Farmington River Early August

**AaronJasper** · 08-09-2010, 02:01 AM

Farmington River Early August

I met up with Bob and Christophe at the Farmington River this morning. I must admit that at day 14 in a row, it’s getting harder to get up and go
The water is still cool at 58 degrees in the TMA this morning. There was also a light trico spinner fall with some [...]

http://flyfishingevolution.com/?p=606

**Duck-butt Chucker** · 08-09-2010, 05:08 AM

Roughly, out of every 100 browns caught in the Upper TMA what proportion would you say are wild?

**AaronJasper** · 08-09-2010, 09:01 AM

I really don't believe that any are wild.

If you look at streams like the Little Juniata, where they recently did a survey to see what the wild population was versus the stocked population, they clipped the adipose fin, which cannot grow back. In CT they use the rubber injected before their eye. These tags can and do fall out. When they look at the fish they are lumping in holdover trout into the wild category, simply because they have been in the river for quite some time.

This is not a slam on the CT fisheries biologists as they have been able to successfully implement a great brown trout fishery with excellent holdover rates due to selective breeding. They do a great job with that stream. But when I hear some estimates that say up to 35 percent of the browns in there are wild I am a bit skeptical to say the least!

**Duck-butt Chucker** · 08-09-2010, 09:26 AM

yea 35% is way too high...the only way I consider them wild is if they have that metallic blue cheek spot behind the eye and gill..i've never seen a stockie with that feature and every wild brown i've ever caught has had the same marking..i've never fished PA but i've read they use this same marking to distinguish wild from stocked/holdover browns so far this has been 100% for me even when they're holdovers in spawning colors with good fin conditions they still don't have that marking when they're not wild

**Clema74** · 08-11-2010, 10:24 AM

Hello Guys,

thanks to Aaron and Bob for making me discover the Farmington. It has been a very good day!
Hi to Keith I met too.

After you left guys, and the day after I caught some brownies, in dry and dry dropper. Very selectives fishes: they were on very little cream caddis.

beautiful stream! 2 good days of fishing in the CT!

thanks a lot guys!

I found another rainbow dead too...

Christophe

**Magnet** · 08-11-2010, 01:33 PM

Its remarkable that with the hot summer we have had that the Farmington is fishing as well as it is. I have gone from a typical 8 or 10 fish per outing (sometimes more) in the spring and early summer to 2 or 3 in the last few weeks. Also the larger fish are not interested as much right now. Clema did well managing about twenty for two days. as for the wild fish, Aaron's view on this topic is probably most accurate. I have caught a small number percentage wise of trout this year which I wondered if they could have been of wild origin. Neal the biologist from the CT DEP does biological testing of scale samples and has accurate data on this. With such beautiful natural habitat for wild propogation its hard to believe it is non existent. I just am not seeing much.

**Duck-butt Chucker** · 08-11-2010, 02:14 PM

Yea I actually saw somewhere the problem in the Farmington is that there is a ton of excellent trout holding area but very little spawning area which accordingly is what limits the presence of wild fish in there...I also saw that from now on, due to some bacterial disease with the 08' and 09' fish they took (which transferred into their eggs)..they are only taking Wild Browns and Trout from 2007 and prior for this year and the immediate future survivor program...here's a link in regard to that second part:

http://www.ctfishguides.com/Kierrian...0survivor.html