Naugatuck Report - March 23, 2016 - Ouch!

Small, but I'll take it if it keeps the skunk away

     My drum lessons were canceled today. No money, no good. The babysitter was booked, so I decided to go fishing to make up for it. It was warm today, about 63ºF when I arrived. The water was 48ºF and was flowing at 380 cfs, which is low for this time of year. It was overcast. I'll never complain about cloudy skies. Today's rig was the 11'9" rod, the Abel Switch reel, and a 400 gr. Scientific Anglers UST Scandi head (F/I/S2). 

     I referred to an old post that had details on a past trip under similar conditions. I planned on starting at the pools referenced in that post, so I figured the information would be relevant. The only difference were the temps, both water and air, which were both about 5-8º warmer today than they were on the other trip. I even used the same fly, a sz. 2 Sugerman Shrimp, though I didn't sink it as much as I did in the trip from a few years ago. I hooked up with a good salmon in my first pass through the pool, so the research paid off. The fish was about 8 lbs. and like to fly. It made two strong, reel screaming runs and jumped about five times. Unfortunately, the salmon came unbuttoned a few minutes into the fight. Too bad...that was the best fight I've gotten out of a spring Naugatuck salmon yet. 

  

     Subsequent passes yielded nothing and the other pool was occupied, so I moved on. The next pool was a bust, though I saw one jump in the frog water. I decided to move further upriver. In my first pass through the next pool, I fell in! This was my first Naugatuck fall-in. If it was going to happen in any pool, this was the one. I banged my shin on a rock as I fell. It didn't hurt then, but it's beginning to hurt now. It will probably be black and blue tomorrow morning. I thought I wouldn't get water in my waders, but I couldn't save myself. I felt a cold rush of water run all the way down to my booties. My right arm was soaked, as was the lower front part of my long sleeved t-shirt. I thought about going back to the car, but it would eat up too much time. I fished on...

     I moved down one pool and did nothing with the Sugerman. I decided to fish a little deeper, so I tied on a gold bodied Willie Gunn tied on a 1.5" copper tube. That did the trick....SLAM! A fish pulled hard, but no hook up. A few casts later, the fish was on. It turned out to be a little guy. I landed and released him quickly, then made a couple more casts to the lie. BAM! Another little salmon on the hook...expect this one didn't stay on for long. He spit the hook out while jumping. I made it to the bottom of the run and decided to take a final cast. I reeled up my fly line and...WHACK! Fish on. This time, it was a small brown trout. 

     I lost that good fish, got soaked, and banged up my shin. I also lost out on teaching money. It was a good day for March salmon fishing though, so you won't hear any complaints from me.