TR Willimantic

After four months with no fishing, I couldn't stand it any more and
violated my own fifty degree rule and fished my favorite very early
season stream, the Willimantic in West Willington, CT. The air temp was
around 45 and the water was 41 and quite low. We had virtually no
snowpack this spring, and haven't had significant rain in a few weeks.
With the exception of the Swift, which is still quite high, all the
other streams in the area are at summer levels.

The first things I noticed, other than the low water, were the changes
made by the floods last fall and winter. The spot where I normally
access the river is now blocked by a number of uprooted mature oak
trees, and the river channel has changed somewhat in that area, and a
gravel bar has formed downstream. I'm sure I'll see more changes as I
fish more of the river.

There were a few black stoneflies skittering across the surface, as
well as a light hatch of midges, and this activity prompted a few
scattered rises. I tried fishing a stonefly on the surface with no
results, so I decided to go subsurface. A PT Nymph fished with a
darting motion through the current and into the slack water brought
immediate results. A hard strike in the seam resulted in landing a 14"
rainbow. This was followed by two other hits which resulted in ldr's.
Fished for a few hours, worked the kinks out, tried some new tackle,
and left happy.

George Adams typed:
After four months with no fishing, I couldn't stand it any more and
violated my own fifty degree rule and fished my favorite very early
season stream, the Willimantic in West Willington, CT. The air temp
was around 45 and the water was 41 and quite low. We had virtually no
snowpack this spring, and haven't had significant rain in a few weeks.
With the exception of the Swift, which is still quite high, all the
other streams in the area are at summer levels.

The first things I noticed, other than the low water, were the changes
made by the floods last fall and winter. The spot where I normally
access the river is now blocked by a number of uprooted mature oak
trees, and the river channel has changed somewhat in that area, and a
gravel bar has formed downstream. I'm sure I'll see more changes as I
fish more of the river.

There were a few black stoneflies skittering across the surface, as
well as a light hatch of midges, and this activity prompted a few
scattered rises. I tried fishing a stonefly on the surface with no
results, so I decided to go subsurface. A PT Nymph fished with a
darting motion through the current and into the slack water brought
immediate results. A hard strike in the seam resulted in landing a 14"
rainbow. This was followed by two other hits which resulted in ldr's.
Fished for a few hours, worked the kinks out, tried some new tackle,
and left happy.

Sweet! It's nice to hear someone is having success locally.

My plan was to get out a little closer to home on Sunday afternoon, but the
honeydews foiled the plan.
--
TL,
Tim
-------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

"George Adams" wrote in
ups.com:

Fished for a few hours, worked the kinks out,
tried some new tackle, and left happy.


Good for you George. Myself and my fishing friend were
thinking of hitting the Housie a week ago, but the cold weather
closed the window of opportunity. Maybe this weekend.