Friday, April 16, 2021

Hatches galore on the Natchaug River...Eastern CT's finest!

 As the water temps hit 50 degrees and beyond this past week the dry fly trout fisher's game was truly on!  Levels, flow and water temps on the Natchaug River in Ashford, Eastford and Chaplin, CT prompted multiple early afternoon rising trout to a wide array of insects.

Early stones and little black caddis took many a rising trout at or just under the surface film. Notice the similarity between the stones and the black caddis.  Easy to tell with the stone in flight...double wings.

Patterns for each worked well and took a number of eager trout, stockies and some fatter November 2020 holdovers.


                                                                    Little Black Stonefly


                                                                       Little Black Caddis

As the afternoon progressed the Quill Gordon's made their first appearance with the Blue Quills and BWO's chiming in.


                                                                        Blue Quill Dun

                                                                Quill Gordon Spinner

The Blue Quill (aka Mahogany Dun) has 3 tails while the QG has two and is typically larger in the 12 to 14 artificial range. Late in the afternoon the spinners appeared.

We had rising trout throughout; Rainbows, Browns and even a beautiful Brookie.  This week's rain has already increased the flow and level so perfect conditions are ahead.  Rare to see other anglers in the areas we fish and with easy river access and the willingness to walk, the Natchaug proved again last week that it remains Eastern CT's finest trout stream!

If you haven't experienced a fine afternoon or evening on the Natchaug...talk to us!!

Don't forget two smaller feeder streams that form the Natchaug; the Still River and Bigelow Brook which form the Natchaug at Charlie Brown Campground. Smaller gems in their own right!!

CTDEEP publishes topo maps of all stocked streams, a great resource for exploring new areas.

PS:  Try a Chris Fave hand tied leader for a perfect dry fly turnover and PLEASE add tippet; don't be a newbie with a curly leader and no tippet!!😄😄


DRAG FREE!

TEAM7x
Tom, Everett, Matt, Steve...and all those that fish with us!