 Sedgehammer. In low water the salmon are more inclined to notice and strike such a small fly, so it is a good move to take advantage of this and set your presentation apart from the crowd of big flies, spoons, and spinners these fish are being bombarded with as well as something more likely to get a good solid hookup. 

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. 

A Traditional Swamp Fly & The Act of Killing for Food

Perch might be the most reliable fish in the winter in CT. I really enjoy fishing for big fat yellow perch an abundant white perch where they stack up to overwinter. The biomass can be truly spectacular, with fish at times stacked from top to bottom of the water column. There are a variety of reasons why perch will stack up in certain areas in the winter ranging from escaping dirty water to staging to spawn, but whatever the reason, when you find one perch anytime between early December and late March, it is safe to assume there are hundreds more there. But as fun as it is to catch hundreds of perch and as pretty as they are, perhaps the best thing about finding where perch are stacked up in the winter is that they taste really really good. Eating fish is, in my opinion, an important part of fishing. There is no way to avoid killing fish, even if you are completely catch and release, barbless hooks only, never handling fish for a significant length of time... killing is an unavoidable result of the act of fishing. As such, I believe it is important for every angler to hold a beautiful, living fish in their hand and then take its life. Nobody should completely enjoy the act of killing, as being at least a little uncomfortable with it will make a more ethical angler. Killing shouldn't be glorified, the animal should be glorified, in my opinion. But if you just can't bring yourself to kill a fish, you may want to reconsider ever sticking a hook in one again. A lot of my fishing this winter is going to involve killing fish, and though I don't enjoy the process, I'm very proud of the fact that I'm able to provide meat by my own means. There is little better meat in southern New England freshwater than perch.

The fly that has been providing the meat lately is a very interesting pattern that originated in the backwaters of Southern Georgia. That isn't something that can be said of many flies, but it is true of the Okefenokee Swamp Sally. My friend Mark Alpert gave me one after he took a trip down there this fall and I finally put it to use this weekend. It proved very productive. About 70 fish came to hand, four of which met their demise and provided my lunch.

The fly itself is very simple, with a small butt of red chenille, a yellow chenille body, and yellow  hackle wrapped behind the eye then puled back and tied down to form a head of sorts. The Swamp Sally is traditionally fished with a cane pool for warmouth, redear, and fliers, all collectively often called "bream" in the south. They're finding use now here in CT for panfish, and I'm sure would be deadly for brook trout as well.  

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, and Shawn for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Simple

I mentioned a simple fly in the previous post. It is a soft hackle streamer tied on a size 8 streamer hook. The body is either gold tinsel or gold tinsel and yellow monofillament. I tie an antron tail on some. The hackle is either orange hen or pheasant crest. I have only used them a bit, but simple tends to end up being productive.