Wade Schools with a stunning Farmington River brown trout caught Friday after work, look at the big perfect pectoral fins on that fish, quite possibly a wild trout. Hendrickson hatch is finally starting in the permanent Catch & Release section in New Harford/Pleasant Valley, see paragraph below for more info. The Farmington is currently a very nice medium flow & clear at 357cfs total flow in the permanent Catch & Release area (166cfs from the dam in Riverton, 191fs from the Still River). It was a cold Opening Day yesterday, with 6am air temps in the mid 20's. Anglers worked for their Opening Day trout, colder water temps meant lethargic trout that needed to have the fly put on their nose. Despite that, quite a few large trout were landed. Today (Sunday) will see a high near 50 degrees, with plenty of sunshine- this should push water temps up a few degrees and get the trout feeding in the afternoon. Remember that cold nights usually means afternoons are the better time to fish. Starting Monday, highs all move into the 50's for Monday through Friday, and into the 60's next weekend.
Hendricksons #12-14 started hatching in the Collinsville/Unionville area a week or two ago and have moved upriver, I had multiple reports of good Hendrickson hatching in the permanent Catch & Release area today. We will be in the 50's and even 60's this upcoming week, so look for the Hendrickson hatch to really crank up and keep working it's way upstream, I imagine we will see spinnner falls by the weekend. The mild winter & mostly warm spring has the early spring hatches about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. Some days last week there were good hatches of both #18 Mahogany Duns (aka Paraleps/Blue Quills) & #16-18 Blue Wing Olives (Baetis) in the permanent C&R section, and there were rising fish at moments. For freshly stocked trout, small egg flies & Woolly Buggers are usually deadly, along with other standard nymphs & streamers.
Fishing has been good all up & down the river, from the dam in Riverton all the way down to the Route 177 bridge in Unionville . Don't limit yourself to only the more popular sections of the Farmington, as there is literally excellent fishing all over the river. In addition to the Hendricksons, we are seeing the following in the permanent C&R section: Winter Caddis # 20-24 (mornings), and Black Stoneflies #14-16, Mahogany Duns/Paraleps/Blue Quills #18, Blue Wing Olives/Baetis #18 & Midges #22-32 have been hatching in the afternoons and bringing good reports of trout rising to dry flies on milder, less windy days.
Nymphing has still been the most consistent way to catch trout early in the season on the Farmington, and some VERY nice trout have been landed on them this winter & early spring. Underneath the water use Hendrickson-type Nymphs (brown mayfly) # 12-14, Olive/green Caddis larva #14-16, Prince Nymphs #12-16, Quasimodo Pheasant Tails #12-18, Strolis Dark Brown Quill Jigs #10-14, Strolis Rock Candy (olive, green) 10-12, Black Stoneflies #12-16, Golden Stoneflies #8-12, Zebra Midges #18-20, and Hot Spot Nymphs #12-16.