1wt Acadia National Park Pollock, and the Start of An Odyssey

 After catching plenty of pollock on my 5wt rod in Acadia, I was pleased but not satisfied. See, I had my glass 1wt Geoff Klane kindly built for me, stowed in the 4Runner. These fish seemed the perfect ones to actually give this rod its first saltwater test, something I'd been intending to do for a while. I'd always intended to apply this new rod to smaller saltwater fish and these harbor pollock were just perfect. 

As soon as the opportunity presented itself I was out on the rocks putting that gorgeous little rod to the test. It took more finesse to get a fly where I needed to, but that little stick has surprised me, as Geoff put it that rod's got some moves. I plied the water at a spot I'd never fished before, working a small Clouser along drops, through white wash, and past chutes. Eventually, a pollock came out and hammered the fly, and the game was on! The battle was an exceptional one; every bit as good as I thought I might be missing out with the 5wt.

The 1wt was my constant companion fron then on that week. If I fished I fished that rod, and it was a blast. Unfortunately mackerel were very scarce. An Atlantic mackerel would have complimented this rod so well. 

The pollock were fantastic though. It was so much fun it gave me a good idea.

I want to do a lot more saltwater fly fishing with the 1wt. I want to fish the entire east coast with a 1wt, and apply it to a huge variety of species. Then I'll probably write a book about it... or just a bunch of blog posts, who knows. I already know a lot of the species and situations I want to apply it to: tiny schoolie stripers in CT eating grass shrimp, tide pool rock gunnels, spot croaker in the Chesapeake Bay, juvenile snook in the Tamiami Canal. It's going to be a lot of fun. Stay tuned. 

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.

Fly Fishing Acadia National Park: Surf Pollock

 A couple weeks ago Cheyenne and I went to Maine. We spent our entire time in coastal areas, mostly Downeast. Much of the week was dedicated to Acadia and Bar Harbor, and area I hadn't been to in three years. Last I was there Noah and I discovered how entertaining the surf fishing was. The most abundant fish were pollock, followed by Atlantic mackerel. Noah fished small jigs and I fished tiny streamers, and we caught a lot of fish. I was excited to be back.

This trip wasn't a fishing trip, but as always I squeezed as much out of it as I reasonably could. Cheyenne fished with me. We used fairly light rods throughout the trip, but I started out with a 5wt. That would certainly be light for surf fishing, but not for these fish. The inshore pollock aren't big animals. They run about 9 inches on average. They're exceptionally strong for their size though. On the first little excursion I lost one that would have gone about 20 inches, huge for the surf. It kicked my butt immediately. I had no chance at all. From that point on I didn't encounter anything other than the expected size, but it's good to know that fish that large can be present. 

We found the best luck in bubbly white water near the top of the tide. There were plenty of fish around throughout the tide, but it was safer to get to water's edge at high tide. Maine's big tides leave a lot of slick, algae and seaweed covered rock exposed as the drops. 

Noah and I had figured out how much more productive whitewater spots were on the previous trip, and that's no surprise. The same thing is applicable to surf fishing through the Northeast, and to many different species.

At points the fishing was very fast paced and we doubled up quite a bit. At other points it seemed there were only a few fish around that we picked off right away before things went quiet.

What seemed to be absent the whole trip was mackerel. The only sign I saw of them was from seals that were catching them about 80 yards off the beach at our campsite. Maybe that stems from warmer water temperatures than in July, when Noah and I had found them. Maybe it was something else entirely, I'm not sure. Mackerel have always been a bit mysterious to me. They seem to be everywhere and nowhere at once. Noah and I made a few trips before we actually finally caught them. We also had to go much further north than we though we'd have to. They seem to be an objectively easy fish to find and catch, anx yet I can't. It's funny to me that pollock turned out to be much easier.

As the trip progressed, I made some slight methodology changes. I'll cover that in the near future. It'll be interesting, and it opened up and idea I'd like to delve into. I'm going to be expanding the range of saltwater fly fishing, but in the opposite direction it has been expanding. Instead of heavier rods, bigger flies, and huge bluewater fish, I want to reveal to you all the fish quietly hiding in plain sight... some bigger than any trout you've ever caught, but small enough that the saltwater fly fishing community as a whole hasn't given due. 

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.

Midsummer Hickories

 Hickory shad are typically a species I wait until late fall to target. That's when they're often most abundant locally, and often the are the most fast paced game in town in November. There seems to have been either a pattern shift or a significant increase in their total numbers. Last year I was occasionally catching them in odd places and at odd times and seeing far more than I'd typically expect. Nothing, though, compared to what I saw this week. 

I was looking for mackerel, frigates and chub mackerel specifically. When I got to the long jetty I intended to fish, there was about three acres of tiny young of the year bunker being eaten by what I though was probably some schoolies and small bluefish. I took a couple photos then just moved along. That sort of setup usually isn't very productive anyway, the "triple-p" (peanut to predator proportion) as Noah and I coined it is usually off- too much bait, too few predator fish. The fly gets lost in the fray and you don't catch much. 

The mackerel were rude, though. Basically as soon as I got there, everything left. I spent a couple hours hopelessly working the water column with just one small black sea bass to show for it. 

When the tide eventually turned, I decided to head somewhere else. As I walked out though, the peanut blitz was still going on. I stopped to make a few casts and see if I could pick up a fluke or something else picking up scraps from the bottom under the chaos. Instead, I discovered that it was actually hickories enacting violence on those little peanuts, and that the were perfectly willing to slam a small Clouser. There were a bunch of guys there fishing already, but aside from the one guy next to me targeting fluke I didn't see anyone catch a thing. They were all fishing presentations that were much too large, and they likely didn't know what was really going on. I on the other hand was catching goofy acrobatic shad every cast and very much enjoying it. Eventually I was trying to photograph the jumps of each fish I hooked. What would have been much easier was having someone else hook and fight the fish while I photographed, but this had to be a one man operation. This is what resulted:

A couple came out kind of cool but none were particularly spectacular. I'm hoping I get another chance at some point soon, and given how many I've now seen this summer I expect I will. I've already caught as many as I did on the two best days last year!

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.

Dry Fly Carp For Garth

 A little while ago my good friend, nicknamed Garth, booked me for a short carp trip that ended up blown out from the crazy July rain. I'd almost considered suggesting a reschedule, but I thought one area in Rhode Island would drop fast enough. I was mistaken and we skunked, so I had him come back out with me a week later for free. Of course I intended to make a couple casts too, but the whole goal was to make up for the previous trip by getting Garth his dry fly carp. Conditions were prime and we got on the water early. 

Fish were plentiful, very plentiful. The high water had also seemed to move them around a bit. I wasn't recognizing fish in their normal haunts, unlike prior trips. Carp have relatively small home ranges in any given body of water, so it's very typical to recognize the same fish feeding in the same general areas if you fish enough. My home lake is a great example. It's huge and has both mirror carp and koi, but I'd never seen either variants fishing the accessible beats. When, for a short time, I had easier kayak access there though, I found some of those koi. They were always in the same stretch of shoreline. I didn't see a mirror there until this year's span- carp ditch their home range for the spawn. Big storms and changing seasons and food availability alter the range and distribution of the fish, and the big rain had very much refreshed this canal. Fish were in new areas. 

Despite an abundance of shots the fishing wasn't easy- carp fishing rarely is anyway. Garth was picking up a lot of the advice and tricks I was feeding him, and I watched him improve throughout the day. Eventually he nailed it under one of the berry trees and a gorgeous mirror charged his dry fly. 

I made a few shots too. I was intentionally picking tricky long shots, seeing if I could get my accuracy down just a little better. I stuck two fish. One broke off in a deadfall, another made it to hand. The one I caught was actually a specific mirror I've been after for a while. I've seen him a bunch of times but never got a good enough shit. He'd moved about 80 yards but wasn't too far from his typical beat. I really like this fish, I think he's a particularly pretty one. Noah's was also a familiar face too, actually, and one I'd missed a few weeks prior. Both were top tier fish in terms of looks. Really clean, healthy, with nice patterns... really great looking little carp.

I'm far from done with carp trips for the season, I've got plenty of space if you're interested. I'll be fishing primarily in mid-state Connecticut and Northern Rhode Island, tailored towards whatever sort of trip you may be interested in; moving water, lakes, ponds, creeks... whatever. There are a lot of options. 

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. 

Local Brook Trout

 Some days I don't really have the time to go much of anywhere. Luckily, I can damn near throw a rock to good fishing where I currently live. One day in late July I was waiting for my boss and his driver to get back from Virginia with a load of eels. While waiting for the call to come help offload, I went and fished local spots. The first few were too high for what I was looking for (redfin pickerel) so I ended up going after brook trout. This has been a reasonably tolerable summer for brook trout around here, especially now that the rain has slowed a bit. Summer runoff is warm, so though the rain was nice it did boost stream temperatures a bit. As the runoff has given way to spring flows, the water temperature has dropped right along with the flow. By the time I payed my visit to one of the better local streams the water temperature was an even 60 degrees.

I was armed with my Brackish Flies 1wt glass rod and only the flies already on the brim of my hat, of which a BHHESH made it on to my tippet. Little else is necessary, and in the plunge pool below the waterfall a good number of healthy char were fooled.

The above photos are of the same fish. I felt showing the color differences in different lighting would be interesting, and all I needed to do was turn slightly. Most of the fish were that size or smaller, but just before I was about to leave I hooked something more substantial. A wonderfully sized wild brook trout churned the surface of the pool to a froth while putting a deep bend in the rod. This ended up being one of the nicest brook trout I'd ever caught out of this particular stream.

It's nice that I don't need to go far to catch trophy fish, and that brookie certainly was one. Really, that's the case in most places. Try to seek out the trophies right under our own nose. I bet anything they're there. 

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.