A lot of great fishing in 10 days. Fresh. Salt.

I haven't written in quite a while and although I've caught a lot of striped bass in that period, I am going to start with a freshwater outing that was really a beautiful day, not because of the quantity or size of the fish, but because of the simple enjoyment of the day. A friend of mine who lives a long way away came for the weekend to learn the ways of fly fishing for trout. He is very experienced in Gulf Coast saltwater fishing and freshwater bass fishing, but he wanted to try one of our New England inland favorites.

As it turned out, before meeting up on Saturday night, he fished on his way down here on Saturday, using spinning equipment on some northwest CT streams, and he really hit pay dirt:

He caught this lovely brown trout right here:

And he continued fishing, and found a stocked rainbow as well as a number of really nice large minnows in some beautiful surroundings:

Saturday night we had pizza and on Sunday morning, I showed him the basics of fly casting. Then the roll cast. We went to a place I know holds wild trout, that is not stocked, and whad'ya know, he caught one in the first 20 minutes!

Classic take out of a plunge pool with a rubberlegs:

We then changed locations to another all wild stream that is managed by the DEEP. It was bueatiful, but I lost a fish and he saw but couldn't connect. The water was very slow and shallow. I had fished it before and knew where some deep pools were. I forgot to teach the bow and arrow cast. That was the go to on this stream:

It was a really fine day, a really fine weekend catching up, fishing, and playing music. It was much too short. What better way to cope with too much work, too little work, or a too short visit, than to go catch some fish. So on October 15 I caught a couple schooling striped bass. By this time the bass are very much on the move along the shore, marauding the baitfish wherever they are, be it up creeks or in tide, or around rocks.

By the weekend, I was very interested in trying to get in some more trout fishing. We started the day heading to the Farmington to chase big brown trout, but less than 5 minutes into the drive changed our minds for the Shetucket. That is also a pretty "big" river to me, and I have a hard time reading them. So far I've never caught a salmonid on the Shetucket after 10 tries or so, and only one on the Farmington after 3 or 4 tries. 

After a couple hours on the big river, we relocated to a small stream I had only fished once but which is very promising. It produced. I moved a bigger trout but this perfect little brown trout parr made my day along with his rivermate, the minnow.The trout was where you'd expect: in a deep area next to an undercut bank with bubbles over it.

     

20 Oct, it was back to saltwater again. This produced two bluefish that we ate, and two striped bass that went back to their schools.

Then on the 22nd of October I caught a handsome bass about 25" and another two bluefish--one I kept, the other got away in my hands--he swam away even though I'd spiked his brain. Apparently they can swim while brain dead. I broke my own rule. Normally I leave the hook on until after I've bled them out. Then if they wiggle you might not lose the fish. A net would be a good idea, but I don't have a saltwater sized net.

I started at the crack of dawn.

First catch at 0913, at the reef 2 miles away. I took my time getting there. Tried bottom fishing to no avail. But then at the reef there was a blow up of birds--mostly small gulls actually (no herring or black backed).

 

Then a bluefish a few minutes later:

Then another striper and another bluefish, then this big one at 0938. The wind is already stronger than 20 minutes ago.

 

Wind came up:

Little diaper stripers on the two mile row home--four of them. I rowed directly along the beach to stay out of the outgoing wind. They were in that little spot where the baitfish try to hide.

   

It is worth noting that this last trip, the fly that did all the work was an extremely sparse black and white deceiver with some red thread and yellow eyes. They seem to hit it as much or more when there is almost nothing left of the bucktail. The baitfish were small peanut bunker (baby menhaden) which I think this fly imitated nicely. Note that the previous weeks, my blue/charteuse was effective. It may have been this time too, but I had spent some significant time trolling it on this last trip with nothing, and the black/white one produced.

Believe it or not when I got back to the beach, I went for a swim. Water down to about 60 or 62. Somewhere in there. Got that instant brain freeze business like when you eat ice cream too fast. The goal is always to swim every month. Not usually successful but if I can make November at least I can say that.