Guide Mark Swenson is offering a Beginnner fly tying course (clickable link) Sunday October 18th, it is geared to tying a variety of flies that are effective on the Farmington River, while simultaneously teaching you necessary fly tying techniques. This class is for pure beginners, there will be follow up future courses geared more toward novices/intermediates following this. Click on the link above for more specific class info & Mark's contact info- contact Mark directly to sign up for this class.
What a beautiful drive into work today
along Rt 8, I cannot believe how much foliage color we picked up in
the last 3 days. Love this time of year. Still a few weeks away from
peak, but it’s starting to get pretty out there. Farmington browns
typically start spawning around mid October, and as such they are
pre-spawn and getting more aggressive, so don’t forget about
streamers, even in this low water I’m already getting good streamer
reports. Early & late in the day during low light are peak times
to nail a big trout on a streamer, but don’t rule out other times
of the day. You may want to downsize your streamers in low water, but
remember that also that bigger trout tend to like bigger bites.
Smaller streamers will likely catch you more but smaller fish, with
bigger streamers giving you your best shot at a true trophy but you
will probably catch less fish. Decisions, decisions… See a couple
of paragraphs down for a few streamer fishing tips & pattern
selection advice. A lot of peeps have forgotten about wet flies & soft
hackles, but low water in early Fall is a great time to fish them.
Easy to cover a lot of water from fast to slow, and not get hung up
on the bottom. As always, I recommend a 2-3 fly tag-end dropper fly
rig. Floating line is fine for the low water, with the flies spaced
about 30” apart. Put your biggest fly on the point (end).
Experiment with fly patterns/sizes, casting angles, retrieves, and
rod tip manipulations- there is far more than just the
“down-and-across” presentation. If you experiment and pay
attention, the trout will tell you what they prefer. Make sure to keep your rod tip up when fishing wets (for a variety of reasons, including tippet protection during the often hard strikes), and don't use light tippet.
If you are out in the evening fishing dries, stay until the end as there is normally a 15-30 minute window right near dark when the fishing becomes easier and the trout seem to become less selective and will eat a variety of patterns, often bigger flies too. BWO hatches are picking up on the cooler days. Isonychia are getting a bit smaller, averaging a #12-14 now. If you are nymphing, small flies are norm, as in #18-22. With both dries & nymphs, keep your leaders longer (12’ or longer) and go lighter on your tippets: mostly 6-7x with dries, and mainly 6x with the nymphs. You can always take a 9’ 4-5x leader and add 3-4 feet of lighter tippet to it. Longer tippets = less drag and better presentations. Don’t spook your quarry: be stealthy in your approach in low water, stay a little further away, and wear drab colors to blend into the backround.
Streamer fishing is a nice break from
the technical small fly/light leader fishing, and allows you to cover
water quickly and target some of the biggest trout. Some yellow
incorporated into your Fall streamers can be very effective, brown
trout react aggressively to their own heightened spawning colors. Can
be all yellow, or two-tone such as brown/yellow or olive/yellow.
Orange is a good secondary color too. Olive is always a color worth
trying too. Cover lots of water, play with retrieves, and experiment
with colors & patterns. Make sure to use heavier tippet, nothing
lighter than 2x-3x with average size streamers, and if you are
chucking the big stuff, go right up to 0x. The old school Muddler
Minnow is a neglected classic that works quite well in the often low
water conditions of early Fall: it can be floated, dead-drifted,
swung, or stripped, very versatile fly. Zuddlers & Woolly Bugger
are perennial favorites and still quite effective if presented
correctly.
The river was electrofished by the DEEP
recently, originally scheduled for 2 days but they got so many fish
the first day they did not need to do a second one. They bring 150
16" plus wild/holdover trout back to the hatchery, artificially
spawn them, and then return them to the river when done. Two of our
customers watched them shock, and they said several of the trout were
so big they looked like salmon!
The river remains low and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future- we need rain, and lots of it! Fishing continues to get more technical, anglers are working hard to fool trout sipping flies in the flat water pools. Targeting the faster ripply/broken water with Isonychia, attractor dries, terrestrials, dry/dropper, small nymphs, and wet flies is easier and often more productive. No matter whether you experience good or bad fishing, every day gets a bit more colorful as we see more peeks of autumn foliage.
Our most
popular jig hook, the Hanak 450 Jig Superb, is now finally available
in #18, and we have a pile of them
in stock. Just in time for tying the nymphs of late Summer/early
Fall. The hook design is excellent: ultra wide gap for better
hooking, curled in barbless point, and
a slightly short shank to tie smaller bugs. Ends up being more like a
#20, but with the gap of at least a #16. If you want a hook with
slightly heavier wire that is available
in smaller sizes, try the Fasna F-415;
it goes all the way down to a #20 and runs about
one size smaller than the Hanak. A #16
Fasna is about the size of a Hanak #18.
As
of September 1st, virtually the entire river went Catch &
Release: (21 miles from
the dam in Riverton down to the Unionville Rt 177 bridge) until
6am on Opening Day in April 2021. If you see anybody keeping
trout, don't confront them, instead call the CT DEEP TIPS hotline at
800-842-TIPS(4357) and report them. Even if they are unable to
come & ticket or arrest them, it gets logged and can help us get
more future DEEP enforcement on the river when they
analyze their call logs data. I recommend programming that phone #
into your cell phone. Please don't ask us to call them for you, it
carries more weight when lots of different individuals are calling in
violations, rather than coming mostly from UpCountry.
Although
the lower water makes for some technical fishing, we continue to get
pictures of big trout landed. Many customers are working hard for
only an occasional hook up. Don't feel bad if you are working your
butt off for each fish you catch, you need to be on your "A"
game in these tough early Fall conditions. You have to adapt to the
low flow, time of year, and the current bugs. If you do what you were
doing to be successful in June, and fish only the same spots, you
will struggle. Be flexible where you fish, try new spots, experiment
with your flies & tactics. If you move around & look, fish
can be found of the surface most of the day, with mornings & late
afternoon through evenings the peak hatch times.
The toughest fishing of all right now is the flat water, tiny dry fly game in the mornings & afternoons, you have to do everything right and even then it can still be hard. Or, you can cover water/blind fish and focus where there is more current & choppy water, fishing attractor dries, terrestrials, Dry/Dropper (with a very small #18-22 nymph dropper), or nymph fish with small #18-22 flies (either a very light Euro rig, or a small Indicator rig with one small split shot, I recommend 6x tippet with small nymphs). Fish holding in faster, choppy/riffly water have to make a quick decision and don't get as good a look at your fly. The "easier" dry fly fishing is in the evenings, when there are hatches of somewhat bigger bugs in the #10-18 range- don't overlook spinner, especially if you see gentle rises later in the evening. Rusty spinners in various sizes probably cover 60%+ of all Mayflies, regardless of what color they are when they hatch. Cream spinners are good too. Stay until full dark if you can, there is often a window of easier fishing in the last 15-30 minutes of light when the trout will eat a variety of dries.
Dry/Dropper tips:
While
many of the tiny hatch-matching dries require 12' or longer 6x-7x
leaders, trying to throw a Dry/Dropper rig on that is a recipe for
disaster. Think more like 9', and no lighter than 5x, and big air
resistant dries may require heavier (3x-4x) and sometimes even
shorter (7.5') leaders. You have to be able to accurately turn over
that rig, if you cannot, go shorter & heavier. Attach your nymph
to 18-24" of 6x fluoro tippet for starters. Shallow runs and/or
surface feeding trout may mean running it 12" below, and
deeper/faster runs may require up to 30-36". Most people tie the
nymph off the hook bend of the dry, but if you want the best rig of
all, create a tag end dropper for your dry fly (just like you would
in a Euro nymphing rig) above your nymph. Flows are currently low and
most of the bugs are small, so think #16-22 nymphs. This is a shallow
nymphing rig, so don't worry about dredging near the bottom, there
are different rigs for that (Euro or Indicator nymphing). For those
of you doing a Dry/Dropper rig on a Euro rod with a Mono rig, it's
totally doable if you have a thicker mono set up. 15-20# Mono is
optimal, but you can go a little thinner if the dries aren't too big
and bushy. If you go too thin, there's not enough mass in the mono to
turn the flies over. The weight of the dropper nymph actually helps
you make the cast with a Mono rig, just make sure it's not too heavy
for your dry fly to support. It becomes more critical to balance out
your flies with a Mono rig though- bigger dries need heaver flies to
be able to cast them, and smaller dries balance with lighter nymphs.
That is not necessary with a traditional fly line and
tapered leader. But the advantage to a Mono rig is that for short to
moderate range work you can high-stick it and keep all the line off
the water, up to maybe 25' or so.
Most (but not all) bugs are much smaller in late Summer/early Fall, so it typically pays off to also downsize your flies. The current main exceptions would be Stonefly Nymphs (#6-12) & Iso dries/nymphs (#10-14). Stonefly nymphs are active in early/mid mornings, and again in the evenings. Isonychia are normally active/hatching sometime between late afternoon and darkness. Don't use heavily weighted Stoneflies right down, you will be dragging bottom & hanging up constantly. Either lead weight only with no bead, or beadhead ones that aren't too heavy.
Hot New Rods:
The
brand new T&T Contact II series (10' #2, 10' #3, 10' 9" #3,
10' 9" #4 & 10' 8" #6) are now available, and now the
11' 2" #3 has joined the lineup- Zach & I (Torrey) were
closely involved with the prototype development of this last rod, and
on version 7 of the prototype they absolutely nailed it. New improved
materials, new guide spacing , downlock reel seats are standard now
(to better balance), and a new fighting butt design that is more
comfortable. Recovery is noticeably better/crisper, and the actions
"tweaked" for more big fish playing power, plus the newer
materials they use to make the rods inherently store more energy and
give the rod more power. The blanks are incredibly strong and much
much harder to break. These rods are easy to cast, will give you more
distance, and they deliver with improved accuracy. Retail is $825.
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Current
Store Hours:
8am-6pm Monday through Friday, and
8am-5pm on weekends.
Flow:
The
Farmington is currently remains very low at a total flow of 80cfs
total flow through the permanent TMA/Catch & Release (C&R)
area, and averaging upper 50s to upper 60s for water temps on most of
the river, depending upon the weather, river section, and time of
day. Riverton is 73cfs from the dam on the West Branch, and the Still
River is adding in an additional 7cfs below it's junction with the
West Branch. Early morning Riverton water temp was 62 degrees this
morning, peaked out at 67 in late afternoon Thursday. Downstream
water temps can be lower or higher than this, depending upon night
time lows, daytime highs, and sunshine (or lack thereof).
Hatches:
-Tricos #22-26: morning
hatch: the spinner fall is the main event, they fall to the water at
approximately 68 degrees air
temp;
hatch is best upriver, getting near the end
-Summer/Winter
Caddis #18-24: pupa & winged adults, typically early/mid
AM
-Flying Ants #18-24: typically afternoons/eves, especially
milder/sunny
days
-Blue Winged Olives #20-26:
typically afternoons,
especially
cloudy days
-Isonychia (“Iso”)
#12-14:
late afternoon thru dark
-Giant
October Caddis: #8-12 late
afternoons/eves
-Caddis #16-20:
(tan, brown, olive green,
black,-anytime, but especially morns
(hatching) & evenings
(egg-laying)
-Light Cahill/Summer Stenos #12-20: evenings,
a few
-Ants
& Beetles #12-20: anytime, especially midday when hatches are
minimal
-Midges #20-32: anytime
-Parachute Adams #12-24:
different
sizes imitate Isonychia, BWOs, Midges and much more)
-Rusty
Spinners #12-26;imitates the spinner stage of most Mayflies,
afternoons & especially in the evenings
Nymphs:
-Small
Nymphs #18-22: size is more important than exact pattern
-Blue
Wing Olive #18-22
-Caddis Pupa
#14-18 in olive/green & tan
-Caddis Larva (olive to green)
#12-18
-Yellow Sally #16-18: Sulfur
nymphs imitate them well
-Isonychia
Nymph #10-14: can also use large
Princes, Zug Bugs & Pheasant
Tails
-Stoneflies #6-12:
golden/yellow, brown, black, best in morns & eves
-Frenchies
& Pheasant
Tails #12-20: various sizes imitate Mayfly nymphs like Blue
Wing Olives, Sulfurs, Cahills,
Isonychia
and many others
-Antoine's
Perdigons #16-20: black, brown, olive, yellow
-Zebra Midge
#18-22: black, olive, red
-Attractor
Nymphs #14-20: anything flashy, gaudy, or with a hot spot. Haast
Haze, Rainbow Warrior, Blue Lightning Bug, Miller's Victim,
Triple Threat, Princes, etc.-
Soft-Hackles/Wet
Flies:
-Assorted
Patterns #10-18: Hare's Ear,
Partridge & Orange/Green/Yellow, Partridge & Flash, Starling
& Herl, Leadwing Coachman, March Brown, Partridge & Pheasant
Tail
Streamers:
-BMAR
Yellow Matuka #6
-Muddler
Minnow #6-10: unweighted is very versatile in low water- float,
swing, dead-drift, strip/twitch, dangle-
you
can do all 5 presentations in one drift
-Zuddler
#4-8: olive,
yellow, white, brown, black
-Complex
Twist Bugger & Mini version #2-6: assorted colors
-Sculp
Snack #8 (George Daniel pattern)
-Home Invader #2-6- tan,
black, white, yellow
-Foxeee Red Clouser Minnow #6
-Dude
Friendly #8 (white, yellow, natural)
-Woolly Buggers #2-14
(black, olive, white, brown, tan)
-Rio's Precious Metal #4
(Kreelex copper, olive)
-JJ Special/Autumn Splendor/Tequeely
#4-8: brown & yellow is a DEADLY
Fall color combo
-Matuka #4-8
(yellow, olive, brown)
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