Red, White and Blue 4th. of July

Miller's River

What a great weekend we all had. The weather was perfect for some weekend fishing with the family and friends.. On Sunday we decided to head up to Athol, Mass. and fish the Miller's River. With cloudy skies and showers in the forecast it was a great day for blue wing olives and wets. My sister and her husband and grandchild met us up there. While the water flow was just perfect the temperature was starting to get summer warm which meant the bass were very active. I managed to bring to net a couple of brookies that were quickly released, on on the very much used and abused orange and partridge wet fly. Actually, by now the thing is partridge-less because it has taken such a beating from all the fish it has hooked into. I keep using it just to see how much longer it will work, so far so good!

 



Here is the red (maybe pink). One day that princess rod will turn into a two handed trout rod!!

Farmington River, New Hartford, CT.

Here is the white and blue.

On Monday we headed back up to our favorite river, the Farmington. We met up with Fred and Jerry, two of the coolest Spey Evangelicals you can ever meet! I have been taking lessons with them and their knowledge and patience makes it so much fun to learn this two handed casting. I consider myself very lucky to have met the two of them. Now if only I can download all their information a-la Keanu Reeves in The Matrix!!

The water here was much colder since it is released from a damn. The fish at the first spot we stopped at were extremely active but what were they taking? They were gently breaking the surface as the swallows were dive bombing any of the bugs that managed to escape the fish. It was great fun watching those birds. What was even more entertaining was watching them zero in on our flies as they floated down the riffles. The fish were very selective about what they wanted and we finally figured out it had to be a very small fly, cream colored and it had to have just about as perfect a drift as possible. I managed to land a really nice brown and had a monster rainbow on but he broke me off - I just hate that when that happens. 

Of course, if you have been reading my posts you should recognize Cleo, our fishing companion.

Another shot of the Farmington.

We eneded up taking a break for lunch at a local pizza joint over in Winsted, Ct. Not only is their pizza the best but the air conditioning is super cold. Rob and I will take our lunch break during the hottest and brightest part of the day before heading back out for the late afternoon / evening fishing fivolity. We were very lucky to be able to return to our spot after lunch. We were both rather surprised that no one else was in there. We met up with a couple of friends of ours and ended up fishing until 8:30. Rob landed a really nice brown trout that must have been 12" - 14" long. Beautiful fish! I had a couple of hits but was the only one not to land anything for the evening. The blue wing olves #20 were coming off like mad. There were also some black, tan and green caddis. Since the temperature was now in the 80's I decided to wet wade and was glad I did.

So far this summer has been just perfect. The weather has been very cooperative with enough rain coming just when you need it to keep the rivers and streams happy, not at all like last year when we went on a four month drought with temperatures soaring into the 90's. The fishing has been great as well. I steal away in the evenings with my little Dec Hogan and swing away bringing many a brookie in while at the same time getting some nice browns and bows.

Here's hoping everyone had a great July 4th. and many heart felt thanks to all of you in the military, both currently serving and retired. You all deserve a hearty standing ovation.