Nymphmeister on Farmington 11/3 & 11/4

**Nymphmeister** · 11-04-2008, 11:15 PM

I did my civic duty today (voted!), and I went fishing- who's better than me? Lol.

The afternoon started out frustrating- I came up empty at the first spot, and then every spot I went to had one or more anglers right where I wanted to be. Grrrr. After swearing up a storm to myself, I decided to stay out of the TMA for the rest of the afternoon- turned out it was a good decision. I'll let the photos do most of the talking, the first one is of my best fish yesterday, hammered a brown leech, it stretched my ruler to 19 1/2", a pretty female trout decked out in Fall colors:

And the irresistable streamer in her mouth:

I fished the rest of the afternoon and ended up with 4 nice fish, a mix of 'Bows & Browns- most of the trout were truly beautiful, esp. a 16" rainbow I neglected to photograph but should have.

Day 2:
Started out slow, but with a bang on my first fish- finally hooked & landed a 20" fish on the Farmington this year. I was overdue- caught more damn 19"-19 3/4" fish than ever in '08, but this was the first 20 incher I landed there this calendar year. Check out the big mouth & nasty hookjaw. Nice male, colored up, stocky & well fed- but it hardly fought. I'll still take it though

. Here's a couple pix of him:

If you look closely in the pictures, you might be able to see the fly that deceived him hooked in his lower jaw. Hint- it was round & yellow... a.k.a. the brown trout emerger, Lol.

After a very slow morning, I only had that one beauty to show for my efforts. I pricked some others, missed some, and 1 threw the hook. I even fished a tandem streamer rig on a sink-tip to no avail in 3 different sections- not even a bump or flash. Early afternoon now, I covered a few hundred yards and decided to move and try a favorite spot I hardly fished at all this year. Isn't it pretty?:

Turned out to be a good decision. Stuck with the nymphs & thorougly worked the water..... another 10 trout later, all out of one run, and I was a very happy guy. Here are a few of the willing "victims":

The best one out of this spot was a lanky 17 1/2" female, she was scrappy though:

Hard to see in this photo, but there is a blue dye mark/elastomer tag behind her left eye- stocked April '06?

I was suprised to see this late season #14 Iso, prob the last one I will see this year:

A late lunch at 3:30, and then back into the water at 4:15 for one last spot. Picked up 4 & missed quite a few hits. Landed a 4-5" brown just before dark. Wild? I'd like to think so, but it's hard to say when the CT DEP dumps so many fry & fingerling browns in tribs that empty into the Farmington.

All in all, a very satisfying 2 days on the Farmington.

alanb_ct · 11-04-2008, 11:53 PM

Very nice, thanks for the awesome photo essay. I really like the photo of the big male and the lanky female, so pretty. Also, thanks for the scenary pictures-that is something I should do more often, especially in the fall. Glad you made the most of the excellent fishing!

**Nymphmeister** · 11-05-2008, 12:05 AM

Thanks for the compliments Alain, I actually kinda modeled this post after your nice photographic essays of your fishing trips. It's time consuming!!!

Scenics are nice, as long as you don't give up any secret spots that need to be protected.

Oh, and thanks for the tip, or I prob wouldn't have gone to the spot where I nailed the big male.

I must have caught trout on at least 6 different nymphs today, maybe more- the fish seemed willing to eat a variety of flies, as long as they were presented well. Probably extra hungry now that spawning is mostly behind them. And of course, most days presentation trumps pattern anyway.

**BLACKGHOST1** · 11-05-2008, 01:20 PM

Looks like you had a great two days of fishing. Nice pic of the open jaw on the big male. I bet you that guy ate a few salmon parr. That fish looks nice and fat.

**Nymphmeister** · 11-05-2008, 10:10 PM

Any time I'm catching 19"+ holdovers out of public water in CT, I'm a happy guy. And 20" is the elusive magic mark, it's what I personally consider a trophy trout in our neck of the woods- I'm talking a legitimate 20 incher of course, not "it looks about 20". Those non-measured 20" trout are usually 17-18" when they are actually taped. You can see the rod rule sticker on my rod- it keeps me honest. We sell those at the fly shop BTW.