The kids are 8 and 4 this year and so my wife and I thought we can finally take a family vacation without too much of a hassel with the kids. We elected to see the fall colors of the north-east RI, MA, CT, NY. We hit the peak colors in near perfect timing. Somewhere in MA…
Because it was a family trip, I limited it to one morning of fishing in each state.
West Yarmouth, (Cape Cod) MA- Waking up about 1/2 hour before sun-up on our 2nd day in Cape Cod, I drove to a bridge where the river that led to a rockjetty I had previously scouted. The water was alive with schoolies. I casted my bastardized Clouser pattern (not a very good fly tier :oops: ) and was immediately on to fish which measured to be about 18" to hand. Went on to catch 3 more in the next hour. Tried another spot but struck out so I returned to the bridge. It was slow when I returned but I managed one more very large striper that I fought for a few minutes bending my 8wt nearly double before he finally “schooled” me by rubbing the leader up against the rocks and breaking the line. The business owner/mgr. of the property asked that I did not divulge this location but the river/bridge is opposite of this marshy area…
Farmington River, CT:I woke up at 5AM and headed to the “Farm”. It was so dark at one point that I wasn’t even sure what side of the road the river was on since I forgot my river map. Not knowing that I was at the turn out for the Upper TMA, I felt pretty lost so I turned around and headed down the mountain. When there was just enough light, I spotted a sign for a distintly named park I remembered from looking at the map previous times. I fished here for 2 hours but had to get back to my family and to travel to visit other family in CT. Failed to find any fish but enjoyed the location tremendously.
Burnt Hills, NY Before heading to the Big Apple, we visited a this wonderful little town. Local family members directed me to a nearby creek (a good size river for a Californian like me). Again, I’ve gotta keep it hush hush but there were some fish; unfortunately, I managed to break my bamboo rod at the ferrule so I only had about 1 hour to fish and did not hook any during that time. Sorry no pics (a little too upset at the time).
Though disappointed about the breakage, I see it as a good reason to revisit the NE another time to try again…
