I fished on Veterans Day and want to give a shout out to all those who have served, or are serving, to protect our freedom. People like Damon Matus and Dan Wells, fellow blog team members, are an inspiration.
Well, if you follow this blog, you might remember my usual drill these days: a 3:30 am alarm in order to be at the Farmington before dawn to throw large articulated streamers.
The bite has progressively slowed down. My first outing produced 13 takes. Then, five. Yesterday? Just one.
You know that going in. It is “go big or go home.” The good news is that the one take resulted in a one fish that made it all worth while.
This is a truly grizzled veteran of a fish. Dark all around and an alpha fish through and through.
Unfortunately, it was missing the maxillary sections of its jaw on both sides. (I hope everyone is pinching down their barbs at the Farmington TMA sections.) But, it otherwise looked healthy.
And, the fight was short. A benefit of a seven-weight rod and 12# tippet is that you can quickly bring in a fish.
And, this is the same fish that Damon caught last year, which shows that C&R works. Repeat business.
The brown looked skinny, likely a post-spawn fish. I hope it lives a long time and will produce powerful progeny.
I hope everyone had a great weekend.
Great work. Beautiful fish and stellar sleuthing to connect it to Damon’s fish of a year ago. I have had several experiences re-catching and it is magic!
Thank you! Credit to Damon: he recognized the fish right away.
Nice fish. Wonder what the biologists have to say about the carrying capacity of the Farmington for all those Trout? Its just cause I notice a lot of skinny fish throughout the year so wonder about the food supply and when the system is maxed out.
That said, it is a great resource considering where we live!
Thanks, Steve!
Great question. At the Farmy, I notice skinny fish only after the spawn–and, during a long winter. They’re pretty chunky spring to summer. But, I could be wrong and will pay better attention after reading your comment.
Chunky fish are typical in the spring and summer solely because they are recently stocked two year olds that are grossly over fed from the hatchery to attain their size. A majority of those do nothing but atrophy the longer they’re in the river as they simply cannot maintain the body mass once in the river. Many of these fish get put into the river at 3-4+ pounds. I’m all for the survivor program, but really do not see the merit of putting in 1,000 two year olds of this size on a yearly basis. They compete with the river reared and genetically superior fish. If anything, I and many other anglers would rather see CT DEEP instead stock a 100,000 fingerlings a year or more yearling fish. The river is a playground, and a fun one at that, but it gets 50,000 trout a year and has a good amount of river reared trout to sustain a solid fishery.
Rich, this is very helpful. I agree with your suggestion.