Naugatuck Report - October 26, 2013 - A Rude Awakening

Once the first cold spell hits, thoughts of Hawaii
begin to replace thoughts of salmon fishing

There are two fishing clichés that irritate me whenever I hear them. The first one is, "That's why it's called fishing, not catching." The other is, "The worst day of fishing is better than the best day of work." In the case of the former, I think I dislike it mostly because it's overused, but it's also pretty stupid sounding. Does it really need to be stated?  The latter is complete nonsense and I cringe whenever I hear it. I'm probably one of the lucky ones in that, for the most part, I like my job. My best days ever at work top my best days of fishing if for no other reason than the "high" lasts longer at the gig than it does on the water. It's more of a sustained euphoria than fishing's manic bursts of excitement. Even if I hated my job, I'm pretty sure getting a raise would be more enjoyable than burying a hook in my own neck.

Today, I fished after work. It was a pretty simple nuts and bolts type of rehearsal, but it was more enjoyable than fishing in veritable leaf factory, complete with 20-30mph wind gusts and less water than ever. Despite the low water, I really enjoyed the warm autumn we had until last Tuesday. Shoot, even in  extremely low water, the fishing could still be pretty great. The salmon were very aggressive at times. I love fishing small salmon flies and I had ample opportunity to do so in the past five or six weeks. Last Monday, the water temperature topped out around 63ºF. Today, the highest I got was 52ºF.

I thought the change would be a bit more gradual. Oh well, time to prepare for cold water tactics, I suppose. The water is slower than ever. I tried the small stuff, but they weren't interested. I went from right #10s to tubes. They were interested in only one fly today, the Ally's Shrimp tube fly (which did a great job of fending off the leaves). First pool...nothing.  Pool #2...two pulls on the tube, but couldn't seal the deal. Pool #3...nothing. Pool #4...rolled a salmon twice. He finally took and I lost him a few minutes into the fight. Later, I rolled another twice, but no hookup. Between the wind, leaves and trickle of a river, getting a consistently good presentation was very challenging.

My hooked and lost streak is up to three in a row, which is frustrating. Oh well, I guess that's why it's called fishing and not...*barf*