Early on in my fly fishing pursuits I found myself releasing my 14th trout in two hours of fishing the Connetquot River. I felt good about this until a man walked by claiming to have caught 50. He’d grown bored, he said, and was going home early. Adding insult, he scooped a dip from his lower lip and flicked it into the water, where a trout rose to meet it. The Connetquot River has been described as Long Island’s blue ribbon trout stream, a once private fishing club turned into a pristine State Park with an on-site hatchery that stocked it with kamloops rainbows, brooks and browns. Some of the fish held over and reproduced, creating a small wild population, and some below the…
Posts tagged “trout”
Standing in hip waders casting to rainbow trout from the truck. Snapping the neck and sliding one into the creel. Knowing that by June the water will warm until they can no longer stand it.
Tagged: put and take, stocking, trout
The genteel trout anglers take aim at one another in this PDF of a New York Times book review from 1914: An Expert’s Reply to a Criticism of the Dry-Fly Method With Some Pertinent Comments
Last year I liberated my dad’s old Horrocks-Ibbotson fiberglass fly rod from a dusty corner of the boat shed. [I'd say "borrowed" but that implies the intent to return it.] Since then it has become my favorite stick for trout fishing. I’m pretty sure it was a low end rod in its day, but it just has a great feel to it for trouting applications. Plus, at only 7 1/2 feet, it’s much easier to wield on the small brush lined streams I frequent before the stripers show up. I’m having a hard time finding quality information about the manufacturer, though. So far this is the most relevent link I’ve found. If anyone knows more about the company and its rods, shoot me an…
Tagged: brown trout, fiberglass fly rod, Horrocks Ibbotson, Mohawk Deluxe, trout
Tell me who said this, who he said it to, and when and I’ll send you my hardcover review copy. First correct gets it done.* You’re not an idiot. Huh! You’re not a goddamn looney now, boy. You’re a fisherman! *Last time I did this someone answered in about 30 seconds, so I’m not trying to generate traffic or anything, just giving someone a book.
Tagged: fools paradise, Gierach, trout
Buster Wants To Fish reports the story of a European corporation’s efforts to hijack a Chilean river, and of the grass roots efforts to stop it.
UPDATE: The Caddis Fly has an post about stocking and Oregon steelhead. And Fly Talk has an article on breeding and stocking whirling resistant rainbows. If I want to fish for trout within an hour’s drive of my house, I have to fish stocked waters. Actually, almost every accessible stream within reason is stocked at some point in the season. It’s a fact of life. It’s usually easy to tell how long a trout has been in the stream by how it reacts to a fly. If it’s fresh out of the hatchery it typically blasts just about anything that drifts or swims by it, regardless of presentation. When it is hooked, it doesn’t know what to do at first, probably thinking along the…
Tagged: Fly Fishing, trout
I took a late afternoon trip to the Connetquot River on Long Island yesterday. The rules have changed since they discovered a virus at the hatchery this winter. For one, the use of chest waders and felt-bottomed boots is prohibited. There is limited wading on the river below the hatchery, but only in hip waders. (Very few people can wear hip waders without looking ridiculous, and odds are you are not one of them.) I’ll put up the official new rules in a future post. What else has changed? The days of retarted meat slab fishing (or hero fishing, depending on your perspective) appear–at least for the time being–to be over. The park is still stocking the river, but you can no longer approach…
Tagged: connetquot river, Fly Fishing, trout
