"It's In Our Soul"

I am not going to spend to much time in trying to find the right words to try to explain my feelings when it comes to a place like this, or to tell you of the beauty that surrounds this place all year, but this time of year has to be it's finest. Brook Trout Forest is more then a place, it's a way of life that incorporates us into the natural world. It's in our soul.

Why do streamers work so well in Red Brook?

Having read my posts on fishing Red Brook over the years many of you may have wondered why I almost always fish some type of streamer pattern, and very seldom fish any other pattern that will take brook trout in almost every place they are found. Brook trout when hatched in the stream do what most brookies do. They search out the stream for food. Their diets are most anything they can find that they can get in their mouth. The big part of the diet is the small insects, nymphs, worms. As these fish grow some will notice the abundance of small fish that most streams have swimming about. They soon realize that they can get a full belly faster by eating one or two of these small fish then they can eating insects. Red Brook is unique in that it flows into a salt water bay. That bay is a full blown buffet, the variety of food is almost endless. The tattoo is inscribed onto the "salter" that small fish are the thing, the never feel hungry protein source.

On my last visit to Red Brook I saw an incredible sight. In the pool in the first photo which is tide water, I saw these young herring fry. There were hundreds schooling up in preparation for their movement out to sea.

This brook trout which obviously is primed for the the spawn was taken just upstream from the pool with the herring in it. He took the streamer fly with out reservation.

This simple fly shows a likeness to the herring fry. I never fished the fly in the brook but have fished it in the bay. Success was good, and will be much better in the months to come.

Foliage above and below, Thanks Mr. Betters

The fall foliage here in Connecticut has been a bit late. I estimate it to be about a week or so behind. There are some single trees that are just gorgeous but the fully dressed views are a few days away. The streams continue to be almost peak, and for this time of year they are exceptional. Clarity is awesome and there are times when you can see a trout strike a fly.

The stream here is about as clear as it can get. Leaves can be seen all along the bottom as well as floating in the current. Casting dry flies can be problematic in that they tend to snag the floating leaves, this is called the "leaf hatch". In the photo I cast a dry fly and let it drift. As it passed the branch I saw movement from the side of the stream. A second later one of the colored leaves made a run for the fly. It turned out to be a brookie.

One of the most beautiful leaves I'll catch this October.

The fly I used, it has several fall colors. It also has a lot of Fran Betters influence it it.

So with that fly, along with the natural leaf camo I was able to catch a few that day. Have a great day folks.

Marabou, Grouse, And......

The use of marabou in the construction of streamer flies dates back to the early 1920's. It was A.W. Ballou of Litchfield Maine who created the "Ballou Special"...now I know many feel that the "Woolly Bugger" was the first fly to feature marabou and the reason may be that the woolly bugger is so famous because of its effectiveness and ease of tying. I love using marabou in many of my flies from streamers to caddis, and a few soft-hackles. You can see the three marabou streamers in the above picture that feature this "alive" feather. The two on each end are "McKay Specials", and the one in the middle is a Mickey Finn.

The McKay Special was created by Kevin McKay of Maine. The fly is a simple fly to construct and uses inexpensive readily available materials. The body can be tied using Uni stretch or Uni yarn, with a silver tinsel rib. Each fly has a red throat and tail and white marabou wing. The fly is deadly.

The "Famous Grouse"...I think that may be Scotch whiskey, not a soft-hackle. But this Grouse flymph gets the job done.

Common guys...who doesn't like PB&J. How many of these sandwiches are eaten as a fisherman's lunch all over the U.S. and you can choose what peanut butter or jelly-jam-preserves you like but the bread must be good ole sliced, soft white bread....what do you say?