Sunday, April 17, 2011

MOOSUP RIVER prior to Opening Day

Heavy rain over the weekend has put a damper on the fishing in Eastern CT for a few days.  The Moosup River in Central Village (Plainfield) CT is a TMA, catch and release and thus open year round. Prior to the recent rain it was showing lots of early stoneflies and hungry newly stocked fish. Not many looking up as yet, but did manage several on a small black stonefly nymph. This is a lovely stretch of river, directly behind the Quinebaug Trout hatchery, with easy parking and access via the yellow trail. The Moosup empties into the Quinebaug, downstream of the hatchery. Deep runs, pools and riffles amidst wooded forest area provides good cover and cool water. Stocking reports show that some 2200 trout are stocked in the TMA, with 7000 throughout the Moosup system. There are some nice fall holdovers. 
This river originates in RI, and receives little fishing pressure with stocking by RIDEM not seemingly spread out although there are some very nice stretches of river on the RI side.
For now, stonefly nymphs fished deep will produce all the fun you would want! Terrific looking dry fly water and in a few weeks with the emergence of early-season mayflies, the on-top action will materialize! Hopefully by then the pale, dreary looking browns and rainbows will have colored up a bit! There are some BIG fish in this TMA; Fished the Moosup, or any other Eastern CT rivers? Let me know your thoughts! I will not be overly specific with locations in these public posts, but hope to provide some level of interest for those who haven't fished some of the less well-known streams and rivers of Eastern Ct. and RI. Drag free!

1 comment:

  1. I live near the Moosup River and just started fly fishing a couple years ago. The floods last year really changed the contour in some areas, washing out some parts past the dam near Goshen Rd.

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