It is hard to believe that it is 2013 already. Life has been one crazy mess since my last post. The fishing season came and went problem is life always seems to get in the way. I had some great guide trips this past year and want to thank all those great people who enjoyed one or more day with me. I really enjoy the time I spend guiding as I get to see people them learn new things or discover new places. Due to a crazy injury exploring a way off the beaten path spot, I tore up my left knee early in 2012. It had been already damaged from years of abuse by July it was to the point that everyday things were growing increasingly difficult so I went to the surgeon and had surgery schedule for Mid-September. I want to thank Dr. Murray for an excellent job, maybe too good as I have seemed to overdo it often. I did manage to make our annual Steelhead trip to the Salmon River but it was cut short due to the knee not holding up as well as hoped. I did get a couple steelhead, a Coho and a beautiful Atlantic salmon in the 3 days I was there. I got to fish with some old friends and some new ones. Actually bumped into a guy I have known from a fishing club for years and we got to fish a bit the final afternoon I was there.

                The knee is pretty much healed up and I am about 85-90 percent mobile again and it is getting better by the day. I am really looking forward to the upcoming season. With the big snow storm we just got we will have some much needed run off this spring. While we most likely will not be dry fly fishing to rinsing trout like last March we will have better flows.  Last Saturday Jt and I were at the Connecticut Fly fishermen’s Association expo at Maneeleys in South Windsor. To say it was a great show would be an understatement, there had to have been 300+ people come thru in the time it was open. While I was a bit under the weather it was still great to see so many old friends and clients. We also got to meet some new and hopefully becoming old friends. It was really nice to see so many young people there seeing what was new. One very encouraging thing was the number of people who were taking the club tying class. It is a great way to get into the next part of the sport. I have always been a believer that tying your own flies makes you a better fly fisher. You tend to be less weary of where you put the fly because you can always go home a tie more inexpensively thus you’re a bit more aggressive with your casting to the places trout like to hide. Speaking of tying I have been basically chained to the vice tying up orders for the last month and a half. Everything from steelhead streamers to size 26 midges and a lot of stuff in-between. I have been trying for local shops now since 1995, in that time I have come up a with a few patterns of my own design. We sell most all of them thru JTs fly shop but at the encouragement of one of our sales reps I have submitted about 13 patterns to one of the large wholesale companies for consideration in being added to their 2014 catalog.

                There are a few upcoming events that I want to mention. One is the Western Mass Fly fishers Expo on March 18^th from 6-9 at the Ludlow Elks club. Yours truly will be doing  a presentation on small stream fishing and also an in-depth talk on different types of nymph fishing.  Sometime in the next few weeks we will “begin tying and lying” at Jts fly shop, for those who don’t know what that is, it is a were a bunch of us experienced and new tiers get together over coffee and snacks , we ties up flies as well as tell fishing stories. It is a great way to learn new techniques or relearn something you had forgot. I will not promise to write more this year because promises are meant to be kept. So I will do my best to update this blog as much as possible in 2013 and beyond.

 

Steve’O

I headed back to the Willimantic river TMA hoping that most of the people who had been fishing there the last 2 1/2 months were on to greener pastures. I started at the abutment pool, there was a youger guy there with a kid he was trying to teach to fly fish at the tail out, I moved up to the very head of the pool and after a couple of quick tangles and a leader change, I managed to get 3 casts in a row were I wanted them. On number four a beautiful brown took my szie 16 caddis dry and gave a very good account of it's self.

I then moved down to the flat below the abutment pool and proceded to spook two decent fish with casts that got blown off target by poorly timed breezes. I managed a nice little brookie on the dry a bit later. About this time the sun came out full bore and the fish stopped feeding on top. I rerigged with a czech nymph point fly and a small caddis pupa dropper. I made only three cast and hooked and landed a nice little rainbow a few minutes later I hooked and lost a ncie fish that ran down stream quick. I managed to scape up one more trout from the tail out and decided to leave the two young fisherman to the pool. I drove down stream to a favorite access point to fish the middle of the TMA. I took quick water break and then headed off to the lower Bride pool, I had fished down thru the pool with a pair on nymphs with not even a bump. I then turned around changed the point fly to a sligtly lighter version of a caddis larva and started to work up stream using a yarn indicator( bobber) I had made it up about half way when Carl one of my friends showed up. I slowly fished the rest of the pool waiting for him to rig up. once riggered head fished the head of the pool and got two trout to show interest in a small caddis so I changed to a dry and we fish up under the bridge to the upper pool. we managed several fall fish and dace but not trout. Once thru the bridge we noticed a couple of fish rising just up into the pool. Carl got a quick refusal and told me to give it a try I cast to the spot and the fish took right away, it then proceeded to get me hung in a rock or log and I had to break it off. I retied and we fish up towards the head of the pool. Carl was ahead and to the bank side of the pool that way we could both fish with out crossing lines or drifts. About half way up the pool I noticed very many fish flashing along the bottom so I switched back to the czech nymph and dropper. First cast at the head of the pool I hooked a nice tiger trout and after a short fight unhoooked it, two cast later I hooked and landed a nice rianbow.

I called to Carl to come back down and I let him fish the slot they were holding in. after a couple of missed fish he broke off and deicded to switch to a soft hackle and ant. ( he has a great mthod of fishing ants subsurface). I hooked and landed one more brown and headed down towards the bridge casting then taking a step then casting again. Carl hooked up an landed a nice rianbow from the head of the pool. We worked out way back down under the bridge with neither of us getting any real action. Carl had to leave so I decided I would swing a pupa and soft hackle in the head of the lower pool an head out. an hour later after a couple missed hook sets and a nice fish lost to too much pressure on my end of the line I called it a day. Overall not a bad opening day # 37 if I do say so.
Steve'O

another great weekend

Well yesterday was the spring  fling at JTs fly shop and it was a good day weather wise so the people were out. Got to see some old Friends and made a couple of new ones. we had a lot of our suppliers there to so off the latest and greatest. as well as many tag sale people trying to unload some stuff. Cpt. Jack  from Jack hammer charters was there with his crew. a good time was had by all. Got to try a couple of new two handed rods that I am going to put a serious test to on May 5th at the Spey clave on the Farmington river.

I got a chance to get out to fish today, the flow was way down( no run off and no rain) the fish were there and active. I fished with one of the guys from the shop Lou between us we figured out what they wanted and got a few on a size 16 caddis. I managed a few until I lost the only sz 16 tan elk hair caddis fly I had on me. When I loaded the truck to head to the river I thought to myself I need to add a few boxes of dries and take out the big stones and buggers. I took out the boxes I wanted too and put in my early spring box with Hendricksons, red quills, paraleps and quill Gordons in it and the box with blues winged olives also. While i was int he closet I grabbed my box of caddis to put in the truck bag just in case. guess what they never made it to my vest,they were still on the shelf in my closet. Whenever we were able to get a good drift the fish would Take I struggled for a time trying to find something that would work, but I ended up going to nymphs( not that is a bad thing but the fish seemed to be looking up. I did manage 1 nice rainbow and a big sucker on a Czech nymph. The water is very low for this time of year and I pray we get some rain soon. all in all it was a good day to be out and a few fish cooperated. all in all a good day to be out.

Steve'O

well it is that time again damn it !

Over the years I have tried to stay as positive as possible when I comes to fly fishing, after all it is just fishing. I have been fly fishing for 37 years next Saturday and trout fishing for about 46 years. having a dad who is a trout fisherman I am lucky having been introduced to it early and often. For the last 15 or so years I have been guiding part time and doing some commercial fly tying. 5 years ago a good friend opened up a fly shop and I have been helping him out ever since. We have a great mix of guys who help out at the shop from Passn thru our very own It guru to the bunch of shop rats that gather on Friday nights to tell stories and share the food and spirits. we all pretty much have one thing in common while we all take fly fishing very serious, none of us take ourselves very serious. we all have strengths and just as many weaknesses.
                So this is all well and good but were is it leading. Well in the last 5 or so years with the increase in the ease of creating web pages, many so call guide services have sprung up. nearly all of these are niche services serving a small area of the state or specializing in one water. Of the ones I have met or spoke with they all seem to be good at what they do. But there are a couple that have cropped up in the last year or so that every time I hear the name I cringe. They are all over the web and post all kinds of reports. Now I spend a good bit of time on the waters of eastern Connecticut in the fishing year and I am constantly surprised by some of the s%^& that gets posted and passes as a report. It is far more shameless promotion than any actual info and some times I think they just make the crap up.  A few years ago I was at the Marlboro Mass. fly fishing show with a good friend, we ended up eating lunch with a couple of guys who are full time guides here in Connecticut and work hard to make it work. The conversation was the normal " I had this guys who .............." but then on of them asked what I thought of the idea of licensing guides In Connecticut, normally I am hands of when it comes to government but he had a point. It would actually create a better product for those who use guides. I had forgotten about it until this past winter I bumped into one of them and he said he had been basically put off by the Deep with the idea. too bad I think the resource would have benefited from it.
      well onto another note, not knowing really how many read this stuff, I wanted to put out that this coming weekend is the 5th anniversary of the shop opening and we as we have for the last 5 years will have the spring fling at the shop. Saturday from 8-4 Sunday 8-1 so stop down to JT's fly shop for the specials and to chat.

Steve'O

weeeeere back on line

Well it has been almost 10 months maybe more since I posted anything, so I am back and will promise to post far more.
So I have actaully gotten out and fished for the first time this season. I got out on the Willimantic river in the trout managmant area on March 11th and then again March 18 both days were good. Weather was just awesome with bugs and trout cooperating. On the 11th everything came on nymphs and the fishing was just stupid easy I netted 19 lost two others in a little over 3 hours of fishing. My Bud Carl was banging them on top with  Stimulator.
On the 18th same spot I went on top and got 10 to net all on a sz16 stimulator once again beautiful weather. not bad for March. lets hop rain comes and we will have a great spirng.

Steve

Hit it right on the head

This spring we have been very fortunate to have moderate temps and plenty of rain so the rivers here in North East Connecticut are in great shape. I had a few hours yesterday morning to get away before a few dad chores, a birthday party and a graduation celebration. So I was up before 5 am and in the fish mobile headed for the Willimantic River TMA by 5:30. I decided after reading a few old posts in my journals I would park at the rest area and work from that bank. In the last few years I have found that my journals, which I have kept since the mid-80’s have become invaluable with the information they hold. When I started them it was more to remember the fish numbers and kinds, now I look back for river, weather and hatch conditions.

 I got to the rest area about 10 minutes later, put on my waders and put my rod together. I did not rig up as I wanted to see how the river looked like before I tied on a leader and flies. When I got to the river it was running fairly high for this time of year and just a bit stained. I decided I was going to do some Czech nymphing so I tied on one of my custom tied leaders, it is 13’ long tapered from 25 pound test amnesia in either fluorescent red or green down to 6X, to my 10 foot 4 weight rod. Today I used the green butt section because it shows up better in the low light. I tied on a size 14 caddis pupa in tan with the point fly being a size 10 Czech nymph with a tungsten bead head; it is a mix of golden brown SLF and tan antron.  Looking at the flow I decided to drop in midway thru the pool and fish from there to the tail out. I made a few drift but did not feel the bottom so I tied a small dropper off the bend of my point fly and put a small split shot to add just the needed weight to get it down. Third cast I felt a bump and tightened up to feel a head shake. After a good fight I landed my first fish of the morning a solid rainbow of about 13” a few casts later a bit farther down the current seam, I hooked it’s identical twin. Over the next hour I hooked another 4 fish losing two and landing two.  One was a rainbow the other was a thick brown about 14” that put on a real nice fight up on the surface with a couple of big runs. All of these fish came on the Czech nymph.

I decided to head down stream to try another run that hold fish well in this type of flow. I am not usually prone to walking away from fish that are feeding but it was a quiet morning and I had not seen another fly fisherman in the hour or so I was there. I moved down to the spot I wanted to try just as the fog started to burn off and it started to get brighter. I could start to see there was a bunch of fish feeding in the lower end of this run. I move into a good spot to fish to these active feeders, I  made  about 50 cast and did not even get so much as bump. I decided to try a bit different approach when I saw a few small tan caddis hatching. I took off the Czech nymph and the dropper and replaced them with a veiled caddis and a soft hackle. I cast this pair upstream at about 45 degrees so they sink and then dead drift them high sticking once they reached my position I lowered the rod tip and let them swing thru the lower section of the run. First cast a felt a good bump, next cast I was fast into another nice rainbow. A few casts later the flies stopped mid-way thru the dead drift I tightened up figuring to feel the bottom but instead I felt a strong head shake, I set the hook and the fish went crazy. After a real good fight with what I thought was a fish of about 17 or 18 inches I landed a beautiful 13” tiger trout. This was the second in a week to come from this part of the river. I had a guide client catch one last Saturday about a ¼ mile upstream from where I was fishing. I let him go and sat on the back retying my flies as the teeth on that bugger had frayed the 6x a bit too much. I made a few more casts and got one more cookie cutter rainbow.

I looked at my watch and decided to go back to my first spot and see what was happening before heading home.  I left the same two flies on and dropped into the same spot I started in, first cast I hooked and lost a fish in the tail out. I stripped a bit of line off my reel to give myself some slack to play with and recast. Bam I was into another good fish this one turned out to be a bit larger rainbow about 16” and solid muscle from back to belly. Over the next half hour I hooked 5 more fish landing only two of them , I was a bit slow on the hook set today. All in all not a bad day 16 fished hooked with 10 landed and only a brook trout away from slam. These are the kinds of days that I remember the clearest, conditions were good and fish cooperative. I could use a few more of these as they have been far and few between the last 5 years. The rest of the day was filled with family fun and celebration. Funny thing was my nephew who just started fly fishing knew even before I told him I had a good morning by the smile on my face.

Steve 

Having flexibility is important

My mantra in fly fishing is be flexible and let the trout tell you what to tie on the end of your line. There are good fisherman who only fish dries and others who only fish nymphs, streamers or wets. But the best fisherman I have fished with could fish all of them good and were flexible in there approach to fishing.
            A guide trip I did last weekend once again reinforced the need to be flexible in your approach to fly fishing. Friday I stopped by the river to check it out as Saturday morning I had early guide trip. The river was just right for some decent early caddis dries and maybe an olive hatch in the morning with it predicted to be overcast. Well mother nature thru some heavy showers into the mix overnight Friday. When we got to the river the water was much higher and more than a bit off colored. My first thought was crap this day just got tough. I changed a few flies I had set up in my pack and we head to the river. We fished the first section with only a couple of tugs on the line.
        After about 2 hours I decided we needed to change sections of the river.  From keeping a journal for the last 20+ years I know of a few sections of this river that will start to clear faster than the rest of the river. We headed to one of the spots and the water was still running high but much clearer. They rigged up with a nymph and indicators and started to fish the seams of the current. I put myself right between them so I could coach them thru this kind of fishing. They both picked it up fast and were getting good drag free drifts but no fish, then on a quick pickup to recast one of them hooked up, after a minute and a half the fish came off. The light went on the fish were holding on the outside of the seam and picking off emergers. I had them both take off the indicator and showed them how to do a Leisenring lift. This is where you cast above suspected fish holding water or were you know fish are holding. You dead drift the fly until just before it reaches the fish, you then quickly raise the rod tip so the fly swims toward the surface. The fish will rise up and take the swimming nymph. After a few minutes he hooked and landed another fish this time it stayed on and we landed a nice rainbow of about 15”. A few more missed fish his brother hooks up with a fish that missed the fly twice. After a good fight he landed a tiger trout about 14” long it was a one of the best tigers I have seen come from this river.  If we had not changed tactics it would have ended up a fish less day.
         So keep your eyes and mind open it just might tune you in to help keep a day from being a bust.
       I was then out Sunday evening with an old friend who i have not fished with in far too long. We almost decided to not head out but after checking flows we headed to a class 3 wild trout stream about 20 minutes from my place. when we got there the water was high but clear enough that the fish would be feeding. We dropped into the first pool and fished nymphs for a while with only a few hard takes that were missed to show. we moved down to a sweet run that always gives up a few trout. it did not disappoint as we took a few 9-10" wild browns from this stretch. We fished down thru the rest of the area we planned to try with out any more action.
       We then moved up to the area above were we started, this is a deep pool just below a road culvert. I had a couple of takes and broke a fish off as did my buddy. He then noticed that there were a bunch of fish at his feet that were feeding.He had just broke off and did not want to retie, so I moved up into his spot and found several fish flashing just below were I was standing. I put a sulphur emerger on and covered it with some mud to sink it. on the first drift a fish took and the fun was on. After a few good runs and head shakes I landed a beautiful 16" rainbow that was solid muscle. This fish was a great way to finish off the evening we packed it up and completed the night over a club sandwich and chicken tips at a local pizza place. All in all a good weekend made better by flexibility.

Steve