Merry Christmas

Hopefully everyone is sufficiently stuffed with good food and enjoyed the company of family and friends for the holiday weekend.  Temperatures have been falling into a more favorable range for ice to form and lock up the lakes and ponds throughout the New England states.  Unfortunately in the Portland, CT ten day forecast 3 of those days are showing rain rather than snow as the highs remain in the lower 40's and the lows hovering around the 30 degree mark.  We will have to wait and see what happens in the ice department, at any rate be careful if you choose to venture out on newly formed ice. 

Evan's 26in Broodstock

I was able to get out yesterday to the Shetucket River in Baltic, CT for a chance at brood-stock Salmon.  The best luck I have had at the Shetucket has come during the week of thanksgiving and early December.  The Salmon that are stocked are those that have run their breeding life span at hatcheries from Vermont, they run between 3 to 20lbs, with most being around the 5-7lb range.  There are special regulations for these fish which you can view the complete rules for through CT DEEP's website or the current 2011 fishing regulations guide.  To summarize the rules, the season runs from October 1st through March 31.  Angler's can fish a single fly (no tandem hooks) or a lure with a single free swinging hook (no trebles), and no additional weight can be added to the line above the lure.  The limit is one fish per angler per day after December 1st, catch and release only before December 1st.  Stocking reports are typically published in the DEEP's weekly fishing reports.  These fish are stocked from the Occum Dam in Norwich to the Franklin Dam in Franklin on the Shetucket River.  The fish do surface on occasion especially when hatches are going on which will let you know that they are in the area.  I recommend two lures, for a fly a white zonker minnow about 3" in length with a good sized bead head with silver and red tinsel drifted deep or stripped fast.  For spinning gear a silver/ yellow egg sac casting spoon by Blue Fox cast against deep banks has also proven multiple fish days.  Another thing to keep in mind while fishing this river is the fact that Dam releases change the flow of the river on a daily basis.  Fast deep flows to barely moving water can be fished inside the same day.  Also if you begin fishing during slow water periods, expect a dam release during your outing and make sure you can get back to shore because the water rises quickly.

Broodstock Salmon on Fly

I was hoping to arrive around ten A.M. but my fishing partner's holiday schedule kept us off the water until 1:30PM.  The later arrival on this river makes being able to pinpoint the wade-able areas difficult.  Each side of the river, East and West banks are steep with slopes that rise well above the river basin. Because of this a late arrival to the river means you will be fishing in a constant shadow.  We fished a piece of the river where the Waldo Brook runs in on the East bank.  At the truck we decided to try the fly-rods, however once reaching the river itself the winds were quite strong and made casting difficult.  After half an hour of casting, we decided to move up river towards the dam and change our outfits to spinning gear.  We fished for another hour casting spoons and drifting them with the current.  The cold December water managed to find the leak in my waders which helped in my decision to call the unproductive day short.  A few other fisherman on the river also shared a fish-less day, but it was nice to get out on the water and at least gave us a shot to catch something.