Welcome folks, my name is J. G. Coleman and I'm the host of Connecticut Angler. Seeking trout and bass on the river has been my passion for a decade and a half and now it's my pleasure to bring others along with me on the journey. The Connecticut Angler is born, raised and based in the Nutmeg State, but wherever there are gamefish you can bet that I'll seize the opportunity.
I caught a few as a boy in Washington State. Locally they were known as silver trout. They will feed except when they're spawning. I don't think you made that clear. At any other time of the year you can catch them with anything trout will take.
Appreciate the feedback. I will say, only 50 seconds into the video the text on-screen says “During the spawn, they lose the desire to eat altogether…”. But yeah, on reviewing the rest of the video, I see now that I was always sort of speaking about Kokanee fishing in the specific context in which the video was taking place (targeting them during the spawn in autumn) and didn’t explicitly clarify that, which makes it sound like I’m making broader statements about Kokanee behavior than I was intending. Indeed, during the summer on the few lakes that have Kokanee here in Connecticut, lots of folks of jig or troll for them in the deeper water using an array of different offerings; it’s a totally different ball game.
I love your videos man! Do you have any advice on trying to find wild browns? I haven’t caught one in years. Also, in case you’re wondering, I mostly fish eastern CT.
The one thing I've learned about anything cabelas branded is whatever major brand cabelas sells that's close in compariosn is who makes it. Diawa makes bass pro reels.
I’m fairly particular about my small stream rods these days: 3wt 7’ 6”. I have a few different ones in that size, as that length is fairly common for 3wts. For me, it’s the most versatile small stream option. I have a 2wt that I use sometimes, and it’s great for placing dries and dry-droppers, but it doesn’t handle indicator nymph rigs or streamers very well. And I’ve used 4wts and 5wts for impromptu small stream outings when that was all I had on-hand, and it’s not like they can’t work, but they’re really not the right tools for the job.
If your willing to walk miles there are great wild trout in the 20"-26" range in the Quinnie. Hint they are nowhere near the stocking areas and much further south than you would think. Prepare for waste deep wading in a foot of stinky muck. It's actually pretty irresponsible exposure, however you have the chance to hook up with some of the biggest wild browns in the state and maybe even a sturgeon 😉.
i had this combo caught many fish, just be careful of the two screws that connect the reel to the fitment adaptor i find they come loose and can fall off or ruin your casting completely. some lock-tite should do the trick. Great Review Tight lines !
I can remember fishing that very same pool 50 years ago, I used to stand on those rocks and cast into the pool, caught many trout there! I used to fish the last four or five miles down to the Housatonic river pretty regularly and had great success, somewhere around the middle of the eight mile brook was a huge crystal clear damed pool around eight feet deep that we used to snag giant suckers in!
just discovering you and enjoying . i myself grew up in connecticut. theres a nice stream coming out monos pond ( columbia) that has some great pockets that might interest you, especially the stretch between pine st. and rt 87. you will need waders though . as a kid wed catch brookies and even chained pickerel in it
I remember as a kid (60's) we watched thousands of Kokanee migrate past the West family bridge on Shenipsit Lake in Tolland. They were all migrating up river to spawn.
How bad is the pollution there now? You should've seen the smallie I hooked fishing for stripers on the Ct. River in South Hadley Mass below the dam. It hit a 4 1/2oz pencil popper just as I was lifting it out of the water. My guess is it was 8-9 pounds!!!! I've caught several 4-5 pounders but never anything close to that 1
I fly fish small mouth and other species of fish muskys all fun too here in Tuscarawas county and also/Belmont/Jefferson/Ohio i tie my own streamer now
I know where a healthy population is and I'm not telling. Seen some nasty people out there fishing and there's no way they need to be there. If you know where the rainbow trout are in CT, keep it hidden. Let them come back for the ones that respect them.
In 1970 the Naugatuck River was literally an open sewer with industrial waste from a rubber factory, metal plating manufacturing and many other small industries, and sewage discharges from every town in the Naugatuck valley. It’s incredible how this river has recovered from the drastic pollution that was once dumped into this beautiful river.
Love your vids super dope and informative! I was looking to head out with a spinning rod to blue line was wondering what you would throw on a spinner ? I’ve only really done stoked trout in lakes haven’t had any luck in streams or large rivers yet.
Getting me excited for the upcoming warmer weather! Kudos for hanging in the cold, it's definitely a grind. Question(s) - how much line were you running under the indicator with the 3 flies? Any issues with bottom snags? I ask because the water didn't seem all that deep. Thx again.
Well, only a couple spots in this stream even exceed 3ft, but the natural resistance of the flies against the water will mean that they typically ride up and run shallower in the water column than the actual tippet length. Only in nearly stagnant water (or isolated eddies) will the rig ever really straighten out beneath the indi. So when determining what depth to run a rig, it’s important to consider the resistance of your rig and the water speed, in addition to the apparent depth of the water, adding length beneath your indi to compensate and ensure your flies get down deep enough. Although it tends to get cut out of videos often, I’m constantly adjusting the indicator to dial in depth, sometimes at every spot or even multiple times at a spot. And it’s not uncommon that an adjustment of even just an extra 6” of tippet beneath the indi will yield fish where previous drifts at just a slightly shallower depth turned up nothing. Airlock indicators help by making it very fast and easy to make those sorts of depth adjustments, though there are other indie that are easy to adjust too. Snags are almost an inevitability sometimes, especially in winter when it’s so crucial to get within a few inches of the bottom. As long as there isn’t lots of timber to get hung on, you can usually give the rig a light tug and it’ll pull free. But flies will be lost sometimes; it is what it is. One strategy to avoid losing an entire 3 fly rig if you do get hung up is to tie each fly with successively lighter tippet: 3x to the first fly, 4x to the second, 5x to the point fly. That way you’re more assured of keeping a few flies even if you have to break off a snagged point fly, for example.
Fantastic video. Your fly fishing and filming skills are awesome, but what I really like is how your passion for the 'quiet sport' comes through in the film. Hopefully the fishing experience you displayed in the film will be around for a long time. It's up to us fishermen to preserve such resources for generations to come. Again, great job.
