Monday, September 23, 2019

Monday 9/23/19 Farmington River Report: the Big Browns woke up

The big browns seem to be turning on lately, check out all the big fish pics in this report. Top one is a 22.5" wild brown by Zach St. Amand, and he followed that up with yet another really big brown & a colored up Bow, plus many other nice fish not pictured. 2nd pic down is our customer Lauren with a 20" brown from the weekend, she edged out her boyfriend Chester this time haha. 3rd one down is a pretty 18" brown by customer Geoff Tombaugh, caught on 7x and a #20 Ant dry fly.

Total flow in the permanent TMA/Catch & Release is 139cfs this morning (127cfs from the dam, 12cfs from the Still River), 8am water temp was 64.5 degrees in Riverton. Normal total flow for today per USGS is 157, so we are about at a typical late September water level.

The "Superstar" of bugs this past weekend was probably the Flying Ants, they fell to the water both hot/sunny afternoons and brought plenty of trout to the surface. They typically hit the water during mating swarms in late summer/early fall on warm, humid, sunny days. Make sure to have a few with you. One more hot day today (87 degrees), then back to low/mid 70s and nights in the 50s. I do see two somewhat warmer days this week though- Thursday & Saturday will both be 79, you may see some Flying Ants those days. FYI they tend to be small, as in #20-24. Still seeing #12 Isonychia, assorted Caddis, Cream mayflies, Hebes/Fall Sulfurs, Blue Wing Olives, Summer/Winter Caddis, etc. Other than the morning Summer/Winter Caddis in the early/mid mornings and the afternoon Flying Ants, the other bugs are all more in the late afternoon to dark time slot.

The MDC stocked the upper river in Riverton last week (9/17), and on 9/9 CT fisheries stocked from Satan's Kingdom down to the Rt 177 bridge in Unionville, as well as below that too. There are also plenty of holdovers and some wild trout throughout the river, so don't limit yourself to only the recently stocked areas. But, if you are looking for some easier targets, head to the recent stocking locations and "educate" them. Woolly Buggers, various "Junk Flies" (eggs, Mops, worms, Green Weenies), and wet flies/soft-hackles should work well on them for the next week or two. The holdover & wild fish will be more keyed into natural bugs. Isonychia nymphs, Caddis Pupa, Stonefly nymphs, and various small nymphs are all working well subsurface. Fall streamer action is picking up to, so make sure to try them at some point- read 2 paragraphs down for some Fall streamer advice & tips.

The entire river is fishable for trout from Riverton down to Unionville. Don't just limit yourself to the permanent TMA/Catch & Release, it's not necessary. Plenty of trout all up & down the river, and water temps have averaged low to upper 60s on the entire river lately. The improved water conditions is turning the fishing on. You can go bigger on your nymphs, streamers & wets/soft-hackles and increase your tippet size.

If you want a really sweet streamer specific rod, check out the T&T Exocett SS series, the grain rated 160, 200 & 250 rods are all great Farmington River streamer rods and come with Recoil guides (click this to go to the T&T Exocett SS page).

Dropping water temps & shorter days is getting up the Fall streamer bite going. Trout get more aggressive in the fall due to spawning, plus I suspect Mother Nature programs them to eat more in preparation for leaner times in the Winter. Some keys to successful streamer fishing: change pattern styles & fly color until you figure what turns the trout on. Historically good fall colors include yellow, brown, white, and olive. An all yellow streamer, or yellow as a secondary color paired with a predominately different color fly (such as brown) can be lethal in the Fall. Try different casting angles, it's not always down & across- frequently across & up is a better angle. Experiment with your retrieves although more often than not, a faster retrieve is better in the Fall until the water temps get really cold, then you typically slow it down. Cover lots of water, you are looking for the aggressive fish- at any given moment, only a percentage of the fish are willing to eat a streamer, and you need to present your fly to those fish. The more trout you show your flies, the more you will catch. The low light periods of dawn & dusk are typically the best bites, but overcast days are good and as we move more towards October the bite can often be good all day as trout aggression ramps up. Try different size flies. Yes, on average, bigger flies will catch bigger fish, but some days the trout (even the bigger ones) don't want big flies. Or try a two-fly rig, with either a smaller, unweighted streamer or a nymph behind a weight streamer- this will get you some of those trout that move for your bigger streamer but won't eat it. In lower flows a floating line with a weighted streamer will get you deep enough, but if flows are medium to high you may want to use some sort of sinking line or leader to get your fly deeper. Use heavy enough tippets so that you don't break off fish on the strike- I typically go 0x on my bigger streamers (you can go even heavier with really big flies), and even on average sized ones I wouldn't go below about 2x as trout hit streamers HARD. You can fish average sized streamers on your #4-5 rods for sure, but.... a #6-7 rod with a medium-fast to fast action will do a better job casting, setting the hook, playing bigger fish, and throwing bigger flies.
 
Look for #16-18 "Hebes"/Fall Sulfurs in the eves. Hebes look like a pale colored Sulfur in the #16-18 range and are also common on the Housatonic & Delaware, September is the big month for them. Ants, beetles & small hoppers are still good in the afternoons, and can even be blind-fished- try also Chernobyl Ants #12-14. Eves are seeing light hatches of Isonychia #10-14, cream Mayflies #12-20, and assorted Caddis. September is the big Flying Ant month, look for them in the afternoons and make sure to have a few matching flies: they tend to be smaller than most people think, in the #18-24 range. You may see small Blue Winged Olives #20-24 in the afternoons/eves, especially on cloudy days. Don't forget your spinners in cream and rust to imitate Isonychia, cream Mayflies, and other assorted evening bugs. Cooler air temps means the evening fishing can start as early as 4-5pm, and may end by 7pm (it's dark about 7:30pm now).

As of September 1st, the entire Farmington River from the dam in Riverton for 21 miles downstream to the Rt 179 bridge in Unionville is now Catch & Release until Opening Day in April 2020. If you see anybody keeping fish in this section, please call the CT DEEP at 1-800-824-HELP and report the violation. Even if they are not able to respond to it on time, the info goes into their database and helps to create better/more policing of the area in the future.

Despite lower flows over the past month or so, we still got plenty of good fishing reports from those adapting to the conditions (always the #1 key to success in any kind of fishing). Remember that lower flows generally equates to more rising trout when there is a hatch, and it condenses the trout to the deeper spots, especially those with broken water & current. Find the faster water and fish small nymphs when they aren't rising, or fish wet flies, soft hackles, or small streamers. Most of the biggest trout are getting caught at dusk, after dark, or at first light

Water temps are no longer an issue in the lower river. September is one of those weird months where when the nights are cool and the days are moderate, the downstream water temps are often cooler than upriver, especially in the mornings after a cooler night. Streamer fishing is picking up- shorter days & dropping temps has the trout pre-spawn and getting more aggressive. Fall is always an above average time to fish the long flies.

We have a pile of Solarez colored UV Resin in stock now- 9 colors. The first batch went in a blink so I ordered a bunch this time, and expanded the color range out. Now they are doing black, so I loaded up on that color, it's the classic one to do a wingcase on a Perdigon nymph. Also traditional is to use black nail polish, but then you have to wait for it to dry before you can coat it with clear UV Resin. This UV Resin speeds up the process and is more durable than nail polish. Got a bunch of other colors too, including various shades of fluorescent colors such as orange, pink, chartreuse, red (fire orange really), etc, and other non-fluorescent colors like brown, grape, and shimmer copper. All these colors make a good wingcase, or in the case of the fluorescent ones, a good hotspot. We also have the ultra thin Bone Dry formulation in black now. Solarez is hands-down the best UV Resin on the market: cures the fastest, cures rock hard/durable, and it's not tacky. It's also way less expensive than the other brands, despite it's superior performance.


Dry/Dropper can be a fun way to fish: use a bigger buoyant dry (like a Mini Chernobyl, Chubby 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/hatches or 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 and not spook them. If you wanna target big trout on the surface after dark, try a short/heavy 6-7.5' leader (0x) with a deer hair mouse pattern- make sure to bring a BIG landing net with you...:)
 
Now is still 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. Try soft hackles with Hare's Ear bodies, Partridge & Orange/Yellow/Green/Olive, Isonychia Soft Hackles, etc. 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"). We have a great 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 tag-end droppers. 
 
Zach St. Amand, one of the top local guides and frequent flyer in our big fish pictures, is leading a trip with Andes Drifters to Patagonia for big wild trout, February 8-15th 2019. He still has some availability, call him at 646-641-5618 to find out more or to get onboard.

FYI we are now in our extended hours: 8am-6pm weekdays, and 6am-5pm on weekends.

We have Devin Olsen's hot book "Tactical Fly Fishing", and it's really good. Its 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.
 
Hours:
From April through October we are open 7 days a week, 8am to 6pm Monday through Friday, and 6am-5pm on weekends.

Hatches/Dries:
-Summer/Winter Caddis: #18-24 pupa & adults (early/mid AM) 
-Flying Ants #18-24: afternoons (on warm/sunny/humid days)
-Isonychia #10-14 late afternoon thru dusk in faster water (5pm'ish to dark, hatch is light)
-Hebes/Fall Sulfurs: #16-18 Sulfur patterns work for this, evening hatch
-Yellow Sally #14-20 (hatches afternoons/eves, nymphs are effective anytime)
-Light Cahills/Summer Stenos #12-20: eves (various cream colored mayflies)
-Caddis #14-20 (tan, olive/green): AM & afternoon hatch, evening egg-laying
-Ants & Beetles #14-20: anytime, esp. late morning thru early eve during non-hatch periods
-Midges #20-32: anytime
-Blue Wing Olives #20-24 (afternoons/eves, esp. cloudy days)

Nymphs:
-Pheasant Tail/Quasimodo Pheasant Tails #12-20
-Hare's Ear #16-18
-Caddis Pupa #14-18 (tan, olive/green)
-Isonychia #10-14 (can also use bigger Pheasant Tail/Prince/ZugBug nymph to imitate)
-Large Stoneflies/Pat's Rubber Legs #8-12 (gold/yellow, brown, black)
-Frenchy #16-18
-Caddis Larva (olive to green) #14-16
-Blue Wing Olive Nymphs (various patterns) #18-20
-Fox Squirrel Nymph #12-14   
-"Junk Flies" #8-14 (Mops, Squirmy/San Juan Worms, Eggs, Green Weenies)   
-Antoine's Perdigons (various colors) #16-20
-Zebra Midge #18-22 (assorted colors)

Soft-Hackles/Wet Flies:
-Assorted Patterns #10-16: Hare's Ear/March Brown, Partridge & Green/Orange/Yellow, Sulfur, Isonychia, Pheasant Tail, Starling & Herl, etc. 
   -most effective fished 2-3 at a time on tag-end droppers

Streamers
-Complex Twist Bugger #2- assorted colors
-Sculp Snack #8 (George Daniel pattern)
-Home Invader #2-6- tan, black, white, yellow 
-Foxeee Red Clouser Minnow #6 
-Tequeely #4-6
-Dude Friendly #8 (white, yellow, natural)
-Woolly Buggers #2-14 (olive, black, white, brown, tan)
-Rio's Precious Metal #4 (Kreelex copper, olive)
-JJ Special/Autumn Splendor #4-8
-Matuka #4-8 (olive, brown, yellow)

Click this Thomas & Thomas blog link for a review I wrote about their awesome Contact 10' 8" #6 rod for Steelhead & Lake Run Trout/Landlocks:
https://thomasandthomas.com/blogs/news/torrey-collins-contact-1086

Cortland's "Top Secret" Ultra Premium Fluorocarbon tippet has a glass-smooth Plasma finish and is by far the best and strongest stuff out there: it has the most abrasion resistance, stretch, flexibility & clarity. Total game-changer, and an extra-good choice if you like to nymph with lighter tippets - here's a link to purchase it off our site: http://www.farmingtonriver.com/cortland-top-secret-ultra-premium-fluorocarbon/

     -Report by Torrey Collins, and sometimes edited by Grady Allen