Raising the Bar

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.

 

April Butter

I took a mental health day today and put in a few solid hours on the Farmington River. It was awesome--warm air, bugs hatching and a good buddy to share the water with. The flow from Goodwin Dam was cut considerably since our camping trip last weekend and the fishing seemed to improve in a big way. Aaron and I hit three spots hard and found trout at each, a couple of which were pretty damn nice. The quality fish ate a mix of hendrickson nymphs, blue wing olive nymphs and cased caddis. 

Today was my last day on the river for a little while.  I'm going from changing flies back to changing diapers! 

Photos by Aaron Swanson

Looking Back

I was very blessed in 2015 between watching my beautiful daughter grow, landing a new job and finishing grad school. While this past year won't be remembered for the most time I've ever spent on the water, I sure as hell made the most of each trip. Below is a look back at some angling highlights from a memorable 2015.

FRESH: The balmy winter weather we've been experiencing lately makes me appreciate 2015's ice season all the more. Friends and I had a blast in the Adirondacks jigging up lake trout and enjoyed great opportunities back home as well, like rare late-ice trips to Connecticut's largest lake. Spring brought with it our cherished Opening Day camping trip, strong mayfly hatches and several quality trout to the net. I also tagged along on a fun carp excursion on the Connecticut River, a pike float on the upper Housatonic and a small stream jaunt in the mountains. In the fall, I paid a few visits to my favorite reservoir for a handful of keeper walleye and hefty smallmouth. To close the year, I floated a river I'd never been to before and hooked (and lost!) a trout that will keep me going back.

SALT: What I'll remember most about the 2015 saltwater season was the copious amounts of menhaden in Long Island Sound and its tributaries. It wasn't limited to adult bunker either; for the first time in a long time, we experienced an incredible display of peanut bunker in our local waters, which helped attract all sorts of marine life from Humpback whales to a memorable run of false albacore. Speaking of false albacore, an unforgettable memory from this past year was catching a late-October albie five minutes from my home, in a shirt and tie before work no less! I also was lucky to witness some amazing bluefish blitzes, land a few nice bass from shore, and catch my first keeper fluke in a kayak. 

 Here's to a healthy and fish-filled 2016!

Revisiting

My friend Todd and I recently took advantage of a break in our work schedules and fished together for the first time in a long time. It's always a treat getting stream-side during the week since most of my trout fishing is regulated to the crowded weekends. The plan was to revisit a stretch of river that we had fished a few February's ago. It was great to be back on this portion of river again in mid May when there was much more life apparent in the water and woods around us. We dropped one vehicle upstream and drove down river a mile so with the other and waded our way back.

It was a gorgeous spring day weather wise and the fishing was pretty damn good too. We found more than enough freshly stocked trout to keep us busy at each stop along our route and there were a few higher quality trout mixed in. The highlight of our day was an awesome brown trout that fought like mad and was the most beautiful fish I had seen in some time. If I had to guess, I'd say that one was born in the river. It was a hell of a way to cap off a fine day on the water. We'll have to revisit this stretch more often.