4/20 is for fatties

 

A year ago I posted about my trip on the quinnie on 4/20 and made a joke about catchie a "fattie" that would rival the day's hidden meaning. Well, one year later and although it wasn;t on the exact same day, I caught another fish that would put cheech and chong to shame.

On Saturday I fished the river street bridge near the rail trail, downstream from the bridge. The F&G does such a good job updating its stocking info on the website, as evidenced by the 12 cars parked along the road at that bridge when I arrived. 90% bait and spin fisherman, as usual. As I started my day, I fished the small run/pool just below the bridge. I watched the fellows above me pull 5-6 nice rainbows out of the large pool at the bridge. Into the bucket they went... oh well, maybe someday we'll get a C&R on this river.

My first rig was a wooly bugger, swung and stripped. No hits. I switched up to a doubled nymph rig, pheasant tail on top and caddis pupa on bottom (bright green, always bright green!). REALLY soft hit on the 4th cast and had a nice fish for a second but he got off. I moved down to the riffles at the large rock. Nothing doing there either. Made my way even further to the big turn pool and tried the bugger again and then the nymph rig. Got one hit on a slowly floated nymph and indicator. Again he came off. I was persistent and ended up landing a small rainbow at the edge of the pool. Nothing rising when I was there.

I figured I'd head back up to the place I started, just below the bridge. Went back to old faithful in the bright green caddis. Another really soft hit but this time he was on for good. This fish fought like a champ, zigging, sinking, zagging, jumping, it was a great fight. When I finally got him to the net I realized hot FAT he was. He became the new fattest fish I ever caught in this river. Probably a 14-16 inch fish. The F&G has done a good job putting big fish in this river. Unfortunately, due to the put-and-take pressure and warm summer months, not many survive. I put him back to where he can thrive, at least for the next month or so.

I left the river st bridge and ended my day at the stretch above the wachusett pump station. no fish here, but a great scenery as the sun set. Mr. Heron was watching me and waiting with a hungry stomach. Unless many of us, something tells me there's a very few day that he goes home without a trout!
 

How did others do? If you;re planning to head out this week, hit the areas I've starred in the map below. Green stars indicate where the fresh stockies are. Try the orange star if you're looking for some 8-12 inch native brookies (its a bit of a hike to get to, but worth it).