Don’t forget to get a 2023 CT fishing license, they can be purchased online or in our store. All CT 2022 fishing/hunting licenses expire after Dec 31st, 2022.
Zach & Derrick’s fly tying classes had to be moved from 2/5/23 to 2/19/23, which opened up a couple of slots from those who cannot do the new date- details right below this.
Guides Zach & Derrick are doing a fly tying class showing you some of their go-to nymphs, dries & streamers to catch big wild trout on the Farmington River- these patterns will work magic on other pressured fisheries also. They are doing 2 half day classes on Sunday 2/19/23(original date was 2/5), only one spot in the first class and 2spots in the second class are open, and then that’s it- don’t miss out, these are some deadly flies. See our Events/Classes page for details. Call the store at 860-379-1952 to sign up.
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Pictures:
We will be limiting the pictures in the reports to a max of 2 or 3 in total. Additional pics & videos will be posted on our Facebook and Instagram “Stories” (they stay up for 24 hours there). Up top is frequent flyer John Stratton with a 20” brown, next down is a beautiful brown by Steve Hogan’s client Rich Bouvier. Third fish pic is once again John Antolini with another awesome fish. Big fish never come easy, but there are plenty spread throughout the entire Farmington River.
New Diamondback Ideal Nymph Reels:
These are the most well thought out & designed Euro nymphing reels out there, the product of Joe Goodspeed who designed the Diamondback Ideal Nymph Rods. It has a full cage which makes it very unlikely for long/thin leaders or Mono Rigs to work their way outside the frame- a common problem with most modern reels (very few are full frame, 90% have a half frame). The machined tolerances are also extra tight to help with this. It has removable weights so you can fine-tune the rod/reel balance. The ultra large arbor, large diameter, narrow spool is ideal for Euro nymphing where you don’t want or need a ton of line capacity- this also gives you a faster retrieve rate and less line coiling. The drag is ultra smooth to protect light tippet. The most unique feature of all is the offset reel foot, which gives you the ability to put the mass of the reel even closer to the rod butt, improving rod balance. If you need to take up slack quickly the reel is designed so you can hit the spool with your palm to spin it rapidly and take up excess line. Anywhere the line/leader can rub against the reel when stripping line has been machined round to eliminate abrasion. The Ideal Nymph reel is unique, with all the features you wanted and clever ones you never even thought about. They use the latest 5D-5 Axis machining to make this unusual & beautiful fly reel. These reels have already become a hot seller.
The T&T Contact II 10’ 9 2wt rod is an excellent addition to the best line-up of euro rods. I absolutely love it- the perfect rod for conditions that dictate lighter tippets & smaller/lighter flies: casts great, very sensitive, very low swing weight, and a blast to play the fish on. It might be my new favorite rod, it’s really fun to fish with. The length is ideal for good sized rivers like the Farmington, allowing you to fish & cast further away, make longer drifts, casts easier/further, faster hook sets, and the soft tip will protect your tippet against big trout. Plenty of power in the butt section to handle bigger trout, and a bit of extra flex in the tip for casting thinner leaders and lighter flies. The new 2wt is a great compliment to your arsenal, especially if you already have the 3wt, which has been the “all 'rounder” for Euro Nymphing.
The new Diamondback range of Ideal Nymph rods are in stock. These fantastic Euro nymphing rods are available in 10’ 1wt, 10’ 2wt, 10’ 10” 2wt, 10’ 10” 3wt & 10’ 10” 4wt,the newer 10’ 10” #6, with more models to come. Joe Goodspeed, (formerly of Cortland and T&T) designed this series, and he did a great job. At $525-550, these rods are a deal and easily the best Euro rods in the $500 range. Using the latest, state-of-the-art materials & construction, the rods are light with excellent recovery & sensitivity, plenty of big fish playing power, double rings on the downlocking reel seat, 3 snake guides on the rod tip for minimal line/leader wrap with thinner/micro leaders, and 2 single foot ceramic stripping guides to reduce friction & improve line shoot. The 10’ 10” #2 has been a best seller for the Farmington River, also the 10’ #1 (a unique & very fun rod).
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River Conditions:
The entire upper 21 miles of the Farmington River, from the dam in Riverton downstream to the Rt 177 Unionville bridge, is now Catch & Release from 9/1/22 until the second Saturday in April 2023 at 6am. If you see people violating this and keeping fish, PLEASE make sure to call the DEEP hotline at 800-842-HELP (4357). Program the number into your cell phone, and call!! Even if they cannot respond fast enough, the call & location of the offense is logged. The DEEP field officers add the vehicle descriptions to their database and will catch repeat offenders, but ONLY if you call it in.
Conditions currently are back to statistically normal, with total flow in the permanent TMA/Catch & Release (C&R) in the mid 300cfs range and slowly going lower. Riverton West Branch USGS gauge reads 215cfs (median historical flow is 193cfs), and the Still River is adding in 131cfs (median historical flow is 144cfs) & slowly dropping. Just got an MDC email, at 9am they reudced the dam release by 22cfs, this will drop the total flow into the low 300cfs range for the afternoon.The East Branch (comes in about 3/8 mile downstream of UpCountry) is 50cfs, it was 75cfs prior to that. Combined with the long range highs virtually all in the 40’s & 50’s, these are some very nice conditions to get out and fish. It’s still Winter, so with cold water and lower insect activity (as compared to the Spring/Summer), expect to work harder for your fish. A silver lining to this time of year is the trout average bigger, and until such time as they start stocking (literally anytime now), the trout will average larger and are all either holdovers or wild fish. A reminder that the permanent C&R/TMA only gets stocked 1x a year in April, but Whittemore to the dam, and the Wall in New Hartford & waydownstream will get stocked before the end of February, and then another 1-2x in March and early April,and multiple times between then and the Fall.
There is officially no closed season on trout in CT now (exception being a small number of lakes that close off in late Fall) on all trout streams. Starting March 1st, ALL trout streams become catch & release until 6am on the 2nd Saturday in April when they revert to whatever their normal specific regulations are. The Farmington however is catch & release right now (starts 9/1 every year) for the entire upper 21 miles (dam in Riverton downstream to the Rt 177 bridge in Unionville), and on April 8th at 6am you can keep 2 fish 12” or bigger in 15 of those 21 miles, with a six mile section (just below Whittemore to 219 New Hartford bridge) C&R and barbless 12 months a year. Some people think that because the season in now “open” in March & early April that they can keep trout in that time period, but that is 100% false. Every trout stream in CT is open to only catch & release fishing during what was previously the closed trout season. And up in Riverton, from the top of Pipeline Pool upstream for 1+ miles to the junction of Hogback Rd with Rt 20 (Canal Pool), it is completely closed to fishing from April 1 until 6am April 8- they do this so they can privately stock large trout for the Riverton Derby (4/8) and still sort of have an “Opening Day” for the derby. This short section also includes Lyman Rock, Hitchcock/Riverton Self Storage, as well as Van’s Pool/Zach’s Pool.
Big fish continue to be caught every week as you can see by the photos in the reports every week, but you have to work for them and be there during a bite window- a lot of them come in the last 1-2 hours of daylight, sobe patient. At the end of the day you have the combination of peak waterwater temps & low light bringing the big browns out of hiding to feed,win/win for us anglers, less so for the big trout.
We will see the smaller #18-24 Tiny Winter Black Stoneflies hatching this month, and in Late February/March the medium sized Early Black & Early Brown Stones. The Early Stones start to get active underwater about now and you can fish imitations of them, either a specific pattern or something suggestive like a #14-16 Prince Nymph, Pheasant Tail, etc. Nymphs that size in a brown color will also suggest an immature Hendrickson nymph, black would be imitative of the Early Black Stones. Junk Flies are still in play, and a Mop, Egg, or a Squirmy can be a good change up fly after you’ve already fished through a pool/run with your standard more imitative nymphs. If you are streamer fishing, make sure to get your flies slow & deep, and play around with different retrieves- slower is typically better in the Winter, but there will be days they still want the fly moving fast. Winter Caddis are hatching in early/mid mornings, sometimes going into the afternoons- this hatch can bring trout to the surface to feed, as can Midges in the afternoons some days. And when they aren’t rising, #18-22 flies such as Zebra Midges (black, red, olive) can put trout in the net in the afternoons when you see Midges hatching.
Big Simms preseason order arrived Monday 2/6, and it among other things it included a cool new $85 Challenger full-zip hoody in 2 colors, Guide raincoats, the new Guide BOA boot, camo Tributary waders, and a bunch of new ball caps.
Water temps in Riverton peaked at 37.5 degrees yesterday, it is 35.5degrees this morning. Some afternoons water temps have crept into the low 40’s in the permanent TMA/C&R on warmersunny days (especially after a mild night)- the sun is a BIG driver of increasing water temps, especially as you move downriver away from the dam. Cloudy & colder days see much smaller water temp increases. The water comes out of the dam in Riverton at a consistent temp and then rises or drops as you move downriver depending upon the time of day, weather/air temps, and distance downstream. During mild, sunny weather downriver sees the highest/best water temps. During cold snaps, the water is warmest right up near the dam in the upper 2 miles (above the Still River), especially in the mornings. A thermometer can be VERY useful,especiallyin the Winter & Summer- help you decide when and where to fish.
Remember that Winter trout usually like to hold in slow to medium speed water. They don’t have to eat as much due to a much slower metabolism when it’s cold, and there is far less food available, so their main concerns are minimizing energy expenditure & safety- typically this means trout are holding is slower currents with adequate depth. Sometimes during milder sunny afternoons they may slide up into medium speed riffles to feed on drifting nymphs/larva. They will often pod up in optimum Winter holding water, so if you catch one trout, and you may find a bunch more nearby. But….you have to catch a Bite Window when they turn on & feed. Be patient, it can be the difference between zero fish and a successful outing. If nymphing, this means lots of drifts in prime areas, and expect the hits to be subtle most of the time- set the hook gently but quickly on anything remotely suspicious. If you are streamer fishing, play around with retrieves, but on average think slow & deep (with some exceptions for reasons only the fish know). Try faster retrieves occasionally if slower presentations are not making it happen, you never know what will work at any given moment until you try it. Also play with streamer color, pattern, and size, they can all affect things- color can make a profound difference some days. And fishing a jigged streamer slow & deep with a European Nymphing approach incorporating occasional twitches can elicit strikes some days when trout are not willing to chase streamers.
If you are chasing the morning Winter Caddis hatch, target the early to mid mornings, with the hatch sometimes going into the afternoons on certain days. You need to be patient in the Winter as there are periods when the trout just aren’t feeding, and then a switch will flip and they will suddenly activelyfeedsubsurfacefor an hour or two. Most days there has been a subsurface “bite window” in the mid to late morning period, and usually again at some point in mid to late afternoons when water temps peak. There have been Midges in the afternoons- if they are not rising (often the case, especially when the flows are up), nymphing subsurface with #18-22 Midge patterns (Zebra Midges, Pupa, etc.) can be effective. The lower the flow, the more likely you are to see rising trout. Church Pool is one spot that is almost immune to higher flows, there are almost always at least a few risers somewhere in that big, long pool no matter what the flow.
As you can see by the pictures posted every week here and on our social media (Instagram & Facebook), those paying their dues have been catching some big trout. Not every outing, but if you put in the time you can catch some very good ones. Typically the morning Winter/Summer Caddis is an early to mid morning hatch, but some days it’s been going into mid/late afternoon. First the pupa hatch, and then the winged adults come back later to egg-lay. When they are not rising, fish subsurface with nymphs & streamers. Slow and deep is generally the name of the game in the Winter.
We are in Winter conditions now(sort of haha), meaning cold water temps (30’s, maybe low 40’s during warm/sunny weather), so keep your expectations reasonable and expect to work for your fish on most of the time. Sunny days will see water temp increases (unless it’s warm and there is a lot of snow on the ground causing ice-cold snowmelt), and often the best subsurface fishing is in the mid/lateafternoons when water temps are rising and at their highest. This increases both the trout’s metabolism, as well as insect activity. However, the Winter/Summer Caddis is the exception to this, typically emerging in the mornings if you are looking for some dry fly action.
If you are nymphing, read the water carefully, take your best educated guess where the prime lies are (usually in slow to medium speed water with decent depth near structure, drop-offs, current breaks/seams, etc.), and fish them slowly & thoroughly. In cold water, trout often pod up but won’t move far for your fly, so you need to thoroughly fish the good water to make sure you get at least one good drift close enough to their mouths that they decide to open up & eat your fly. If you catch one in a nice looking spot, there could be many more close by. The smaller your fly, the shorter the distance the trout will move for it, so with #18-22 nymphs make more casts in an area then you would do with #14-16 flies. Trout will move the furthest for “Junk Flies” (Mops, Eggs, Worms) & larger #6-12 Stoneflies, so you can cover water faster when fishing them. Also expect the strikes to be more subtle in cold water- when in doubt, set the hook quickly but gently (so you don’t destroy/end your drift if it’s not a trout), “hook sets are free”. Be patient, because after hours of slow fishing a “bite window” can open up for an hour or two where the fish suddenly go on the feed, but if you give up & leave early you would never know that. Many times during cold weather the last 1-2 hours of the day has redeemed an otherwise slow day for me. Plus bigger browns are more active in low light, and the water temps are highest in mid to late afternoon.
Pro Tip: Caddis Larva (both regular & cased) will be an excellent nymphing choice for the next few months, pair them up with a “Junk Fly”(Egg, Mop, Worm), #8-12 Stonefly, #14-20 Mayfly-type nymph (could even be a Pheasant Tail/Frenchy or a Hare’s Ear), or a #18-22 Zebra Midge (black, red, olive). Overall anglers are working for their fish, but some quality 16-20”+ holdover/wild browns & holdover bows are showing up in the catches, mixed in with 6-12” wild browns and averaged sized (12-14”) stocked rainbows.
This time of year, I generally recommend a later start (mid to late morning) to let things warm up a bit, and dress warmly in layers of synthetics (FYI make sure to bring a warm hat, heavy wool socks & insulated fingerless gloves). Best bet is to focus on the mid morning to dusk time slot when water temps are rising/highest, the trout & aquatic insects are more active, and it’s a more pleasant time to be out. Exception: the early to mid morning Winter/Summer Caddis hatch. Other than that though, no need to start early. Midges #20-28 are a distinct possibility in the afternoons- if they don’t rise to them, then fish subsurface. Long leaders (12’ or longer), light tippets (6x-7x), and accurate drag-free floats are key to success when fishing tiny dry flies on flat, slow water. Jigged streamers are pulling nice trout, as are standard streamers- you can go big (4-6”) with articulated patterns if you are willing to have less action but increase your odds of sticking a 20” plus brown.
If you are nymphing (and you probably should be more often than not right now), think Junk Flies (Eggs, Mops, Squirmy/SJ Worms), Stoneflies (both small & big), and hedge your bet by adding a smaller more imitative, drabber fly- or maybe an attractor-type pattern (gaudy, flashy, or with a hot-spot). Eggs remain a key fly (especially in the mornings) in the Winter, and streamers are another very good option. When streamer fishing experiment with fly size/color/retrieve, it can make a BIG difference- make sure to also cover lots of water and show your fly to more fish. If standard streamer techniques/flies don’t work, try a tight-line smaller jigged streamer Euro approach with a mix of dead-drifts/twitches, as well as swinging & stripping.
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Hatches/Dries:
-Summer/Winter Caddis #18-24: hatching well in early to mid morning, often go later in to the afternoons, adult egg-layers can also be present in the evenings
-Midges #20-28: afternoons, if they don’t rise then nymph Midge Pupa subsurface
-Tiny Winter Black Stonefly #18-24
-Mole Fly #20-24 (olive, brown): deadly emerger that covers many small bugs & fools difficult trout in flat water
Nymphs:
-Early Stonefly Nymph #14-16 (black, brown)
-Frenchies & Pheasant Tails #14-20: various sizes imitate many different Mayfly nymphs & smaller Stoneflies and are quite effective everywhere
-Caddis Larva (olive to green) #14-16: anytime, especially Winter through early Spring, lots of these in the river
-Cased Caddis #12-14: abundant and an especially good choice in the Winter/early Spring, also during/after flow bumps (knocks larva into the drift)
-Small Nymphs #18-22: Assorted. The Farmington River is LOADED with small bugs. Experiment and try drab, flashy, and with & without hot-spots. Good on pressured fish.
-Jigged Streamers #8-12: various colors/patterns- dead-drift, twitch, swing & strip
-Zebra Midge #18-22 (black, red, olive, brown): Wintertime staple
-BWO Nymphs #16-22: various patterns, anytime, they Behavioral Drift a lot
-Big Stoneflies #8-12 (gold/yellow, brown, black): anytime, esp. during higher flows
-Antoine’s Perdigons #12-20: various patterns, all year
-Junk Flies (Eggs, Mops, Squirmies/SJ Worms, Green Weenies): good in cold water, during non-hatch periods, also for higher/off-color flows & fresh stockers, or just as a change-up to natural/imitative flies after you fish through a run with standard nymphs
-Attractor Nymphs #14-20: anything flashy, gaudy, or with a hot spot such as Rainbow Warriors, Sexy Waltz, Prince, Triple Threats, etc.- not uncommon for these to outfish drabber, more imitative flies
Soft-Hackles/Wet Flies:
-Hare's Ear, Partridge & Flash, Leadwing Coachman, March Brown #12-16
*best fished 2-3 at a time, on 4-6” tag end droppers, spaced 20-30” apart
*dead drift them, swing them, twitch them, bounce them
*especially good for imitating Caddis, Isonychia and other faster swimming/emerging bugs
*in cold water (like now) make sure to fish them deeper using a weighted point fly, and/or sinking leaders/sink-tips/sinking fly lines
Streamers:
Post-spawn early to mid Winter brown trout are HUNGRY and looking to put some weight back on. Plus big trout are almost always looking for bigger bites all year long.
-Jigged Streamers #8-12: various patterns/colors, deadly fished on a tight-line/Euro rig
-Rio's Precious Metal #4 (Kreelex copper, olive, white)
-BMAR Yellow Matuka #6
-Zuddler #4-8: olive, yellow, white, brown, black
-Complex Twist Bugger #2-6: assorted colors
-Conehead White Marabou Muddler #8
-Woolly Buggers #2-14 (black, olive, white, brown, tan)
-JJ Special/Autumn Splendor/Tequeely #4-8 (brown & yellow streamers)
-Matuka #4-8 (yellow, olive, brown)