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| Zach's client James with a 20" wild beauty |
The 4th of July weekend brought out plenty of anglers, and we got quite a few good fishing reports, as you can see by the photos of nice fish in this report. Water remains at a medium/perfect and is nice & cold. Fish are getting fooled by dries, nymphs, soft/hackles & wet flies, and streamers. Mousing after dark for big fish is an option too. USGS water temp in Riverton is 53 degrees this morning. The water will stay in the 50s-60s for quite a ways downstream. In the permanent Catch & Release area water temps are a non-issue (they are in the 50s), even on sunny 90+ degree days. Start your day at the most downstream point you plan to fish, and then work upriver as the day progresses to stay in optimum water temps. We are fortunate to have a deep bottom release dam that keeps the water cold & flowing all summer for
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| Awesome flawless big brown by Gary Griffin from Friday 7/5 |
quite a ways below the dam.
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| Neal Spencer with a really good brown |
Hot weather means that generally the
best hatches (and fishing) are early and late in the day, when it's most
comfortable to be out. You can catch fish at anytime during the day, but
by far the best dry fly fishing is dusk to dark and beyond. Don't leave early or you will miss out on the best dry fly fishing of the day. On hot days the evening fishing may not really kick off until 8pm and peak at darkness, earlier on cloudy/cooler eves. From late morning to early evening, look for shade and you will find fish. I like to nymph in the mornings with a bigger stonefly nymph & small nymph (#18-20) combo. Later morning through late afternoon swap the stone out for a caddis pupa, and then a mayfly or sulfur type nymph for late afternoon through evening (big #10-12 Isonychia nymphs later in the day too). Play around with attractor nymphs too (that have flash/fluorescence/hot-spots). Dry/Dropper can be a fun way to fish now: use a bigger buoyant dry (like a Mini Chernobyl or big Isonychia) and drop a #16-18 tungsten bead nymph 1-3' below the dry. Most fish will take the nymph, but you will get some bonus fish on the dry also. Tie the nymph off the hook bend. Run it closer (12-18") to the dry during insect activity and in shallow water, run it further apart (2-3') in deep water and during non-hatch periods. It's like the fun of dry fly fishing, combined with the consistent effectiveness of nymphing. Plus it allows you target fish at distance.
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| Vinny Badaracco with a colored up big brown |
Isonychia
are one of the bugs that will hatch in the earlier part of the evening,
remember that they are BIG bugs that live and hatch in fast water, so
don't look for them in the slower pool water (think pool heads, riffles,
pocket water, faster runs). Sulfurs continue to be the heaviest hatch
(think dusk, but sometimes we get a secondary hatch of them in late
morning), make sure to have several different imitations, and in more
than one size (#16-18, maybe even #20). Also seeing plenty of cream
mayflies (Light Cahills/Summer Stenos) at dusk in the #12-16 range,
standard Cahills & Usuals work well. We are also seeing Attenuata #18-20, they are a
small evening Mayfly that are often confused with Sulfurs. Attenuata
are a bright greenish-yellow, almost light chartreuse color. A
Rusty Spinner is a good "problem solver"
in the summer. Another good problem solver is a terrestrial imitation such as
a beetle or ant, especially when there aren't many bugs hatching but
you have some rising trout. Sometimes wet flies/soft-hackles are the answer when the trout
are feeding just under the surface (that happens a lot, especially during peak hatch activity in the eves)- present them both on the dead-drift and the swing/twitch. You can even run them as a trailer behind a dry fly.
In
July/August/September flows are normally medium to low, and many of the
bigger nymphs/larva have hatched, leaving the majority of bugs at #18
and smaller (exception: Isonychia & big Stonefly nymphs). Often I
find the difference between a slow day of nymphing and a double-digit
outing in July is using nymphs #18 or even smaller. It can be a game
changer. In general the small size is much more important than the exact
fly pattern, but I'd still have several options from drab to gaudy, and
in different styles/shapes/colors. You can pair them up with a bigger
fly. Stoneflies #4-12 emerge in the early to mid mornings, you will see
them on the rocks in the fastwater,
I tend to have my best luck
with #8-10 patterns in yellow/gold to brown
colors. Isos nymphs are #10-12, and they can swim in 6-12" spurts.
Having said that, overall I tend to do better dead-drifting them, but I
always let them swing at the end of the drift. Experiment and do
whatever works better.
While
the focus for the majority of our customers seems to have shifted to
dry flies, the subsurface
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| Another recent beauty by Neal Spencer |
angling with nymphs, wet flies &
soft-hackles remains consistent and is often better than the dry fly fishing,
especially when the trout aren't rising and/or when they are refusing
your dries/emergers/spinners/terrestrials. The key is to
focus on the faster/broken water (poolheads, riffles, runs, pocket
water, etc.), get your flies down, get a dead-drift, and cover lots of
water. Experiment with your flies, as the better producing flies may
change as the bug activity changes throughout the day. Don't rule
out Junk Flies like Squirmy Worms & Mops, they are still having
their moments here & there when it's slower on the imitative
patterns. At the end of the day the goal is to get
the trout to open their mouth and eat your fly, and sometimes
attractor/Junk Flies work better than the imitative ones- you have to
experiment to find out.
Caddis pupa get active subsurface around mid-morning, and then they
typically hatch into adults in the afternoon. Evenings are a mix of
various
Mayflies & egg-laying Caddis. Streamers can still be good, especially
during low light (early & late in the day) and on overcast or rainy
days. 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
during the evening hatches. You can do things with them that you
cannot do with a dry fly or weighted nymph, and they fish in the upper
water column where the bugs are & the fish are feeding in the
evenings. Big
Isonychia ("Iso's") are the latest hatch to join the fray in the permanent TMA/Catch & Release. They are typically a late afternoon to evening
trickle hatch in fast water, same as the March Brown.
Multiple
hatches are occuring throughout the permanent TMA/Catch & Release
(C&R), as well as above it, and also downstream for quite a few
miles (more elbow room down there FYI, but access gets trickier). Hot
weather can push the evening activity closer to dusk/dark (that's been the case during the hot summer weather of late), 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 |
We
got in a veritable pile of flies from Fulling Mill recently, and we
have some great 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.
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, Sulfur soft hackles, as well as
Partridge & Yellow/Green/Orange these
flies will cover your various Caddis, Sulfurs, March Browns and Cahills/Summer Stenos. 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").
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.
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 good. 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 Monday morning 7/8/19:
Currently the total
flow in permanent TMA/Catch & Release per the
USGS gauge this morning is normal & medium at about 286cfs (the Still River is
27cfs), and in Riverton the in the 2 miles
above the Still River the Farmington is medium/normal
at 259cfs. USGS average historical total flow for today is 280cfs.
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 25cfs last I knew, but they may have put it back to zero now, I'm not sure. 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/low 60s in the permanent
TMA/Catch & Release (low/mid 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 low to high 60s and into the low 70s if you venture far enough
downstream on hotter/sunny days. Long range
highs are hot with highs 85-90 and nights mid/upper 60s- this will push the downstream water temps up, so check water temps with a thermometer if you are down in Canton/Collinsville/Unionville. The best time to fish downriver during hot summer weather is in the morning when water temps are lowest. Warmer, sunny
days will see the biggest water temp increases. The
exception to this will be during periods of high water releases from the
dam, as
the colder water from deep in the reservoir chills down the river for
quite a ways downstream. Highest
water temps will occur in 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, which in the summer is normally
early & late.
Hatches/Dries:
-Sulfurs #16-18: eves, sometimes late morn/noonish too
We have
Devin Olsen's hot new book "Tactical Fly Fishing", and it looks really good. 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.
