Toms River Report 10/10

[tommyboyNJ]

Stayed close to home today. Had a nice morning with the family and them stopped by to fish a local stretch of the Toms. I have never fished this river and was a little apprehensive as Im still green to fly fishing and I know this is a challenging river. Got to the area around 3pm. As I walked in two bait guys where leaving. We exchanged pleasantries. The had been there a few hours without even a bite and hadn't seen any fish etc.

I decided to venture down stream and work my way back up fishing to undercuts etc with a streamer. On my walk I was amazed to see several fish hanging behind a small submerged branch in no more than 6 inches of gin clear water. Save spooking them I continued down stream in the hope of meeting them again on the way back up.

As I expected fishing was VERY challenging. Little to no area to even roll cast etc but I stuck to my plan and just chucked the streamer out and let is swing along the dark water along the banks.

About half way up I approached a small pool and threw the bugger i was using into it and let the current swing the fly as the line tightened. about 5 cast in I hooked up to this nice little rainbow. A stockie yes, but the knowing that I had taken it on a fly when the bait guys had failed was a pleasant feeling. I also noticed some sporadic bug activity and managed to capture some kind of Mayfly. I understand that there is a limited number of mayfly species on the Toms. From a quick Google search I think it was a summer sulphur. Would this type of mayfly be in the Toms? All in all, a fun couple of hours spent fishing and home in time to say good night to my daughter and have dinner with my wife.