Fun Evening

[westernmas]

It seems the higher flows have the trout moving back to their usual haunts for this time of year.  Its amazing what a little rain can do.  I had about 1.5 hours of daylight yesterday so headed to the hills to look for trout.  I found them where I usually do this time of year and they were stacked up and hungry.  I ended up getting 18, 17 rainbows and 1 brown once the sun set.  They haven't stocked anywhere close to this area so it was quite the surprise to hook into so many.  I fished saturday, sunday and monday, yet caught more fish in one hour on tuesday evening then I did in 3 days (prob like 15 hours total).

[lowaccord66]

Nice Pat.  Low water means the herons are nailing some fish!

[westernmas]

I think it was a bird of prey Jon.  You could see a scratch that almost wrapped around its entire body and the two holes on top.  For whatever reason I don't see too many herons on the westfield branches.  The mill down the street that dams up the little river, properly named The Mill at Crane Pond, has a ton of herons/cranes so not sure why they aren't on the westfield much.

For those that like micro brews, a new brewery, Great Awakening just opened up on the second floor of the mill and is quite good.

[lowaccord66]

Makes sense.  I see a lot of single pecks from the herons.  I grew up fishing that mill pond.  The fishing there sucked.

[bogtrotter]

For those that like micro brews, a new brewery, Great Awakening just opened up on the second floor of the mill and is quite good.

Clever name for a microbrewery. 

The "Great Awakening" was a religious revival in the late 1700's. 

Among other things, I believe it overlapped with "temperance,"  which to modern ears sounds like "drink responsibly," but back then meant more like "don't drink at all."

Local pastor Jonathan Edwards was one of its leading lights - - although I'm only aware of his having ties to Northampton and Stockbridge, not Westfield.

[westernmas]

Makes sense.  I see a lot of single pecks from the herons.  I grew up fishing that mill pond.  The fishing there sucked.

It has its good days and bad.  I actually fly fished for the first time ever there and hammered brookies on march brown dries.  I think I landed 8 decent sized brookies and thought this fly fishing thing was a piece of cake.  Little did I know 

[lowaccord66]

Big hatches on the farmington lately, looks like bwo's and I can't get a trout to eat a nymph to save my life. 

[bogtrotter]

Big hatches on the farmington lately, looks like bwo's and I can't get a trout to eat a nymph to save my life.

OK, so I Googled "BWO" and it stands for "blue winged olive," which is a type of a mayfly and an artificial BWO fly is considered a "nymph."

(Am I right so far?)

According to "the Google," natural BWO's are late hatchers (anything down to about 40 degrees) - - so it makes sense that the hatch you saw was a BWO - - although I was frankly surprised any bugs are hatching this late into October.

Anyway (and sorry for the long "lead in"), if the hatch was a BWO, and you were fishing nymphs that (I assume) were patterned after BWO's, why do you think the trout weren't interested?

Do you think the trout just weren't biting at all (either the natural BWO's or your artificials)?

That you didn't "match the hatch" quite well enough?

Something about your presentation?

Or some other factor that I haven't even though of?

I'm honestly curious about the "process" that a fly fisherman follows to adjust when what he is doing does not work the first time around?

[stripernut]

The trout will focus on one "stage" of the hatch and ignore any other at times. I have seen when you get two hatches at once, the trout only eating 1  and not the other... We have to remember that a trout has a tiny little brain, even though sometimes it seems to be able to defeat a preditor (us) with (most of the time) a much larger brain. It is just a case of "blinders" that trout can get when on a feed. Does it make sense to pass up easy food when it is presented with an easy meal, no? But for some reason, they have evolved to be highly focused at times. I have never heard a compelling reason why? But then again with our help, the trout in its many forms has become one of the most successful fish on the planet being "planted" by us most anywhere, it will survive and in many places, it won't. I am sure that as the Antarctic keeps melting, someone will be stocked "down there" making it every continent (even if it is some bucket biologist) you can fish for trout!

[lowaccord66]

Presentation was off.  Happened the other night to me as well.  Many times I can nymph something that matches the size and profile and get bit.  Unfortunately as Allan points out there are times where the trout focus on a single food form and won't deviate...for the most part.  There will always be a couple you can trick otherwise.  I think Jim the issue was a few things.  They were eating emergent bwo's and you could tell because of how splashy the takes were.  I was fishing a pair of #16 Tungsten flies, a caddis and a Frenchy....they get down fast and where I was I wanted to get down.  Issue being the insects the trout were keyed in on were going the opposite direction and the trout were feeding up instead of sitting in a run and nabbing stuff that dead drifts by.  Fishing that heavier 2 fly rig also means on the swing the flies dont move upward much...that triggers a bunch of strikes usually.  I switched to #18 lively legs in olive and still no dice.  Meanwhile a guy next to me, throwing bwo dries was doing a job, catching every drift.  I tried making all the adjustments I could...switching from 5x (5.7lb test) to 6x (3.7lb test) in an attempt to lighten my overall presentation.  I did nymphs with desiccant on them to keep them near the surface film...no dice.  Sometimes the trout throw you a curve...it keeps things interesting.

The gap in my fly fishing is I've been leaving wet flies and dries at home because I primarily fish euro style with nymphs as you've seen or throw a streamer.  Most days outside of a couple of periods where I struggle (Sulphur and Trico hatches) I usually do very well.  There are times where fishing on the surface or subsurface is the only way to go...

As far as hatches go the Farmington has them year round.  Summer and winter the bugs are small, mostly midges, some stoneflies.  There is a decent winter caddis hatch.  Most of the time I ignore all of that and just nymph a few patterns.  Pats rubber legs, a few variations of caddis nymphs, stone flies, caddis pupa and larva. 

Soon the spawn will ramp up and egg patterns will rule the day until spring.