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| Dave Moranino with a June beauty |
The good fishing just doesn't seem to stop. Take a look at all the nice fish pictures, our customers are getting some great fish- not just big browns, some nice big rainbows too. A variety of methods & flies are producing, so try to be flexible and don't get locked into one method/fly pattern (unless it's working!). Weekend weather looks very pleasant, with highs mid 70s to low 80s, sunshine, no rain. The rain the past few days has amounted to almost nothing in our neck of the woods, so the flow remains medium and at an excellent level of about 300cfs as I write this Friday morning.
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| Serious 20"+ Bow on #18 dry this week by Ross Hart |
We are starting to see big Stonefly nymph shucks on the rocks in fast water, making them a great morning fly that are most active at first light through mid/late mornings (can work all day though, but generally best in the AM). They crawl out on the rocks to emerge during low light. Caddis pupa get active subsurface around mid-morning, and then they typically hatch in early to mid afternoon. Evenings are a mix of various Mayflies & egg-laying Caddis. Streamers are still good, especially on overcast days like today (Friday). Nymphs/pupa/larva are picking up fish all day long, and wet flies/soft-hackles have been deadly. Steve Culton reports that the evening wet fly fishing has been fantastic this week during the evening hatches. You can do things with them that you cannot do with a dry fly or weighted nymph. Big
Isonychia ("Iso's") are hatching downriver, last I knew they were about
as far up as Canton. They are typically a late afternoon to evening
trickle hatch in fast water, same as the March Brown.
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| Solid brown by John Holt |
Multiple hatches are occuring throughout the permanent TMA/Catch & Release
(C&R). 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 (and 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 |
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.
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| Great Bow by Richard Lapidus yesterday |
Now is
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.
The 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. If tangles are a big problem,
go to 1 fly only, but be aware 2-3 at a time are more effective and
allow you to animate the flies in ways that you cannot do with a single
fly (eg. "dancing the top dropper").
Sulfurs #16 & Vitreus #14-16 are both
at least as far up as Pipeline/Lyman Rock. Assorted Caddis #14-18 are
heavy all over the river. March
Browns #10-12 are now also all the way up to about the Still River. 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,
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| Impressive brown by Richie B. this week |
and March Browns sporadically hatch from late
afternoon through evening.
If you are nymphing, think about fishing a #14-16 Caddis Pupa (olive green to tan) or Larva (olive/green), #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 (especially think Olives on cloudy days). 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 semi-recent 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!
FYI we have a KILLER assortment of custom tied soft-hackles in our bins by Dick Sablitz, they are
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| Greg Hallam holding an absolutely beautiful brown from 6/18 |
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 6/21/19:
Currently the total
flow in permanent TMA/Catch & Release per the
USGS gauge this morning is normal & medium at about 304cfs (the Still River is
64cfs), and in Riverton the in the 2 miles
above the Still River the Farmington is medium
at 240cfs. USGS average historical total flow for today is 314cfs.
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 0cfs late I knew,
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 upper 50s in the permanent TMA/Catch & Release (upper 40s/low 50s in
Riverton above the Still River), but
will
vary depending upon the weather, time of day, and specific
location. Downriver in Collinsville/Unionville will be slightly warmer, probably upper 50s/low 60s. Long range
highs average low 80s, with lows low/mid 60s. 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:
-Sulfurs (Invaria) #16 (all the way up to Pipeline/Still River)- eves
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 