The Breakroom > The Water Cooler

First Catch of the Year

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vtsteam:
You're nearby Eric, so probably the same early spring conditions where you are now Lots of rain, wind, and cold temps this year so far. But trout like that kind of stuff, I guess.

Vermont F&G is trying out a new strain of rainbow trout this year. We're asked to photo and report any trout with clipped fins that we catch. Left anal fin for the new variety I believe, right fin for the older strain.

The new strain is supposed to hold over better (survive more than the first year) -- which would be nice. The pond I fish at is one of those that will get the new variety. I think some of the rainbows I've caught there in the past were indeed hold overs because they were a couple inches larger than the year's stocked size. And definitely more highly colored!

The browns do hold over -- a couple years ago I caught a 21 inch fish there, and I've heard of larger. The 17" fish I caught on Sunday was absolutely filled with 4" long minnows.

Couldn't tell what they were, but very slender and silvery -- as a guess, large emerald shiners, or (not sure if they can live in that pond) rainbow smelt. Pond depth is max 35 feet, and I'm pretty sure it is spring fed, so there are some colder waters in it. Could it be smelt?

awemawson:
That looks like a propriety screw head there Steve but also looks as though making a driver for it shouldn't be impossible.

Brass_Machine:
I would think a square drive might fit in that screw?? I had one somewhere on something (cant remember what) that looked similar and was able to coax it out with a square drive.

Do you fly fish Steve?

Eric

philf:
Hi Steve,

I'd Dremel a slot in the head for an ordinary bladed screwdriver.

As for your rod not being listed I have a superb Daiwa Whisker Kevlar 7ft fly rod. It doesn't have the line weight on it so I contacted Daiwa in Scotland to enquire - they said they'd never made such a rod!

vtsteam:
Andrew and Eric good idea about the square drive and making one. Phil, I'll probably do the slot thing, though, thanks for that. Why didn't I think of that??

Eric, I haven't done much fly fishing and what little I did was about 55 years ago! Sad story about that -- my father traveled to England in the 60's and knowing I loved fishing brought home a Hardy split bamboo fly rod as a present! I lived in NYC with my mother and stepfather, and there was very little opportunity to use it.

A couple years later I went to college, and while gone, my stepfather hired someone to come in and "clean out" the basement. I had a small workshop there, and everything was taken, including that rod and the rest of my fishing gear, along with model planes, tools, etc.

I had caught a few bluegills on that gear, that was it.

But coincidentally, last fall, I decided I would try fly fishing again, so I bought an inexpensive rod. I had an old Pflueger reel, and ordered my best guess at some line, leader, etc -- probably all wrong! I didn't know what to get for flies -- thought maybe some day tying them, but for the time being finally just threw a dart at the huge world of fly types and ordered a little box of Royal Coachmans (Coachmen?). Probably because I just remembered that one so well -- I think I might have caught the bluegill on those!

I sill haven't fished with that rig -- haven't even assembled it yet.

Funny thing is, there are also three streams on my property -- two dry up in summer, or reduce to a trickle, but one generally runs most years through. And I've seen trout in it. It's the same stream I built the bridge over in that thread a few years ago.

Have I fished there either? Nope!  :loco:

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