Naugatuck Report - November 22, 2014 - Too Cold Too Soon

I had high hopes for this Silver Doctor today, but a
small German Snaelda ultimately got the job done. 

Low and cold...The low part is nothing new, but the river definitely seems colder than normal for this time of year. My thermometer read 40ºF. That's a very liberal 40º, as it was probably just as close to 39º. Last season, I think we were well into December before I got a reading that cold.

The water was cold in the fall of 2011, but was consistently high. Those two sets of conditions tend to go hand in hand. As such, the corresponding fishing tactics tend to be straight forward. As I've said here before, the combination of low and cold water condtions can be a very challenging scenario. Should we use low water techniques, cold water techniques, or a combination of the two? I sort of split the difference today and it worked, hooking and landing two small salmon. The set up was a floating scandi head with a fast sinking polyleader. Both salmon took the same fly, a small German Snaelda, tied on a 1/2" copper tube (thick walled). Both fish took on a slow swing. The first salmon took the fly on its first pass. The second salmon pulled once and was hooked two casts later. I fished four different pools today and those two salmon were the only ones I saw.

There were little areas of thin ice between many shoreline rocks. It was a little depressing. It looks like this fall will be as short as last fall was long. I guess it all balances out in the end, but it's still a tough pill for me to swallow. We should make the most of what little time we have left this season. If the Farmer's Almanac is correct, it's going to be another tough winter.