Today was just about as close to heaven as it gets, weatherwise - - partly to mostly sunny, upper 70's, with just the kiss of a cooling breeze.
But, with all the rain we've had this past week, I knew streamfishing would be extremely challenging, to put it mildly.
The rivers were just ridiculously high, and even the smaller brooks were blown out.
I fished Hudson Brook in the Natural Marble Bridge State Park in North Adams without success this morning.
I focused on two relative backwaters, and briefly had a trout on, but it got away and didn't return.
So I drove to Fish Pond (Windsor Lake) and fished there for a while and did a bit better - - fifteen sunfish and five perch (biggest 10").
But I couldn't let go of my obsession with catching a trout on a stream, so I headed back to Hudson Brook, and found not one but two slack water spots that I had passed over before.
At the first one (below a small dam/waterfall), I landed two browns (one 8" and one 9") and five brookies (smallest 4" and biggest 12").
At the second (a bit further downstream, in the "swimming hole" below another dam/waterfall), I reeled in another (10") brown.
Still not quite satisfied, I drove to the North Hoosic, below the roll dam and above the Eclipse Mill dam.
Casting into a slow spot near the southern end of the sandbar island between the two dams, I hooked a 14" rainbow, which put up a respectable battle, before finally beaching and releasing him to fight another day.
