Salt

I lost a fish last night that I never saw. Unlike the hundreds of bass* that come to hand every year, this one went straight to the reel, took lots of line, and fought like a big fish: dogged, heavy,  slow and in control. I never saw it. I played my only card, backing up ready to bully the fish onto the shells. She was almost there when the line came back with a piggy tail - a failed knot.

This was the second night at The Mouth, and I can't complain. The first night stripers were rolling on the surface a rod's length away, swirling at whatever fly was dapped over the surface, even on my inappropriate sinking line. Dozens* of bass were caught as the spring migration kicked into gear.

As is often the case, the second visit saw bigger fish in the mix (I have no idea why). Todd got the first keeper of the year. We helped him land and photograph it - a celebration all round. The fishing was very good, but we agreed that the sunset and migrating birds were the best thing about the whole sweet relief of winter's departure. A spring estuary is one hell of a place to be on the opening day of trout season. Some of us said we should leave the rods and just bring cameras next time, and I'd like to think we could do that if we wanted to. 

We took these photos. The best ones - and probably some of the finest I've seen from this spot - were shot on a phone by my pal Tommy Baranowski, local fly fisherman and guitarist. Phones are getting better at being cameras, but don't be fooled. Tommy is good at this shit.

It was great to see Joe again.

By Tommy B.

Tommy B.

TB

Or not TB (though this was TB).

Fly by TJ Brayshaw (as they all were).

English Jonny shoots the boys.

The Norwegian with a keeper.

 
*Dozens is more realistic. Think about how many trips per year you would need to make, and how many fish you'd have to average per trip, to make it "hundreds" of stripers.

Suppose you went twice per week from April 15 to November 15. That's seven months, or about 28 weeks. Twice per week would be 56 trips. Two stripers per trip would put you at 112 fish for the year. That's more than 100, but does that make it "hundreds"?  And do you fish for stripers twice per week for seven straight months? And what's a reasonable per trip average?  Sure, a few days at the mouth of the Housy could net you many dozens of fish, but even so. Think of the number of trips that turn up no fish at all. Do you not have these?  And doesn't "hundreds" imply multiples of 100?  As in, maybe, 200 or more?

Think about that. 

EJ

A walk with Bill

We met today to practice our single handed casting. I'd fished the river last week and it was running the right side of high. Today we were astonished to find it at summer levels already - a lot less fishable water between short plunges and slow-moving shallows. Many of the wild steelhead you find here had been flushed out by recent rains. But it was warm and stone-flies filled the air and tried to get down my shirt. I enjoyed playing leap frog down the stream with Anonymous again, reading water together and feeling the sun; a reminded that New England is, after all, a sensible place to live. 

LIS Steelhead.

 

Anonymous fishes dry.

Nice looking net. 

Covering a rise.

 

Steelhead Creek - summer levels.

EJ

Oyez! Oyez! Gather Round!

- March 28th, 2014 AD - 

An Announcement is Made, This Day.

Hear ye! Hear ye! Eight o'clock, and all's well! To all good people gathered here in the villages of Connecticut, I bring you greetings from Guilford Town, in the Region of New Haven. Yea, let it be known that the cigar was taken in the gloaming and there were tiny frogs this eve; late by two weeks past and the year afore that, but here at last out in the coppice!

Here ye! Here ye! Spring is here and all's well!

God Save The Queen! And God Bless America!

Tight lines for the season.

TAC

A spring peeper. Surely the greatest of all animals.

It's Wild Trout Time (again)

With the temperature reaching a toasty 35 degrees today I headed for my local river. No bugs were hatching but fish were rising steadily and uniformly throughout the glassy pool. A sure sign that spring is finally upon us.

Perfect wild trout habitat

Trout rose uniformly, this spring day

Recognizing the subtle rises of wild brown trout fresh off the tide, I rigged with American Nymphs and dry caddis, but the fish would have none of it! I sensed that something more traditional was in order. Looking to my trusty Weatley fly box, the answer came to me as it had on so many March days on this particular chalk stream. 

A hackled wet fly. Perfect for wild brown trout, today

Chalk aquifers feed the wild trout of southern Connecticut

I was rewarded with 37 of the most wonderful mix of domestic wild browns and fresh-run sea-trout.  

Another fin perfect wild trout falls for the traditional soft-hackle wet fly. Just last week there were no trout in the river. Where do the wild beauties go in winter?

Anything's possible in March. A wild sea-trout, fresh from the sea

 

March Wild trout will rise through a concrete bridge

As sure as winter turns to spring, it's reassuring - some would say magical - to know that wild trout will be caught with predictable regularity when March comes around, as if they had always been there.

Tight Lines,

Jonny 

Peripheral: Product News

Aside from the occasional review of light tackle or rehydration techniques, we don't go in for product testing and review, much less endorsement.

Cars drove over my TFO Lefty Kreh rod last year, a replacement for the older model I'd shut in the garage door the year before in my rush to the culvert. This time I came clean, explaining to the company that, in all conscience, I'd been a perfect imbecile for leaving it atop the Lezbaru and driving off; that they shouldn't take pity.

TFO just sent me a new one, which means I have had three of their very serviceable and altogether quite likable rods for a total outlay of $150 (give or take postage). This is three good fishing rods - and realistically, there will be more - all for the princely sum of 90 of my superior British Pounds Sterling (that's 30 quid each, or half a tank of petroleum. And no, not the jelly.) The latest of what is truly a TFO Professional "series" was dispatched in record time, arriving today just as the Forsythia shows the first bloom.

As has been my unpleasant experience, if this were an Orvis product, hand crafted on the silky soft thighs of a Vermont milkmaid (in China, at my price point), I would likely have received a lowly percent value of the old model, such is the speed with which Orvis re-brand what is, to the eye of the average non-idiot, the very same product.

And so dear reader we take momentary pause - rightfully fleeting, altogether insignificant - to recognize TFO, a company for which a "100% lifetime warranty" is, in fact, just that.

Peripheral, but not a given, this day.

Carry on.

EJ