West Branch Report

The gauge at Walton was down to 300CFS so the water was looking pretty decent tonight. It was still a little cloudy, but any clearer probably would just make the approaches harder at this point. As the weather has been a bit cooler as well, I was hoping the conditions would be ideal for a good night on the water.

JBP and I didn't get out to the river until after 6pm so we missed the afternoon hatches and surface activity was pretty much non-existent until dusk. I puttered around with a nymphing rig (light cahill dry above a gold-ribbed hare's ear) for a bit, but only managed a couple of chubs on that. Once dusk came on, things started picking up as there was a solid hatch of light cahills in about a size #14 coming off of the riffles.

I managed to land a couple of small browns, one on a mahogany dun and another on a light cahill, in the fast water and had at least one nice fish throw my fly. The prize of the night came at dark when a 17" brown gently slurped my cahill from a current seam leading into a large, slow eddy. At first it swam right towards me and I thought it was a smallish chub, but once it got a look at me, the fight was on. Thanks to JBP for manning the net and helping me land it. You shall have your reward, grilled with Lawry season and bacon!

West Branch Report

Happy Solstice!

I woke up early this morning, something I don't normally advocate unless absolutely necessary, and made it down to Hamden in time to get on the water before the sun hit it. The water level was down and easily wadeable at just over 400 CFS at Walton, but the water was still very turbid. Insect activity was pretty low and the rises came only sporadically. Rather early on, I caught a pretty little brown on a rusty spinner, but that was about it. A second fish was rising, but it wasn't interested in the spinner or any of the other flies I drifted over it.

After a dozen different flies with no success, I decided to move on and do some prospecting. No other fish were rising that I saw so I tied on an Adams wet fly and started moving. Aside from an occasional chub and other small brown, I didn't have much luck. Around 10AM I was working my back to where I started the morning and noticed the same fish was still feeding in the same spot. At this point, the only thing I hadn't tried was nymphing, mostly since it's one method with which I'm not particularly comfortable. Basically on a whim I set up a nymphing rig with a light cahill on top and a hare's ear nymph about 2 feet below that. There were some nymphal shucks drifting by so it seemed like a decent idea.

The first experimental cast caught a large chub on the hare's ear. Not feeling all that optimistic, I decided to go after the fish that had been thwarting me all morning. Two casts later, I had the drift right and and a beautiful 15" brown hit the hare's ear. The hare's ear was deadly and landed a ton of chubs and few more small browns and the light cahill, tied with calf hair wings, was perfect on top. Highly visible, it floated like a cork and survived plenty of dunkings and snap-t's without needing to be retreated.

About when I was ready to depart, I noticed another fish rising in a small eddy. It took me a bit to creep over to within casting range, but once there, the first cast drifted past the edge of the eddy. I nearly jumped out of my skin as a large brown came clear out of the water to smash the cahill. Unfortunately, it quickly threw the hook and I figured that was that. Before leaving I decided to try another pass at the eddy and a second fish hammered the cahill as soon as it hit the water. This one I managed to land; another 15" female.

All in all, it was a fantastic way to spend the last morning of spring.