Connecticut - A Great Fly Fishing State! April 24, 2015

I feel so fortunate to have access to such great fly fishing opportunities here in Connecticut.  Last couple of weeks I've been hitting a lot of small streams for trout.  Most have very little fishing pressure and the results have been very good.  The hot fly has been "Torrey's Bead Head Hare's Ear". 

This fly has been magic for me this spring.  So I've been having some great times Trout fishing but the lower Housatonic has been stuck in the "Winter" mode with very cold air and water temps.  Boat fishermen have been hitting nice pods of fish, spin fishermen have landed some nice fish, but wading fly fishermen have not done well this spring.  Well the past few days the river has finally turned on for us fly guys.  In fact the whole river has turned on.  Conditions have been miserable.  Last night after work I went to the river mouth.  It was sleeting, hailing, snowing and raining.  As I was putting on my waders there were wind gusts from 30-35 miles per hour.  4-5 cars full of anglers turned around and went home, not even bothering to get dressed.  I met up with Internet Fishing Star "Bear" Cochrane.  "Bear, in all our years of fishing this has to be one of the worst weather conditions we've ever experienced."  "How many times throughout the years have we had great fishing days when the weather's been miserable."  Had to give it a try.  We walked out to the river mouth with one spin fishermen.  He lasted all of 5 minutes and headed back to his car.  It was just us two crazies left out in the river.  10 minutes later, with unbelievable winds blowing in our faces, Bear and I started hitting fish on virtually every cast.  No keepers, but some really strong fish just in from the ocean.   I got tired of catching fish.  In fact when we left, the bite was still on.  My fingers were numb from the cold and suffering from my first case of "Striper Thumb" this season.  How fortunate are we CT guys to have primo trout fishing opportunities and such a great striper fishery.  And "Oh by the Way", fishing with a friend is the best.

Internet Fishing Star "Bear" Cochrane

with Housy Stripers