Foliage is currently past peak as we lost a lot of leaves recently, but there is still a lot of color in the hills, and there are some green trees that haven’t even changed color yet. It’s still darn pretty in our neck of the woods though. Hard to beat the beauty of Fall in New England on the Wild & Scenic Farmington River and the Northwest corner of CT.
Lead pic is “the Beast”, Zach’s exceptional 29” brown mentioned in the paragraph above, what a monster! I told him he had to name it, he dubbed it "Loki". Next down is Derrick’s young client Alex Philbrook with a hefty brown he landed his first time tight line nymphing. 3rd pic is Derrick with a 21” beauty that capped off an exceptional hour of big trout catching.
Trout started spawning all over the river last week, and as such the “egg hatch” is in full effect. Egg flies, small nymphs, Caddis Pupa, and assorted Streamers have all been effective subsurface. Main hatches are unchanged: small Blue Winged Olives (BWOs/Olives), Caddis, and still some Isonychia. Water temps have averaged from the mid 50s to low 60s lately. Apparently the MDC stocked up in Riverton (Rt 20/Hitchcock/Riverton Self Storage bridge up to the dam) 2-3 weeks ago, they typically put 800-1,000 trout in. Cooler weather is here to stay now, I don’t see a high above the 50s, with mid 40s to mid 50s most days, and Friday will see 1” of SNOW and a high of 39 degrees. Nights will be mostly down into the 30s. Fingerless glove time of year.
A lot of big browns have gotten landed recently, Derrick had four browns from 19-21” in an hour the other day, all caught nymphing. The increased flow is better for both streamer fishing, and nymphing. It will increase the amount of fishable water, and also help spread anglers out.
Let me be crystal clear, as I’ve said this before and it apparently need restating due to questions we get in the shop and emails we receive: there are no magic fishing spots on this river. The entire 20+ miles below the dam holds good to excellent numbers of trout all year, including some big ones. Water temps are great on the entire river currently, running from the 50s to low 60s. This means you can fish all the water from Riverton down to Unionville and even below that. We constantly get people looking for those “magic” spots on the river where the trout are plentiful, access is easy, there are no crowds, you catch lots of trout, rising fish are everywhere, and there are tons of big trout. Good luck with that haha. If it’s easy access and an above average dry fly spot, the angling pressure will be super heavy (like Church Pool & Greenwoods), which makes for trout that are waaaay harder to fool on average. In the end it all boils down to how well you can read water, your fishing ability, and how much effort you are willing to put in. The fish are almost everywhere on the Farmington River, but it’s up to you to figure them out and make a good presentation. If you cannot cast well and present your fly properly, then work on that or you will struggle no matter what spot you are in or what fly you use. The fly doesn’t catch the trout, the angler does. It’s not the arrow, it’s the archer- and so on. If you think it’s all about the “magic fly” or luck, you are wrong. Fly suggestions are thoroughly covered in this report and updated as they change. Cover water and change your presentations and rigs. There are tons of books, articles and videos out there that can help you gain knowledge, or book a trip with a local guide. At the end of the day, success or failure falls 100% on the angler, so own it, and if you aren’t happy with your results, do something to up your game. Einstein’s definition of insanity was doing the same thing over & over, but expecting different results. I concur!
The new Hardy Zane saltwater #7-10 rods recently arrived, the Zane & the Zane Pro, just in time for the Fall season, check ‘em out.
Streamer fishing is extra good in the Fall, and those covering water and playing with fly colors/patterns, retrieves & casting angles are giving us good reports, including some impressive browns. Those making 200 casts in the exact same spot with the same streamer, the same retrieve, and presented at the exact same angle, not doing so well. Move around and experiment, don’t be a stick-in-the-mud. There are windows of dry fly fishing, primarily Caddis (morns & eves), Olives (afternoons) & Isonychia (afternoons/eves). Nymphing with mostly small nymphs has been the most consistent and predictable producer, but #16 Caddis Pupa and bigger #8-10 Stoneflies are having their moments too. We are into that Egg Fly time of year- try smaller egg patterns in yellow, oranges, pinks and mixes of those colors.
Increased flows will only make the fishing better overall. Throwing bigger streamers for bigger trout can be great when flows rise and discolor, it really brings the big browns out of hiding as they look to eat and ambush baitfish, crayfish & smaller trout. Best/most predictable rising activity has been in Church Pool & Greenwoods, with other pools/sections seeing rising trout too, but spottier and less predictable. But… a lot less fishing pressure when you get out of those two super popular dry fly pools. Remember you can blind fish bigger dries such as Isonychia, Terrestrials and Attractor Dries over likely looking water and bring fish to the surface, you don’t always have to throw only to rising fish. And if you really want to up your odds, add a small weighted dropper nymph under your dry.
Most bugs right now are small, as in #18-24 and even smaller, so fish are used to eating predominately small to tiny nymphs in the early Fall. Egg flies are currently hot. Pair them up with some sort of smallish nymph. Try nymphs with & without hot spots, and fish both drab and flashy patterns. Some slightly bigger nymphs that are the exception would be Caddis Pupa in #16 (even bigger for the Giant October Caddis), #12-14 Isonychia, and #8-10 Stoneflies. But overall smaller nymphs #18-22 are what is getting it done. I’d probably fish these mostly on 6x fluoro tippet FYI, 5x is okay on bigger nymphs.
The streamer bite is only getting better as the trout’s aggression ramps up due to spawning & water levels continue to increase. Every time it rains and we get a flow bump of off-color water, that really ramps up the streamer action. I’m sure that in the Fall there is also a biological imperative for animals to bulk up before the leaner times of Winter, so they are on the lookout for big bites at a time of year when most of the bugs are small to very small. Don’t forget about wet flies & soft hackles! The foliage is currently spectacular. Fishing in low water has been “technical” at moments, with those adapting to it finding success, and those who remain stubborn (i.e. fishing the exact same way that worked in June, only using bigger flies, only fishing the same old spots, or only willing to fish dries to rising trout) working hard for an occasional strike. Be flexible boys & girls, or you will get zero sympathy from us when you come in complaining about “slow fishing”. Fish are still eating most of the day all over the river (mostly subsurface, but sometimes on top), and it’s up to you to figure out where, how & what. Crack the code and it will put a smile on your face.
Mark Swenson’s next fly tying class will be November 15th, and is geared toward novice & intermediate tyers who used to tie a little bit, but got away from it and forget most of what they learned. Sort of a “tune up” class for less experienced tyers. Call Mark directly at 203-586-8007 to sign up, class is already almost full.
If you want to avoid the crowds, remember that there are 21 miles of seasonal catch & release (C&R) water below the dam from September 1st until Opening Day, and it’s all loaded with plenty of trout, including even the water well below that. Everybody seems to key in on the same spots- either the popular pools in the 6.2 mile permanent C&R/TMA section, or wherever the state recently stocked, but the trout are truly everywhere in this river. Now that water temps are not an issue, you can go as far downriver as you wish. Explore and find some new water that isn’t getting beat up on a daily basis, and watch your catch rate jump up. Or go where everyone else goes, and do what everybody does, and have similar results... It’s your choice. If you aren’t good at reading new water, purchase a copy of Gary Borger’s fantastic book on the subject called “Reading Waters”, it’s the best one out there on that topic- he takes a dry subject and makes it interesting with plenty of personal anecdotes.
Farmington browns typically start spawning around mid October, and as such they are aggressive, making this a great time to fish streamers. We have been getting good streamer reports for a while now. 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, especially in the Fall. You may want to downsize your streamers if you are looking for numbers of fish, but remember 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 likely catch less fish. Decisions, decisions… See a couple of paragraphs down for a few streamer fishing tips & pattern advice.
A lot of peeps have forgotten about wet flies & soft hackles, but low water in the Fall is a great time to fish them until the water gets truly cold (below 50 degrees). 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.
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 #14 now, with the bigger ones pushing a #12. 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 (5x for bigger nymphs or when the water levels come up). 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 in anything but truly dirty water. 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 (#6-10), 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, stripped, twitched,
fished on the dangle, or bounced on the surface- it’s a very
versatile fly. Zuddlers & Woolly Bugger are perennial favorites
and still quite effective if presented correctly.
The
river was electrofished by the DEEP in September, 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!
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 similar
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.
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 small #16-22 nymph dropper), or nymph fish with small #16-22 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 late afternoons & evenings, when there are hatches of somewhat bigger bugs in the #12-18 range- don't overlook spinners, 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 dries (Usuals, Cahills)and 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.
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 for casting and playing big trout. 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.
***********************************************************************************
Current
Store Hours:
8am-6pm Monday through Friday, and
8am-5pm on weekends.
Flow:
The
Farmington is currently normal (finally!) and medium/medium-low at a
total flow of 131cfs total flow through the permanent TMA/Catch &
Release (C&R) area (historical normal total flow is 212cfs), and
averaging mid 50s to low 60s for water temps, depending upon the
weather, river section, and time of day. Long range forecast calls
for normal late October weather (highs averaging low/mid 50s, lows in
the 40s and upper 30s). Riverton is a very low 65cfs from the dam on
the West Branch, and the Still River is adding in an additional 66cfs
below it's junction with the West Branch. AM Riverton water temp was
58 degrees this morning. Water is coming out of the dam in the upper
50s currently, and downstream water temps can be lower or higher this
time of year, depending upon night time lows, daytime highs, and
sunshine (or lack thereof).
Hatches:
*Summer/Winter
Caddis #18-24: pupa & winged adults, typically early/mid AM
*Blue
Winged Olives #20-26:
afternoons,
especially
cloudy/cooler
days
*Isonychia (“Iso”)
#12-14:
mid/late
afternoon thru dusk
*Caddis
#16-20: (tan, brown, black-
anytime, but especially morns (hatching) & evenings
(egg-laying)
-Giant October
Caddis #8-12: late afternoons/eves,
very light
hatch (orange body, light brown
wings)
-Light Cahill/Summer
Stenos #12-14:
evenings, a
few
-Midges #20-32: anytime,
365 days a year
-Parachute
Adams #12-24:
different
sizes imitate Isonychia, BWOs, Midges, Caddis
and much more
-Rusty Spinners #12-26: imitates the spinner stage
of most Mayflies, look for them
mainly in afternoons &
especially in the evenings
Nymphs:
*Small
Nymphs #18-22: size is more important than exact pattern
*Blue
Wing Olive #18-22: various
patterns with & without hot spots and flash
*Egg
Flies #10-18: assorted colors (yellow, pinks, oranges or mixed
colors)
*Tan
Caddis Pupa #14-18
-Caddis
Larva (olive to green) #12-18
-Isonychia Nymph #12-14:
can also use Princes, Zug Bugs &
Pheasant Tails
-Stoneflies
#8-12:
golden/yellow, brown, black, best in morns & eves
-Frenchies
& Pheasant
Tails #12-20: various sizes imitate Mayfly nymphs like Blue
Wing Olives, Cahills, Isonychia
and many others
-Antoine's
Perdigons #16-20: black, brown, olive, yellow
-Zebra Midge
#18-22: black, olive, red
-Attractor
Nymphs #16-20:
anything flashy, gaudy, or with a hot spot. Try
the 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 Fall
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