The Farmington

This story is about my fishing trip to the Farmington River in Connecticut, but like so often with me it begins with a baseball story.

Several years ago I was sitting with Dave Valle, a former Major League catcher, in the stands of an amateur field in San Pedro de Macoris, the Dominican Republic. The DR, and San Pedro de Macoris more particularly, have become famous because it is where the Big Leagues is finding many of its biggest talents.

I sat there innocently watching what I took to be a typical baseball game, but Dave was seeing more than I could ever see by scanning the field pitch-by-pitch, movement-by-movement.  He was a real professional taking in a scene he had seen and learned from hundreds if not thousands of times before. He noticed the first baseman out of position, and the batters tendencies and the foibles of the pitcher and the athleticism of middle infielder.

It was kind of like that fishing with my guide on the Farmington.  Shawn Britton stood waist-deep in the Farmington one morning this week absorbing in a flash 5-6 different hatches, fish rises, wildlife, my sorry casting, currents and wind direction. I was noticing one thing while he took in dozens of things. A true pro, and a nice guy as well.

We didn't catch any fish together, but my only regret is that I didn't set my rod down and just learn from him. He is the buggiest guy I've ever met. He could spot bugs all around him and then quickly match them with a fly in his box.

At one point he asked, as I was furiously casting, if I ever shook trees.  What he meant was do I ever take the time to shake a tree to see what insects will fall, thereby attracting fish. Why didn't I just set the rod down and go do that with him?  I would  have learned something. If you're lucky enough to book time with Shawn it's like enrolling in a fly fishing course. He knows these waters -- not just the currents and the rocks -- but the natural history and the cultural history -- like the back of his hand.

This was my first fly fishing experience on the East Coast. When I called a few fly shops in the Boston area to enquire about where to fish on my day off, the Farmington kept coming up as a top recommendation. It has brown and brook trout as well small Atlantic salmon that the federal government is trying to reintroduce.

There is a great book on fishing the Farmington at the Farmington River Anglers Association website. Shawn is one of the writers and editors.

I booked a room at the Old Riverton Inn, a historic, care-worn fishing lodge just across the lane from the Farmington. With its old bridges, colonial houses and white picket fences, this is a charming New England fishing experience.

The water was ice cold and clear in late June. The river is not wide and is very wadeable. The flows are good but not too swift.

The evening before meeting Shawn I caught a few small brown trout beneath the bridge just across from the Inn. And then in the afternoon after Shawn and I said goodbye I caught this nice brown trout swinging a fly at People's State Forest. This was my first decent brown trout ever -- about 12-13 inches. I was using one of Shawn's terrestrials -- a small black fly with white wings.

Earlier in the morning, as Shawn was giving me a tour of the river, we saw this beaver which you can see swiming from the left bank of the Farmington.

Side Trip to Red Brook
I wanted to mention that I stopped in Wareham, Mass, on my way to the Cape to check out a small fishery that Trout Unlimited has been excited about.  The local TU is reintroducing searun brook trout in the tiny, scenic brook which runs into Buttermilk Bay (just off Buzzards Bay). the section I walked is part of the Lyman Trust.

Find Red Brook road off the Cranberry Highway and you will find the reserve.

Check out this website for a description of the project to save this historic, endangered species of salters.



Woods Hole

My brother-in-law and I got up early this morning and hit the Cape Cod waters just off Woods Hole, Mass. Rob has fished Vineyard Sound and beyond since he was a kid, and has done some guiding here over the years.

Within minutes he put me over a school of feeding Bluefish. The sea birds were diving all around us so we knew there was bait in the area. I used my 8-wt Sage with a yellowish deceiver fly and about 16 lb leader and tippet. After a couple of casts I saw a fish rise to the surface. By the next cast I had my first Bluefish on a fly (see below). This blue was on the smaller end of the spectrum, but put up a nice fight.  The next one I played on the reel and the third snapped off the leader just at the boat.

After that we fished in the hole and in the surrounding islands but didn't find any stripers. The wind picked up to about 20 knots and we called it a day.  I felt fortunate to be on the water early on a Friday morning.



Father's Day Trout

A month ago I wrote about a rainbow I caught on Mother's Day on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie. Today I caught a Father's Day rainbow on Lake Bennington in Walla Walla with my son.

After his baseball tournament in the Tri-Cities, we drove to Walla Walla to watch our Sweets play a 5 pm game against the Portland Lobos. At the end of the game we played catch, and then I drove to Mill Creek to cast the flyrod at sundown. Mill Creek was closed to fishing so we drove the 1.5 miles to nearby Lake Bennington.

I could see trout jumping and dimpling the surface.  After a few casts I noticed a moderate-sized rainbow swirling to my right. I cast the Hare's Ear a few times in the general direction and surprised my son with a quick catch.

"There it is," I said as I pulled him from the blue-grey water just after sunset.

Ryan snapped the photo below as I was casting.

The Skagit River

The Dolly Varden trout apparently earned its name in the 1870s when the name essentially meant fashionable. A naturalist of that era called it "the handsomest trout."

After a day of chasing Dollies with my guide Andrew Grillos on the Skagit River in north central Washington, I couldn't agree more. The fish is so pleasing to the eye that I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

I took this photo of my first-ever Dolly, taken on my 6-weight flyrod less than an hour into my all day float down the Skagit.

As memorable as it looks, the Dolly Varden may be even better remembered for its take.  The fish bent my rod to the cork and fought hard through a series of runs before being netted.

The Dolly Varden is a char and also known as a Bull Trout. They live in both fresh and salt water.

I took off work yesterday in order to really give myself over to learning a new river. I had intended to fish the Yakima, but with water levels rising Andrew suggested the Skagit, which had not occured to me. With his recommendation, I eagerly agreed.

The section of the Skagit I fished near Rockport is designated a Wild & Scenic River and is located just on the border of the North Cascades National Park. It is jaw-dropping beautiful and many miles away from cell phone coverage.

We anchored the boat in a shallow where the water was moving at about walking pace. I caught my first two on my own single-handed rod, an Orivs Access with floating line, a standard leader and some tippet.

With the glow of some early success, I bombed the banks as we floated to another stony bank where I got my first lesson in two-handed Spey casting.

Spey casting made sense to me immediately.  It felt comfortable and on a large river like the Skagit you want to cast larger Spey flies greater distances.

My set-up, which I will be assembling soon in order to continue my education, was an Echo 7-weight with Spey line called Skagit Compact 540 and a running line of Berkeley Big Cat 40 (Solar Collector Green) and a T8 sink tip by Rio. I used a Lamsen Light Speed 4 reel.  The leader is Maxima (2 feet of 20 pound followed by 2 feet of 12 pound). Andrew tied for me a black and blue maribou/ostrich Spey fly.

I don't yet know the distinction (perhaps I will write about it in a future post) between straight Spey casting and Skagit style Spey casting.  But I know there is a difference.  I cast both over the right and the left shoulder and worked on a couple different cast styles. I have to say that I enjoyed Spey casting more than regular casting and look forward to improving.

The results with a Spey rod were quite good.  I cast out into the current, walked a few steps downstream while it floated down and then waited for the fly to swing. A few takes were on the swing and others were at the bottom of the swing when I would strip in line once or twice.

I landed 8 very nice Dollies and hooked about 4 others that I didn't land. The largest was about 24 inches and the smallest was in the 18 inch ranch. These are strong, colorful, muscular fish that were really fun to pursue and quite attractive to admire.

Below is a stream flow chart that shows the rising and falling nature of the water level throughout a day due to water discharge from the Diablo Lake dam.

 

Touchet, Walla Walla

Last night, after fishing Big Four and taking in Opening Day of the Walla Walla Sweets, I wrote down the following list: Dayton, Lewis and Clark State Park, Waitsburg, Whitman Mission and a campground near the turnoff from US 12 on the way to Tri-Cities.

I was finding the fishing around Walla Walla to be so productive that I needed a bucket list to keep straight where I was going.  I followed the list exactly.

Today was fishing's Opening Day. Many rivers open on the first Saturday of June.

I got up early again and drove to Dayton, where the Touchet River cuts through the middle of town.  Some Opening Day. The wind was howling and the rain coming down steadily. I climbed down a steep riverbed and the wind most went away. I was well protected from the rain, and I was ready to fish.  I had an Elk Hair Caddis as a strike indicator and a beadhead Prince Nymph for a dropper. I saw several pools behind boulders, and within a few casts I was into some nice 11- and 12-inch rainbows. They were hungry and struck hard. I didn't bring them all to hand but they hit virtually ever cast.

Unfortunately, my camera had a smudge so pardon the photo above. This was typical of the fish I pulled up from behind boulders and in riffles. Very fun, very colorful and very strong fighers.

By mid-morning I left Dayton and headed for Lewis and Clark State Park which is between Dayton and Waitsburg. It's a beautiful setting, but I didn't get a bite. Seems the fish are more in the upper regions of the Touchet.

Waitsburg was also a bust. The Touchet cuts through the center of this little town as well but its really brushy and the water has few breaks. I barely bothered to cast. Onto the Walla Walla River.

Just past the Whitman Mission West of Walla Walla off US 12, I parked near the second bridge. the current was moving pretty swiftly. I walked up and down a stretch of the river, casting and high-sticking. Nothing.  I went to the other side of the bridge and saw this nice eddy behind the boulder in this photo.  I was using a Hares Ear and a Copper John but was not successful. I switched to a brown, white, black and olive Wooly Bugger. I let the current suck it behind the boulder a few times trying different retrieve speeds and action.

I felt a little take and tried it again. Bam! A very hard strick, the rod bent over and I saw the fish's silver side flash in the tea-green water.  A 17-inch, muscular Squawfish (northen pikeminnow) was the result. The northern pikeminnow is a Cyprinid, which is related to the great Indian Masheer, which I had wanted to catch on my recent trip to India. Despite the fish's undesireability, I was glad to cross another species off my list of fish caught on a fly.

I still need to fish the Tucannon and Mill Creek. My sense is that the fishing around Walla Walla is probably unappreciated.

Big Four

I am in eastern Washington today for Opening Day of the Walla Walla Sweets. Ever since the beginning of this venture, I've been curious about fishing in the area. Afterall, Walla Walla is a tribal word for waters.

I rose early and drove East of Walla Walla, past Dayton and into the Wooten Wildlife Area (which is also known as Wooten Game Park and Wooten Camp).  From Walla Walla through Dayton and out to Idaho is an ocean of beautiful rolling, agricultural hills.  There is no cell phone coverage once you leave Dayton.

Today is June 1, and tomorrow is the first Saturday of June which is when the rivers open for fishing. Even though I followed the trout and steelhead-rich Tucannon River for miles, it was off limits until tomorrow.

Instead, I decided to fish a flyfishing-only pond called Big Four Lake, which is located within the boundary of Wooten, and is also just inside the Umatilla National Forest. I had read an excellent primer on flyfishing in this region, and it had recommended this lake, which was perfect for today. Tomorrow, when rivers are open, I hope to fish one or more of the following before returning home: Walla Walla River, Touchet River, Mill Creek and/or the Tucannon.

The wildlife area is quite remote so make sure you have gas, water and food.  There is a grocery called Last Resort that opens around 9 am. It's friendly and has both fishing gear and groceries. There is a KOA campground there as well.

Once you are deep into the wildlife area you will start to notice campgrounds and some small ponds (they are called lakes).  Parking for Big Four is on the left side down in a ravine so you have to look carefully. Once you park, proceed through the woods to the Tucannon.  You must ford this stream (photo below) to find the lake on the other side. Had it been just a little higher and swifter I would not have attempted it. But I also saw some pretty old guys crossing the stream.

The lake is picturesque, and the fish were rising. It started off a little drizzly but the clouds cleared and it reached the mid-80s.  I immediately got into some small rainbows but they increased in size and strength of strike throughout the day.  It did slow down between 10 and noon but then picked back up until 2 pm when I left.

I fished a Foamulator (like a Stimulator) as a strike indicator. I trailed that with a Hares Ear, which worked well.  When things slowed I switched to an Elk Hair Caddis trailed by a beaded Prince Nymph.  Both were really fun.  I could see the larger trout find the indicator and either strike it or follow the nymph.  I really learned to sight fish for the first time.

Average size was 12-13 inches. I had one that was close to 20-inches.

This one (above) was 18-19-inches.