Monday, June 15, 2015

What was once a pond...

Comments from Coleman after my last blog inspired a brief bit of fishing today.  Coleman had mentioned he had been fishing down stream on the same brook I had fished the other day and it was going well.

I've not fished that area yet this year, despite it being at most 2 miles from home... Today I had to run an errand that forced me to cross the stream, so I brought the 2wt and spent probably 20-30' drifting the ABD (Allan's Brownie dry I noted in my last blog).

I wanted to waste no time, so I basically started right where an old dam was removed by TU a bit over a year ago, and slowly poked up stream.  This was a pond 18 months ago, and the soil that is home to the plants on the left of the stream, just a year ago, was flat out dangerous.  It was 18" to 4' thick pasty muck that you would sink into nicely.  With a year of plant life growing up and snow compression and dry days... it's walkable now for the most part - though you need to be cautious because some areas are still a bit soupy and the undercut banks are insane in places.

The bottom through this lower section often is sandy or pea gravel, with clumps of rock, wood, or rootball here and there.

This section in the pic varries from close to 3feet deep in a few little holes to about 10" deep.  Good looking dry fly water huh :)?


 

I had the ABD still on from last week's trip, so I just started with that.  Good choice, the brookies happily ate the fly through this new meadow.  It was fun!  Maybe missed or lost 4 and landed 3.  Not bad for a pit stop of a fishing "trip".


Pretty awesome to see this hard work of local conservation groups and national (TU) groups come together and create a real positive situation for the environment in this area, and for the wild fish (and other animals) who live here.

Thanks for the nudge Coleman!  I'd likely have waited and kept fishing other areas had you not mentioned it.

Will

11 comments:

  1. The work of stream restoration (where it's needed) by TU and others is obviously paying off in places like this. Glad that you decided to study the possibilities here, and thanks for bringing it our way.

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    1. Happy to! Here's a post I did on this spot last spring. The pic of the meadow area I posted above is taken immediately upstream from where the stream turns right in the first pic of this blog: http://fliesfattiresfamily.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-new-old-ecosystems-re-birth.html

      It's amazing to see how much the old pond bed has changed even in just the last year...

      The best part, is that TU didnt stop here, they also worked with a town 3~ miles up stream where this is an 8th as solid a flow - at it's headwater - to take out an old culvert and redo a road crossing so that trout could have free access. They really did a great job!

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  2. The work of stream restoration (where it's needed) by TU and others is obviously paying off in places like this. Glad that you decided to study the possibilities here, and thanks for bringing it our way.

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  3. That is a stunning little meadow flat there. I wish we had some more water like that down here.

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    1. It's a really cool spot RM. just upstream it's near impossible to navigate - the stream literally goes underground in places and works above ground in others... each in little branches as it encounters a thicket. Above that it's great... you just have to get up there. :)

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  4. Glad it turned out well! That section is a nice change of pace after fishing the brushier areas of the stream.

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    1. Me to Coleman! You are totally right. It brings the imagination out for sure - feels like your fishing a meadow stream in the west or in England... Just not many places in the North East where you can fish a meadow. I know of two others, but both are more treacherous than this is now. Basically floating peat, and falling in could be bad news... so you try to wade the channel - doable in places, but who know's how many feet of silt in others.

      Ill have to fish a section below one of those for the blog, it's SOOOO gorgeous. Dark tanic waters sliding over slab's of stone... not a lot of wild fish left in it, but worth it regardless.

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  5. Sweet little section. Reminds me of the meadow streams I used to fish as kid in PA

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  6. That is a wonderful piece of restoration. Looks almost like Red Brook.
    Were you fishing in the rain, it looks like drops hitting the water, if so I love fishing days like that.

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    1. Alan, it was raining lightly. I really enjoy rainy days, they always felt like the best fishing weather! Now that you say it, it does look like Red Brook. I'm going to be about 30-40' from there for a work event the next few days... Not enough time to swing over for a little bit. That would have been a blast!

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