Farmington River Brown Trout fishing

This brown trout was caught August 31st, 2007 at 4 pm in Halford's pool on the Farmington River, Connecticut on a number 18 curved, barbless hook emerger on a moderate retrieve. I typically fish with a 2 weight Sage rod and a number one Ross Gunnison reel. By this time in the season, the trout are well educated and difficult to catch. The best time in late August and September is the last two hours of daylight and particularly the last fifteen minutes. They seem to like small olive or gray emergers late in the day. Brown trout usually hit agressively and go down unlike rainbows that jump and swim all around. The largest trout I have caught to date was a 24" brown on the Farmington on opening day fishing a black wooly streamer. In general, the Farmington is a blue wing olive river for most of the season and hendricksons in the Spring. Mid to late season the fish rise to tiny little CDC olives sizes 20 to 30. Many of the old pros use 8x and even 9x tippet. My default tippet is 6x and occasionally I will use 7x.

Many birds including blue herons, various hawks and bald eagles are often seen on the river. My favorite is the heron because they teach me how to be a patient, cagey and alert fisherman.

I have never been particularly successful catching trout in the winter months of December, January and February but this year I seem to be getting the hang of it. I caught three 16 " browns on December 20th, one on the 21st and one on the 22nd. The one pictured below was the smallest of the five about 14 or 15 inches. I've been fishing a cane rod which I restored from parts of an old rod I inherited from my father. It is about 5' 3" inches long. I find that it is an interesting blend of being "fast" that is stiff casting but extremely full-flex when a fish is on. I cast it with a 5 weight line. It excels close to shore when I don't have much room for a back cast. I caught all of these fish using number 16 pheasant tail nymphs. I like to fish without an indicator as one would a streamer. Usually the fish hit toward the end of the sweep. On the 31st I caught three good browns and one rainbow......all on streamers. Caught my first trout of '08 today, Jan 13th on a yellow streamer in Greenwoods pool. It was an 18" brown that was a bit battle-scarred.

I caught two brown trout on 1/28/08. Both hit streamers, one was yellow and the other black. It was a beautiful day about 38 degrees Fahrenheit, blue sky, the river was clear and the flow moderate. Most fishermen have given up lately because the weather has been below freezing for several days. Today, the first warm one in two weeks, did not bring out the fishermen and so I had it all to myself. It is 16" from the cork handle to the first guide.

It is now April. I've been out a couple of times with only limited success; however, yesterday, April 1st, I hooked two large, 18" + browns. I played both for a few minutes but just as I was about to net them, they slipped off. I wasn't too disappointed and after all it was April fool's day. Don't count your fish before they are netted. (Both were hooked on a white streamer.)