Small Mouth BIG Fight!

So we had an unexpected window to show up to a house warming party for my sister-in-law last Sunday afternoon.  Sarah and I left Massachusetts right after church and made it to the party in Connecticut before it started to wind down.  We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing by and in the pool.

First hook up!

Once I woke up on Monday and had a good breakfast, I wanted to fish!  I hit up Housatonic River Outfitters and asked them about the small mouth bit.  The younger guy behind the counter was excited about small mouth bass, he pointed out a couple flies that he said would work.

Best looking bass award goes to the Small Mouth

I hit the river with a popper.  After trying a couple different retrieve methods and failing I made an angled cast up stream and there was an explosion under my popper.  I was so shocked by the violence of this strike that I missed the hook set by a mile.  With this I went back to trying different methods again and still could not find that right retrieve, but got another strike.  I missed again but this time I felt much better about my odds.

This one might have been the biggest.  About 17 inches

Then like magic I had another strike just as popper hit the water  and I did not miss this time.  I set the hook and after one jump the bass started to drive to the bottom.  It swam up stream and took all the slack line from my hand.  Then once it was on the reel and I started to put pressure on it the bass when it turned tail and went down stream.  The fight slowed and the fish tired and I brought a nice small mouth bass to hand.  It was about 15 inches and had great color.

They all loved the green frog popper.

The small mouth bass is hands down my favorite bass to catch .  Their colors and fight make them a great sport fish.  The fish I was catching in this section of the Housatonic also had the added bounce of an amazing attack.  Every fish I caught attacked my popper with reckless abandon and when the hits came they were fast and explosive.  After a couple hours I found that the bass were looking for a little twitch.  If there was no take right as the popper landed I could intice a hit by just give it little movements over large rocks and structure.

All were great fighters!

I had a blast for a couple hours and returned in the evening to try to land just a couple more fish.  The total for the day was about eight or nine fish and I missed five or six which I felt was a good day of fishing.  The thrill you get from these fish is completely different then what you get from trout or other bass.  It is addicting and I have been dreaming of small mouth bass since we got home.  I hope I can get back to Connecticut at least once more before the summer is over.



-Bruce

A BIG Weekend

Last Thursday Sarah and I traveled back to CT where we lived for 4 months while she searched for a church.  We spent an extended weekend there and had friends and family coming in to see her ordination.  Friday I had one task and that was to bring pastor Kim (our pastor from GA) from the airport to her hotel room.  Once I delivered her to the hotel I had a few hours to relax before I met up with her, Sarah and another friend for dinner.

So I hit Housatonic River Outfitters to talk cfs's, clarity, and bugs with the guy who works there.  He was helpful and gave my options to me like this: "If you want solitude stay around here and fish the Housatonic, and if you want a great chance at catching fish drive to the Farmington".  Then we got to talking about stocking, water temps and catch and release.  As I walked to my truck I made my mind up that I would go for solitude tonight.



I fished the Housatonic and did not see another soul, but still had a good time.  Once I was on the water I spent some time relaxing.  I finally made a cast only to miss a hook set.  The rest of the night I could not find another fish, but I made up my mind that the next day I would get up early and hit the Farmington.

source

According to the plan I got up on Saturday and drove the 45 minutes to an hour to the river.  As I pulled up I understood why the guy at the fly shop said to come here.  The current was moving very slow compared to the Housatonic and the water was gin clear.  With these great early season conditions and the fact that it was Saturday, there was a person in every hole.  It was my good fortune to find a space to fish.  So with my new 3wt rod I tied a bead head prince nymph dropped off the back of a AZ Wonderings Hopper.  It is very early in the season for a hopper but the spot had a fast under current and I wanted to make sure the indicator fly stayed up.

 It had been a while since I fished a swift hole like this, so it took me a couple casts to get my wits about me.  Once I had the feel of the new rod and the idea of where I should be drifting my rig, I stared hitting my spots and making good drifts.  Then I made a cast a little further into this current and the hopper disappeared and I instinctively set the hook.  Almost instantly knew I should have used my 5wt.  My poor new 3wt rod was bent in a U shape and the fish was glued to the bottom.  This trout fought hard to pull up stream and then tuned down and I had to chase.  As the trout pulled down stream it was taking line from my rod and I was looking for slow current to guide it to .  I finally found a pool and guided the trout into it.
 

Once it did not have the current to help take line, I started to make up ground on the fish.  I brought the trout to my feet twice and both times it shot out and ran toward the current again.  Both times I stopped it before it could drag me further down stream.  Finally I backed myself to the shore and found a mud bar to guide the fish onto.  As I got it close I realized that it was a big brown and two things dawned on me - first I should have used a 5wt and second I should have had my net with me.

Since I had played this fish so long I did not want to spend a lot of time taking pictures because I did not want to stress it anymore then I had already.  I drug the big brown onto the mud bar, and knelt down next to it.  As I removed the prince nymph from the big guys' top jaw I looked it over and knew my day was done.  I laid the fish down next to my rod so I could get a shot of how long it was, and then gently took it into the current and let this beauty swim away.  The fish was not phased at all, because it returned to the fast stuff and just did not show signs of stress which made me just as happy as the catch did.

It had been at least 5 years since I have caught a trout like this.  I was over joyed about it and I was a mess for the rest of the day.  Basically nothing could take me off the high horse I was riding, I remember saying 'it does not matter I caught a huge fish today!' as my answer to almost any question asked of me.  Now that I have caught a big fish my juices are flowing fast and heavy and all I want to do is catch fish.  So with that fact stated I need to get a MA fishing license.  Until I get a new license I will not be fishing so my mission is to have a license by this time next week.


-Bruce