How's the Fishing?

[Mark Patenaude]

Few if any reports.

Anybody chasing trout.

Hard to believe it August. I'll be fishing the Salmon and Steelhead run in like 8-9 weeks!

A co-worker got out on a Charter on Lake Michigan this weekend in Door County, Wisconsin and was bragging about an 18lb King he caught at around 100'. I don't brag about my adventures, but I thought it a good opportunity to show him the pic I have of a 44"/32lb hen that I caught on Michigan's Bear Creek, in heavy current, on an 8lb tippet with a #12 green caddis rockworm pattern.

He looked deflated...

[hoxie]

I went fishing twice this weekend.

On Saturday, I hit the West Housatonic in Pittsfield for about half an hour, but all I caught were lots and lots of small (4"-9") dace (a/k/a fall fish).

On Sunday, I fished the South Branch of the Hoosic in Adams for about an hour and a half and did a bit better: a 7" brown and two rainbows (one 13" and one 14").

[Mark Patenaude]

Hoxie:

What section did you work?

I assume you were somewhere between Grove St. in Adams and south from there.

I can give you some really productive areas to try.

I typically work the section from behind the big mill on Grove St. and south to the falls at the Harbor. Discounting the stock bows', I've caught some nice Browns and Brookies there. There is also some great dryfly action to be had along there.

Let me know.

Mark

[bartman]

Only got over to the Berkshires a few times this season (Deerfield) and we did pretty well both times but the last time we were over there was over a month ago. I have some nice pics of the kid on the river if I get a chance to post.

It's been raining just about every day and the rivers are up (not a bad thing for the trout) and I've got some shoulder pain (possible rotator cuff problem) and just had an MRI the other day so I haven't been out much lately.

Did you ever make it back east in July?

[Mark Patenaude]

I never made it. Too many things were going on.

I will definitely be there sometime in May/Early June next year.

Take care of that shoulder. RC problems take on a wide range of severities.

Mark

[hoxie]

Mark:

To answer your question, I was fishing the stretch between the Old Stone Mill (Glenn Street) north toward ALADCO.

If I followed your directions correctly, you favor fishing the Grove Street section of Route 8 (about even with Pinnacle Park) south to the Cheshire Harbor.

I've fished the stretch you describe myself a few times, with mixed results. In my (admittedly limited) experience, it tends to be more productive in the late spring and early summer, and then less so as the season progresses, and the trout (particularly the rainbows) head downstream. But then again, I might just be fishing it wrong.

I'll gladly take you up on your kind offer of any tips that you may have regarding promising spots to try.

But just out of curiousity, how do you know so much about the Hoosic if (according to your profile) you live out in the Midwest? Are you a recent transplant, and/or do you still come out here for a few months each year?

Hoxie (a/k/a Jim Loughman)

[Mark Patenaude]

I was born and raised on Grove St. in Adams. I fished that river hundreds if not thousands of times when I was a kid and know the river from Aladco to the Harbor very well. Over the years, the profile has changed somewhat but it still fishes well. My great-uncle who used to live a few doors down was a fly fisher and introduced me not only to the sport but to how to fish the river. The entire area where the machine shop is now located to the left of the mill used to be a full of water and the stone wall that runs through my old back yard was the d**e that held it all back.

He told me some great stories about catching "native" trout regularly in the 16-18" range but with time and changes, that has diminished if not disappeard all together.

My biggest trout from that section is a 22" Brown that came from below the bridge behind the mill on Grove St. Caught on something other than a fly when I was about 15 years old.

Email me at:
[e-mail]
and I'll give you 2 particular sections along Rt 8. South of Grove St. that you need to try. One is excellent dry fly water where during my last visit caught at least a dozen Brookies in about an hour with the biggest around 13" but is also good streamer/nymph water and in the center is around 4' deep and the other is a stretch where I caught a trout on 12 consecutive drifts with a cased caddis pattern. It also had something very large patrollilng the run which cut off a #4 Zoo Cougar that I was throwing on apparently too light of a tippet. What ever it was smashed the fly, was on for a brief second and then gone. It cut the mono clean... Maybe a large Brown or a Rogue Pike. I never did see what it was.

Mark