u/Imaginary-Title2838

After hiking 4 miles from my house, to a stream that supposedly had a little bit of information on having brown and brook trout… I caught a fish.

I’ve fish this stream a few times on the lower sections where there were plunge pools and great structure. It seemed perfect every time… the approach, the flies, the rig… but I never got a fish. All I saw were minnows, plunge pools, and crystal clear spring water.

But finally… finally I caught fish. I walked a trail that seemed to be an old logging road. It had a dead end. My heels were blistered from my wool socks (which have a weird texture and have now realized I shall never wear them again for hiking). I was about to give up. I fished great pools, and did everything I could. But I decided to slide down the slope to the stream, and was surprisingly met by a deep pool. I’d say around 3ft max, and a huge boulder with an undercut... it was a mansion and a 43 acre backyard for a trout in this stream.

I didn’t even see a trout upon the first glimpse. I just stood back and changed my rig, and focused. I went from giving up, to one more chance. Maybe, just maybe, there was a fish in this grand pool.

I casted my dry dropper, and a small fish nibbled the fly. It was a large minnow upon my inspection. But then, from the depths, arose a large fish… 11-12”. It sensed the small minnow feeding and its quick jerks. I froze. I crouched behind the rock.

I made a delicate cast, and sure enough, he looked, inspected… and WHAM! The second he was hooked, he swam under a thick tree branch. I slipped and crawled over the boulders, and the fish kept wrapping my line and jerking. My top fly was hooked on the branch. My nymph, which he ate, was being jerked by the surges of power the fish expelled. It was up to my knot and line. It was only 5x (4.5 pound). He kept going. Then, after I‘d gotten close, the silt I stirred up engulfed the surroundings. The fish was cloaked in it. Everything was. And I stopped feeling the jerks and pulls of the fish. It went in for 15 seconds. I was sure I’d lost it…

But the silt cleared, and the fish reacted. His cover was blown. But he was stuck. And my rod… bent. He was still on. I grabbed the tree log out of the water and pulled the dry fly out, and netted the fish.

This beautiful wild brown trout, living in a stream which averaged maybe 2-3 yards across, and shallow water much throughout, surprised me. It’s not a big fish in general, but understanding the size of the water, and the predators he was born to deal with, and the ancestors brought from Europe he was linked to, made it all worth it. The beauty too. The fish was not stupid. I released him and he shoved his head under a rock and pressed his body in the rocky riverbed, blending in with the surroundings and matching its stillness.

And really, it’s not a fish a lot of people would be so excited about. But I am. I caught this fish after I’d started to doubt there were fish here. I’ve caught my fair share of brookies in small streams.

This stream still a mystery to me. Perhaps I need to explore it more, and travel the miles into the dense forest. But the lack of fish I’d seen… it was astonishing… I didn’t see many fish whatsoever spook that’d I’d suspect would be a trout. Such pristine habitat and water.… who knows…

Oh, and doorknob, this is for you. You know what I’m talking about…

My package currently says it’s been in the Denver, CO distribution center for 6 days now.

Meanwhile, about 4-5 days ago, it said it would arrive yesterday. It never did, and they took away the estimated time completely after not arriving on said time. And, on top of that, they took part of the timeline away… so I’m quite confused.

I have the first picture which shows the full timeline, and the current timeline which isn‘t complete.

I haven’t really ordered from USPS much before, and whatever this is, is confusing me. I’m not sure if its actually still in the distribution center, or if there were problems with scanning, why they took part of the timeline away, and also why they took the estimated date for the package to arrive away.

I‘d sure hope it arrives soon, though it seems like USPS has been known for their delays recently with other posts…

Hey all, I’m a serious fisherman that goes out when possible most of the time. Right now, I’m not fishing for trout here in NJ with the usual warm temps in July often at all except on early mornings of a cold front. That being said, I fish hard for the rest of the year mostly. At least I had last year and I loved it.

My gear has had a beating to say the very least. And yes, that is a picture of my Redington CT rod with a missing cork ring! Along with other parts of the rod, it is quite beaten up. I’ve owned it for about 2 years now and it has hundreds of fish on it.

The abundance cork filler is falling apart, and the epoxy has lifted and even has some small cracks in some areas where the edge of the guide lifted epoxy from stress. Even one of the guides randomly came off after a cast a few months back even though beforehand it didn’t appear to have any wear or damage. The cork clearly has a large amount of filler on some rings, and a big reason as to why one crumbled off after it had been fished in the rain for many hours with my wet hands on it. The rings next to it are much more solid, while one at the top is very squishy and one ring has an area that’s squishy. Not the highest grade cork it seems, and hasn’t held up super well. Along with me putting some solid bends in the rod over time, I guess the guides really stressed the epoxy. I have tried take care of this rod while not baby’ing it, but after hundreds of fish, I guess she is really has her 180 dollars worth.

The reel on that rod is an orvis battenkill click n’ pawl, which has scratches, but almost no dents after some bonks and continues to work like brand new, so that’s not an issue.

The same is not said for my waders. The pictures do not represent the severity of leakage on them. These I’ve had for maybe 2.5 years. They’re Frogg Toggs and have an infinite amount of pinholes from rocks, logs, scrapes, thorns, etc.. It seems like every trip there’s 2 new holes 😂. It’s gotten to the point where I stocked my foot in ankle deep and the water makes it way pretty fast.

Along with that, my fly collection is absolute garbage right now. I have sacrificed an unearthly amount of flies to the trees the past few months, and my luck has been awful. Wind blowing them, fish coming off and shooting them into the tree, logs eating them, flies themselves falling apart often (Redd’s flies), etc. Normally I do not lose as many flies as I have. At least I’ve learned some lessons to be reminded of.

Anyways, with an explanation out of the way on my gear, I can actually get to the point. Soon, I have a birthday, and along with that, I was planning on getting new gear, and flies. Though, I do want stuff that can last more than what I’ve dealt with. I know there’s nothing indestructible, but the rod and waders started showing signs early on matching their cheap price point. So now I’m planning on getting new waders, (maybe) a new rod, and a larger, better selection of flies.

Patagonia I’ve heard has some of the best waders. Only problem is that their cheapest price point is around 500$. People have told me to wait on sales as they apparently happen often with them. Maybe I should wait past my birthday for a sale? Though, I know this may sound weird to some, but I have also been very kindly offered a Cabela’s card from a family member for my birthday who would like me to use the points, since no one else in my family even buys from there anymore, because only my grandpa use to use it. At Cabela’s they have Orvis and Simms. Orvis I know has a decent warranty, but I’m not sure how well their waders hold up compared to Patagonia. Simms is also a company I’m not sure I want to support, having heard they don‘t have a good reputation or environmental care, and apparently they’ve fallen off in general. Though, their G3’s are on sale there, so it’s tempting. I want to be clear that I don’t want to waste points though if I shouldn’t buy from those companies.

The rod I’m not sure if I want to send it to Far Bank for replacement for 50$, because that’s quite cheap instead of getting a new rod, but at the same time, I’ve come to realize after 3 years I really like this fly fishing thing, and it’s one of my biggest passions, so maybe a higher end rod is worth it? Perhaps an Orvis? Those are expensive too though above the Clearwater, which isn’t much of anything a step above.

Finally, flies are something I’ve wanted to work out for a while. I know certain patterns that are good. My confidence flies are really only frenchies and Walt’s worms. For dries, an Adam’s or a chubby chernobyl, and I’ve made it by with them, and have caught hundreds of fish with those patterns. And I know other flies like zebra midges, Caddis, junk flies, etc., are good too, but it kinda starts to overwhelm me a bit when I think of the amount of patterns I see most fly fisherman have. You know, maybe 4 fly boxes in their pack, 10 variations of a certain pattern, this one fly with purple thread or an orange beadhead that they know works super well. In general, I don’t have that many flies currently at all. I don’t know if I should seriously expand to where I have a large selection like most, but I feel like I should, as I’ve gained so much experience and put so much time on the water. I’d like to have a nice, organized system; the right patterns for certain situations. It’s just figuring out those patterns and which ones to get, and whether I should buy them or tie them. At this point, I have a lot of experience tying two flies mainly in one variation on a cheap vice, being the Frenchie and the Walt’s worm, since they’ve worked for me. OldDominionTroutBum had a cool video on building a fly box. I like it. But he said “figure out your confidence patterns“. Same with Troutbitten I think highly of. I just can’t use every fly in existence and tie every variation. Something about all those overwhelms me. Perhaps it’s my perfectionism in me. I’m not sure.

I’d also like to mention tying versus buying flies. I’m not sure what to do. Tying them allows me to build flies my way, ensure durability, and consistency. But it seems very expensive to try and tie all the patterns I would fish. And buying them would be expensive, as I once bought from Redd’s flies not long ago at all, who sells much cheaper and supposedly high quality flies than other companies, and half of the big order of flies I made had loose thread and poor consistency. My only other option seems to be my local fly shop, which is 3$ for each fly from popular brands like Rio, but 4$ for locally tied flies.

I know fishing isn’t supposed to be stressful, but honestly, I’ve been through it lol. With the waders, the rod, and the flies. Heck, my polarized sunglasses are falling apart (getting that worked out), and my orvis clearwater 10ft 4wt I use with the mono rig not long ago got a broken tip from barely tapping a branch and hardly any use (it is also being worked out thankfully). I’ve already gotten new boots for my waders not too long ago either after they decided to literally fall apart thread by thread. I’m also 15 and don’t have all the money in the world. Though I am planning on selling some stuff I‘ve stowed away for maybe 300-400 dollars to go towards this. Along with my birthday, and certain things on my list.

I’m just looking for some advice on what to do and what to buy. I’m trying to refresh my setup, and get things good and ready for when it gets cooler. And sorry for the long post and frustrated demeanor lol.

Weird to say the least.

Today I hiked into an area about 4 miles. I know this river very well, and it goes right behind my house. I specifically go here for wild trout, they’re more prevalent.

The thing is, I didn’t catch one. Not even a stocker. I fished 1.5 to 2 miles worth of spectacular water. Deep, fast, and the water was cold. It’s July here in New Jersey and when I got out in the morning, it was in the 60’s, with a high of 72 today. It was murky, but I was catching trout in small nymphs in murkier water just yesterday.

We even had low water, and hot temps, so this cold front, along with plenty of rain to restore water levels, I thought would’ve made for amazing fishing. Even yesterday, right behind my house, I caught like 15 fish in a small stretch, with the same rig, same tactics, it’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing.

I fished deep slow water, fast shallow water, I ticked bottom, I fished flies mid column, and didn’t see any fish eating dries. I switched all the way from my confidence flies to whatever the heck else was in my box.

But I did catch some fish. Fallfish. Like, 20 of them. It doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve fished some of the same holes in that area, and only got trout. Literally, this is the first time I’ve caught any other species than trout there.

Oh, and yeah. That over 20 inch club stocked browns floated straight to my feet, and the eye of the hook on a zebra midge from Redd’s flies just snapped from casting.

It’s not like all the trout are dead lol. That was the only one I saw. But it felt like they didn’t exist.

I currently live in NJ. But, sometimes, my family and I take a trip once a year to Maine.

We have some friends who we are very close to, who own a cabin. This cabin resides in a remote area of Maine, where there is also a lake, right behind the it. They let us stay in it for free, for 7 days, which is really nice. I’d say this lake was a big reason as to why I started having a a big interest in fishing. It really started 3 years ago.

I went out last week on the Maine trip for 7 days this year, and got my fly rod in hand, some local fly shop streamers, some poppers, some I tied, and caught 14 pickerel within a few hours of the first day. The rest of the week, it slowed down, probably because I gave a lot of them a sore mouth. But there was big fish, one after another. And the fights on a click n’ pawl 5wt was just awesome. Pickerel, I believe, deserve some more love in their native range.

You can see in the picture a Lefty’s Deciever I tied. Probably not the greatest of all time, especially with how it looks in the picture now after it got tore up by teeth. Some bucktail missing and messed up eyes but I’d say I was proud of the teeth it held up to, especially the thread. The popper was also a highlight. That got some of the coolest and craziest eats from pickerel in the lillies. One picture shows one coming out like a torpedo and smacking it.

The biggest pickerel I caught was 27 inches, unfortunately I don’t have a picture because I was by myself and didn’t think of it. The biggest one I saw had to be a whopping 30. I saw the darn thing come up near the boat and t-bone a pickerel half its size I had hooked. It looked like a pike or musky with its size. It never came back. I tried casting in that spot, and even some of my family members tried chucking big, flashy lures of all sorts. It is the beast of the depths in that lake. The pickerel in the picture was 25.

I’d also managed to get some brook trout fishing in, something I’m more familiar with in NJ. In my area, unfortunately I didn’t have the famous super-large brookies, but I checked out a blue line near the cabin, and even some streams connecting to the bay, with supposed coasters. I was successful on the blue line trip, but unexpected warmer temps and timing when I checked out the streams near the bay didn’t make it good for catching them, so instead I got pictures and still found it really cool.

I feel like a good bit of the trip, I messed up opportunities. If I had gone earlier in the week, and earlier in the morning, and reserved the family car for a trip at a certain time in the morning, maybe I would‘ve gotten some coasters. But things got busy with the vehicles, and my family wanting to do their plans and having a limited amount of vehicles made it more difficult. I think a lot of the days I also just wanted to chill and fish the lake behind the cabin too lol.

I also just miss it already. It went the quickest it ever has for me. I feel like I didn’t savor it enough. But, I hope next year I’ll go at least. Oh well, I guess many people feel that way. I had a fun and awesome time with everyone anyways.

Maine is a beautiful and awesome state, and makes me jealous everytime I go. But at least, I have my homewaters with occasional big wild browns, wild brookies, and some quality stocked fish, that I know just as well as the back of my hand. I’m just sitting at home in the heatwave, waiting for it to pass in the meantime.

I hope some of you enjoy the pictures and story that I’ve shared.

Hey all! I was fishing for brookies yesterday in Maine and it was weird to say the least for me.

I fished some streams that entered into a bay in Hancock County. My goal was to get some salters, or at least a few brookies.

That didn’t quite work out though. The areas were absolutely beautiful and spectacular but I didn’t catch anything. And quite frankly, I didn’t see a sign of brook trout there.

I fished two streams, with one being larger and I decided to even go much upstream of the confluence with the bay a few miles on one. The water was what I was used to where I usually fish in streams. It was smaller pocket water with some nice looking plunge pools. Still, no fish, and I didn’t see any spook (from what I could see in the tannic water), or any feeding on the surface.

I was using a nymph rig most of the time under a wool indicator with 5x, using my confidence patterns. Really, I know brook trout aren’t often picky and are often opportunistic, meaning I don’t think it was what I was using. I was also approaching spots carefully and going upstream.

It was weird to me, but maybe it was just off. I’m not sure if the fish were pushed super far up into the headwaters or something? Maybe you guys have experienced this? Where I normally fish in streams, I‘ve never have this experience. It almost seemed empty of fish.

The day before yesterday, I fished a smaller more difficult stream and caught some brookies.

Anyhow, it was still an awesome adventure with the habitat there. Maybe I can try and go back again? I’d like to get on them.

I get to stay at a cabin in Maine for a while, and decided today to head out with my dad and find a small brookie stream nearby while we had the time. We found one that looked good close to the cabin and it did have brookies! Not many, it was quite narrow in most places, and very difficult to fish, but still awesome, and I’m glad I caught my first one in Maine! The tannic waters are very cool.

My next goal is to get some salters!

I walked the train tracks for about 4 miles and made it here. I’m not going to say where it is but I’m lucky to be able to walk it from my house. I know there’s more and bigger fish in here. I hooked at least an 18 inch silvery fish but lost him. The boulders and lack of trails, along with the uphill hike home, then to the train tracks wore me out haha.

Have any of you had the experience of fishing and getting to know an area like the back of your hand, and then the fish you had not expected or dreamed of being there popped up out of nowhere? Or maybe a place really close to you, or in the back of your yard that a fish you never expected would come out of? This has to be one of the most awesome feelings. Especially with wild trout.

This fish came up today, not far from my house. It’s the first wild brown in this section of river I’ve gotten this year. Smallest one I’ve caught by far, but I don’t catch these often here close to me, and I value them. Strangely, most of the wild browns I have caught were 19-22 inches. Only one was 13 before this guy came along today, beating the smallest.

The first time I had this experience occur, it turned out to be a 22-24 (messy measurement) inch brown. Bright orange belly, kyped jaw, etc. And at the time, I’d never thought there were ANY brown trout. (And no, I don’t have the picture because I didn’t even own a phone and I was by myself 🤦)

Other parts of the river have more wilds, but weirdly, there aren’t a whole lot of wild browns. Even though it’s perfect habitat, has great forage, clean water, spring tribs, etc., it still doesn’t hold many at all. I’d guarantee the stocked fish have to do a lot with that but even then, I know places with more wild brown trout mixed in. Maybe quality over quantity? Seriously, most wild browns are big in this river.

I just wanted to ask this and hear stories. I’ve talked to locals and it seems like no one can relate lol.

(The other pictures after the first one are all the other wild browns I’ve caught in the past. One that I caught almost 2 years or so ago also didn’t get a picture. I didn’t measure but it was easily 20. Ya’ll can only trust me on that too lol.)

Also, sorry for the paragraphs of letters lol.

Measured at about 21 inches. This fish ate a size 18 BWO. My very first dry fly brown trout. It was amazing.

At first I didn’t know what flies he was eating and I threw an Adam’s. But he didn’t even eat that.