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| Mike Querfeld with a slammer June wild brown! |
The good fishing continues and probably will for the next couple of months, June & July are normally superb times to fish the Farmington River where water temps, levels & insect hatches all intersect. Water levels are normal now!!! They are mid 300cfs, a great level for fishing, wading, and trout are now eating off the surface at moments. Subsurface with nymphs, streamers & soft-hackles/wets are producing consistently and accounting for many of the bigger fish caught. Multiple hatches are now occuring throughout the permanent TMA/Catch & Release (C&R). Caddis typically hatch in the afternoon and egg-lay at dusk, most of the various mayflies are hatching more toward the evenings. Hot weather can push the evening activity closer to dusk/dark, and conversely cool/cloudy days can make it happen earlier. Nymphing with Caddis pupa & larva is very effective from about mid morning through late afternoon. Mayfly nymphs are at their best from mid/late afternoons through evenings. Non of these hatch times are set in stone, so be sure to be observant & experiment. Streamers tend to be most effective during low light (early & late in the day), and on overcast or rainy days, and also in higher, off-color water. If you fish them on a bright sunny day, look for structure (downed trees, big rocks, undercut banks, overhanging bushes) in the shade. Wet flies & soft-hackles can be effective any time of day, but especially when the nymphs, pupa & egg-laying bugs are active/hatching.
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| New Fulling Mill streamers |
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| New Fulling Mill nymphs |
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| DJ Clemente with an awesome wild brown this week |
We
got in a veritable pile of flies from Fulling Mill recently, and we have a ton
of streamers in the bins now, plus some cool new nymphs and lots of
Frenchy Pheasant Tails. Got some cool patterns in this order from the Fly Fish Food
guys, such as the Complex Twist Bugger, Ice Caddis pupa, and Masked
Maurauder in a golden stonefly version, George Daniel's Sculp Snack
streamer, Tim Flagler's Euro Golden Stone (good anchor fly), Joe
Goodspeed's Juvenile Crayfish, and many other deadly new patterns.
Sulfurs,
assorted Caddis, Vitreus, and now March Browns are all throughout the permanent
TMA/Catch & Release (C&R), and the improved water levels means
you will see more rising fish. The lower the water, the more
trout rise when there is a hatch. This is also a
great time to experiment with fishing a pair (or even better yet a
trio) of soft-hackles/wet flies, it is both fun & very effective. It's an
efficient and pleasant way to cover a lot of water, and you can hit
those thin water lies near the banks that are hard to nymph- big browns
often hold in water like that, especially during hatches & low
light. It's also deadly during a hatch, as a lot of the bugs get eaten by trout just
under the surface, and that is where you are presenting these flies.
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| Giant 3" Helgramites crawling in the parking lot Tuesday morn |
I would currently rate the fishing as good to excellent, with some some of the more experienced anglers catching a lot of trout and some big ones in the mix. Those doing
the best have been the expert nymphers, and overall subsurface flies
have produced the majority of the fish and most of the big ones
pictured. The normal flows finally here now will increase the dry fly fishing as we head into summer. But be willing to go subsurface with
nymphs, streamers, and soft-hackles/wet flies to be consistently successful. Cover a lot of water, and change flies/tactics as
needed.
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| Matt Terlizi with a SLAB of 2 Year Old Survivor Strain brown trout on 6/1/19 |
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Vitreus #14-16 & Sulfurs #14-16 are both now all the way to the top of the TMA/C&R. Caddis #14-18 are heavy throughout the TMA/C&R and up into Riverton. March
Browns #10-12 are now
up in the permanent TMA/C&R. Sulfurs
are typically an evening hatch so don't leave early!
Vitreus are typically evenings also. If it's cool & cloudy
they can start in early/mid afternoon, but on hot sunny days they will
hatch later in the evening. Caddis typically hatch in the afternoons and
egg-lay in the evenings, and March Browns sporadically hatch from late
afternoon through evening.
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| Guide Steve Hogan & pretty Farmington brown this week |
If you are nymphing, think about fishing a #14-16 olive/green to tan
Caddis Pupa or Larva, #14-16 Mayfly type nymphs (can be a Pheasant
Tail, Hare's Ear, Frenchy, Sulfur Nymph, etc.), or something smaller & olive in the
#16-20 range to imitate the Baetis/Olives. The Pheasant Tail is a
very effective imitation of Olives
and many other mayflies. Also #10-12 Fox Squirrel Nymphs & big
Hare's Ears do a great job imitating March Brown/Gray Fox nymphs, they get very
active subsurface starting 1-2 week before they hatch, they migrate from
faster water into the shallower stream edges. If you are
targetting the fresh stockers, I'd try pairing a
natural looking nymph with a Junk Fly like a Mop or Squirmy Worm, or
maybe a flashy/gaudy hotspot nymph- deadly
combo!
The few people fishing soft-hackles &
wet flies are giving me some excellent reports, try soft hackles with
Hare's Ear bodies, as well as Partridge & Yellow/Green/Orange these
flies will cover your Caddis, Vitreus & Sulfurs. I recommend
fishing 2-3 at a time, on tag end droppers, spaced about 20-30" apart.
Vitreus are in the Epeorus family and close cousins to the Quill Gordon,
I would call them a "pseudo Sulfur"- the "true" Sulfurs are the Invaria (hatching now)
& Dorothea. Like the Quill Gordon, Vitreus are two tailed and the winged dun emerges
from the nymph on the
stream bottom, and then rises to the surface. They tend to emerge/hatch in faster broken
water, with riffles & pocket water being typical habitat. They are
normally creamish yellow in color, but the females have a pinky/orange
cast to them due to the egg mass inside their abdomen.
FYI we have a KILLER assortment of custom tied soft-hackles in our bins by Dick Sablitz, they are both fun & deadly to fish. We have flies to imitate all the current hatches, the most effective way to fish them is 2-3 at a time on droppers.
The
Two Year Old Survivor Strain browns the state stocked in the
Permanent TMA/Catch & Release (C&R) this spring are extra big,
quite obese with a good number in the 18" plus range and some even
bigger in the 20-21" range. They are putting smiles on a lot of angler's
faces . Some big holdovers & wild fish are mixing in with the
stockers.
Wanna catch trout? Obey the following 4 rules, laid out years ago by Jack Gartside:
-Rule #1 is find the fish and fish
where they are
-Rule #2 is don't spook them! (FYI big wild trout spook easily)
-Rule #3 is fish something they want to eat
-Rule #4 is present it in such a way they
they will eat it (dry fly guys take note: this may mean you
have to fish subsurface!)
I would add Rule #5 fish when the fish are feeding, with hatches being prime-time, especially when they intersect with low-light periods (big browns love to feed in low light). Fishing subsurface a couple hours before a hatch with the matching nymphs/pupa can also be deadly.
FYI we are now in our extended hours: 8am-6pm weekdays, and 6am-5pm on weekends.
We have
Devin Olsen's hot new book "Tactical Fly Fishing", and it looks really,
really good- second batch arrived recently. It cover Euro style
nymphing, plus a whole lot more. Based
upon what he's learned from years of the highest level fly fishing
competitions against the best trout fly fishermen in the world. It
covers things in an extremely detailed way, and has some great "Case
Studies" where he shows you different water type pictures with photo
sequences of how they were able to successfully catch fish in them, and
what adjustments they had to make in their rigging, approach,
presentation & flies to find success. It's a good
new option that does NOT duplicate George Daniel's two books on
nymphing, but rather it compliments and adds to them.
Flow as of Friday morning 6/14/19:
Currently the total
flow in permanent TMA/Catch & Release per the
USGS gauge this morning is normal & medium at 345cfs (the Still River is
73cfs), and in Riverton the in the 2 miles
above the Still River the Farmington is medium
at 272cfs. USGS average historical total flow for today is 352cfs.
The Still
River
joins the
Farmington River about 1/4 mile below Riverton Rt 20 bridge, roughly 2
miles below the dam.
East Branch release was 50cfs, MDC said they were going to reduce it to zero last week,
it
joins the West Branch about 3/8 mile
below UpCountry near condos & sewage plant. The Still River drops
every day we don't get significant rain.
Click this Thomas & Thomas blog link for a very recent review I wrote
about their awesome new Contact 10' 8" #6 rod for Steelhead & Lake
Run Trout/Landlocks:
https://thomasandthomas.com/blogs/news/torrey-collins-contact-1086
Check out this link to my blog post on 10 of my favorite books on a variety of subjects:
http://www.farmingtonriver.com/classes-news-reviews/10-of-torreys-favorite-books-december-2018/ I'll be doing more blog posts on recommended books in the future, there are many great books out there.
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| A favorite image of mine Matt Supinski used in "Nexus" |
Hours:
We are open 8am to 6pm Monday through Friday, and 6am-5pm on weekends.
Water Temps:
Look
for water temps to average in the mid/upper 50s in the permanent TMA/Catch & Release (upper 40s in
Riverton above the Still River), but
will
vary depending upon the weather, time of day, and specific
location. Long range
highs average mid/upper 70s, with lows mid/upper 50s. Warmer, sunny
days will see the biggest water temp increases. The
exception to this will be during high water releases from the dam, as
the colder water from deep in the reservoir chills down the river. Highest
water temps will occur in
mid/late afternoon, with sunny days seeing the biggest temperature
increases.
Typically the best bug activity (and fishing) correlates to the most
pleasant time of the day for us humans.
Hatches/Dries:
We have
Devin Olsen's hot new book "Tactical Fly Fishing", and it looks really,
really good- second batch arrived recently. It cover Euro style 