Rainy day Monday = no fishermen in popular spots, a view in
Riverton after work last night. Our upstairs apartment rental is now open for
the season, call 860-379-1952 to book it, it's already filling fast. Due to
substantial rain Monday day/night, your best bet is to focus on the Riverton
section from the dam down to the Still River, the flow there is clear and a
very fishable 349cfs. Downstream in the permanent TMA/C&R area, the total
flow is 1,040cfs. and stained with an estimated 2 feet of clarity. Definitely
way better/easier conditions upriver, but for the truly intrepid it is fishable
downriver, just fish closer to the banks, out of the heavy current, with medium
to large streamers & nymphs- upsize your tippet. The Still River should
peak out this morning, and then she will drop & clear rapidly. The
TMA/permanent Catch & Release section finally started to pick up a bit
since about Friday- I got a water temp of 51 degrees in New Hartford after work
Saturday, that's the highest water temp I've seen here yet. Best bets are still
nymphs & streamers, but there have been a few fish feeding on top in Church
Pool when water levels have been normal. The permanent TMA has not yet been
stocked, so you are fishing over mostly holdover & wild trout. Some stocked
trout (mostly rainbows) are starting to drift into it too. Some nice holdovers
& wild browns in the 16-20" range were landed in TMA on last
Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Two 6-7# broodstock browns were caught & released
on big white streamers outside of TMA. Saturday the bait guys came in with a
5-6# brown, and another about 8-9#. They cut the flow back from the East Branch
of the Farmington, which dumps in about 1/4 mile below our store- it was coming
in 400cfs a week or two ago, now it's 100cfs. Seeing a few Baetis Vagans (a
bigger, early season #16 Blue Winged Olive mayfly) down in the C&R section,
and a friend also caught several nice browns there on a #16 Olive nymph. Milder
weather has slowly but surely been making the water temps creep up closer to
where they should be, and this will make both the trout & bugs more active.
Hatches are still a week or two behind normal due to the cold winter. Reports
are still varying from slow to excellent, depending upon who you talk to
(normally the case! Lol)
Had some good fishing here last week on my days off, with my
girlfriend Mandy putting on a virtual clinic Wednesday 4/15, racking up trout
after trout on nymphs in front of a crowd, including a big brown landed and a
low 20" range 'Bow hooked & lost at the net, it was well over 4
pounds, grrr. Water temps have been ranging from upper 30's to upper 40's.
Riverton has been upper 30's in AM, and on sunny days getting into the low
40's. Down in the permanent TMA, morning temps have been low 40's, reaching as
high as upper 40's/low 50's on a sunny afternoon. Those who have found pods of
freshly stocked trout recently have racked up the biggest catches, but some
bigger holdovers are mixing in here & there. Fish a spot, but if it's not
producing, move on, don't linger. Lately the more water I cover lately, the
better I do. I might come up empty in 2-3 spots, and then bang fish in the 4th.
Nymphs & deeply/slowly fished streamers are the most reliable fish catchers
in the cooler waters of the early season, doubly so when flows are up. The dry
fly guys have been back at it when flows have been normal, and catching some
fish at moments (ideally look for days without much wind)- overall the dry fly
fishing has been slow lately though. This will change in the next couple weeks
as water warms and we start to get into the hatch cycle. The Winter Caddis (AM)
are waning but you may still see some, in the afternoons you should see Oives
(#16-18 Baetis Vagans), Midges (#20-28) & Early Black Stones (#12-16). With
the Caddis & Stonefly dries, try both dead-drifting them and also lightly
twitching them, Baetis & Midges should mostly be dead-drifted. Sometime in
late April we should see the first Hendricksons, they will probably be a little
late due to the brutally cold winter.
Subsurface, it's not too early to start fishing Hendrickson
nymphs, they get active and end up in the drift a good month before the hatch
begins, and Bruce Marino & Rich Strolis both tie us DEADLY nymps for this-
ask and we will point you toward them. Hendrickson nymphs catch me a lot of BIG
trout in April/May. A bigger #12-14 Pheasant Tail can also work well.
Hendrickson Nymph patterns can also pull double-duty as early season
stoneflies. #16 Olive nymphs imitating Baetis Vagans are also a good choice
now, they are just starting up. Early Black & Early Brown Stoneflies (sz
12-16), Pheasant Tails (sz 12-18), olive/green caddis larva (sz 8-16), cased
caddis larva (sz 8-16), midge larva/pupa (sz 16-20, especially in red),
attractor nymphs (sz 12-18 in Red Headed Stepchild, Copper Johns, blue
Lightning Bugs, Yellow Prince, Rainbow Warrior, and egg flies (sz 10-18) are
still a good choice (rainbows & suckers are both spring spawners in
March/April, contributing fish eggs to the drift), etc. Don't be afraid to fish
some some gaudier/flashy/attractor-type nymphs, the trout sometimes show a
preference for them, doubly true for recently stocked trout.
If you are fishing streamers, remember that a slower
presentation (swinging and/or slow stripping & twitching) matches up with
the slower trout metabolism due to cooler water temps- but as always, play with
your presentation and let the trout tell you how they prefer it, they may still
want a bit faster strip at moments. Try using a floating line and slowly
bouncing/hopping a weighted Fishskull Skulpin Bunny on the bottom- use a 0x-2x
tippet with this pattern & method, that fly is heavily front-weighted and
rides hook point up. If you are using unweighted or lightly weighted streamers,
use something to get them down- sinking line, sink-tip line, sinking leader, or
split shot. Slow & deep is typically the name of the game until water temps
get over 50 degrees and stay there (probably late April if you are downstream
of the Still River).
-Torrey
