Post Flood Fishing

Sorry I am not writing quite as much... been busy with a new job! I promise to get more prolific as I get into the swing of things...

Passable, but just barely... Rt 12A

Anyway, I did have an article posted up on the Orvis News Blog about the impacts of floods on fish. Check it out here:  http://www.orvisnews.com/FlyFishing/Survival-After-the-Floods.aspx
You might be surprised what you find out! 

Fishing has been pretty good recently. The trout populations definitely survived the storm in my neck of the woods. Kurt Budliger and I got out on Sunday for what we agreed was the stupidest day of trout fishing either of us had ever had. And a true driving adventure on top of that... The folks at the Roxbury hatchery are encouraging people to get out after the massive number of fish that were flushed out of their facility during the floods. These include some 2 year old brook trout. They are all in the upper part of the Third Branch of the White River. 

I was pleased at the composition of this one!

Kurt's remark "This is like fishing at a hatchery, oh wait..." really holds true. We worked pods of 100s of fish. Yes, it was cheating, but no question it was fun. The biggest challenge was getting your fly down through the dozens of smaller fish to get to the larger ones underneath. It was a blast. Conservatively I would say that each of us caught 100 fish and if we were just going for numbers we could have caught more on smaller flies. The biggest brookie of the day was 14" and there were numerous 12" and 13" fish. They looked great- Roxbury produced some amazing pond raised brook trout.

Gorgeous brookie Kurt.. catch any more?

I am not one to go out after hatchery fish frequently or to tell folks to do that, but this fishery cannot handle the influx of 70,000 fish. Go up there with some kids and catch fish. That is what it is, not fishing, its catching. Email me if you want directions. There is no simple route and you will need some help. But bring a couple of kids. They will have fun.

Last night I went out with the intention of getting into some trout, but I found another one of my favorite species and could not pass it up. White suckers were on the feed and I was on that like white on rice!  I got into two- sight fished no less. I watched ever second of 

Hey whitey!

the take and those things bolted like they were on fire! Each one of them had the reel spinning on my 5 wt. I certainly can't complain about that and both of them were over 19" so two more Master Class fish for me. I did see some nice trout too... maybe in the next day or two I will head back out and see about those...