Creek Addict

My dog chilling in the dirt.

Caught a few about this size. Hooked a nice one before I left that came off at the net. Probably about 16 or 17 inches. Oh well, with water temps in the mid to high 60’s, it’s probably best to release them in the water.

Thought these were wild browns. Total boner. Didn’t realize they were salmon parr until Aaron made fun of me.

My wife caught these things like it was her job. She hooked a few real nice browns too, unfortunately, they came unbuttoned. How many women do you know that will go fishing nearly 5 months pregnant?

For a birthday present, our wives (Nick’s and my) took us camping and got us a float trip on the Farmington with our friend Aaron Jasper. I’ve been on lots of guide trips, but I have to tell you, this one tops them all! We floated the river from 8pm to 3am. The only people we saw were the people leaving the river. The name of the game was tossing big junk (3 big flies) to big fish, and it paid off. Nick and I had some trouble casting these monstrous rigs, but started to really get it by the end of the trip. The fishing was really on fire from about 10pm-2am. Every fish that took our fly hit like a ton of bricks. The water was about 65 degrees. I can’t believe how good the fishing still is — it’s August for Christ’s sake. I could go on and on about how much fun we had, but I think I’ll just post some pictures instead.

Nick and Aaron posing with a decent fish. Nick looks like he was about to pass out in all these photos.

Me with my first decent fish of the night.

Nice fatty brown. Looking more than serious. LOL

Nick with another big one.

My biggest fish of the night.

Nick with the biggest fish of the trip. I think Nick was literally about to fall asleep at this point. The two of us boated a ton of fish that night, we couldn’t have asked for a better time. If you guys are ever looking for a guide up in that area, check out http://www.dryflies.com/ and ask for Aaron.

This is from Aaron’s post over at TPO.

After catching some broodstock at the Salmon River in Colchester with Alain I headed over to the Farmington River to fish some wet flies. I did ok with the wet flies, but that does not even come close to this one….

I was fishing in some HEAVY pocket water and hooked and landed 8 browns. The action slowed and I moved up into some faster water. I felt the water and said to myself, wow, the water is warm, there should be some fish in the heat. I threw my flies in and it stopped. I set the hook and the fish thrashed on top. I thought it was 23-24 inches. I fought it for about 5-7 minutes, on 5X RIO Flouroflex Plus tippet. This was a true break in for my new Hardy Marksman Drifter 11 foot 5 weight. I was nervous to say the least! My hands are still shaking as I type this. When I landed it I could not believe the size. I measured it right at 28 inches. I don’t think I can top this one. Here it is guys….

Aaron never ceases to amaze. 28 inches!! I don’t even know what to say right now. Now I’m going to be a bit embarrassed to post the baby trout I caught behind my house tonight. Some guys go their whole lives without ever catching a slab this size. I can remember a few times this past year or so seeing Aaron holding fish similar in size to this one. He’s one fishy fella, that’s for damn sure.

If you haven’t signed up for TPO yet, I think it’s about time. The amount of talent over at the site is astounding. If you can’t learn something new and useful over there, you can’t read.

Thanks for letting me throw this up over here Aaron, GOOD JOB MAN! I’m officially jealous.

EAT THAT, WEST COAST.

The wife and I decided to go on a guided float trip on the farmington river in CT. Our guide was Rob Nicholas from Housatonic Anglers. The river was high due to rain from the previous night so it made the float trip possible with the high water. The high water flow pushed the big trout out of their normal lies and right onto the banks, which made for some really exciting streamer fishing.
I took 6 fish, the smallest being about 15 inches. The wife hooked into two, one being a 22 inch brown, that we missed a photo of as it jumped out of her hands and back into the water. The imagery of a big trout rolling on a yellow zoo cougar right on the bank will be forever imprinted in my brain. Thanks Rob for making this trip come together and still putting us on the big fish!