My son is home on spring break and didn’t have to work so we took the day off Thursday and headed out to the Farmington River for a day of fishing. Got a late start and there were plenty of folks out already when we got there. Stopped at upcountry for some up to date info – which was fishing was slow inside the original TMA – while lots more stockers farther up river. With the Farmington River TMA expansion this past year, there is now almost 21 miles of open river to fish right now as Catch and release waters which is incredible.
Talked to a young man coming out of where we were going in and he had caught a few but it was slow for him. This young man was a former member of USA Youth Fly fishing Team which in turn dashed my hopes of tight lines, but I refused to be deterred from trying. We spent the morning nymphing and it took me a while before I finally hooked up on a nice brown only to have him come unbuttoned. He put on a show and had the body for the fight and he won. It was worth the price of admission. Continued to nymph just up from that brown and hooked another nice fish only to loose this one as well. Then another and yup you guessed it, but this time I lost the entire rig on a nice rainbow – both flies -my knot came undone. I rolled another but never had him for more then a few seconds. Not much catching going on from others folks fishing around us. The sun came out and we thought things would heat up but it didn’t. We fished up river from the 181 bridge stopping often and trying out different spots and ended in Riverton. The river was almost void of fisherman which made me recheck the regulations just to make sure I read them correctly. My son managed a few stockies and I lost a 4th fish on the retrieve and one more rig due to a knot. I really, really stunk the joint up – just made sick!! My son caught fish on wooly buggers and most of the day we nymphed stone flies as anchors and some form of Phesant Tails and caddis nymphs sizes 16 -20 as droppers. I can’t tell you what the fish I hooked took, but if it was the stone flies they should have stayed on.
Water was clear and running about 210cfs and not as cold as I expected – forgot to take a reading. Lots of small stones about and very few fish rising that I could see. There was plenty of small stuff flying but I couldn’t catch any to see what they were. Tiny little buggers and I know I have nothing that tiny in my box.
So my son landed the only fish on the trip and I lost more gear then him – the tides turned on me. He was frustrated in the AM as I was hooking them, but he had the last laugh – that is until he took a quick swim at the end of the day.
The Farmington is an incredible river and fishery and the scenery is just plain amazing. I wish I lived closer, especially with gas prices reaching $4 a gallon.
Get out and fish and I hope you have better luck that I did.
Tight Lines!
Jim
