It’s been a while since I’ve gotten out to the place my soul calls home. I was able to get some much needed time on the river this past weekend, it ended up being a beautiful and successful day. My buddy Dehmer called me up on Friday and asked if I was interested in checking out a river over in Connecticut. Whenever asked to fish, I always find an excuse to say yes, sometimes it comes back to bite me but I never regret the choice. As I’ve gotten more into it I am able to find a much deeper appreciation not only for the fish, but also for my surroundings. There’s something to be said about nature having the best soundtrack. People rarely slow down enough to hear all that’s happening around them. As I’ve become more involved in fishing I’m more aware of the beautiful melody it offers, and look forward to the soundtrack it has on deck for me each day.
So I set out to see what track was playing on this beautiful February day. We hit the river around 8 just as it started warming up. As we approached the stream there was some activity in the water. Several fish were rising to the surface to take whatever hatch was coming off. I was ill prepared for this and only brought along streamers or more affectionately known as “Meat”. 
Winter fishing is a much different than summer fishing. You have to work much harder and cover a lot more ground, than you would in the spring. It takes a lot of dedication and commitment, as well as the ability to push on even when the chances look slim. However with all the being said, to land a winter fish is probably more satisfying than having a 10 fish day in the spring. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not saying I don’t want to land ten fish but instead I’m merely pointing out that working hard and having it pay off makes it that much sweeter.
So there we were, streamers (“Meat”) tied on, natures sound track playing in the background, looking at fish rising all around. Within about 10 mins Dehmer had landed a nice brown! I however was still riding the struggle bus and would be for the next 5 hours. We fished a few spots hard but just could not hook up with the exception of the early brown. So we decided to push up river and do some exploring. As I mentioned earlier, you need to cover a lot of ground in the winter in hopes of finding some active fish, and that is exactly what we did.
The river we were on is full of fishy water. It had everything from pocket water to glass like pools. This variety can be overwhelming at times but it allows you to find what’s working for the conditions you’re in. Having streamers in hand we knew the pocket water would be somewhat rough unless we swung the meat into the pocket so we kept moving up until we came to one of those glass like pools. Much to our surprise there was a fair amount of people at this particular pool regardless we pulled some line of the reel and began casting.
Streamer fishing in itself is exhilarating, it is a complete shot in the dark in the sense that you can’t directly see what is going on below the surface. The only way you know you have a fish, is the tug. You will often hear the saying “the tug is the drug” and that is most certainly a fact. So as I cast my big streamer out across this glass pool I give my fly a second to sink into the abyss. Once it’s out of sight I begin to take slow strips of line bring it back towards me. The first retrieve yields no results, much like the earlier part of the day. I cast my fly to a different spot which looks pretty fishy and again wait for the streamer to disappear. Strip, strip, strip and BANG I feel the weight of a feisty brown on the other end. He takes of swimming all over this pool until I finally net him. I snap a few pictures and send him back on his way. Take a deep breath and smile as I have finally gotten myself off the struggle bus.
GoodWillFishin 