Monday, March 12, 2012

Pre-Opener report...Moosup River, CT


Moosup River in Central Village (Plainfield) CT is a TMA, catch and release and thus open year round. The past few days, with the warmer temps  has shown lots of early stoneflies and hungry newly stocked fish. As the stones hit the water from stream side, the trout are actively on the rise.  A size 14 or 16 black bodied, flat wing pattern will do the trick.  I used a black caddis with tan deer hair down wing , a grey soft hackle and a dark body floating cdc emerger with constant success on 3/12. 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 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.
This is the closest stream for RI fly fishers to get out pre-season as it is a year-round CT TMA.  There are no open streams or rivers in RI now.

For now, walk and wade and observe the beautiful early season stoneflies as they flutter on the surface.  The trout are looking up and there is definite on-top action!  Watch the deeper runs along undercut banks especially!  Given time, the pale,dreary looking browns and rainbows will have colored up a bit! There are some BIG fish in this TMA; Fished the Mooosup, 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.  Drag free!

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