Monster Carp on The Fly at Night

 Quick reminder: I'm doing a talk this coming Thursday, August 11th, at 7:00pm at the Middle Haddam Library on fly fishing for Connecticut River Carp. It should run about an hour, I hope to see some of you there!

The Hex hatch is a CT summer featurette. It's tough to pinpoint, devilishly so, and doesn't last. If the conditions aren't just so there often aren't even that many fish feeding on it. When it does come together though, wow is it ever magical. The water boils with a multitude of fish species frenzying on the huge mayflies. This year, so far as I do occasionally run into later August hatches, the fishing has been average, which is to say an exciting experience but not one that resulted in a significant number of notable catches. Last year was subpar but one night yielded giant crappies slurping spinners, which was just incredible. This year it was mostly average sized white perch and smallmouth bass making up my catch each night. With one exception. 

I always linger after the hatch, especially early in the event. If it's marginal, the nymphs will often swim for a little while after the ones that are going to emerge do so. It's slower, slightly less exciting fishing but It has produced some of the larger fish. One night, I was standing under a streetlight casting  Pat's Rubber Legs- an un-ideal but passable hex nymph imitation -when a shadowy form emerged from the depths into the lit area. It was a carp, a decent sized one at that. I let it approach then presented my fly to it. It moved forward and flaired its lips, so I set. I was into something solid. Too solid, I thought, it felt snagged. I started to attempt to detach the fly, knowing full well the carp was going to spook off. It left fairly passively, which was odd. Suddenly, line was coming out of my had. "Oh, she is on" I muttered aloud. The fish left with patient autority, buckling my 5wt but in no real rush. I knew it was big, though at that point I wasn't quite sure just how big. 

Yeah, uhhh... she was huge. She was actually tough to lift. I've only had that issue with a small handful of carp. I suppose the takeaway here isn't extremely clear, so in case that's true: keep fishing. You can't always predict when a trophy fish is going to present itself. Some are a result of fishing hard, planning, predicting... and then others just sorta happen. In either case, you can't be sitting at home. Fish when you can, always. 

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

Figments

 The wall seems all that much longer on hot summer days. The sun beats down, making me sweat, and the wind dries that sweat right away. The two conspire to suck the moisture clean out of the weary anglers very skin. Guzzling water is the only thing that staves off possible disaster. When the tide is down the best move is often to go all the way to the end. That's almost a mile- completely exposed, no shade, no cover at all. Going halfway sucks. Going all the way feels stupid; especially in this early season when the fish might not even be there. 

The fish are bonito. Atlantic bonito arrive earlier in the summer, often August but sometimes July. More ethereal than little tunny are these days, there's even less assurance that there will be good numbers of bonito any given year. There could easily be very few, there could be hundreds. The good news in my experience is that they will eat pretty readily most of the time if they are there. It may take minor presentation adjustments, but bonito will take bigger flies, often a little more impressionistic ones, sometimes the feeds are a bit more sustained. I've seen a small bonito eat a 6 inch long Deceiver. They have substantial teeth, which they seem to use to chop up somewhat larger baitfish. Well, they seem easy when they're around. But if they aren't around....

Some days the chop on the water serves to conceal signs of life. That chop also often makes the fish stupid easy. That's always been true of tunny for me, and I think bonito as well. It makes it hard to see them though, and when there's big question as to their presence or absence that causes a lack of confidence. This day the chop and swell are significant, I really can't tell if fish are breaking at all. Maybe they are, maybe they're hiding behind the swell. Maybe some of those white caps are actually bonito cresting over the waves. Probably not though. Could I effectively fish I'd be able to answer that question, but there's a thick line of weeds that prevents me from getting a fly through the water clean. Bits of reddish brown gunk cling to it after each cast. This may just be a waste of time. 

Bored yet stubborn, I wait for some sign of life. I sit on the rocks, scanning. Birds cruise by, also scanning. I always wonder how the chop and breakers effect their ability to find fish. I'm sure less so than it does me, but I've watched them lose track of the fish plenty of times. They have an especially hard time with hardtails. Out of the corner of my eye I catch something. A break maybe? I can't be sure. My mind plays tricks on me when it's like this and I've been out for hours, just waiting. 

It does get better when I can actively fish. I don't have a heavy sink tip with me this time which negates the possibility of dredging g deep and picking up some seabass, scup or fluke. I try to let my intermediate get deep but that just isn't what it's made for. All there is to pass the time is watching boats. I observe how they're fishing. Everyone today seems to be drifting and jigging. Nobody is chasing birds. I don't think any of the boats are targeting the fish I'm after. I still watch, seeing if some devote significant time to drifts I've not fished. I don't know what they're after, fluke or scup probably. I take note regardless. Maybe some know something I don't. It's always worth paying attention to those things. 

Suddenly, there, near the fish trap... that was a fish, it had to be. I train my eyes on the area, watching intensely and squinting through the glare. I'm sure that was a fish, but will it show again? After some time passes I scan further from where I spotted the break. It can't be that close to where it was by now. Is there the slightest but of hope that I'll see it again? Not a prayer. It has vanished into the sea, a mere figment of my imagination. I don't think it even was a bonito after all. 

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

Hex Hatch & Other Updates

 There's currently an exceptional hex hatch happening in the evening on one of the rivers I guide. It's an exceptional opportunity to get large warm-water fish on dries, an opportunity most CT fly anglers never experience, and I've got the right vessel and gear for it. The window is short, I expect little more than the next 4 nights. If you'd like to try this, it's a short two hour trip that I'd run at a discount, so reach out soon if you've got a free evening and want to try something extremely unique! If the hatch doesn't happen there's generally still very good fishing. Channel catfish, huge carp, mega white perch, and large bass are all eating the hex. This isn't something you'll get from any other guide in CT. 

In other news, Noah and I have started doing weekly report for The Fisherman, specifically about the more odd and off-the wall bites that are happening. Subscribe on Youtube to catch our take on what's happening each week. 

Last but not least, on Thursday, August 11th I'll be doing a talk at the Middle Haddam Public Library at 7:00pm, entitled CT's World Class Carp & How to Catch Them on The Fly. It'll cover the history of carp in CT, how I go about targeting them on the fly, and their impacts on the CT River ecosystem. I hope to see you all there! 

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

No Rhyme or Reason- Bowfin Sight Fishing

 Bowfin are characters. Their behavior is plenty distinguishable from other fish species but also different enough individual to individual to keep me guessing. That's a big part of what has made me infatuated with these fish. Each one presents me with a slightly different experience, and since I can generally see everything play out in extreme detail. It all happens at rod length, or at least close to. Close combat is so engaging. My heart rate increases, my excitement becomes palpable. But sometimes a fish doesn't give me any sign at all. Sometimes a bowfin seems like it won't even eat and then suddenly it does. 

I was putting in some scouting time on a new bank, simply a little further from a launch than I've looked for bowfin in a system I fish a lot. It had a lot of key features, though the vegetated area was less constricted to a channel than the other areas within that system that have good numbers of bowfin so I wasn't sure how it would fish. Essentially, they were there in good number but less condensed on the low tide. There were bowfin spread out through a whole flat. It actually made it a bit more interesting than the tight concentrations that occur in other parts of the same system.

I picked off one small fish and blew a shot at another before I found one layed up on clean sand. I sort of spooked it though, at least I pushed it off station and it headed off. I pursued, slowly but trying to keep up. I was hoping it would settle down and stop moving, but just kept going. I paused to make a cast, just in case. Well, she ate. There wasn't any leadup, she didn't even falter, pause, slow down, or divert her course. She just sucked in the Mr. Bow-Regard from the side mid-swim. I've cast at a lot of travelling bowfin. In my experience it's a 50/50 chance of them eating, and there's no way to tell before I make the shot. Some of the ones I really haven't expected to convince ate like crazy, others that I thought were going to take spooked abruptly. It seems like there's no rhyme or reason. 

There may actually be a way for me to know, though it currently doesn't feel like it. It would be so much easier to be able to rule out some cruising bowfin as viable targets and not waste the energy trying to present to them. There are definable ways to tell when other fish won't eat. A carp that's cruising at a fast steady pace hardly ever takes a fly. A trout sitting on the bottom with a curve to it's body is a fish primed to spook, and I never bother to cast at a fish sitting that way anymore. But with cruising bowfin I haven't yet found out the secret. That's part of the magic of sight fishing- you have to learn each fish's body language. Every species is a little different. It's so engaging. 

I've got opening for sight fishing bowfin and carp over the next few weeks. While everything else in freshwater becomes tricky during the day, these fish remain targetable. The prime windows are morning and evening. Contact me to book. There are opportunities for record class fish, particularly carp. 

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

My Best CT Brook Trout Yet

 My hunt for giant wild brook trout was going quite well this spring when I started to ply anew stretch of stream. I'd caught 11 fish between 12 and 14 inches already in two other streams, and this one had similar characteristics. It had everything I've learned to look for with one exception: it had brown trout. I was a bit worried this might be hamper the brook trout from reaching their potential. Generally, where brown trout exist, if brook trout persist they do so in a compromised state. They don't attain the sort of size that they could otherwise while they compete with the more piscivorous and more warm water tolerant browns. The result is often a somewhat stunted brook trout population. I had hope for this stream in spite of that, why I'm not exactly sure. 

On my first visits this spring I didn't even catch a brook trout. It was browns with a few large fallfish mixed in. A few of the browns were quite decent but the largest fish I caught on the second visit was a one pound fallfish. Each time I fished evening into dark, fishing down with streamers then back up with a small mouse pattern. The streamer fishing predictably outperformed, but I managed a few fish on the mouse as well. During those trips, the flow was moderate. I pinpointed a particular hole that I felt could really hold something special. It had all the right ingredients: cut bank, notable depth, a nice incoming run. I was surprised it didn't produce a fish on those first few attempts. 

On my fourth visit, the water was much lower and I was struggling to find the success I had hoped for. The brown trout were turned off and either darting for cover or already underneath, and just not receptive. I tried being extremely slow and cautious but it just wasn't working. Then I came to that hole, the one I had high expectations for. I tied on larger fly than I'd been using, switching from a #10 Ausable Ugly to a #4 Half Pint. This hole was, after all, multiple feet deeper than anywhere I'd yet fished and I felt I needed not only to get down but to have something fairly meaty on. In four casts, I came tight. A torpedo shaped salmonid came out of the water, leaping as spectacularly as a fish of such size possibly could. To my astonishment I could clearly see that this was a brook trout and an extraordinary one at that. It actually had some control for a few moments, taking nine and dogging towards the cut bank. That's not something I'm used to with CT brook trout. I was fishing a 5wt though, as well as 8lb tippet, and it couldn't win. When I got her in the net I uttered a low guttural laugh of astonishment and gratification. I'd put a lot of effort in over the late winter and spring after large salmonids, split between rogue brown trout and giant brookies. Now I had my heaviest CT brookie in my hands.

I know, of course, that there exist some wild char in CT that are even larger than this one. But for the summer, I think I'm mostly done with big brookies locally. It's been dry and hot. No need to over-pressure them. I may well end up of a bender again when the water starts to cool down, but I'm not sure. 

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