A Couple of Things

Over the past few days I fished a local stream and found some nice wild browns. The one pictured below was the catch of the day, about 9 inches long.

Visited the Farmington River LTMA with a friend who is learning to Euro Nymph and we got into some very nice rainbows in a couple of different locations.

Earth Day 2016

Yesterday was Earth Day and I spent some time in the afternoon along a local stream swinging soft hackles.
I found a long, quiet, stretch of river and as I approached saw some of the trout sipping something just beneath the surface. I started out drifting a size 16 SHPT and actually missed the first three fish, as they took the fly on the drift just below the surface, I saw the leader twitch and was a bit late setting the hook. It did not take me very long to get dialed in and for the next 90 minutes or so, had a ball catching and releasing numerous cookie cutter rainbows all in the 10-11 inch class. Closed out the day with a nice brookie.
The fish cooperated and took that SHPT on the drift, swing and at times on the retrieve.

Euro Nymphing 101

I fished the LTMA of the Farmington River today with a friend of mine who was just getting into Euro Nymping, in fact today was his first time. We went to a spot that has always been a good producer for me arriving late morning. We got geared up, rigged the rods and we were ready. Fred was using a jigged PT and a pink squirrel as the dropper.. After several minutes of stream side instruction, he was ready to go and soon landed his first trout on a fly. We had plenty of hook ups and action for a couple of hours with numerous rainbows to hand and a few browns mixed in. Plenty of LLR too. Fred took the prize of the day a gorgeous, fat, chunky holdover brown with all fins intact that gave him a run for his money. Now he is hooked!!
We both had a very enjoyable day on the river. I took all of my fish on a large streamer, which provided a lot of action.

OPENING DAY 2016

Today dawned cold and clear, so I waited until later morning before my son Matt and I started for the Farmington River. Arriving late morning proved to be a wise choice. We had our first stop to ourselves, another reason to get a later start. Matt was Euro nymphing and got on the board first with a nice fat brown and I followed shortly thereafter with a couple of nice Bows on streamers. We both continued to catch and release quite a few nice rainbows with a few chunky, well fed browns thrown into the mix. We had plenty of action for a couple of hours.
Below are a couple of photos. Matt playing a nice rainbow and finally in the net. A very successful opening day!!!

The Black Ghost

I fished a local TMA this afternoon, using my 4 weight Trout Bum and the Black Ghost Streamer. I have used this streamer for more years than I care to remember right now. It was always one of my go to streamers in the early season to locate trout.
Today it proved itself again as I brought numerous trout to hand  and scored a hat trick. Most were the standard cookie cutter sized browns, brookies and rainbows and on the 2 1/2 oz. four weight a blast to play.