Deerfield Report, 7/28-29 Midnight shift, and morning madness

**Dave** · 07-29-2007, 11:31 PM

I had a stunning time at the Deerfield last evening through this afternoon. The numbers weren't that stunning (7), but the quality was!

I headed out at 1:30 am, to start fishing at ca.3:00 am. I fished the deep pools right where Zoar and Rt.2 collide, below Pelham brook. Within an hour, I had landed one fat brown measuring 16' (with a HUGE girth), and a 14.5' rainbow, and 2 other strikes/hookups. I was fishing a large size 4 black sculpin pattern, that I tied with tons of black and natural colored dear hair. It resembled a thiner version of the Zoo Cougar, with a a large colar. Night fishing was AWESOME! Alain, I was using the TiCr, of course. I was fishing under an incredibly red-orange colored moon. . .awesome.

When sunlight came up, I continued streamers up at Fife dam, and walked about a mile downstream. I fished the same black cougar/scuplin in the thick riffles, and caught one more rainbow around 14', nothing huge. During this time, I kept walking dowstream every couple of casts, and hadn't been focussing on the surroundings. . .I looked up, and 60 yards downstream were two black bears, just sitting and watching. I slowly reeled up and headed the hell out, back upstream at the dam.

At around 8, I started nymphs, and caught 1 brook trout about 11', 1 very bright rainbow that was almost 15', and 1 Incredibly beautiful native rainbow that had a huge belly, and measured 16.5'. It went crazy, since it was caught in very shallow water. I'll have pictures up of her soon. Two caught on a very thinly tied bwo emerger, and the other caught on a charcoal/blue hare's ear. Three words: LONG NYMPH LEADERS! Deadly. Two other words: JASPER LEADER! More Deadly. Aaron, you would have been proud, I followed the recipe exactly, and had great success! And, with flourocarbon, of course.

By 10 am. the sun was out, and the water was released at the dam, from 125cfs to about 800. I was in the middle of the river, RIGHT below the huge dam, so I didn't have much time to prance back onto shore. The water was high within minutes, so I took out the streamer rod again, and fished a size 2 flesh colored leach pattern (with a hint of red in the mid-body, which caught one last brown that absolutely inhaled it! AWESOME in high water! I also had LOTS of followers.

The numbers weren't astounding by any means, but what made this day great for me was the fact that all fish were caught on flies/streamers that I had just tied the day before. I'm particularly happy about the new sculpin pattern. It is great to be tying again.

ALSO, I met a great guy on the river this morning, his name was Dave also. He also had a good morning out, and we had a long conversation about a lot of fly fishing related stuff. . .so I immediately told him about TPO, and he said he would try to sign on tomorrow! Great guy, knew the river well, and was extremely generous to give me three streamer patterns of his. I hope definitely hopes he joins the site. Dave, if your out there, thanks again, and hope to see you soon!

**Troutfishing4life** · 07-30-2007, 10:45 PM

sounds like a great night into the morning of fishing

Mike

**JUICE** · 07-31-2007, 12:49 AM

Dave,

Sounds like a killer day. Thanks so much for sharing such a cool report. How far is the Deerfield from NYC? I would like to try it out sometime this fall. That Jasper nymph leader is deadly. It's so hard for me to take it off because I never catch as many on anything else. Love it. Thanks for sharing TPO with the local folks. Do you have a sticker. I would be happy to give you a bunch so you can pass them along to people you meet on the stream, and tag up your car. Cheers buddy!

**trout5** · 08-02-2007, 05:42 PM

Way to spread the word Dave and nice job on the fishing you hard-core son of a gun!

**Dave** · 08-05-2007, 09:40 PM

Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun. In fact, I'm hoping to leave for the river again in a few hours, TPO style! The flows are perfect.

The Deerfield is about 3 hours from NYC, or 1.5 from Boston. Man, I'd love a sticker, I think a lot of people would notice it up there. I've been spreading the word like mad, so I hope those who are interested join in the site. A lot of great conversations have been a result of mentioning the site. Anytime you want to check the D-field out, I'd love to take you. It really offers a lot of different kinds of pools, riffles, and everything else. Some pools are incredibly deep. The best part of it is the fact that most all of it is wadable, and perfect for fly fishing (with enough peripheral space to cast, etc). The flows change often, which really gets the fish everywhere. There really are fish everywhere, I'm always surprised.

By the way, I love the new TPO gear, I'm definitely ordering a few t-shirts and hats. Thanks for the vise advice guys.