Farmington Report; Sunday July 8
Fished the river again yesterday from 3-9pm. Wow, what crowds! Kayaks, canoes and fishermen alike. Most were quite courteous, but I did finish the night with a fellow (I noticed he had a NY plate) barely 30 feet downstream from me, and he was constantly casting to my fish...I kept my cool, there were too may fish to be had.
Hatch-wise I saw large and small sulfurs and Olives, a few Isonychia and a few Potamanthus. The heaviest hatch was of the size 18 sulfurs (dorothea) after about 8pm. This year has produced the best sulfur hatch we have seen in a while. There were many rising fish, but all quite challenging. You must fish at least a long section (4ft) of 6X or even smaller. It was a real free-for-all during the heavy hatch, fish rising and even the mallards feeding on the bugs. A beaver came to investigate too. Mosquitoes were not bad at all.
You must be creative with your fly selection, try everything. I missed a bunch and my buddy broke one off, but we both landed quality fish. My best fish came to a size 20 rusty spinner. I only caught one salmon parr and did not see a lot of small splashy rises.
Re: Farmington Report; Sunday July 8
Thanks for the report, Alan.
I am glad I wasn't the fellow from NY crowding you, but am sorry that I am a fellow from NY who wasn't fishing the Farmington last night.
When I was there the weekend before, the trout during the 3:30 pm dorothea hatch didn't mind my 5X. These were larger fish than those I could catch in the after-8pm dorothea and olive hatches--those little guys wouldn't take my fly until I went down to 7X. Lucky for me it wasnt' the other way around: I didn't break any fish off.
On my local tailwater, the East Branch Croton, I haven't seen a bug other than midges in the last week, yet am still able to take the "sippers" in slow water. Glad to hear you still have hatches to match!
