Quick Session

Now that the stripers had moved south for winter, It was time to target inland fish. It was a Saturday and Hugh and I had a few hours in the morning to spare before adult responsibilites took the better of us. I was excited to fish a smaller river again as it had been a long time. This particular river contained brookies, land-locked salmon, and brown trout. I was excited at the chance to catch my first salmon.

When we arrived at the stream it was breezy and lightly raining. The rain was so fine you could barely tell it was there. It only became apparent when you looked out over the water and the refracted light from the river highlighted the fine droplets. This type of rain is common to New England, and something I had not experienced out west.

Hugh headed straight to the bridge and I worked my way upstream. I spotted a nice eddy and flung an olive streamer and began stripping. The spot looked fishy, but nothing was biting. I remember thinking "I wonder what the salmon want." I knew they liked egg patterns but I didn't want to deter from the streamer game. Slingin' meat is too much fun.

I worked my way up to a nice run and just knew a fish had to be in there. As I fished a couple other anglers started fishing right above me. Within the 4 hours of fishing that day I had other fisherman both above and below me fishing. Is this how they do it out east? As far as I'm concerned, the respectable thing to do is to walk well above or below and give other fisherman space. It made me kind of upset but I just tried to ignore it.

No fish came about in this spot either. I was starting to doubt there were fish here, or perhaps one of the other anglers already went through? I decided to head back and see what success Hugh had, or lack thereof.

He said he had a bite but, that was it. I then decided to head downstream and get away from the other anglers near the bridge. After an hour of slinging a variety of flies I finally caught a decent brown. It took Mikes trusty "muddy water worm" on a dead drift swing. I was hopeful it would have been a salmon but at this point I'd take anything.

This was the only fish brought to hand that day. Fishing a new river is always a learning experience, and this particular one humbled me. Just before I caught the fish I added a heavy split shot because I was thinking my flies were not getting deep enough. There's the saying "the difference between a good fisherman and a great one is one split shot." Perhaps this was the problem the entire day. The water was swift and deep and maybe I was not fishing deep enough. Regardless, it was a beautiful river and I'd be back again for round two. Hopefully next time, there wouldn't be other anglers.

Back at the parking lot another angler was gearing up and we sparked a conversation. He was a local guy and seemed to know how to fish this river. He showed me his fly box and what flies he uses for the salmon and brookies. I actually had tried the majority and humbly told him I had just caught the one brown. He stated that it can be tough and also mentioned all the anglers out here were most likely chasing the salmon run. He was also kind enough to provide some intel on a local river with "huge browns". Hopefully I can get out soon again and find those big boys. We just got 8 inches of snow yesterday but as long as the river is running, I'm all in.

Shrooms are still out