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2. Fishing Reports
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3. opening day

like a bad habit, or a comforting ritual, june 1st came and went like any other day on the callender. sure there is plenty of water to fish all year round, but there is something (unknown to me) that makes the day special. my buddy takes the week off every year with hopes of fishing every day. so out we go, ready to catch some stockers and mabey a hold-over or two. we took spinning reels and fly rods each of us thinking one would do better than the other. we easily avoided the surprisingly few people fishing the holes within casting distance of their cars. fished three different streams without seeing anybody. this was not the opening day that i remember growing up on the farmington river.
anyways, we were able to avoid the "crouds", we were also able to avoid any trout. thankfully it has been cooler this year than last, because last year i couldn't put my foot in the water without stepping on a carp. they were everywhere! this year the big ones (carp) have yet to come up stream, just smaller ones hidding under rocks and ledges getting our hopes up for brookies and browns only for eventual dissapointment. don't want to tell you much time i spent casting to fish that turned out not to be trout.
the first of the month came and went, water was a bit high, yesterday it rained all day, it will be another week before the water levels are back to normal. today i saw snow flakes, with some luck the big rainbows up north have not found their way back into the reservoir. worst comes to worst i know a lake that is just about iced out where i can catch a pickerel or two (fun on a fly rod).
i know that in two to three weeks the fishing will be great in the local streems and brooks, it's just that one day on the callender that makes one hope for more.
in regards to another topic, i fish upstream, downstream, left, right, fowards, and backwards. one brook i hit is so small and tight that i prictically drop the fly off the end of the rod. all ways are productive, and in small streams you do what you have to do. hope we all have a great year enjoying the outdoors with rod in hand.

Thanks for your report, Thom. You're not alone in your opening day frustrations. Sometimes the opener offers more promise than reward, but hope springs eternal (to use a tired but appropriate cliche).

You mentioned pickerel, and I'll confess that I've enjoyed catching these miniature waterwolves since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I usually catch them when I'm targeting other species. This often results in a hard strike followed by retrieving a bare tippet. Once, I encountered a sizeable pickerel that seemed to have the fishing routine down pat. It followed a bluegill that I was landing right up to the boat and waited for me to unhook it. When I released the 'gill, the pickerel nailed it. Sometimes catch-and-release has unexpected results. ;)

Best,
Gonzo

PS--"june" was a typo, yes?