The October Caddis

October in New England is special.   I mean everyplace has october, but as Patricia Watson says not everyplace has our october.   The leaves seem to come alive, a riot of colors brought on by a looming change of season.   How nice it must be, to be at your very best at the very end of things.   What a joyous time to be on the water with what little time we have left, fish now or forever hold your peace my friends.  Winter is coming.....

The other day on my way out the door I was greeted by another lover of the month October.  The October Caddis.  I often seen them fluttering about this time of year near my house.

A very large and vibrant fellow he is, I think a size 14 bushy dry will do.

The day I chose to end my season was a nice one, sunny and in the mid 70's.   I walked among the forest up into the hills eating an apple picked the day before.   Taking my time, no rush, enjoying the feel of the sun on my back.....glorious.   Hopefully the fish would feel the same.   The leaves were not quite at peak but they are close, a peek up into the canopy of the forest reveals much.  Another week or so till the apex of color arrives.

Before long I hear the song, my favorite tune.  Its pull is irresistible, the siren of the small stream calls, can you hear it?

On the second drift I am fortunate, a mighty splash erupts around my caddis, my offering is deemed acceptable.

As I step into the water to release the fish, I feel the shock on my now wet feet.  Its cold, it feels good.

This indeed is a very good start to things, what would follow would turn out to be one of my very best trips of the year.

Pool after pool I am greeted by natures best.

Something in the deep catches my eye.  I can't help but reach, is this all part of the sirens trap?  To lull me deeper?

I succumb, the prize is mine.

The light is dimming, this season is coming to an end.  On my walk out in the twilight I can hear the siren still calling.  I resist...for now.  The next time you find yourself in the wild, take a moment, slow down and listen.   If your lucky enough you'll hear it......every moving body of water sings a unique song, here amongst the hills where the cold water flows it is sweet and it is LOUD.

On the water, dawn till dusk

Its 6:30 in the morning, the air is a cool 55 degrees and a light drizzle is falling.  The forecast called for morning showers with sun in the afternoon, hopefully the second half will come true.   I'm on the road with jfflyfisher on the way up north to a couple new locations.  He has received a tip from a biologist that both locations contained wild browns, rainbows, and brookies.   Spirits were high, much to talk about on our long trip north.  Although this was our first time meeting up kindred spirits often mesh well and the ride was made to seem much shorter.


 After traveling through the north country for a bit we began to near the first site.  The point at which it crossed the road looked good, but the signs posted all the about the wood in the surrounding area did not.  These were not your normal posted signs but much more serious signs that promised to make your good day go very sour quickly.....oh well....time to move on the second location.


 Fortunately the second site held no such signs that promised awful things.  The water looked pretty good, time to get rigged up and on the water.  


 Soon after we were both trudging up the stream.  I had my standard dry/dropper rig on and proceeded to catch nothing.   After a bit jfflyfisher passed me and informed me he had picked up a few small fish already and one decent one out from under a large fallen tree on a small purple bugger.   I wasn't about to give up on my favorite combo yet so I trudged on.   I soon came upon a nice looking pool with a large root ball located against the far side that looked very fishy.  On my first cast something attempted to hit the dropper right of the bat, on the second he hit it again after a few moments, on the third attempt the dry was dragged back a few inches as he snagged the nymph again but again no hookup.


 By now jfflyfisher was waiting patiently behind me noticing I was on to something.  I motioned for him to come up and take my place before I put the fish down for good.  After a few cast his 2wt came alive in his hand and the battle was on!  It looked to be quite a decent fish.

 And it was, a quick shot and off he went, a true small stream trophy.

 


 This would end up being the best part about this place, after a lot more walking upstream all that was encountered was a lot of wheeler tracks in the sand and more beer cans than I have seen in a long time.   A few more small brookies came to hand and we took some time to flip some rocks looking for bugs.  We found a lot of large golden stoneflies after searching under less than half a dozen rocks.  We continued upstream for awhile longer hoping things would improve but the stream appeared to be much more well traveled than thought and wormed out.


 After this we headed back the truck and ate some lunch and to discuss where to head for the rest of the afternoon.  It was decided to hit another stream back farther south on the way home, a favorite of mine and one he had never fished.  


 After getting turned around once on the way there we finally arrived and rigged up again.  I got out my 3wt lamiglas and proceeded to bend the tip down to touch the butt of the rod.  I think jfflyfisher's eye's bugged out a little at that, its a fun little rod for sure.  


 It was time to do some rock hopping upstream.

Soon after we were into trout, lots of them. We were blessed with a few that were fully dressed up for fall that were kind enough to stay still for a few photo's.  

I have no tail...

 We continued upstream till about dark.  As I was sitting on a rock untangling yet another mess jfflyfisher appeared and informed me that a bear had just crossed in front of him.  That was our hint to head on out.  A short time later we were breaking down the gear at the truck in the dark and headed out to get some food.   Although we caught no wild browns or bows it was a good long day on the water enjoyed with fellow wild trout nut, doesn't get much better than that.

VIntage reel shakedown run

After getting my new to me vintage reel up and working again I just had to take it out for a little shakedown run.  I paired it up with my little 6'2" 3wt boo last night and it balanced quite nicely.  This afternoon I took a little run up into the mountains but was turned away from my intended location because of a huge cell of thunder boomers.  So back across the pass I came(where it was still bright and sunny) and decided to hit up another small stream thats been on my "yet to fish" list awhile.

After a short walk thru the woods I followed my ear to the river.  I came out just below this pool.

No fish here at this pool, but I will be coming back this weekend with my 5 year old for some swimming fun.

Up over the pool and around the bend.  Oh…….this looks inviting…..

Bingo!

Not long after another large pool, and no fish.  There is no structure in these massive pools so I wasn't really surprised at that.

All the places in between where good for fish though.

All the while I could hear massive thunder boomers echoing off the mountain sides, it was only a matter of time.  I also encountered a lot of bear scat so shortly after I was on my way out.  A few quick hours was good enough.  As soon as I got back to the truck it started to rain, then it was pouring buckets 10 minutes after that.

Up there things can turn around fast, down in the valley it was nice and sunny and 20 degrees warmer.

Also encountered an indicator of whats to come soon enough.

Newest addition to my skeleton collection

Just took delivery of this little gem a few days past.   Took it in to work with me last night, cleaned all the grime off, peened some of the loose brass posts and rivets tight again, fixed the clicker, re-shaped the reel foot back to nominal and removed all the rough and sharp edges so it wouldn't ruin the finish on my reel seats.  After all was said and done I coated the entire thing with 3 coats of automotive clear.  Love the handle on it, its my favorite part.

The River of Plenty

Headed out yesterday for my first trip into the White Mountains of the year.  Sure you can fish it earlier than mid July but I'm here to fish with dries, and dries alone.  In fact all I brought was six flies. The sight of fish after fish crushing bushy dries is just about as close to perfect in my book.  Now onto the river....

After hiking for quite a bit I could here its sweet sweet song, the lovely tune of flowing pocket water.  A short scramble down the side of a ravine and down to the river I went.

I saw down on a nice looking rock and assembled my rod for the day.

Time to sling some bugs!

Almost every pool held fish, sometimes three or more.  Mostly brookies...

And rainbows, some small.

Some not so small.

Pools after pools of this is hard to take....

After getting skunked at the head of one of these pools I loomed up from behind the rear rocks and promptly saw a very very large shape go darting
into its panic hole.  I fish I did not recognize because it was so pale.  And then it happened again two pools later.....

Ok ok, time to get sneaky.  Coming along the next likely spot I crept up the bank to get a better point of view before preceding and then I saw it!  There waving back forth between two boulders in the tail of the pool.  I crept back down to the water and slowly made my approach being careful to keep his head out of site.  Caught you buddy.

I then backed out and and tossed just the leader three feet up from his holding lie and then.....hold on brother...that glass three weight is in for a heck of a ride.

A curious thing for me at least, having fish of this size just laying exposed at the tail of most of the bigger pools.  I scared more than a dozen, caught just two.  How many more I didn't see is lost on me.  This was very exciting, learning something new and trying to outsmart this fish was quite a treat.  Clearly I have much to learn about the spooky nature of browns.  Of course it doesn't help that the water is crystal clear, this already willy fish has all the advantages here. But as least its good for underwater shots.....

After letting this fella go he decided to just hang around on the bottom near my legs.  He seemed quite happy to be next to me so I went ahead and took some fun pictures of him underwater.

By now I was hot, my thermometer said it was close to 90 out, the water was 55.  I'd had a great day lots and lots of fish, my busted knee felt good with a brace on it, it was time to cool off. I stripped off my pack and submerged myself into the deep pool at my feet...ahhhhhhhhhhh.

After lowering my body temp by what seemed like almost 20 degrees I emerged dripping wet feeling refreshed.  My tummy growled, I simply felt ravenous!  Time for lunch, a sandwich so aptly named.....

One last piece of water near where I was eating a late lunch.

And the last fish of the day from that same pool.

A fine day.