“The Force is strong with this one,” I thought.
I had a fish on at the Farmington this morning, and I had a hard time guiding it with side pressure. The prior fish, all stockies, were pretty easy to land. Eventually, I found out the reason. I had a double.
The little rainbow was beautifully colored.
The brown trout was feisty, had an adipose fin, taped at 16″ and was quite portly.
Later in the morning, I was fishing a new spot for me. BWOs were popping off like crazy. I put on a new variant of a #16 emerger, about which I’ll blog in the future.
First cast, and I let the flies swing at the end of the drift. I felt a strong tug and ran into this 18″ fish. The photos don’t capture how absolutely thick and powerful this brown looked. After hooking it, it was tough to even move it, initially.
It had a green elastomer behind the right eye. The Survivor Strain schedule says that such fish were stocked in 2012, but I have a hard time believing this fish is that old. Or, could it be?
Two casts later, I had a big fish on, and my mind just went bonkers. Wow, maybe I’m in for a double-digit day! Maybe, my new emerger fly is the golden ticket!
But, I had foul-hooked the fish, and it was running around in very heavy current. Rather than overtire it, I refused to give it more line and cranked the reel. I figured the 5x fluorocarbon would break at some point.
Snap! Sadly, my Thomas and Thomas Contact broke at the butt section. And, that darn fish took my fly, too! Such insolence.
Shoulders slumped, I went to get my H2. Belatedly, I realized I should have pointed the rod tip straight at the fish, like I do with my #000 rod when I’m foul-hooked.
I went back to the river and started to indicator nymph just like everyone else around me. And, just like them, I had no takes.
After messing around with wet flies and dries, I reeled up and called it a day.
I swung by UpCountry on the way home to chat with the guys and showed them my rod. Torrey said that T&T’s repair turnaround time is about three weeks, which is fast.
So, I rushed home and got the rod packed up and dropped off at the UPS Store before closing time.
Sorry for the short report, but, I’m late for a dinner outing and wanted to get this post out before I drown my sorrows in some wine. Grateful that I have my Sage ESN ready as a back-up, but I’ll miss the Contact.
Jo, I’m sorry to hear about your rod. I broke my small stream rod 2 weeks ago so I feel your pain. Sounds like a pretty good morning otherwise
Thank you. I suppose it happens to us all, given how much we fish. See you next weekend!
Sounds like a great day except for the rod! ANY thoughts as to why it snapped there? Seems like a pretty stout part of the rod. Please let us know what T&T says.
I fell at the Deerfield and probably nicked the rod. UpCountry says that they’ve yet to see that rod break at the butt section. I suspect T will just send me a new section.
Hi Steve, wanted to keep my promise and revert.
First, T&T emailed me back right away. They too are puzzled as to why the rod broke at the butt section. They asked about what tippet I was using (5x fluoro) and what was happening when it broke.
They offered to fix the rod for free, which is great, but which I declined. I don’t think there’s a defect in the blank. I was just putting max pressure on a foul-hooked fish to break it off rather than overtire it. I think it’s a fluke thing. As previously mentioned, the UpCountry guys have yet to see a T&T rod break at the butt section.
Best news? Rod should be back in my hands next week. So, about a 10-day turnaround time.
Great fish. 2012 yearling maybe? Great lighting for those photos.
That’s what the schedule says but I’m skeptical that it could be that old. Thanks for the kind words!
Why skeptical? Brown trout can live 18 years, that fish wouldn’t even be 9 yet. Sure, 18 is an unusually high number, but 7 or 8 isn’t. That far from improbable in a river like the Farmington. There’s plenty of room for error but it wouldn’t surprise me even a little bit if that were an 8 year old fish.
Wow, thanks for the info. What a privilege to see such a fish.
Glad to hear that T&T was so responsive. I’m going to try a couple of the T&T rods and decide which fits me best. I don’t just tight-line nymph but need to swing wets too. I do carry a short dry rod on the water so I can switch if a hatch is on.
They’re pretty incredible. If you call over, they’ll patch you through to an expert, which is what happened to a friend of mine.