High-water Trout

The West Branch Farmington River has been running extremely high lately.  The water flow, measured in cubic feet per second, is more than double than what is considered fishable for this time of year.  The upstream dam is bottom-releasing a ton of water from two full reservoirs.  My original thought was that the dam's discharge would be cut back for the weekend warriors, but that never happened.  I checked the flows online Saturday morning and was disappointed to learn it was still way up.  We gave it a go anyway and I'm glad we did. 

Derrick and I had the river to ourselves for a change.  We used the bright, high sun to spot trout hugging the banks.  We pitched weighted nymphs to fish, or fishy looking water, for a few hours and got some nice brown trout to cooperate.  Between the weather, solitude and quality fish, this was the one of the better trips since early season ice fishing. 

The 10 foot 4-weight Cabela's CZN fly rod I had just purchased exceeded my expectations too.  This light-weight rod has nice sensitivity for subtle strike detection and enough back bone to control fish in heavy current.  The best selling point is the price though, which is very affordable for fly-fishermen wanting to try their hand with European nymphing techniques.

 

Photo credit: Derrick Kirkpatrick