I had planned on fishing NJ today, but some awful early traffic foiled my plans (sorry about that Nick). Instead of that, I made a big right turn North and headed to the Housatonic. I haven't fished here much lately, but, as expected the nymphing was off the charts. I fished solely outside the TMA and also tried to avoid all of the rainbows that were stocked there. I have nothing against the bows, but after you've caught a lot, you must diversify. As on the Farmington, my quarry was wild brown trout, and I am happy to report that I found some (quite a few).

They were all fat and well-fed with perfect fins and the "blue dot." The red spots all have the whitish halo like the ones from NY. They were all like this one

or this one

and some were much smaller, and had parr marks! This is a good sign for the river. I was just talking to Brookie and he remarked that these fish may be born in the tributaries, but find their way to the main stem. I have fished the Hous for many years, but never really carefully fished the shallow riffles where the small wild fish reside until now. This is another eye-opener for me.

I was just talking to Torrey. He says that the state also stocks fingerling browns in certain areas of the river. Perhaps these fish I caught are just fingerlings that have grown up. Whatever the case, they certainly look and act like wild fish.