Guide Zach St. Amand with a sizeable November Farmington River brown. River already dropped about 150cfs & cleared up nicely, we are sitting pretty this morning at 371cfs total flow in the permanent Catch & Release section, with 229cfs from the dam in Riverton. This is a normal, medium flow for November. Trout are rising to Winter Caddis in Church Pool at 7am this morning, and we should see small Blue Wing Olives for early/mid afternoon. The streamer bite is still on, and nymphing is always a good option. We are once again fully stocked on egg flies & Squirmy worms in a variety of colors. Water temps are averaging mid to high 40's, depending upon the day, the exact location, and the time you take the temp. This means fish are not yet in winter mode, when they tend to stack up in the pools & slower runs. You will still find some trout in the fast water, and you can still strip streamers fast for them. As weather cools, water temps will slowly slide downward too. The majority of the browns have already spawned and are hungry, looking to bulk up before winter.We just scheduled our second & final Don Butler beginner tying class for this winter, it will be 2 day course, January 9th & 16th, 10am-3pm, cost is $125 per person. Call 860-379-1952 to sign up, class size is limited. See Events/Classes for more details.
Olives will continue to be the main hatch in Novemer, make sure you match their diminutive size- anywhere from #22-28, with #24-26 being the most common. And yes, in this case, yes size matters, Lol. If you are tying nymphs to match them and fish subsurface, a shorter-shank #18-20 hook is usually plenty small enough in my experiene. On the surface though, match the size! Winter Caddis #18-24 are hatching most mornings, they will actually get heavier as we move into December.You may still see some #16-18 Tan Caddis on milder days and some smaller #14-16 Iso's (they will look more like a big Blue Wing Olive), but both hatches are light now and near the end. Some people are still catching with big October Caddis dries. If you are nymphing, make certain to fish #14-18 egg flies (yellow, pink, orange), as well as some smaller nymphs in the #16-20 range- Flashback WD-40's, Zebra Midges (black, olive), and Pheasant Tails are all good choices now.
Other suggested flies include the following nymphs: Yellow Stoneflies #8-16, Black Stoneflies 8-14, Fox Squirrel Nymph #12, Squirmy Worms #10-14 (red, tan, pink), Hot Spot Baetis #16-20, Blue Wing Olive #16-22, Rainbow Warrior #16-18, Tan Caddis Pupa #14-16, Green/Olive Caddis Larva #14-16, Pheasant Tails #16-22, Prince Nymph #12-14. Play with colors on your streamers, lately some of the better ones have been brown/yellow, olive, yellow, and brown. Nothing lighter than 2-3x on your streamers, and go heavier if you are tossing big ones. 5x fluoro is a good average for your nymphs, and 5x-7x tippet for your dries (depending upon size), with 6-7x being more the norm right now due to the small size of the flies & flat water they hatch on. Long tippets help with both dries & nymphs: it will give you "S" curves to get a drag-free float with dries, and it will sink faster with less weight when nymphing.
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