A woodland blue line, January in Connecticut

Monday felt like an early Spring day as I started my walk to this little blue line. The ground was already well into a thaw and the mud some what slippery. The sun can do magic where it shines first and stays long. The stream itself was in prime condition, water flows were very good and the usual deep holes were full. The stream was for the most part ice free with the unusual stretch or two of thick ice along the edge, perhaps because it flows though a valley, or the stream here does not receive its share of sun for a long period.

Lots of nice color, or absence of color in this case. There were signs of green in a few ferns. I know it's only January and in New England these days are few.

We fished the stream and remarked how slow the catching was. There were a few, but far from the norm on a day like this. A few flies were noticed, by us and seemingly not by the fish. It was getting towards midday, and Kirk had to leave. walked with him out, and had plans of fishing another section. On the way out we fished a few "nice" spots, just in case.

In one of those "nice" spots I found this willing guy still in color.

Frayed nerves, perhaps icicles.

I came upon this pool, where in the past I have spooked fish but have never taken one. It's tough to fish it effectively and most times I fail. Well I noticed what appeared to be several trout rising right up close to the bank. There were small stone flys about and this was what they were eating. I tied on a caddis and after many tries I got the fly to drift close enough to where the fish ere feeding. Suddenly a fish rose and took the fly. As I worked the fish to me I could see it was a nice, unfortunately a poorly tied knot gave way and the fish went south.

After changing tippet, I noticed another trout rising in the area where I just hooked up. I tied on a Adams parachute and tried to drift it close to the rising fish. One of those tries I accomplished this and the fish responded and the 2wt did its job. In a few moments a wild brook trout was at hand. "Thanks"