Of Sore Backs, Scraped Elbows, And Knee Deep Bogs, A Day In Brook Trout Forest

This was an adventure into "brook trout forest"..an area located in northwest Connecticut. I have been fishing this stream for over 25 years and it's had it's fluctuations both in fish size and quantity. The one constant has been there is no development, other than a large beaver population. I have enjoyed this stream and it's wild surroundings and now I have other areas in which to try my hand at namely the beaver ponds that have been created.

The first beaver pond I came upon was quite beautiful. The sun was working through the dense hemlock forest that dominates the area. The waters are dark and well stained with tannin. I new that dry flies were not going to work very well here at least not from the start. I have a few nymphs I carry and that's what I chose to tie on.

On my second cast into the pond I felt a hard strike, "brookie on", not so. This beautiful fellow came to hand. His colors were as beautiful as any brook trout and I was thrilled that I took a fish before I snagged the nymph on the bottom. I continued to fish that pond hoping for a brook trout but all that responded to the nymph were several dace.

I moved further up the beaver pond until I was near to where the stream enters. The dace were many but there were also a few substantial hits that told me there are other fish here.

My thoughts were proven right when I fooled my first brookie of the day. She was a dark specimen and even the sunlight did little to brighten her up. I was to take several more brookies here and slightly upstream until I stepped into a very boggy area and found myself in knee deep nasty mud. Very slow and very cautious moves finally freed me from the mess.

The stream while small has it's nice deep pools, pardon, nice "dark" deep pools. In this one I found several willing natives to brighten the day.

A Connecticut wild one. The fly may look a bit odd, I'm sure Mark can identify it. It was the fly of the day.

I took several stream temps and found 48-50 degree water through out.

Sun spot on a tannin stream. Needless to say this stream winds through acres of hemlocks. What is it with hemlocks and brook trout. I guess they're buddies for life.

The brookies seemed to get more beautiful as I worked upstream. Each pocket or plunge held one.

I did fish a dry fly from time to time but received a cold response from the natives.

These jewels preferred there food below the surface. A few soft-hackles also brought some action.

This was the last beaver pond of the outing. It looked good but not a cast was made. That will remain so until I visit "brook trout forest" again.