Farmington TMA 7/25/2008 - good fishing, lots of walking

Heavy D,

How have you and Kierran been making out? The fishing has been a lot slower than it was before I left on my trips to AR and MT. Are you finding the same thing? I think many of those fish that we were getting in the winter-May are now eating the abundant parr and are not showing in the catches. We got a water temp of 68 in the TMA Thursday, I am sure the trout are a little shocked with that as well. They aren't used to stuff like that, they are spoiled!

Also, has anyone seen any ISO's there lately? I have only seen a handful at best.

Bob,

Are you sure that fish isn't from Lake Ontario? We will call that fish "fat bastard"!

Slo-

I too had many days with multiple fish over 18", but again, no 20" fish, but quite a few in the 19-19 1/2" range. The ones I caught from Jan thru April looked pretty good, and then after they stocked the 2 Year Olds in April I caught some of those- great coloration, but the fins were a giveaway.

For the record, after attending Fisheries Advisory Committee meetings a few times, I can tell you that the DEP says that the majority of 20" + or larger trout in the TMA are either Survivior Strain trout stocked as Yearlings, or fish of wild origin. The biggest they shocked in '07 was a 23"+ beauty that I would bet anything was wild, and they had the same opinion.

Is a 20" brown out of the Farmington the same accomplishment as on the Housy? In my opinion, no, although ironically enough I've caught more 20" holdovers out of the Housy over the years. My biggest CT trout, my biggest Rainbow, my biggest holdover CT trout, and my biggest on a dry fly all came from the Farmington. The Rainbow was an 8#+, 27" breeder that you photographed for me (thanks!), and the 23" holdover brown (she was beautiful...) ate an Iso dry in the open water outside of the TMA.

I haven't personally caught many 20" holdover trout out of the Farmington, but I treasure the ones I did, and they were absolutely beautiful. I'm 98% sure one was wild, he had perfect fins the size of big potato chips, and not a hook mark on him despite living in a well-fished pool.

For all the trout Aaron caught out of the Farmington this season, he's only caught a handful of 20" HOLDOVER browns (with most right at 20"), and only one that cracked your magic 22" mark. He had 2 Bows over that, but both were breeders. As Heavy D stated, 20" is still a very magic number there. How many 22" fish have you caught there Slo?

I guess I will chime in too. During 2008, I have only caught two Farmington trout that tied or exceeded the magic 20" mark. One was a 21in male, massive kype, giant fins. No marks on that fish and I could swear it was wild. I caught this one in an out-of-the-way spot. The other fish was 20 right on the "nose," as gauged by the opening on the Pere Marquette net. This one was in a heavy traffic area.

Here's another interesting fact I have noticed: the big ones seem to be in pairs. I followed the 21in fish with a 19in female, also spotless with big fins (BLACKGHOST1 saw that one). When I was fighting the second 20in fish, another one was swimming alongside it. A week later, I got that one too, on the same fly in the same location.

On Friday, when Aaron and I were sight-fishing, he hooked up with the big male. Right after the hookup another larger fish was swimming alongside it! This fish spooked before I could unhook my fly from the hook keeper.

Like Torrey, I have been lucky to catch many trout this year in the 17-19in range. You can definitely tell the 2008 survivor strain fish from the others, although they are roughly the same size. The survivor fish have reddish beat-up fins.

I still consider the 20in fish to be magic - it just doesn't happen that often, at least not to me. If I was hard-core night fishing, perhaps I could slide the bar up to 22in.

[quote author=alanb_ct link=topic=1934.msg13506#msg13506 date=1217207542]
I guess I will chime in too. During 2008, I have only caught two Farmington trout that tied or exceeded the magic 20" mark.
[/quote]

Two this year alone, by one fisherman. Thanks, You've made my point.

2 for how many times fished there? He goes twice a week or more! I would qualify 20" inches as big there given two fish over 20" in over 30 trips to the river. If one landed multiple 20 inch fish on every outing then there would be room to say let's move up the size! However, maybe next year we will have to re-qualify the "big trout status" on the Farmington. ;)

I agree, when 20 inchers become commonplace for most good anglers, then we can move the bar up to 22". That hasn't happened yet. One out of hundreds still qualifies as an exceptional trout to me. How often have you caught 20" trout there? Of the non-breeder variety.

Hey, let's change the name of the website to "RatPredator.com", what do you guys think? Would you like that Slo?

well here is another little brown..


http://i312.photobucket.com/albums/l...3/P7180520.jpg

Leonard, you are a nut. White River system trout don't count in this discussion! I think there the "bar" is 30" or 10#, whichever comes first!

Kierran-
I tell you, my rule of thumb is knock 3" off if it is a lenth estimate rather than an actual measurement. I have many times in the fly shop measured a net or rod for a customer who measured it against a big trout, and it almost always is 3" shorter than when I make them guess the length.

Funny story. I was in Boneyard 10+ years ago, and a certain well known Farmington ultra light dry fly guy was playing what was obviously a nice fish, and he was whooping & hollering, following it down the pool while he played it on his 2 weight. When he netted it, I could see it was a chunky 'Bow, and he said " It must be 18 or 19 inches, and about 3 1/2 pounds." I said "Would you like me to measure & weight it for you?", and he replied yes. The outcome? The fish, which I'm sure within a week would have been a 20 inch plus, 4# fish, actually turned out to be 16", and went 2 1/4#- a very chunky trout for sure, but far from the 19" 3 1/2 pounder he thought it was. And this from an older, experienced guy. People are just really, really bad estimators. And of course, some just exaggerate or lie. But I think most people have hardly ever weighed or measured many fish in their lifetime. I could give you a multitude of stories like that, but I think you all get my point. I put an adhesive measuring tape on my rod butt sections to keep my honest.

I guess in the end, we all have our own personal idea of what's big, and it varies from one river to another. Over the years, my definition of big has gone up. It's all relative though- a 12" wild brookie from the tiny waters I used to fish was a true trophy and one of the biggest fish there, but a 5# brown from a lake Ontario tributary in November is only average.

I realize the "magic number" is river-specific.

I guess it is also fisherman-specific.

You're welcome to lower the bar if you wish.
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To answer your question:

I have no 20 inch fish this year - on any river.