Unbelievably Late Report & the Upcoming Season

A hard fighting November salmon

    A while ago, I decided to stop posting regular reports to take a little heat off of the fishery. I actually did mean to post an overall report last season, but it sort of slipped my mind. There's no time like the present!

    The one thing that stood out about the 2020-2021 season was how small the fish were. They were really puny. I've never caught so many small salmon in one season. From what I understand, the hatchery had problems with this year class of fish, starting at the egg stage. From what I've heard, last season was just an outlier in that respect. I still had fun, but it definitely made me miss the old days (fewer, but much larger, fish) even more than usual. 

    Even though all of my own catches were small, my clients tied into some nice fish. There were a couple of scraps that I thought the salmon would win, but both anglers came out victorious. There were plenty of small fish caught, too. In all, it was a very productive season and a lot of fun. I could tell people appreciated being out after being cooped up for so long. 

Another hard fighter on light tackle 

    The overwhelming choice for fly of the year went to the conehead Ally's Shrimp tube fly. All three salmon pictured in this post were caught on that fly, as well as several other salmon. I fished mostly classic salmon flies and caught several salmon on them. I also recall catching one on a Green Machine and a couple on Shumakov's Golden Shrimp (I catch salmon on this every season...will make a post about it soon). As far as guiding, however, I stuck with the Ally's tube fly and there was really no need to use too much else. Detailed tying instructions for the Ally's tube can be found in my ebook, "Flies for Connecticut Salmon: How to Tie & Fish Them." 

Conehead Ally's Shrimp - Fly of the Year 2020

    As far as the upcoming season goes, I am planning on guiding again. We've had plenty of rain so, as long as it doesn't stop altogether, we might have an early start to the season. My favorite time to fish is early on, so that would be great if it works out. If you're interested in booking, contact me and I will add you to my email list. I offer discounts for multiple days booked in case you'd like to book more than one trip in a season. I look forward to seeing some of you in the upcoming salmon season! 

Christmas Eve rocket