Life my friends....

A free-flowing stream in eastern Connecticut

Small streams, blue lining, rock hopping, knuckle busting, knee scraping, and frequent dips into the water. These are but a few examples of the adventures of a small stream angler. This angler who will seek out a four inch fish with a 300.00 fly rod when a 69.00 special will do. In his fly box are many flies, he knows this is unnecessary for his quarry really will take almost any fly. He moves along the stream often at eye level with it. Many times his eyes will focus upon a mink, a salamander or a hornet. With the sound of the tumbling of water he is still able to hear the sound of a brook trout rising to grab a grasshopper. This angler will find gourmet status eating a peanut butter sandwich, his table an elegant stone. Out here a cold drink of water seems finer than a French wine.

The small stream angler is not a special breed. This desire to be with nature in a pristine place lies in all of us, we need only to be there and experience it.

Wild jewel from that eastern Connecticut stream

In the July/August issue of Eastern Fly Fishing is a wonderful feature on small streams. The section known as "Exposure"...well worth the price....Thanks to Davis Cannon, Dave Fason, Kevin Feenstra, Joe Janiak, Joe Klementovich, Henry Ramsay, and Connor Tapscott.

The Grouse And Flash

The grouse and flash soft-hackle wet fly has been in my box for many years. I first came across this pattern while reading Thomas Ames book Hatch Guide For New England Streams. It is a caddis pattern that when used at those "right" times is absolutely deadly. I came across a similar fly that featured a light tan thread body with pearl ice dubbing for the thorax and a very small grouse feather for the hackle. This fly was also good when I used it. I like this fly at this time of year, the reason is that's when it has been the most effective.

"Grouse and Flash"...Hook-Mustad 3906B...Body-Pearl Mylar...Thorax-Hare's Ear Dubbing...Hackle-Grouse

I tie these flies in sizes 10 through 14...I have also tried 16's.

A Farmington River Few Hours

I spent a few hours yesterday morning fishing the Farmington river. The river is perfect for most but I still would like to see it little slower. I had taken am old buddy with me to fish this day. That buddy was my old Orvis Superfine 7' 5wt. It has been a long time since I last fished this rod and it felt good. The rod worked as I had remembered, in fact it was like the day I got it from Orvis about 30 years ago. It needs a new line though.

The sun was bright but the fish were still playful. I started fishing soft-hackles and it did not take long for the first hook-up. The fish was a fighter with skills and promptly gave me my fly back and resumed it's position in the river. I also had the pleasure of hooking several salmon parr. These little fellows know what "airborne" means. Moving about I hooked and further downstream I saw a fish rise. My cast was made just upstream and as the fly started to drop below the surface the fish took it. From the initial pull it felt pretty big. I won't detail the fight but as you will see my first thought proved to be right.

A wild Farmington river brook trout.

In this section I saw several dimples on the surface. Mind said the fish are either taking emergers or feeding on spinners. So I looked into the fly box and chose a #10 bomber.

This guy rose and took that big bomber...man did he fight. Bigger brook trout seem to handle a fight pretty much the same way. They head for the bottom and and bull-dog you and this guy was the epitome of that.

My Orvis buddy...been lots of places and tackled lots of fish. Landlocked salmon, Atlantic salmon, steelhead, lake Ontario brown trout and many bluegills.

2 And 3 of Three...and the story

Over a month ago I wrote a couple of posts about small stream browns. The stream I had been fishing yielded several nice browns on a couple of outings. On one of those trips I was fishing a culvert pool which is quite deep. This pool has given up some brookies and browns in the past. I had been fishing a picket pin and that's what I tossed out. Within a few casts I had a fish on. Looking down into the water I saw I had a chub on. The fish was zig zagging all over. Suddenly from up out of the bottom of the pool I saw a really big fish come and slam that chub. I estimate the brown to be at least 20 inches and very broad shouldered. The brown tried his best to eat that chub and held on to it. There was a lot of splashing and thrashing going on in that pool. I did not think I had the brown hooked but I still attempted to bring the fish to the top of the culvert, and that's when he let go of the chub.

Since that encounter I have been back there attempting to catch him again. That has not happened.

This is the chub that the brown hit. I had tied three very large streamers to try to catch that brown. They all are large and silvery much like the chub. I posted one before "One of Three"...

Streamer #2...

Streamer #3...

These are the three. I have not given up on catching this brown and I hope one of these three will get that job done.