TUESDAY Fishing Report:
We are importing our own tungsten fly tying beads now, and we currently have a full selction of all standard colors, and have also added in fluorescent orange & true jet-black (non-nickel) beads- see top of "New & Favorite Products" for more details.
Fishing is off the charts - get up here and fish. Another day of great fishing reports from customers, and all our guide trips did well. Superb Iso hatches, and there were plenty of Olives too. All methods are catching fish, and once again some very nice rainbows & browns were caught. Conditions are still fantastic, and the fishing is probably as good as I've ever seen it in my 24 years on this river. Lows were well down into the 30's last night, it is 37 degrees as I write this update- I have a flannel shirt on for the first time since last Winter. Seeing more foliage color every day, the cooler nights should accelerate this now. Peak foliage is usually mid to late October in our neck of the woods. Anglers have been very pleased with both the numbers & sizes of their catches, and at the moment, rainbows are the majority of the fish caught, with some big holdover browns mixing in also. Many 'Bows in the 16-18" range, with 19-21" fish showing up for some lucky anglers. Olive hatches have been particularly noteworthy of late, and there are still plenty of Iso's hatching in the afternoons & evenings. At the moment, there's not another river in the state of CT that can touch the Housy for quality trout fishing. Lots of rising trout in the afternoons & evenings, and lots of happy dry fly fishermen. At moments Flying Ants have carpeted the water- make sure you have a couple tucked away in your box. Nymphers are still pounding fish, almost all day long. Streamers are starting to rack up some fish, esp. during low light conditions- they can be good first thing in the morning when the nymphing is slow due to lack of insect activity, and the browns are pre-spawn and starting to get aggressive now. When the bugs start to get active, usually mid to late morning, then the nymphing really picks up for the rest of the day. Don't neglect a smaller nymph that imitates the Olives in your nymphing rig, esp. in the afternoons when they are most active. The water is low & clear enough that the trout have no problem seeing a small nymph. Hearing quite a few tales of big rainbows snapping tippets, so don't go light unless you have to- 4-5X is good with the nymphs, and 6x is usually light enough to fish the Olive dries, and for Iso's you can go 4-5x. For streamers, I usually put on the heaviest tippet I have with me, typically anywhere from 0x to 2x, unless I fishing a really small pattern, then I might go 3x. The privately stocked HRO rainbows are going in Thursday 9/24, and we are still selling raffle tickets to fund this. Fishing remains good to excellent for most, and the conditions are superb. Several 20" plus browns have been landed recently, I saw a pic of a beautiful 20 1/2" female caught Wednesday, and a friend landed a 21 incher too on a #22 Olive nymph last week. Rainbows in the 16-18" range seem fairly common lately. We are starting to see some splashes of Fall color in the Northwest corner, it's really pretty up here. The nymph fishing has been outstanding, both for numbers & size of fish, and the dry fly action has been excellent too, esp. in the mid/late afternoon to evening time slot. Olives are showing up now in big numbers some days, esp. overcast ones. Water level is at a perfect medium level, you can get at all the spots now, including the pocket water. Many 16-19" rainbows are showing up, and a few in the 20" plus class too. My girlfriend Mandy & I caught a ridiculous number of rainbows & browns last week on nymphs, everything from 9" yearling browns to 19" holdover HRO rainbows, with some other really nice fish hooked & lost. Have your ant patterns ready, they have been all over the water at moments- once the trout are on ants, they will by myopic and only eat ants, so have them ready. Some big fish are being caught, especially rainbows, with fish in the 20" class reported almost daily- Alex nymphed up an obese 21 1/2" specimen recently. Guide Bobby Schmidt nailed a 20" Bow on a wet fly, he was pretty psyched about that. So.... don't go too light on your tippet, some of those Rainbows fight like Steelhead. Conditions are truly excellent, and the long range weather forecast is for highs in the 60's-70's, and lows in the 40's-50's, no rain of consequence in sight. Take advantage of these great conditions while they exist, you don't know when they will end. Fishing has been good to excellent for most of late. With the current conditions, look for water temps to range from mid 50's to mid 60's- perfect temps. Still plenty of fish rising most days in the late afternoons to evenings. Fishing has matched the excellent conditions- many good to excellent fishing reports, with trout coming to dries, nymphs, streamers & wets.
The state put their 1,000 12"+ browns in the Catch & Release section on 9/4, and some were well over the one foot mark- the other 8,000 rainbows & browns were stocked on Friday 9/11. Customer Dave Funk caught some really nice fish nymphing recently, topped off with a 20 1/2" Tiger Trout, only to be beaten by his wifes 21"+ Rainbow in the afternoon- there were also some other 18-19" fish in the mix, check out the pix on our Home Page. He went back the next day and landed a 20" Bow. Not bad.
We need your help with donations in order to enable us to put in the 1,500 healthy Rainbows we want to stock in September- at the moment we have very little money toward that, and it costs about $9,000 to put that batch of nice trout in. All donations of any size are appreciated, and remember you get a raffle ticket for every $20 donation- prizes include 2 Sage Z-Axis rods, a $1,000 store Gift Certificate, or multiple Guided Fishing Trips. For those of you making bigger donations, we have a non-profit set up (OSI Friends of the Housatonic) so it is actually a tax write-off. Please help us out so we can put more beautiful, feisty Rainbows in the Housy. Greys Streamflex 10' #3 rods are finally back in stock after being unavailable for a while, they seem to sell out fast, the perfect rod for Euro-style (Czech, Polish, etc.) nymphing that seems to be all the rage these days. Local Bass Ponds having been fishing well this Summer and are a good option if you have access to some type of watercraft- and if you don't, Mohawk Pond can successfully fished from the shoreline without the need for a boat. Bass fishing on the Housy really picked up when the temps warmed up, with streamers, nymphs & crayfish patterns all taking fish. Some nicer sized bass were mixed in angler catches, with a few in the 17-18" range- those are big Housy bass. Look for Iso's to be the glamour hatch now- it kicks into high gear as soon as the cool weather moves in around late Summer. I love that hatch- nice big bugs (#10-12 this time of year on the Housy) hatching in daylight for a long period of time (late May thru mid October). September sees our heaviest & best Iso hatches, and is one of my (Torrey) favorite months to fish the Housy, and this is probably my favorite hatch as well. A variety of patterns have scored well on the bass, stop by the store & we will hook you up with the appropriate ones. FYI, if you are looking for bigger bass, think bigger flies. Trout size flies typically catch mainly dinkers. The 12-18"+ specimens prefer a mouthful.
