Small tributary to Long Island Sound - wild browns!

[Troutbum from Griswold]

Great stuff Alain! I have done the small wild trout thing over the last few years but this year I am going to do a lot more of it. I think getting into those small streams with no crowds and a small selection of flys is awesome. Those fish are beautiful. I plan on fishing the streams close to the Housy. Those are some beautiful streams and go through some beautiful country side. With of course some gorgous fish. On a 3 wt, wild brook and brown trout on a big puffy dry! Great stuff. Nice pics and glad to hear you had a great time.

[Nymphmeister]

Opie-
I bet there are some wild trout streams/brooks close to your house.

Alain-
When I used to work at Mill River Fly Shop, a customer came in and claimed he caught a 14 1/2# sea run in the Housy below Derby Dam in early April. Said he wouldn't register with the state (would of been a state record) because he didn't want everybody & their brother fishing their. Another time my buddy & I fished the lower Hammonasset by I-95, and my friend talked to an old timer who fished there all the time in January & February, and he claimed to have caught many runs up to 10# and said he'd seen them up to 18# in the water. He said 4# was a typical fish. My buddy caught one about 16" that day, and it hit his yellow rabbit strip streamer so hard it ripped the lead eyes off it. It hit on one cast and missed, and then nailed it on the next.

[alanb_ct]

Torrey - I know the Hammonnassett spot well, and might even know the old-timer you talked to. That area is only 10 minutes from my house.

[Troutfishing4life]

were you using a strike indicator

[Dave]

Marvelous report Alain, thanks! Great pictures too. For a mere hour of fishing, looks like you cleaned up. Is this a smaller stream (width wise)? Do you fish it often? Must be great to have a little gem close by for an hour or two getaway. Where are you fishing this weekend?

[Dave]

By the way, where are some "hotspots" or popular spots for sea-run browns around New England? Perhaps another post should be started for that?

[BLACKGHOST1]

Nice pics Alain. Those are beautiful wild browns. It's nice to have not one, not two, but three small streams like that within 15 minutes of where we live. You and I have caught 100's of those fish since we were kids. It just goes to show you that if you leave a stream alone the fish will reproduce on their own.

[alanb_ct]

I only wish I knew about fly-fishing back then! Bait fishing, though, was the perfect teaching tool towards eventual nymph fishing success, the presentation methods are identical. It's good to know that the fish are still reproducing naturally amongst the frantic pace of shoreline development.

[Fascist Killer]

Do you guys get sea run brookies as well?

[alanb_ct]

These are pretty rare in tribs to Long Island Sound as far as I know; I think the sound water has become too warm. In the CT River drainage, however, there is a stream where I catch a few sea run brookies. I think the CT River flows at a slightly lower temperature than the sound.

One time I was ice-fishing a CT River cove for perch. This is a true story. It was fairly shallow there. Looking through the hole, I saw a huge trout with dime-sized spots. A week later, my father's friend caught two huge browns through the ice, about 5 lbs. The CT River is a great fishery. You can even jig stripers through the ice. Last year my Dad caught a 12lb catfish on 6 lb test from his canoe there.