Dr. Gonzo
Stuck in my cabana, livin on bananas and blow.
I headed out on Saturday despite everyone else in the group deciding not to go and despite the rains because, when you need to fish you just need to.
I picked the Norwalk River as the first stop because it was one of the closest places that I actually knew would produce a few fish regardless of the high water and because it put me in the vicinity of a Class 1 WTMA that according to the CT DEP holds wild brookies. I figured at the very least the flows in the small stream would be decent and I could convince some of those little guys to take a dry fly here and there.
I hit one spot on the Norwalk and had a 13" recently stocked brown on the second cast. The fish clobbered an Olive Woolly bugger. As I worked my way through some familiar runs and riffles I had a couple of bumps and missed strikes before I snapped my tippet on a back cast and had no more woolly bugger. I got a nice, fiesty 15" rainbow on a BHPT nymph that I tied myself (still a cool feeling!). The fish jumped once and actually took a run on my loose drag so it was enough to get the adrenaline up.
By around noon I started to notice that I was getting soaked, and that the flows had come up a few CFS. In those conditions there really weren't that many places to fish and I had covered a decent amount of water so I hopped in the car and drove to the WTMA.
I'd never fished this place before so I wasted a lot of time trying to fish the lower section which is essentially an meadow choked with impenetrable brambles and lots of low brush. I found a couple of deep runs and pools but couldn't get any strikes. I moved upstream where it turned into a beautiful woodland brook but still didn't have any luck. I am hoping there are some fish in there but I really didn't see any signs of them, even after I started wading through likely lies to see if I spooked anything. I'll head back there at some point and try some different spots but the experience left me wondering if the CT DEP website was wrong about this being a Class 1.
I picked the Norwalk River as the first stop because it was one of the closest places that I actually knew would produce a few fish regardless of the high water and because it put me in the vicinity of a Class 1 WTMA that according to the CT DEP holds wild brookies. I figured at the very least the flows in the small stream would be decent and I could convince some of those little guys to take a dry fly here and there.
I hit one spot on the Norwalk and had a 13" recently stocked brown on the second cast. The fish clobbered an Olive Woolly bugger. As I worked my way through some familiar runs and riffles I had a couple of bumps and missed strikes before I snapped my tippet on a back cast and had no more woolly bugger. I got a nice, fiesty 15" rainbow on a BHPT nymph that I tied myself (still a cool feeling!). The fish jumped once and actually took a run on my loose drag so it was enough to get the adrenaline up.
By around noon I started to notice that I was getting soaked, and that the flows had come up a few CFS. In those conditions there really weren't that many places to fish and I had covered a decent amount of water so I hopped in the car and drove to the WTMA.
I'd never fished this place before so I wasted a lot of time trying to fish the lower section which is essentially an meadow choked with impenetrable brambles and lots of low brush. I found a couple of deep runs and pools but couldn't get any strikes. I moved upstream where it turned into a beautiful woodland brook but still didn't have any luck. I am hoping there are some fish in there but I really didn't see any signs of them, even after I started wading through likely lies to see if I spooked anything. I'll head back there at some point and try some different spots but the experience left me wondering if the CT DEP website was wrong about this being a Class 1.
