Naugatuck River - Fall 2013: Data

The leaves are all gone and winter is almost here

I never have been one to keep a fishing journal for my trout fishing. I guess I'm just not into entomology and typical trout stuff all that much. As far as sea run trout go, I can see myself starting one eventually, mainly to document run timing. I used to keep a broodstock salmon journal to document effective techniques at certain temperatures, water levels, etc. I got lazy last season and didn't write anything down, which I now regret. This season, I decide to make this blog my journal. It helps me keep track of trends and maybe it will help some of you, as well.

Though it's still technically autumn, I wrapped up my fall CT salmon fishing season with one trip in December. I have tallied up all my stats, effective flies (and sizes), trips per month and as much other relevant information as I can think of. Please forgive me if the data portion of this summary is sort of dry sounding but, like I said, this blog has become my journal. In addition to the data, I will post some general observations I have made in a follow-up post. Hopefully, that will be more interesting. 

Note: When collecting data on effective flies this fall, I am only including instances of salmon being legitimately hooked. With the exception of dry flies, I am not including information of flies which might have rolled a fish, gotten a pull, pricked a fish, etc...only flies which actually hooked a salmon long enough to be on the line for at least 10-15 seconds or so. Also note, this data only pertains to my own fishing, not from trips in which I was the guide. 

Number of Trips & Success Rate

Total number of trips to the Naugatuck River: 15
Full Day Trips: 9
Partial Day Trips (3 hours or less): 6

September Trips: 5
October Trips: 6
November Trips: 3
December Trips: 1

Salmon hooked: 36
Salmon landed: 29
Average hooked per trip: 2.4
Average landed per trip: 1.9
Largest salmon landed: about 8 lbs. (3 salmon this size)
Smallest salmon landed: 2 lbs. (2 salmon this size...a liberal estimate on both!)
Largest salmon hooked: estimated 12 lbs. (lost after several minutes)
Incidental trout catches: 1 (small brown trout, possibly wild)

Skunkings (trips w/no fish landed): 4
Trips w/o a hookup: 2
Trips with absolutely no action of any kind at all: 1 (cold day w/falling temps & colored water)
Trips with more than one salmon hooked: 8
Trips with six or more salmon hooked: 3
Best single day: 7 hooked, 7 landed (October 10th)
Pairs of forceps lost: 2 (1 expensive, 1 cheap)

Environmental Data

Highest recorded water temp: 68ºF (September)
Lowest recorded water temp: 40ºF (November)

Highest flow fished: about 350cfs (November)
Lowest flow fished: about 120cfs (October)

*Vast majority of days fished were when flows were below 200cfs (yikes)

Top 3 flies for 2013 (clockwise from upper right and in order):
Mickey Finn, Same Thing Murray & Snaelda (German and all-black)

Effective Flies (# of salmon hooked)

Conventional Flies:

Mickey Finn: 8 (all on a sz. 6)
Same Thing Murray: 6
M1 Killer: 3
Buck Bugs (various colors): 3
Sugerman Shrimp: 2
Almost: 1
Black Bear/Red Butt: 1

Tube Flies:

Snaelda (various colors and sizes): 5
H.M. Sunray Variant: 4 (3 w/orange & black; 1 w/white & black)
Ally's Shrimp Tube: 1
Same Thing Murray Tube: 1
Willie Gunn (w/gold body): 1


Effective Fly Sizes

#10: 7 salmon hooked
#8: 4 salmon hooked
#6: 10 salmon hooked
#4: 1 salmon hooked
#2: 2 salmon hooked

Aluminum tube flies (various sizes): 5 salmon hooked
Copper tube flies (various sizes): 7 salmon hooked
Plastic tube flies: 0 salmon hooked

Other Fly Data of Interest

*Dry flies were responsible for raising three salmon, two of which were later hooked on wet flies.

-both fish raised on a #6 Titanic were hooked and landed

-one fish was raised with a #6 Green/Brown Bomber, but was not hooked at all

* A hitched Sunray Shadow variation (yellow tube w/orange and black wing) raised one fish, but I'm not sure if it was a trout or a small salmon, as the fish was never hooked

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In my next post, I'll summarize my fall season with some general observations. I promise that post will be more interesting than this one is!