After witnessing the dismantling of the Jacksonville Jaguars by the New England Patriots and spending the night at my parent’s house in Northeastern Massachusetts, I took a small detour heading home. Turning the wheel south on I-84 through Hartford, my destination was in Northwest Connecticut, the Farmington River. It’s a much written about tail water with the bottom release flow from the dam averaging 42 degrees 365 days per year. At first glance, I was impressed by the size, being large enough for well defined pools but not overly wide to make casting to center currents a challenge. I pulled into a nice fly shop near the river at 11 am to get my license and info, changed there and was on my way. Standing in the parking lot of the most popular spot, the church pool, located in the Trout Management area just before noon, I spent the first 45 minutes wandering around like a lost child. The Church Pool, I learned was the most likely place to encounter a winter trout. The day was warm by January standards, 40 degrees with variable clouds and little wind, perfect. Trout were rising lazily in the slower waters of the 1/4 mile long pool barely rippling the surface and I did see a few, sized 24 black or dark gray caddis which skittered about on the surface of the water. These would be the famous winter caddis of the Farmington. There were 10-12 other people fishing in various ways since the TMA allows all styles of fishing, just as long as the hooks are barbless and the trout are released immediately. I had now made my way up one side of the Church pool and down the other looking at the various types of water and trying to get a bead on some of the risers in the pool however the choice spots seemed to have been taken by the fishermen who had come earlier than me. Settling on the moderately fast riffle at the head of the pool, I rigged my leader with two barbless (regulations) nymphs and started watching the indicator. Two hours of dredging the inside seam proved fruitless and I witnessed half a dozen fish get caught. Taking the time to rig up for dries I waded into position to cast over a pod of fish rising in the almost still water at the heart of the pool. Each individual fish would rise every three minutes making it impossible to figure if you put a fish down or it had just not risen again yet. It was a maddeningly slow style of fishing, something my anxious nerves would not allow. Next time maybe, but not for the first outing in months. I stopped to warm my feet and talk to another fisherman taking a break. He gave me some more advice and I headed up to the bridge again to nymph the riffle from the other side. One fisherman had a fire going under the bridge and that felt great. As I was standing, warming my hands preparing my nymphing rig I witnessed 3 fish get caught. I started nymphing and 3 more fish were landed, none by me. Then I noticed the two San Juan worms in the box and put one as the top fly and started fishing again. I spent the next half hour dialing down the weight systems and indicator placement. When I had confidence in the rig, the indicator hesitated and sank. The line came alive with a lift of the rod and a 12-inch brown started it’s dash for freedom. What a great feeling to fight and land a trout on January 8th. He took the San Juan. That was the first and last trout of the day but what a success. The little brown was a bit camera shy and tried to dash off before I could snap the picture but I think I got him. I headed home listening to the NFL Playoffs.
shaq,very cool shots of both the rising trout and the trout you caught in the water – i love those rare spots where fish can be caught on dry flies in winter – there is one spot here in maine that i have sometimes caught browns on dry flies in early march while shelf ice is flowing down the river — bizarre but a very cool experience..anyway, my buddy nick-c (which by the way – nick-c are you still alive??? call me if you see this and are in fact still alive.) took me on trip to the farmington several years back in the spring — i loved the river especially because trout fishing was still agonizingly slow here in maine — everything was too cold up here — but down there trout were rising everywhere. that was a great trip – lets do it again this year nick. http://www.fliesandfins.com/article9.html [www.fliesandfins.com]
ps….ohhhhh how i miss rising trout – we are rounding a corner though – spring is in sight – can’t wait to hit the delaware river in the spring
Shaq, looks like a breath of fresh air to me. We have been nymphing here on the Salmon river for six months straight. The mere thought of rising fish and casting a dry fly on a 14′ leader with no split shot is orgasmic. Can’t wait for the 2nd week of May when the Hendricksons come off down here on the Delaware. Jer, We should all hook up for a few days on the “Big D”
Pete-d is planning something out. Get with him and we’ll make it happen. Wild Browns down here and then wild bows up in your neck of the woods on the Kennebec
Thanks guys. It was a fun day
Great to see someone down my neck of the woods. The Farmington is my home river! I live 15 minutes from the river. Please let me know when you plan on coming by again…Jeremy also. I can show you around to many other spots.
You can find some of my personal photos from the Farmington here. http://www.flyaddict.com/photos/index.php
P.S. My personal site http://www.flyaddict.com will soon be a community site for the Farmington River.
I’ve had a lot of success with green and black wolly buggers this time of yr on the Farmington.
Great story shaq! Winter always put things in prospective for me as in summer if i only caught 1 trout less than 18 inches i tend to be dissapointed but in the winter a day that produced just 1 small trout is very exiting!
I also enjoy reading about dry fishing as probably most every trout fisherman on this site does more dry fly fishing than me. I only fish 9 or 10 days a year with a dry for bows in lakes or dollies in rivers. The only killer dry fly action up here is fishing bombers for salmon or mice for big rainbows but overall our dry fly fishing can’t compare to your guys and is dry fly fishing is probably alaskas weakest fly fishing link.
KOdiak,
When I fished the Agulawok and Agulapak in ’98, there was no king or chum run. We fished dries until the sockeyes started dropping eggs. It was probably the best dryfly fishing I have ever had. caught some MONSTER grayling doing that. Might be good research to find other rivers that don’t get salmon right away, the dry fly fishing might be good.