"Trout are wonderfully hydrodynamic creatures who can dart and hover in currents in which we humans have trouble just keeping our footing. They are torpedo shaped, designed for moving water, and behave like eye witnesses say U.F.O's do, with sudden stops from high speeds, ninety degree turns, such sudden accelerations that they seem to just vanish. They seem delicate at times but will turn around and flourish in conditions that look impossibly harsh. They like things clean and cold." - John Gierach
The Squannacook gave me two memorable trout close to 50 years ago. The spot was behind the Sterilite building in Townsend. Years ago it was not gated off and one could take a path to the river and go up or downstream as you like. Now it's a jungle of wader wrecking thorn bushes. This is where I took a 22 inch brown on a size 16 Blue Dun dry after spying and fishing for him for a month. It was a good fish but not the toughest. That prize went to a 14 inch brown that started hanging out under a overhead branch, about 100 feet above the home of the 22 inch brown, in June and was still
there in September. The overhanging branch hung about six inches above the stream surface which was where this trout called home. I never caught it but rose it twice that Summer and lost some flies on that branch.
The Millers gave me a memorable brown back in 1990. I fished for this trout at the Upper Trestle Pool from late May until mid October (I caught it on my birthday) and I totally thought it would pass the 20 inch mark. It had it's home next to one of the big rocks that will break the surface of that upper portion of the Pool. He rose all Summer and I finally took him with a size 14 partridge and orange. He was 14 inches at best but a very tough fish!!! I will not forget that trout. It gets me through the dark season.
The Swift
The Swift is still fishable but wait until the air temperature gets above 32 (less rod breaking ice in the guides). It also means that you don't have to be there at dawn but at a smart mid to late morning start.
Flies, Flies, Flies
Order your flies, especially your midge patterns, now while my inventories are good.
Ken
10 comments:
Hi Ken, I don’t fish much from late December through February. I try to avoid stinging fingers and frozen feet in favor of tying flies. During the Winter I can’t help but think about the ones that got away. You have a great fish on, maybe a personal best, maybe a state record but we’ll never know because it all ends with that sickening feeling of the line going slack. After denial comes anger, “Stupid Fish! I just wanted to take your @#$% picture”! Once I reach the stage of acceptance I’m thinking “that one is going to haunt me this winter”. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Dean F.,
We do this to ourselves because we love it. The ones that get away leave good memories.
Ken
This is a good thing, thinking of fish from the past :)
Two of my favorites were on the Millers. One was a 23" brown trout - this would have been late 80's or early 90's. My guess is 91. We had a thaw and the river was rolling pretty well, but it was February. I wanted to fish, and was a teen. So I drove over and started to toss a black muddleresque fly I'd tied up. I'd cast it, then swing it. There was no wading - it was rolling well and I was at the wasterwater plant in Orange. I only had one take, which turned out to be a 23" long brown - still my best on that river.
The second admittedly was not on a fly. I was fishing with a stickbait from a canoe, same area but in June or early July. I cast the lure past the big square rock in the middle of the river, and got a weird soft take. I got the fish in and was surprised to see a walleye. That was pretty memorable.
Some of my other favorite fish were from blue lines. Like a 14" brown on a blue line near home. Another favorite I have not caught yet, but know they exist... that is some browns in a nasty once industry clogged river near me. I know they are there... eventually, Ill get one!
One of my favorite memories...
I was fishing a good distance upstream from the Y pool on the Swift one summer afternoon. The action was slow but I knew there were trout lying in the deeper pools protected by the shade.
I had just cast a caddis nymph upstream when the rod was literally pulled from my hands. What
a tremendous hit! I never hooked the fish but never forgot the experience. For me, it's all about the strike.
Perk
Perk,
Sometimes the STRIKE is all that we have left but at least we have that memory.
Will,
It's been a while since I've heard of a walleye coming from the Millers. The Trestle Pool at the start of Farley Flats produced two back in the early 1990's that I know of. I'd love to land one!
Ken
Ken,
A great time of year to think back on big ones that got away. I have never netted an 18+ brown, but I sure have had some nice ones on where I couldn't seal the deal, most likely due to unforced error on my part or the brown somehow just knowing how to get off. It happens once or twice a year that I get surprised with what is on the end of my line. It sure feels good to have them on if only briefly. The power and will to get off is incredible.
Sam
Ken,
As you said, it doesn't have to be a big fish to be memorable, just difficult.
GW
Dear Ken,
Rather than individual fish, my most memorable trout are the native brook trout which I have caught in fifty years of fishing the streams near our family farm. Small but hardy survivors, these char seem to inhabit even the smallest coldwater tributaries in New York's Susquehanna and Delaware watersheds.
Toting fly rod, daypack, compass, and 10/22, I 'bluelined' much of the northwest Catskill wilds decades before the term was coined - and still do on occasion. Great memories!
-Mike
Mike,
I have memories of trout that live in streams that has never seen a hatchery truck and never will. So do you I bet!!
Ken
I think the ones that get away are the most memorable, but certain fish can stand out in our minds for a number of reasons, personal best size, gorgeous markings etc.
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