Memorial Day weekend

I wanted to fish and test a new camera (Canon ELPH 100 HS) before the lousy weather comes in so I got up this morning and headed to a favorite brook.  While the water temp of the stream was still reasonable (60 deg F), it was clear that it is was desperately in need of replenishment (i.e. rain).  I started fishing with a slightly modified version of Alan's red Picket Pin (bright orange thread) and had a fair number of strikes, but only landed a couple small brookies.  I switched to the Bomber and Usual dry flies to try something different but found that only the smaller residents of the brook showed any interest.  On the walk back downstream I tied on the simple emerger/dry pattern that I've mentioned before and with that I was able to fool the larger brookie pictured below.  Not a bad day on the water, but an influx of new water would certainly help perk up the residents.

A little luck before the downpour

Traveling around looking for river herring for the DEEP has, not surprisingly, enabled me to observe other fish that inhabit the streams to which these anadromous species return for spawning.  On occasion I see one of our favorite little denizens (trout) and make a mental note to return there some day and see if any are willing to be caught and photographed.  I finally went to one of those streams and was able to catch and release two sizable brookies using BRK TRT's red Picket Pin.  Although they are probably stocked fish, at least they cooperated and provided some excitement just before the late afternoon downpour.  This stream is smack dab in the middle of a beautiful CT River town and clearly has a few fish in it.

Brookies of a different color

As BRK TRT (Small Stream Reflections) recently posted, the fish in this stream are quite dark due to the tannin content of the water that they live in.  While I caught a reasonable number of fish today while I was at the stream, I am only posting the two largest brookies.  One fell for a modified Gartside Sparrow, while the other pounced on an emerger/dry fly pattern that I recently saw online.  Both fish were caught in the same pool (picture 3).  The second fish was missing part of the operculum on both sides.  I have no idea what the cause was, but the fish was very healthy and spunky.

I have dropped my camera in the water twice this spring and in spite of my resuscitating it with dessicant each time I think that the metering system is no longer functional.  I shot these pictures with the camera set on vivid, and quite frankly, they stink.