I have hooked and landed longer brown trout through the ice, but never one so heavy. This fish was stuffed yet still had room for my pike shiner set 30-feet down. By the time I had reached my tip-up, it had ripped dozens of yards of Dacron from my spool. Then I gained it back, hand over hand, and it froze on contact against the bare ice. Luckily most of the long battle was between the last 20-feet of line, half of which was 10# test fluorocarbon that gave me a little more confidence during the final throes around the hole.
When my fishing partner reached down and helped scoop the trout topside, there was a sense of joy and relief, followed by fast action to document the new personal best before its healthy release. It is moments and fish like this one that become seared into our memory and drive us out into the elements each winter.
Editor's note: This is another good story from my friend Chad Wilde in the Quiet Corner of CT. It's about tiger trout, a sterile cross between a male brook trout and a
female brown trout. Most of CT's tigers are raised in hatcheries and stocked as adults (3,768 tigers stocked in 2017), but once in a blue moon anglers will catch wild tigers in streams with good spawning habitat and populations of native brookies and wild browns.
Chad noted that listening to this song while reading along will enhance the story.
Living on the brook, I sort of got to know some of its
fish.Like a particular tiger trout that
found its way into a prime hole.It’s an angler’s culvert sort of place.Easy to fish, consistent.I got
him there three times over the course of a year.
The funny thing about that particular tiger is that I caught
it on three different flies and three different fly rods.So after a while I just stopped fishing that
hole.I started saving it for a friend.
Each time I caught him over the year, he looked a little
more colorful, a little more robust.I
could swear he had grown an inch.Vermiculate back like a convolute network of misevolution.Black pupil that looked oddly innocent.But it was a brawler.Not leader shy, this fish.He fought well, and ruined the hole each time
I got him with his ruckus.
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
Fool me three times, ah fuck it.
I knew my friend Alan had never caught a tiger trout.So I held off on the easy fish to hopefully put
him on it.Alan is a good friend, and a
helluva rod builder. He can tie a good
deer-hair bug, and he’s handy with a stick.I haven’t fished with him as much as I’d like, but I have fished with
him enough to know that he could figure it out pretty quick, whatever it was.
In the past I had brought him to some of the places I knew on
the brook, but never to the hole with the tiger in it.
I debated the tiger, mind you.I knew and know there are wild fish in the
brook.I knew this dude was voracious
and would eat just about anything.Maybe
I should have offed it.But of the
stocked fish in Connecticut they are perhaps the most interesting.And I struggle with killing anything.Even for a good reason.
We got up one day, went directly to the spot with the tiger
in it.I gave him the tit water.I said, “Right out there buddy.”I was already proud of myself.The water was low.It was late November.There was ice in our guides.Naturally, since I had talked the hole up so
much, we didn’t catch shit.
Now, I had been thinking about the Fenton River for some
time around then.It was badly damaged when UConn sucked it dry in 2005.Where I
used to find wild fish in high school now I only found stockies.But when I’d catch them in the winter I’d tip
my hat to them and say go on and lay down some roots.I’d hope for them.Against hope.We’d try it anyway.
On the drive, I wondered if the tiger was dead.I have always handled my fish with utmost
care, but after you release a fish you never really know if it survives unless
you catch it again.Do the chances of
its life decrease with subsequent catches?I know there is stress in catching fish, but I do my best to reduce it.
My friend Dave caught a dubious fish in the Fenton years
ago.A 29- inch brown trout.The hypothetical fish that could be.A leviathan of a small stream.A beast.He caught it out of an out-of-the-way hole.I wanted to check out a series of these type of
holes I knew of and they weren’t buying what we were selling in the brook.Alan was game.
I secretly hoped the tiger in the brook was dead since the
thing would gladly eat a two-inch fry.I
secretly hoped it alive, stalking some deadfall or tucked into a bathtub sized two-foot
deep plunge.Treating it like a conveyor
belt of forage, chasing off all others.Eating them.Grown fat and
greedy, and strong.I just hoped for
fish.So we’d try the Fenton.
I couldn’t get it out of my mind that the tiger wasn’t
there.I was disappointed, they’re
pretty rare to catch and I thought I could put a buddy on his first.Maybe it wised up, went feral as stocked fish
will and learned to hide better.Find
deeper culverts to haunt.Mice to
eat.It had, after all, grown an inch in
a year.
I had just begun to tie flies at the time and was working on
a squirrel leach pattern.I gave a
couple to Alan.Purple squirrel with a
green bead head.“Broom Hilda-style,” I
told him.Halloween and all.These flies were the first of my own that I
was successful with, and they remain a staple in my box 10 years later.
I worked some water below him and he found his way up to a nice
cutbank.He approached it from below and
took a small trout.After a while he put
on the squirrel leach and began to fish it.
I called his cell to find out what he was doing.He told me he saw a big fish go for the
squirrel leach and miss.I began to head
up.I had just arrived at the cutbank to
watch him roll cast upstream along the deep foreboding grey November cutbank.He began to take short strips. I looked away.He said aloud, “I got ‘em.”
I turned and saw Alan on a nice fish.It’s always exciting to see a friend get a
good one.You want to help, share in the
experience.I saw the fish boil the
surface.It was very light in color.Was it a huge washed-out brook trout?I couldn’t tell.We had a great view of the fish, in the deep
colored late fall water.I enjoyed
watching him fight it.
It was a good fish.After
he fought the fish, I was able to slide a net under it.This too is special, to help a friend net a
fish.
“No way,” I said.I
couldn’t even believe it.
It’s a big tiger.
He released it and I never saw it again.Though no doubt I went looking for it.
The massive oak in my yard dropped its remaining acorns on our roof last week. Facebook nearly crashed when the first snow flakes of the season fell on Sunday. The lingering annuals in my garden died in unison with this morning's frost. And water temperatures in Long Island Sound just fell below 60 degrees. However you measure it, winter is coming. But before she arrives in earnest, there are a few fall fishing traditions I'd like to partake in. A favorite was checked off the list on Columbus Indigenous People's Day Weekend when some friends and I hiked along a thirsty mountain stream in search of eastern brook trout.
The Connecticut Yankee has been here in one form or another since 2008. It's been great to share many memorable outdoor experiences with others, but this blog also allows me to look back on trips that I may have otherwise forgotten about years down the road. Over the last few months, I have been posting much less but it is all for positive reasons. Big things have been happening in life that have cut down my time on the water and, to a greater extent, my time documenting it.
For the better part of three decades, I have had little in the way of any real responsibilities, which has allowed me to fish my tail off and blog about it. Now with a new house, job, grad school and, most importantly, a new family member on the way, some of things that I used to take for granted have taken a back seat, and it is all good.
I am a very lucky man. Fishing, writing and photography have filled me with lifelong memories, introduced me to amazing characters and brought me to incredible places. By no means am I hanging up the rod, reel or camera. I will be sure to make time to hit the stream, beach, and ice, but finding time to share those trips online won't be getting any easier. I will post here when I can, but, in the meanwhile, thanks for the good run.
The famed hendrickson hatch is in full swing on my favorite river as I type this.Much of the allure about these aquatic insects is the surface action surrounding their emergence and subsequent spinnerfall.When the duns pop off the water in mid afternoon, sometimes you can be hard pressed to find an empty run for miles.On pleasant evenings, and occasionally mornings, crowds can be equally as bad for those seeking to cash in on spent spinners dropping down to the river.On many May mornings, however, when hendrickson nymphs are their most active, you can sometimes find yourself alone in the heads of pools and really hammer trout that are keyed in on these crawlers.
A healthy brown taken on a hendrickson imitation (Photo credit: Todd Kuhrt).
After a few outings where we had to really work for our fish, it was a nice change of pace to have hot and heavy action.On two consecutive mornings, anything resembling a hendrickson nymph stood no chance in the water.When your first three drifts of the morning come tight to fish, you know it’s on.Don’t get me wrong, a few thousand fresh trout stocked by CT DEEP certainly made things easier, but it felt good to weed out some holdovers from the fray.I was mostly fishing a two-fly rig, with pheasant tails nymphs as both my offerings.In one fast run though, I had to switch to a heavier anchor fly and chose the farthest looking thing from a hednrickson nymph, a pink Vladi worm.The pheasant tail dropper was responsible for over a dozen stockers and the Vladi took the only quality fish – it was a big food item and one that stood out from the rest.
Photo credit: Aaron Swanson
Photo credit: Aaron Swanson
As good as the mornings were, I experienced two mediocre afternoon hatches and no real spinnerfalls. I later found out that I missed a good evening spinnerfall, but I was spent myself from a full day in the sun and skedaddled early. The afternoon hatches were short lived, but each day quality trout were looking up for quick stints. I was all alone in a pool on day one and stuck a large female brown trout on a hendrickson emerger pattern. She had my old school Fenwick 5-weight bitched and put up a fight that I wish others got to witness. I attempted to capture a self portrait with the brown before releasing her and could only laugh when I played back the photo afterwards - bummer! The dun hatch on day two was also rather uneventful, save for a 5-minute stretch where two nice trout were rising sporadically. I plucked one of them on the same emerger pattern from the day before and had another great tussle on the dry fly rod. It turned out to be a Survivor stocked last spring that was caught several river-miles downstream from where it was put in. The morning nymph action, afternoon dun hatches and evening spinnerfalls will still go on for a couple more weeks on the Farmington River, each day or two progressing slightly upstream. Between work and life, I may get one more crack at them before the 2011 hendrickson hatch is all said and done. It's been fun so far!
Note the orange elastomer tag above this Survivor's left eye (Photo credit: Aaron Swanson).
Long overdue, I brought my wife to the West Branch Farmington River recently for her first taste of fly fishing. I wanted her intial experience on the river to be a good one--warm sun, moderate flows, cooperative fish...but you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Conditions were tough. It was a chilly morning and the river was higher and colder than normal due to a dam release from the swollen reservoir. We went over basic nymphing mechanics and Mosey got the gist of it pretty quickly. With a few backyard sessions and another trip or two to the Farmington, she will be giving Joe Humphreys a run for his money. The fishing wasn't easy, but Aaron managed a nice Survivor brown trout on a homemade golden stone after we left, which Tommy captured perfectly with an underwater photo during its release.
Mosey being a trooper in tough conditions. (Photo credit: Aaron Swanson)
The orange elastomer tag over this trout's left eye indicates that it was stocked last spring. (Photo credit: Tommy Baranowski)
It's no secret that the West Branch of the Farmington River is among the very top trout fishing destinations in the Northeast. The quantity of quality fish living within its banks is unmatched in southern New England. The ever increasing number of Connecticut and out-of-state anglers lining its pools is a testament to that. There are many reasons why this river, particularly the upper portion, consistently produces high-caliber trout. One of them is because of its year-round catch and release Trout Management Areas (TMA).
Established in 1988, the upper TMA encompasses a magnificent 3.6-mile stretch of river from the Route 219 Bridge in New Hartford to the power lines that run through People's State Forest in Pleasant Valley. With sufficient food, great habitat, cold, clean water, and fish-friendly regulations, there is a strong population of holdover trout, and an increasingly impressive number of wild fish as well. For several years, there has been a growing movement to expand the TMA to improve and protect this amazing fishery even more. A proposed expansion in the works would increase the upper TMA upstream to the old bridge abutments in the tail of Whittemore Pool. This would be a big win for trout by providing more catch and release sanctuary and for anglers by providing more room to breathe year-round.
In addition, the proposed expansion would make the rest of the river from the Goodwin Dam all the way down to the Route 177 bridge a seasonal TMA. This would mean that from September 1 until Opening Day, the entire 21-mile stretch of river from the Dam to Unionville would be a strictly catch and release area. And from Opening Day until September 1, there would be a 2 fish, 12-inch limit in areas outside of the TMA. However, in an attempt to make regulations more consistent throughout the entire stretch of river, the mandatory barbless hook regulation would be taken out if these changes go through in their current form. No doubt that by increasing the river's catch and release areas the trout fishing on the Farmington River would benefit immensely, yet reinstating barbed hooks into the TMA is looked at by many to be a step in the wrong direction.
A public hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 16 at 6:30 PM, at the DEP HQ in Hartford. This is the last chance to voice your opinion on the matter in person. Based on public comment, the proposed regulations may be adjusted. For supporters of expanding the TMA that cannot make it to Hartford, the Farmington River Anglers Association (FRAA) has drafted a letter (below), which you can tweak to make your own. Written comments should be submitted no later than 4:30 PM on March 30 to Bill Foreman (see address/fax/email below).
Bill Foreman
CT DEP Inland Fisheries Division
79 Elm Street
Hartford, CT 06106-5127
Fax: (860) 424-4070 william.foreman@ct.gov
Dear Mr. Foreman:
I am writing this letter to show my support for the proposed changes in the Farmington River Trout Management Area. The expansion of the Trout Management Area to the bridge abutments at the tail out of the Whittemore pool, and the changes to the other areas of the river down to the Route 177 Bridge in Unionville are well thought out, and long over due.
However, there is one change in the proposed regulations which I DO NOT support. All three sections of the new proposals relating to the Farmington River require that the fish be released “without avoidable injury”. And yet the regulations requiring the use of barbless hooks has been eliminated from the proposal. Barbless hooks allow for reduced handling and a faster release of the fish, thus reducing unwanted injury. To eliminate this requirement makes no sense. Barbless hooks in the Trout Management Area have been required since its inception, and to remove this provision at this time would be counter productive to releasing the fish without avoidable injury. Please consider reinstating the barbless hook requirement in the TMA, and if you wish to standardize the regulations, make barbless hooks required for the entire section of the river in the proposal. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
In late fall every year there is a few-week span between putting my saltwater gear away and drilling holes through the ice. One of my favorite ways to fill this void is by casting for trout and walleye along the Saugatuck Reservoir in southwestern Connecticut. This is the first year in many that I dropped the ball and didn't get my seasonal reservoir pass. Instead I have been keeping busy fly fishing on the Farmington River. Aaron and I spent a good part of our Saturday there nymphing and throwing streamers. It wasn't lock and load, yet we manged to put a handful trout in the net using small nymph patterns. A few of the brown trout had all the signs of stream-born specimen, which is always nice to see. I am enjoying my time on the river, but it won't be long before Old Man Winter has a firm grip on New England and ice season starts in earnest.
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