"Hemlock Brook" Part Two

This is the second post on my visit to Hemlock Brook. This outing took place on the 27th of February during what was to be a taste of spring weather wise. I think the temp that day was near 70, very nice indeed. On this second visit I pushed further upstream and what I found was some of the most beautiful brook trout water in Connecticut. The stream was both placid and rough and tumble depending what point you were at. The valley was steep but it also afforded me the ability to get close to the water and able to cast a fly with some ease. The stream had some incredible bends and twists, you know those places that collect that lovely woody debris that brook trout love.

While most of the land and the stream are uninfluenced by humans, it does flow through mostly private land. While I try my best to gain permission to fish through there are times when I can't, mostly the land owners are not available. On this day I encountered a very concerned land owner who seemed quite upset that I was fishing his stream. After some conversation time I was able to successfully put his mind at ease and was given permission to fish. I thanked him very much and I hope he gave a heads up to his neighbors that I was about.

It was good that I was granted permission because the stream where he owns property was a very productive stretch.

Numerous wild brookies were crushing soft-hackles, both on the swing and just slack-dead drifted in slower waters.

It's almost unbelievable how close brookies can hold to a log that create plunges as this. Several times I lost flies in the tangle at the base, but often I would connect with a trout.

Brook trout can see remarkably well in those turbulent waters.

You recall me making mention of this feeder stream in the first post on Hemlock Brook. While I believe this stream gets very low in summer and what ever trout may live there now will migrate down to the larger Hemlock Brook. But what I did find hovering right around this feeder were.....

...brook trout that were colored like none other that I've ever caught. I hooked two brookies like this one, the other slipped the hook before I could photograph him. The wild brookie was intensely beautiful the sun just enhanced it even more. The only place I can document a brookie similar to this one is a water color painting of one by James Prosek in his book "Early Love And Brook Trout"

I will make an attempt to fish this area again, but that will have to wait until the second Saturday in April.