Despite somehow wrenching my back earlier in the week (getting up from my desk at work, LOL) and still suffering from some residual sciatica, I courageously (stupidly?) (OK, let's just settle for "stubbornly") went wet wading (with crocs and swim trunks) on the South Branch of the Hoosic in Adams (from Mullen Mayflower to ALADCO) from 12:45 to 3:45 PM this afternoon.
The day was partly sunny and about 70 degrees, and stream conditions were just about ideal.
As the subject line suggests, my efforts were rewarded with 13 trout (one brookie, three browns and nine rainbows) ranging from 8" (the smallest brown) to 15" (the two biggest rainbows).
Equally encouraging was the fact that the fish were distributed fairly evenly along the length of my milk run, whereas the last few times they had been all clumped up in a relatively short section of that run.
Overall, I'm encouraged how well the fish have held over this year - - the cool wet weather we had this past summer has clearly helped in that regard (as well as made it a lot easier to find more worms along the stream when I've run out of bait) - - which is critical because, unlike the Deerfield and the Westfield, the other streams (as opposed to ponds) in the western end of the State don't get any fall stocking (which, B/T/W, is already underway according to the DFW website).
Upon my return home, I prepared an early (cookout) dinner - - tortilla chips with a homemade dip (water cress, sour cream, mayo and onion soup mix) for an appetizer, followed by a grilled pork chop, home-made (by my older daughter) sauerkraut, a deluxe salad (with 15, mostly homegrown, ingredients), and a tomatillo and pork stew with wild rice and hen of the wood mushrooms (with both the tomatillos and mushrooms graciously donated by my friend Ed C), all washed down with a Smithwick's Red Ale.
