Farmington River

For the last six months I planned on trying for Kokanee Salmon (landlocked Sockeye salmon) the first weekend of November in Connecticut. From all the little bit of info I could gather, they seem to spawn (and come close to shore) that week. I had Nov 3 and 4 off from work but I assumed the fish would be late because of the extremely warm October. Since the lake is two hours and twenty minutes away from my house, I placed my bet that the fish would instead be spawning today. I was wrong. After over two hours of driving I knew almost instantly that the fish weren't spawning. I fished anyway. The best I could do was get a couple of trout to follow my lures and flies.

Needless to say, I didn't take a two and a half hour gamble on a fish I'd never caught before without a backup plan. After fishing the lake for a couple hours I went to explore the Farmington River. The Farmington is probably the most famous trout river in New England (you could probably make a case for the Upper Connecticut and Batten Kill but they are far from major population centers) I've never fished it before, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The Farmington is a dam controlled river. The cold water comes from the bottom of the dam. Because of this, the trout have a fairly consistent year round temperature.  The river, which is actually the West Branch of the Farmington is heavily stocked but also supports wild browns. I don't have any real experience fishing fast moving rivers. I know this might sound like blasphemy to true trout guys, but I'd rather catch trout in a high mountain lake. However, I had to drive right by the Farmington so I tried for half the day to learn its secrets.

I fished the Peoples State Park area of the river. This is a TMA (trout management area). Fishing is allowed year round. There are other rules such as, only barbless hooks can be used. It is catch and release only for part of the year.

I only caught one trout. It was a brown that was about 11-12 inches. I got it within twenty minutes and thought this river fishing was easy. Then...crickets. Nothing. I still enjoyed my time on the Farmington. It is a really pretty river. It was nice to fish such a famous river loaded with trout. Just because they did not want to hit did not take away from my experience. To the contrary, fishing the river really opened my eyes. I'm going to research it some more and find spots that aren't as heavily fished as a state park. I don't know when I will go back again, I just know that I will.