As of this Wednesday May 20th, CT guidelines for "non essential businesses" like us change and we will be able to once again allow customers in the store. Per new CT rules,
you must wear a mask/face covering of some sort inside the store- no exceptions. Today (Tuesday 5/19) is the last day that we still have to do curbside pick-up.
We have not been issuing fishing licenses during the closure to comply with the new rules, so make sure to
purchase one in advance online by clicking on this link. If you don't have a printer, it's perfectly acceptable to keep your license on your mobile/smart phone nowadays.
Website and Phone Orders get free shipping at $50. Please take advantage, we typically ship the same day if you call by 3pm.
Your continued support has kept our store open
so we can keep supplying you with the best fly fishing
stuff, fly tying materials & flies. A big "Thank You" to each and every one of our customers.
Thanks!
-Grady & Torrey
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Farmington River Report
The Farmington has been
stocked 6-7 times now since February outside the
Permanent TMA/Catch & Release (including again this week before Memorial Day weekend), and in mid April the CT DEEP
heavily stocked the
Permanent TMA/C&R. They stock this 6.2 mile section once per
year in April with approximately 10,000 brown trout (mostly, but sometimes a
smaller amount of rainbows too) of various sizes including 1,000 large
two year olds which average a fat 14-18" and 2+ pounds. Lots of them
hold over from year to year and get bigger, and there is also an
increasing wild brown trout population. Electrofishing in
September 2019 put the estimated trout population at just under 2,000
trout per mile in this section, with many of those being wild &
holdover trout, mostly browns, and a smaller number of rainbows. The
recent stocking should temporarily put the population of this section at
3,500+
trout per mile!! And that doesn't even include other stocked trout that
have wandered in from above and below the C&R section.
Awesome brown in top pic, by customer Adam Borochuv- nice work buddy! 2nd fish pic is Brian Meyer with a big brown he fooled with a dry fly. 3rd pic is Anthony (IG @ctflyjunkie) with a really, really nice recent brown. 4th fish pic is a long & lean Brookie by Rick (IG @ricdonkulous). These are just a few of the many nice fish pics of late. If you are flexible in your approach & tactics, you should be successful now. Show the trout what & how they want and they will reward you. Don't force a technique or fly that isn't working, be adaptable.
Things look great for Memorial Day weekend and the days this week leading up to it: medium mid 300cfs flows, mix of sun & clouds with highs in the upper 60s to low 80s, nights in the 40s-50s, not windy at all, and no rain! Riverton water temps have been upper 40s, and below that in the permanent TMA/Catch & Release (C&R) it's been in the low to mid 50s. They stocking trucks were seen rolling on the river again this week (outside of the permanent TMA/C&R), the Farmington is literally loaded with trout right now. We continue to get many good fishing reports from customers, with trout coming to nymphs, dries,
streamers & wets/soft-hackles. Each method has it's moment, with subsurface being the most consistent. Caddis are popping now on most of the
river (at least as far upstream as Pipeline/Lyman Rock/Still River
confluence, and with warm weather moving in this week should get more active. Be aware that during the Caddis emergence/hatch, trout often feed
subsurface on the pupa and you don't see many rises. Try a pupa in your
nymph rig. When they come back and egg-lay (often in the low light of
evening), you often find rising trout them. You also may need to
twitch your fly as they are an active bug. Rises to Caddis are splashy
more often than not.
Hendricksons are still hatching, but they are mostly confined to Riverton-
think mainly Hitchcock/Rt 20 bridge to
the dam as the safest bet- you may still see a very light hatch downstream
of that. Hendrickson spinners (rusty)
typically go for a week after the hatch ends in a particular section, and they don't like wind, cold or rain. You should see some spinner falls this week and through the weekend in the permanent TMA/C&R (even though the afternoon hatch is mostly done in that section). Fortunately the upcoming weather is dry, warm, and not too windy. Try
Don Butler's deadly Hendrickson Parachute Egg Sack Spinner
pictured in this report if trout are refusing standard rusty spinners.
The yellow foam egg sack also aids to the pattern's floatability.
Olive/green Caddis in about a #16 or so are well up into the
C&R/TMA. Rises to the adults & near surface pupa will be
splashy. Often trout feed on the pupa down deep, they can be a deadly
addition to your nymph rig when the trout key on them subsurface. Always
let your caddis pupa imitations swing at the end of your dead-drift,
you will get many strikes at that point.
Remember the beloved Grey's Streamflex rods? If you liked them, you will
love what I'm about to tell you: Pure Fishing has released an updated
version of the Streamflex series under the Fenwick name, using the
latest materials that
give the rods even improved rod
recovery and durability. These rods feel
fantastic in the hand. We have these in the Euro specific models, The
11' #3 & #4 Streamflex have an MSRP of $349.95-
we are selling them for $265. The also do a Streamflex Plus that goes
from 10' to 10' 6"- a six inch extension piece hides in the handle and
can be put in or out in seconds. We have the 10' #3 Streamflex Plus
(goes up to 10.5')- MSRP is $379.95, we are selling it for $285.
Recently stocked trout sometimes prefer gaudy flies that
don't
match the hatch, and "Junk Flies" (Mops, Eggs, Worms, and Green Weenies)
often reign supreme and outfish normal drabber, more imitative
nymphs that we fish most of the time. They will also often
prefer a fly that moves or drags in the current, not a dead-dirft
presentation, so let your nymphs, streamers & wets swing out at the
end of each drift & try twitching them. Once the trout have
been in the river for 3-4
weeks they become attuned to natural food and will start to prefer
drabber flies fished on a dead-drift (mostly, with plenty of
exceptions). Fishing pressure will
also teach them to be suspicious of commonly fished flies. Buggers can
be deadly on recently stocked trout- start with olive or black and go
from there if you don't get a positive reaction. Also experiment with
your retrieve, and try a plain swing with no added action if stripping
it in doesn't get a response, and also try dead-drifting them like a nymph.
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Nymphs #12-18 imitating or
suggesting Caddis Pupa, Caddis Larva
(olive/green #14-16), Hendrickson nymphs (Riverton only), Blue Wing Olives/Baetis #16-18, and larger Stoneflies
#6-12 (golden, brown, black) have all had their
moments. Also try attractor patterns (gaudy flies with hot spots, flash,
UV materials, or unusual colors), sometimes they will outfish the usual
drabber flies for reasons only know to the trout. It can be worth trying
bigger #6-10
nymphs such as Stoneflies & Mops- larger nymphs sometimes
interest larger trout (more calories in a single bite, just like with
streamers). Bigger nymphs can also be better in higher and/or off-color flows. Remember that
GISS
(general impression of size &
shape) is far more important than having an exact imitation, and
sometimes exaggerated features like a hot spot or flash gets their
attention better than a "perfect" drabber imitation. Trout perceive our imitations
differently than us humans do, so what looks good to YOU isn't
necessarily what the
trout prefer. We'd be lucky to catch any trout at all if our flies truly
had to look exactly like the natural insects. If your fly size &
shape/profile are close to the natural bugs, and the color is ballpark,
all you then need is to put it in front of a willing trout with a good
presentation. I've caught more trout than I can count during Hendrickson
hatches on #12-14 Pheasant Tails, Frenchies & Hare's Ears. The shape (tails,
slimmer abdomen, thicker thorax),
color (brown) and size match up to the real bug. I've caught many a
rising trout during a Hendrickson hatch on a #12-14 Parachute Adams
after they refused a dozen different dun, emerger, cripple & spinner
patterns.
 |
| Don's deadly Hendrickson Parachute Egg Sack Spinner |
|
For streamer fishing
black, olive, brown and white are great starting colors, but make sure to
experiment and let the trout tell you what
they want. Other often good colors are yellow and tan. Two tone streamers such a brown/yellow, olive/yellow, etc.
can sometimes be the ticket. Try the following hybrid rig: a
weighted streamer such
as
a conehead Bugger, Complex Twist Bugger, Zuddler, Slumpbuster, etc.
with a #14-16 soft-hackle, wet fly
or nymph trailed 14-18" of the hook bend- the streamer often functions
as the attractor, and then the trout eat the trailing smaller fly. This
helps turn some of those chases, rolls & flashes into a solid
hook-up.
We got in a pile of flies from Fulling Mill (and their full line of
excellent jig hooks too) & Umpqua recently, including some
cool streamers we haven't carried before, check out Tommy Lynch's
deadly D&D that swims like a Flatfish lure- fish it on a
sink-tip/sinking leader/sinking line to get this unweighted pattern to
the proper depth, the action/movement on this fly is INSANE. Weighted streamers like Woolly Buggers, Zuddlers,
Slumpbusters, and Complex Twist Buggers all continue to produce fish if
fished down deep. Try also
streamers with Sculpin Helmets, bounced & twitched along the bottom on a floating
line- deadly on bigger trout. Play with colors, fly size, pattern style,
retrieve, depth, and cover lots of water and you should be able to find
success.
If you are fishing wets/soft-hackles (and you
should be!), try a 2-3 fly rig, on tag end
droppers about 24-30" apart, and use a lightly to moderately weighted
soft-hackle or nymph on the point position to get your rig down deeper
where the trout are. During hatching activity where you see bugs and
occasional rising trout, keep all your flies unweighted and fish near
the surface. Throw across & slightly upstream and make an upstream
mend to sink your flies, let them dead-drift (watch your fly line tip
for subtle strikes), and then let them do the traditional wet fly swing-
expect strikes especially at the 3/4 downstream point when your flies
rise toward the surface. At the end of the drift let them dangle for
several seconds, then twitch them up & down a couple of times. Add
some slight rod tip twitches during some drifts, and on others just let
them drift. Keep your rod tip up around 10 o'clock during the entire
drift for tippet protection, and better hook-ups- this creates very
slight controlled slack you need so trout can inhale your fly and not
short strike it. This technique is great for covering riffle & pool
water where the trout are spread out and can be anywhere, the kind of
water that can be difficult/challenging to nymph.
We've recently received
BIG orders
of assorted hooks from Umqua/Tiemco, Fulling Mill jig hooks, huge Wapsi & Hareline
tying material orders, lots more books including the hot new streamer
book from Kelly Galloup "Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout II", a
definitive new book on Brook Trout by Bob Mallard "Squaretail"
(autographed copies), and lots of spin tackle. We are happy to mail
order over the phone for you, or prepare a goody bag for curbside
pick-up. Thank you all for the support you've shown our business since
the CT shutdown of non-essential businesses, we appreciate every single
sale/order you give us! Let's all stick together & stay safe as best
we can.
Current Store Hours:
8am-5pm Monday through Friday, and 8am-5pm on weekends.
Flows:
The Farmington is currently an excellent 368cfs & droppng steadily through
the
Catch & Release (C&R) area and averaging in the low/mid 50s for
water temperature in the afternoon- USGS historical normal combined flow
for today is 391cfs. Riverton is 246cfs from the dam on the West Branch, and the Still River is adding
in an
additional 122cfs below it's junction with the West
Branch. 8am Riverton
water temp was 46.5 degrees this morning- downstream water temps in the C&R will be
significantly higher (low/mid 50s) than this due to the Still River running warmer than the
colder water from the dam.
Cortland's brand new 2020 Nymph Series Rods for Euro Nymphing are in stock. This series is all in a 10.5' length and three
line weights: #2, #3, and #4, and retails at $299.99. These replace the extremely popular Competition Nymph Series.
We have fished the new version in the 10.5' #3 model, and they are a
noticeable improvement with a crisper action, faster recovery, more
sensitivity, a downlocking reel seat for better rod/reel balance, and
improved guide spacing to minimize line sag between the reel and the
stripping (first) guide. The new construction also significantly
improves the durability, and they maintained the stealthy matte finish
to minimize rod flash on sunny days. You won't need a heavy reel to
balance these either. I'm sure the #3 will be the best seller and it is
the most versatile for all around Euro Nymphing, but the 2
weight is sweet with a soft tip that will protect 6x-7x tippet on big
fish, and the #4 has the power to handle heavier tippets with bigger
flies on bigger fish and can cross over as an Indicator nymphing rod
too. This series looks like a real winner to us, and
the best under $300 Euro rod on the market hands-down.
Thomas & Thomas's new Contact 10' #3
feels awesome in the hand, and it's a more portable length than it's
longer brothers. Due to it being shorter than its 10' 8" & 11' 3"
cousins, it has a crisper action that make it a very good choice
for someone who likes to Euro nymph, but also likes to cross over and
throw
fly line with dries, wets, and small/medium streamers. Also good on smaller waters where the casting is restricted. Zach St. Amand gave it a big 2 Thumbs Up after fishing it for a week straight.
Hatches/Dries:
