Rain

It's amazing what a night of rain can do to liven up a small stream.  On Friday this stream was lower than I'd ever seen it and the fishing was very slow.  Today, after a nice rain overnight, the water was up and the fish were far more active.  Below are some of the ones that I caught, using the Bomber, Alan's BA caddis and the woodchuck caddis.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some more rain to raise the water level in more of these beautiful small CT streams.

Crisp pre-fall day

Alan and I hit the road very early yesterday to go to a new stream.  When we arrived the sun was still below the horizon and the air was cold.  After a short trudge through the forest and surrounding marsh (for lack of a more descriptive word, at the moment), we found the stream running clear and with a slight mist hovering over it.  As he said in his post (Small Stream Reflections), he went upstream and I went downstream.  While he states that I had more luck than him in the section that I visited, he's just being gracious.  One small pool (the first picture below) offered me five hook-ups, with 3 coming to hand.  Most of its residents were small, like the one pictured, eagerly smacking the Picket Pin.  Below that pool I didn't fare very well, in spite of covering some very nice looking water.  My catch of the day was the second brookie pictured below.  It also fell for a Picket Pin as it was drawn slowly upstream in the vicinity of the log visible in the next picture.  The bend pool was considerably deeper than most of the stream that I had just fished and therefore it didn't surprise me to find this beauty lurking in it.  That fish alone made my day.  If I could routinely catch wild fish that size I'd probably be permanently cheerful (and never go to work).

Some recent activity

While I haven't been posting lately, I've still been out looking for fish.  Although some of the pics below appear to show plenty of water flowing in the streams that I have visited, in reality they are low and in need of replenishment.  The recent rain didn't make a dent in the water level of the stream that I fished yesterday.  In its upper stretches the water was so low that I didn't even try.  I reckon that the last thing its residents need is fishing pressure from me.  I hope we have a reasonable wet fall.