Trout Colors

Finally it's actually looking like winter around these parts, and I really didn't feel like falling down a lot today so I didn't go fishing.

But I was looking at BRK TRT's most recent post and he made an observation about a wild brown trout's fins and that started me thinking about the colors on wild trout. So I took a bunch of photos of wild brown trout from this year and cropped them to show the variety of color patterns found in one trout species.

Tons of Pickerel in a New Pond

I went to the lake today, but it only took a little while for me to figure out that it wasn't going to be very productive. But instead of heading home I decided to spend some time at I pond I have fished twice before but never had any success with. I didn't even know what species live there. It didn't take me more than a couple of minutes today to figure out that pretty much the only thing eating were pickerel, and hundreds of them! They were pushing small schools of bait and slamming them in terrific splashy bursts. I had only two tippet sizes, 4x and 5x, and one leader, so I knew I was going to loose a lot of flies but I just couldn't resist. I actually caught more that bit me off, and as it turns out there are some quite nice pickerel in this pond!

These fish were fighting today... they jumped more than any pickerel I have ever done battle with, and they all gave the new rod a good workout.

When I watched a quite sizable fish smash the Woolly Bugger and take off I was pretty much bracing for the moment when it would gnaw through my 5x (yes, I opted for the lighter tippet). After a minute though I realized it was hook just right. Moments later I was holding a very nice Chain Pickerel. I love these fish so much!

This was one of those outings that had me talking to myself. It was so exciting and productive. Out of 23 takes I landed 19 pickerel. That;s pretty impressive for a pond that I once though had no fish in it!

Homewater and a New Rig

I wanted to test some gear today. I got a nice new setup for Christmas, a rod perfect for short nymphing and turning over long leader: a TFO 10 ft. 5 wgt with a RLS+ reel. I also wanted to get back to my home water and fish it before the flow drops off again.

There were no drifting leaves when I got there and the water level was just a bit bellow what I consider perfect, and it didn't take long for a little wild brown to slam my Ausable Ugly and complete the christening of my new outfit. I'm liking the new rod. It's very long, sensitive, and turns over a big dry like nothing. Even though I only caught a few browns today (I think 5) I hooked a decent number and lost some good sized ones. Plenty of salmon parr took the fly too. One of the fish I lost was a very good brown, maybe 12 inches, that came up and smashed the Ausable Bomber. It was a tiny bit better than I expected, but there are definitely fewer and smaller fish than there used to be in this stream. It was still great to catch some gorgeous stream born fish out of my favorite river in the world.

Merry Christmas! A Triple Digit Day

Merry Christmas dear reader! I hope you and all your family have a happy healthy holiday.

I caught a ton of fish today, and I kept my promise and visited my home water. I was expecting the water to be up, and it was flowing at the perfect level... however, I had thought about the leaves that have accumulated in the dry parts of the stream bed and it was loaded with floating debris. Today was not going to be a good day to fish my home water. I made a few casts and then just sat back and enjoyed the scene. If there is a prettier stream anywhere in Connecticut, I haven't been there.

  A view of the Last Chance Pool

Then I lost a walleye in the bell pond and caught some perch. But the highlight of the day was fishing for yellow and white perch in the canal with the 3 wgt. I caught 145 fish in two hours! Who cares that they were mostly small? This time of year for roughly a week perch POUR into this canal by the thousands. If I had hours I would have caught that many. Awesome. Amazingly, no predator fish come in to feast on this buffet. Why, I have no idea.

Fish #100

Fish #145

Another Big Fish

Today's fishing started out in a interesting way, but I'll save that for another post.

I eventually worked my way over to the Bell Pond  again. I wasn't expecting to do as well as I did yesterday. After all, the conditions were markedly different. But I am always willing to put in the time and sooner or later something good may happen. The perch were active again, but mostly they were small ones. I caught who knows how many.

After cutting off the smaller Woolly Bugger style streamer I committed to the Double Deceiver and fished it from one side of the dam to the other. As I reached the far side I fan cast, covering as much water as possible. The, finally, I got a take. It wasn't a particularly strong take, and from the first twenty seconds of the fight I didn't think it was a big fish. It came right towards me, rather slowly, And came up as I eased it in. Then it made a smooth arcing L shape in front of me and just went parallel to the shore away from me to the left and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. After a bit of work it did a slow, thrashing jump and I saw it or the first time. It was a very big chain pickerel. As anyone who fishes for these things knows, they fight like trucks. It took a long time for me to land it. But when I did, I was impressed! It taped out at 26 inches, making it my biggest ever of the species. Unfortunately my camera batteries died part way through the photo shoot so I didn't get all the pictures I wanted, but plenty enough to see what a great fish it is! He went back violently, giving me a good shower. 

I always manage to catch some nice fish before the year closes out, but this year is special in that category!