Erin Marchica is all smiles as Tall Timber Fishing Guide Mickey Cunliffe releases her beauty of a brook trout on the The Trophy Stretch of the Connecticut River. The river  has been producing, but we must add that the fish have been “educated” over the last two months, so they are by no means jumping in the net.

marchica-brownNow’s the time to be breaking out your small flies (size 20 and up) and light tippets – 5x is a must right now, and 6x would probably be even better if you’re nymphing. The trout that Ray and Erin released were both caught on a WD-40, size 20, so you should be thinking small, whatever you throw out there. For those that prefer traditional dry fly fishing, Elk Hair Caddis patterns, in all colors should be in your box, as well as Stimulators. Bring a variety, as you’re never certain as to what might work.

The fish have seen heavy pressure this fishing season, and this week’s heat wave certainly didn’t help, as the trout and salmon were surely laying low. Your best time of the day to fish when it’s like this is at either first light or at the end of the evening. The heat finally let up today and we’re in for a few nice days in a row, which should help things a bit.

Of course, you could wait for our next rainy day to get out there – those are always good. The Trophy Stretch water temperature is warmer than the water coming out of Lake Francis at Murphy Dam, so please play your fish quickly and release them even quicker, if possible. Trout are delicate creatures and need to be treated as such.

Back Lake Hex Hatch Update

So, while the Hexagenia hatch on Back Lake continued this week, its intensity seemed to be waning slightly, and the hot weather may have had an effect on the feeding habits of our trout. I was out last night and while I saw quite a few hexes hatching and taking off to fly the friendly skies, I was only able to bring bass to my boat, and not one trout found the bottom of my net.

Undoubtedly, the surface water temperature rose to suboptimal levels for trout this week, and it seems to have caused them to stay down, even with the presence of hexes on the water. Perhaps they were still feeding on them, far under the surface (use heavy sinking lines if you’re going out, with emerger patterns), but they were not near the surface from what I could see. I heard the same from a couple of other boats too.

We may only have a few nights left before it’s over for another year, or may I say 350 days …