Trout are Back (they never really left)

Well this year has been nothing like last year fishwise. In pretty much every way. The wet spring and cool damp summer was totally opposite 2016's drought. Trout had a chance to survive more successfully.

And that brings me to the current post. This morning I landed my second fall trout--out of the same small stream. This stream is pretty heavily stocked in the spring. Apparently it was not stocked this fall. It is not on this list:
http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/fishing/weekly_reports/currentstockingreport.pdf

Which means I've been catching natives or holdovers. They *look* native--very beautiful, natural, clean fins with beautiful markings matching the surroundings.

This morning I put on my father's old Converse rubberized cotton hip waders, my L.L. Bean vest that my father bought me as a kid in the 70s, and  I grabbed my great uncle's 6.5 foot Orvis Battenkill, put my father's Hardy LRH Lightweight on it, and tied on a Royal Coachman, my father's go-to fly.

I think I had my father and my uncle on my mind. Just a bit. But that's what fishing is for me: a lifelong connection to my father. Trout fishing. On small streams. Being captivated by his magical ability to tease trout out of any stretch.

This morning's fishing was a brief blissful interlude in a rainy windy day. But Connecticut is a beautiful state. There are pieces of wildness -- vibrant wildness -- tucked right into suburbia.  This particular stream is on the outskirts of a major town (one with close to 40,000 residents) and about 15 miles from one of the state's 5 largest cities. And yet it is more rural/exurban than suburban. That is the magic of this state. On this stream, I've heard and seen ravens, river otters, kingfishers, beavers, deer, and lots of other wildlife. There are redfin pickerel, dace, chub, trout, and sunfish on this stream. There may be other species too that I haven't seen or caught yet. It runs through a woodland--keeping the temperature moderate and this summer, pretty cool, even though it is fed from a small not particularly deep lake.

When I came back to fish it a few weeks ago and we saw trout, I assumed it was the September stocking but apparently that isn't the case! (It hasn't been stocked since March).

I crept up on the pool that we'd seen trout in a few weeks back. Came up from below. I crouched on my knees, and while watching the water before casting, I saw one rise. Aha! There's definitely a fish in there!  It only took a few casts to get a strike. The first good cast that landed near the rise. It was a difficult bit of casting--trees behind, tall grass to the left, branch directly over the pool and bank with trees to the right. A narrow sidearm casting lane over the grass and under the trees was the only way, other than trying to roll cast. But the overhead branch was my worry there--roll casts are trouble with branches over the target.

But after two strikes and three tangles in the tree behind, and then no more takes, I figured it had seen the fly enough and wasn't interested in that one anymore. So I changed to, of all things, I tiny littler balsa bodied popper, in bright fall foliage colours.  On the first good landing and 3rd cast total, without even twitching it, he came up and took it.

Now as I am fishing light bamboo, the set of the hook is subtle but with persistent pressure. I just waited a tiny beat longer than the first strikes that I lost from being too eager, and the fish was on. It would have been a great film.

But I did get a film of the fish while it was recovering in a little pool:

It sure looks like a native. Even if it is a holdover.

Now I just hope--hope!--that it spawns. The problem though is that this pool is heavily traveled and pretty frequently fished. I'm afraid someone else may harvest this fish. But if the immature bald eagle I saw on the way home gets it, I'll be okay with that.