First of all… Happy New Year!! It’s time for 2015!
Now for a quick report. I was at a New Years party until about 2, which is when I planned to leave and hit a local pond to try and get my first fish of the year. My plan was hit the pond at 2ish, go home, sleep, and then hit a river later… maybe 6ish. But When I got to the pond, it had a thin layer of ice on it, making it impossible to fish on. I was considering heading home but I still wanted to do a bit of fishing, so I headed home, grabbed my waders, fly rod, pack, fly box, and a handful of headlamps, and headed up to the Nissitissit. I pulled up to the lot by the Shattuck Oil Company at around 3, and got ready. It was pitch black, and there was no chance I could have fished without my headlamps (they are a useful thing for all fly fishers to have). I rigged up my 4 weight with an orange egg and a small ball of tungsten putty, and hit the water. After a while, I hooked up with a fish, and fought the little 11 inch brown trout to the net. It was tough getting it in the net with the lack of light, but I finally scooped him up, unhooked him, and let him swim back into the pool. I pulled out my phone and hit the power button. 3:45. Not bad for the first trout of the year. I fished for another 45 minutes, and then was ready to get out of there.
3:45 is my personal record for “earliest trout caught”, although I have caught bass and sunfish and such much earlier (12:01, 12:03, etc.). but I did hear that someone else caught a trout today at 12:20. That’s impressive!
I also decided to make a few “fly fishing resolutions” for 2015. Here they are as of now…
- Catch a 22+ inch brown trout (They do get that big in MA, but they are rare in rivers around here. Catching them often means using BIG streamers.)
- Catch a tiger trout (I don’t fully support the stocking of these fish (that’s another post), but they are here, and I have never caught one on my fly rod.)
- Catch a Swift trout on a size 32 dry (I recently ordered some size 32’s (thanks Ken!), and now I’d like to try to rise a Swift river ‘bow on one.)
- Get better at fly fishing in ponds (I mostly fly fish in rivers, and don’t have a ton of experience fishing in ponds)
- Catch a salmon from the Quinapoxet or Stillwater next October (There wasn’t much of a run last year because of the low water levels, so I missed out. This year!)
- Fish with some new people (I’ve talked to a lot of good people on various fishing sites, and would like to make some new fishing buddies.)
That’s it for now… I am sure more will arise as the season goes on. Do you have any fly fishing resolutions? If you do, share them in the comments!
That’s about it for today; hope you guys enjoyed the holidays! I’ll have some reports (depending on how often I get out), or some other topics coming in the future. Enjoy the New Year!
~Troy
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Catching a brown that early takes some dedication! My resolutions are to tie my own flies and catch a 12+ inch native brookie (I really want a 15, but I need something more achievable). Sounds like you had a great New Years Eve/Day, and I hope you can achieve your resolutions.
Yeah, I consider it a pretty successful New Years Day! Good luck with your resolutions as well! Jumping into the world of fly tying can be a bit daunting, but it's all worth it in the end! I'll definitely have some tying related posts this year, with some patterns that work around here as well as for natives. Hopefully some of those will help out. And as for the 12 incher, that is a good goal. It will be a bit tough to track down a footer (assuming you re targeting a native?), but it can certainly be done. It took me a while to get a 12 inch native, but I don't fish for natives as much since I target many other species. Put in the time in the right places, and you'll come across one!
~Troy
I appreciate the fly tying posts, and small stream reflections has also helped greatly in this area with flies like the bomber and the picket pin and other classics like the mickey finn. I have gotten a hit from what my friend and I both believe to be a 12+ inch native last summer on an olive bugger because he leaped out of the water and was quite large. Hopefully he lives another year for me to catch him, but I doubt it. I am planning on doing some exploring in Connecticut as well because I don't want to overfish RI which is already extremely delicate. I might be able to hook up with something big in CT or on a trip to NH.
Wow! Seeing that fish jump must've been quite a sight! And I bet that CT or NH will produce a footer – most of the big native brookies I've caught have been from the White Mountains. The Berkshires are pretty good too. Maybe you can knock out 2 resolutions at once and get a 12 incher on a hand tied fly!
Good luck,
~Troy