Early morning as I walk down the bank. The sun is doing it's best to burn off the chill and make an anglers bones feel good. The Farmington river is flowing at just my speed. The MDC has just increased the flow and hopefully the change in flow will turn on the fish. The rules are such that a high water push turns on the trout, but the trout don't always follow the rules. I had tied up some Yellow Sally's The other day and was anxious to give them a test. Large elk hair caddis have always worked for me at this time of year. The Yellow Sally looks like a big caddis but is in fact a stonefly. Large stimulators also work as a good stonefly. I remember some fantastic days in Maine in late September using stimulators. So on went a size 12 Sally. I fished that fly for a long time and there was no response. Off came Sally and on went Tomah Joe. Third cast and "bam" a nice hit. Several more casts and fish on.
A beautifully spotted wild brook trout. The wet flies produced several more brookies to hand.
So I moved to another location and I tied on the Yellow Sally hoping for better results. It worked, it floated nice and it brought a fish to the surface and that was it. So I changed to a soft-hackle, a yellow bodied pheasant feather soft-hackle. I stayed with that fly for the next hour and was happy.
Yellow Sally did not work, but Yellow Sal did. My next outing on the Farmington will find me fishing side channels. It's been a long time since last I fished these places.
A scrambled egg, fried red peppers, toast and coffee...good morning friends.
I took at least a doz trout yesterday. All freshly stocked rainbows. All 12 inches. Like a cookie cutter. They showed no interest in soft hackles in sizes 14 and 12 but went after a dark edson tiger with abandon. What about sun dried tomatoes with scrambled eggs? I never tried it but those red peppers brought it to mind.
ReplyDeleteJohn Dornik
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John I'll bet you had a ball with those rainbows. An Edson Tiger a fly that works extremely well on fall brookies. I think sun dried tomatoes would work well with eggs and toast.
I don't know why, but yellow, orange, and green seem to attract them most fish. Might try tomato jam on those scrambled eggs.
ReplyDeleteMark Kautz
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Perhaps those colors attract because they are found incorporated in most fish.
Another condiment that would enhance plain scrambled eggs.
well then throw it with a piece of bread maybe ... Alan beautiful pattern the "Artula" good colors combination.I love this streamers..
ReplyDeleteArmando Milosevic
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Armando Artula was one of Carrie Stevens streamers. She was a master at working colors into her flies. It's a pretty good baitfish imitation.
Alan, I am glad Tomah joe came through for you on the Farmington. Those brookies are coloring up nicely same as on your small streams. What a great time of year to fish, though we could use some rain for the freestone streams.
ReplyDeleteThe zone of the Swift I fish was nothing much doing, another angler I ran into said same. Though a catch and keep zone, in year's past I have had good action this time of year, but I have seen a lot more bait and hardware fishermen this year than in the past. Not sure why that is, social media word getting around most likely.
I threw a hail mary at dusk with an elk hair caddis twitched much like a bass lure and lost a good one that didn't quite connect.
Sam
Sam
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Sam at this time of year, transitions in many ways can cause trout to be a bit strange in what they prefer to eat. One day they will take a large dry and the next refuse it. So it's always best to try different flies and sizes and ways to present them. As far as social media or anywhere else for that matter the saying "loose lips sink ships" is fitting.
Your style of fishing that caddis brought a strike, that's what I'm talking about. Well done.
Sam, I was up north of the border yesterday and I found a couple of the streams I fish up there to have nice water flows. Some freestones have great underground sources of cold water.
DeleteGlad to hear that the north of the border streams still have good flows, Alan. Underground sources must still be nicely recharged from all the rain we had last fall and winter.
ReplyDeleteSam
DeleteSome of them were quite cool to, 56. But we do need some rain.