Monday dawned bright and early with a 7am breakfast of scrambled eggs and sausage, courtesy of Hardy. Then it was time to hit the road for Lopstick Lodge and our rendezvous with Bill for a day of wading the Connecticut. For once, we arrived early, before the designated 8:30am time. Bill was waiting and after some brief consultation, we headed down to the parking area directly below 1st Connecticut dam at the headwaters of the trophy section.
At the parking lot, we divied up presentation strategies -- Hardy went nymph, as did Carole, and Alan went for the old favorite, the dry fly. Headed down to the river where we saw several fisherman upstream (who we were told later didn't catch anything). We got back on the path and headed down to Judges and Juries where we spread out onto three beautiful pools. Hardy struck early and got the beautiful -- and huge -- brook trout pictured here. Alan took the first salmon and a couple rainbows. Carole struggled to find her touch, having a hard time sealing the deal with the firm set.
Heading downstream the boys continued to find fish and Carole finally ended the drought with a tiny (but beautiful!) salmon and then a little bit later a beautiful rainbow and another salmon. By this time we were in the upper reaches of Ledges and it was 1:30ish so we determined to quit for lunch.
Lunch was another one of Bill's gourmet feasts. Cheese, crackers, mushroom dip (sorry, Alan), plus then a meal of steak, chicken, roasted veggies, and salad. Dessert would have been apples and chocolate but Carole and Hardy ate all the apple slices as an appy. Oh well.
After lunch, we headed back to the dam parking lot and went directly downstream. By this point, we had all switched to Elkwing Caddis with an emerger for the dropper. Fish were biting on both. Hardy and Alan headed downstream, catching fish regularly, while Carole and Bill concentrated on the top section where Carole finally hit her stride, catching three good fish in about half an hour. Alan found a good spot where he pulled out five rainbows and a salmon. Just south of there was a deep eddie between a rock and a birch tree with overhanging trees. It was immediately adjacent to a good current, making it a great place for a big fish to hang out and feed. Only problem for the angler was that it was an impossible cast. You had to hit an area the size of a pie plate, immediately mend, and then pray. Bill challenged Carole who wisely turned it over to Alan who tried first with the 3 weight and a dry fly and then with Pinky on both dry and streamer (bambino). He managed to interest the fish on both the caddis and the bambino but lost the streamer in the end. The brookie was enormous -- maybe 22 inches. Maybe next time....
To close out the day, Bill took Hardy up to the pools immediately below the dam where fish were seen but not caught. They witnessed a fish suicide attempt when one leaped out of the river onto a flat rock. Not the outcome it intended.
Around 6 o'clock, we called it a day so that we could return to Camp for dinner and then the annual Quimby's shareholder meeting. Thankfully, it was brief and the efforts by one family to call down doom and gloom were foiled.
So ends another great day at Papelousu. Unfortunately, we take Hardy to the airport tomorrow but perhaps one more fishing adventure to Forrest Pond in the am.
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