Change Up

With the lack of ice fishing opportunities across Connecticut, I found myself dusting off fly fishing gear this weekend.  There is a small watercourse not far from me that I've heard good things about, yet never had fished before.  The stream corridor was skinny, only a rod's length in many places.  A short fly rod was helpful to tuck casts into tight spaces.  I stuck with the method that's been working best for me on small streams as of late, dry-dropper.  Two beautiful wild brown trout fell for a tiny pheasant tail nymph hung below an elk hair stimulator on the inaugural trip.  The chunkier of the two took a swing and a miss at the dry fly indicator, only eat the nymph on the very next drift.  The dry fly abruptly sank under water and I set the hook sending the brown to the air. 

As always, it was a great experience to learn a new piece of water.  Having a little success with cooperative stream-born trout certainly added confidence and enhanced the trip.  I look forward to exploring more of this little gem of a stream soon.  If I can't be ice fishing in February, at least there are some quality "plan B's" to fall back on.  The following day a friend and I fly fished a bigger waterway and found larger trout to go along with it.  Stay tuned for a Farmington River report later in the week - for now it's back to the grind after a long weekend well spent.