Out with a Bang

It's been slow going the last few times at the local watering hole. One-good-opportunity-a-trip kind of fishing. Sometimes we capitalize on it, other times it slips away. Earlier this week, a stunning brown trout was the lone reward during a solo mission. A few days later, we missed the only hit between two of us. Regardless of the outcome, the days of open water fishing (not counting our rivers and streams) are coming to a close if you believe the long-term forecast. 

Ice season is finally at our doorstep. With any luck we'll be walking on water in the northwest hills of Connecticut around New Year's Day. But if this fish is my last of 2014, it would be a fitting way to close things out. It was a beautifully-marked, clean male with big shoulders that slammed a live shiner five-feet under the surface. It felt good to watch him swim away. See you next year...

Ice Purgatory

Some years we would be ice fishing in Connecticut by now. Unfortunately, this is not one of those years. My buddy and I have been making the most of fall, however, fishing at one of our favorite bodies of water. We've logged an unhealthy amount of hours here over the last decade and, this year more than ever, it feels like the effort is finally starting to pay off. Nothing is being shipped to the taxidermist or anything like that, but we've brought some stunning fish to the net and it seems that skunkings are now the exception, not the rule. First ice should be here soon; in the meantime we are enjoying the hand we've been dealt.