Farmington 1/7/08- slow for some, good for others

[Nymphmeister]

While I heard multiple reports that the fishing was very slow today, myself and Eddie (aka SlowNDeep) had good fishing. We hit the river from noon till 2:30, then had a leisurely lunch and knocked off. Tally was 17 fish total nymphed up, from about 13" up to 17 1/2"- Eddie took big fish honors, I had a close second at just over 17". Strangely, about half my fish today were rainbows- typically I've been catching almost all browns, with a bow or two here and there. I think I saw Troutaholic at Church Pool, in the Opening Day lineup by the bridge. We were able to fish in almost complete solitude most of the time. Not much insect activity, I saw a few Midges.

[alanb_ct]

Rainbows? Wow that's really strange, I haven't seen one in a month! Perhaps the water temperature inched up a bit today and made them active?

[Nymphmeister]

Meant to take the temp, but I never did. Sometimes warm weather like this lowers the water temps due to snowmelt, it can be a double edged sword when snow is on the ground. The Bows were dark & colored up- they spawn in late Winter, so I guess they are pre-spawn right now.

[TroutAholic]

Yeah Torrey, that was me under the bridge. I started about 10 and fished till about 3:30. The first hour or so was absolutely dead. Then the fishing picked up a little, but still slow. About a half hour after the sun hit the river the fish put on the feed bag. I ended up hooking 15 or so, landed 12. Nothing big, the largest were 14 or 15 inches. A couple took a small olive caddis larva, all the rest were on either black or off-white midge larvae. I did hook one nice fish, but he got downstream from me and threw the hook.

Steve

[SlowNDeep]

Indeed it was nice to be out. 8)

It is a great day when you can hit the river in January and not wear gloves, three layers of fleece, and only need a regular baseball cap.

I am forever amazed by the pods of vehicles at Church pool while the rest of the river is virtually devoid of anglers. ???

[JUICE]

One word... Lazy

[Nymphmeister]

There is some truth to that Juice, the average guy won't walk much more than about 100 yards to get to a spot, 200 yards max. It is a textbook trout pool though- perfect, wadeable, shelving nymphing riffle at the head, transitioning into a long, wadeable flatwater section that always seems to have rising trout, with a nice deep, "sanctuary" section below that. A DEP biologist said that that pool is a trout magnet, and it holds at least 1,000 trout at any given moment. Add in a bridge at the head and a big parking lot with a short, easy walk to the pool, and it adds up to heavy fishing pressure, sometimes even in the Winter if the weather is mild. I pray for shitty weather or high water when I want to fish there.

[Troutbum from Griswold]

I agree. S/D, your right! I almost never fish Church Pool because a lot of people don't fish the other areas of the river so I am alone or with 1-2 others in another section. Basically, all that water to myself. You can't beat it. I tend to fish CP in the winter more because it is one of the few pools that has any kind of parking access due to snow fall. I like to walk and will walk anywhere to fish but I don't want to drive my vehicle in certain areas if there is a lot of snow and ice with the fear of not being able to get out despite my all wheel drive. Sometimes I will park at Woodshop and just walk down river if the access to Greenwoods has not been plowed. Yeah, it seems like a lot of people are just too lazy. Fine with me.......more water and fish for me....by myself.

[Dave]

I finally got to fish Church Pool a few weeks ago, and I can see now what it attracts a lot of pressure. Wow, 1000 fish at least. . .that's incredible. In the spots right off the road, there were more anglers in general, and the more abstract/deeper spots that took more energy to get to were empty. We went when it was really cold, only saw 3 other anglers the entire day, 2 of which were at Church.

Nice reports Nymphmeister, Slo, and T-Aholic, sounded like a great day out.
T-Aholic, what were the sizes of the midge larva that produced?
Nymphmeister/Slo, any flies in particular ?

[TroutAholic]

Dave,

Size 20 midges. I tried a red midge in 18, no takers. I called the flies that were working larva, but they were tied with a small tungsten bead head. As Torrey has pointed out to me, they might better be called pupa, as the bead, though very small (1.5 mm) does make the thorax a little bit bigger than the body.

Next time you hit the Farmy, if you decide to fish Church Pool and it is sunny, walk out on the bridge and look down into the water, there have been times when there are simply a ton of fish feeding sub surface in there. And, it is unbelievable how conditioned the fish are to the prescence of anglers. Someone can fish through a spot, and a literally just a couple of minutes later you can hook fish right where he was standing. A couple of weeks ago, three guys fished through a slot I like, one right after the other, two of them wading right through the best water. Perhaps ten minutes after the last one left, I pulled two nice fish out of it. That and the number of fish there are why I always give it a try, as long as I can find a bit of the good water is open to fish.

Steve