Monday, 8/20/12. 4:00 - 6:00PM. Jeffrey, Kevin, Brendan:
It hasn't rained much over the past few weeks, so the water levels everywhere have been very low. Today we headed out to Nashoba Brook near Milldam Rd to see if the fishing was still okay. I brought my #4 fly rod and Brendan brought his BPS Microlite combo and some Trout Magnets.
The water had actually risen since the last time we fished there. The stream was actually flowing, compared to the drought-like conditions just a week ago. Last week the stream was just a bunch of pools and no flowing water. The source pond was a few inches lower than usual, so there was no water flowing over the dam. Today, you could hear the water crashing down from 50 feet away. Also, the water was very clear, and much, much colder than before. The water clarity has also improved, so now you can see every individual stone in the stream bed.
We started out at our usual spot: A small pool below some rapids. First fish was a 4-5" shiner caught on a transparent/silver flake Trout Magnet. I had a few takes on my micro popper, but none of the fish were large enough to inhale the whole fly.
Later, we moved upstream to a longer, slower stretch that usually produced pickerel, catfish, shiners, and panfish. Today, we got no hits so we decided to move further upstream to the bridge, which sits over a rocky area of the stream. Here, I decided to switch to a Hare's Ear Nymph, and immediately eager pumkinseeds and sunfish began feeding.
After maybe 10 minutes of consistent fishing, the fish stopped feeding, so we headed to the source pond. There was clearly more aquatic vegetation growth over the past few days, as new patches of lily pads had sprung up all around the pond, and existing patches had formed huge green carpets over the water. The glare was very bad, and our polarized sunglasses didn't help very much, so we were fishing blindly. I got a few takes on the same nymph, but were all from panfish. Brendan also got a few bites, but only from sunfish. Usually we would hook up with a pickerel or bass, but today we got nothing larger than a hand-sized sunfish.
Overall, I would say that the fishing at Nashoba Brook has improved over the past few weeks. The rising water levels has cleared up the water significantly, but it has also allowed fish trapped in pools to be able to move to other parts of the stream. Next time we will have to try fishing downstream, as that may be where all the larger fish have congregated.
Happy fishing,
-Jeffrey
No comments:
Post a Comment