The Steelhead sized bow below was caught & released nymphing a Caddis pupa. From about 7:30-8pm I saw tons of Caddis flying upstream (probably a mating flight), and at the same time I had the best fishing of the evening subsurface with pupa. Not going to "spot burn" myself, but I will tell you that she was caught outside of the TMA/C&R section. A lot of fly fishermen only fish in the TMA section, and they miss out on a lot of great fishing outside of it. The 2 fish/12" limit they instituted years ago does a good job keeping more fish in the catch & keep sections. In a normal year, my largest trout comes from outside the TMA, and frequently these are holdover or even wild trout.
Local
guide Zak texted me last Thursday night to say that "the tan Caddis
were all
over the riffles". I love Caddis hatches, they get the trout, including
the big ones, all fired
up. The tan Caddis are hatching at least as far upstream as the juncture
of the Still River, maybe even higher. The Farmington has excellent
populations of a wide variety of
Caddis, and imitations of the larva, pupa & adults are rarely a bad
choice. For the past 2+ weeks, the olive/green Caddis have been
predominating, so it's good to see the tan ones out in numbers. Saturday
night the Caddis I was able to catch were all tan bodied.UpCountry has just received a huge closeout of Hardy Zenith and Hardy Proaxis X fly rods- these are literally flying out the door, so don't wait or they will all be gone. As anyone who has been in earshot of me over the last few years knows, these are my absolutely favorite fly rods. These rods use Sintrix, a technology licensed from 3M which makes them stronger and nearly unbreakable under normal fishing conditions. You can find them in our flyshop or in our online store at a great discount. - Grady
Subsurface, Caddis Pupa & Larva in both olive/green & tan #14-18, Hare's Ear soft hackles #12-16, Golden Stoneflies #6-12, Pheasant Tails #14-20, March Brown Nymphs #10-14, Fox Squirrel Nymph #10-14, Prince Nymph #12-18. We are seeing Golden Stonefly nymph husks on the rocks in fast water, so they are active & hatching, and are an especially good nymph choice in the mornings (they crawl out to hatch/emerge at night and in the early to mid mornings) FYI big trout LOVE them, use matching nymphs in #6-10 right now. Streamers are working well in the early morning and again toward dark- look for either low light or murky water for best results during this time of the year on the Farmington. Mice, Rats and giant Streamers are working after dusk.