Eric and Jeff were the only ones on this trip who had never caught a pike on the fly, so for me, that was one of the goals for this trip. It wasn’t until later that afternoon that both of them found their first. Neither of them was huge, but for Eric, the fish gave the aggressive eat we could only hope for. He found this fish in the shadow of an overhanging tree. He felt the classic lightning strike of the pike, but he missed the hookset. Eric quickly swung his 8wt rod and slapped his line right back out there and sure enough, a couple strips later, the fish came back with the same ferocity. This time Eric was ready and made the connection, landing his first on the fly. Being from the Adirondacks, Eric spent a lot of time fishing for pike on spin gear, but after his first on the fly rod, it’s safe to say he was hooked.

The rest of the day was pretty slow until we came to a feeder creek. On a previous trip, I moved a huge smallmouth that swiped at my fly right outside the mouth of this creek. Shortly after that, I caught a 38” pike, my biggest, in water no wider than 15 feet. As we approached that spot, I knew we had a shot at some good fish based on our history. It was Eric’s turn to fish and he covered the mouth of the creek thoroughly.  With the low water we were hoping the fish would be sitting on the drop off at the entrance, but still no takers. He continued to cover every pocket of the creek as we paddled in but it didn’t get interesting until we drifted to the inside of the mouth. With the increase in depth and a good amount of piled up logs, Eric knew exactly where to cast. The big streamer hit the water and with a couple of quick strips, Eric immediately came tight to a fish. Since the water was murky, we couldn’t really get a visual on the size, but I knew it had to be similar to the one I caught on the previous trip. Just as soon as we got excited, the fish popped off and the line went limp.  As Eric pulled in the line we both saw the crinkled mess at the end…a knot failure – a knot that I tied. I was bummed. This was a great lesson learned in locking in your knots and checking them throughout the trip. When tying bite wire make sure you really seat your knots well. The sheer diameter of the wire and well, because it is wire, can become a problem when locking in your knots. Unfortunately, we found that out the hard way. Eric, being the good sport that he is, shrugged it off and joined the rest of the guys taking a break up river for one of Taco Fly Co’s Special Beers prepared by Eddie.

After Eric decided it was the perfect time for a break, I explored a little further up into the creek. I headed right towards another logjam where I moved that big smallmouth the trip before. Once I got my fly swimming after the perfect cast, I knew my chances were high as I closed the distance on the logjam.  As anticipated, a smallie came out from the log shadowed depths and took the fly with no questions. I was hootin’ and hollerin’ at the dudes who were just out of sight. Sure enough, Eric came over to take some photos! Like Eric, I determined this was the perfect time to take a break and join the boys for some beers before the portage around the dam.

The portage was another perfect resting spot as we got our canoes around the dam obstruction and relaxed for a bit in the water. Kevin and I had some really nice smallmouth action in this section on a previous trip and after just striking gold up river I figured what the hell. For those who know me, swinging a fly is one of my favorite techniques and with the speed of the water coming around the dam it was the perfect setup. I casted across the run into calm water by the opposite bank and let my pike fly swing through the run in hopes of another monster smallie. I worked my way through as if I was steelheading and once I was at the back of the run, I came tight, mid swing, dead center of the current. With my heavy sink tip, I thought I grabbed a branch at first, but when you’re casting in fast water, you always set the hook – so I did. Just as the line got tension, I buried the rod low and to the inside while I strip set. Sure enough, it was a fish! Big head shakes and what felt like a lot of mass moving through the water, I figured that I had just hooked the smallie of the century! Shortly into the fight it came to the surface and I realized it was actually a solid pike, probably in the 30-32” range! Kevin mentioned a few times that he’d read of pike being in the moving water below dams but we never tested that theory. I guess there is some truth to it!

After the release we relaxed a little longer before we headed downstream to find our camping spot. Kevin and I remember speeding past some sand bars earlier in the spring. We knew they would be our best shot at finding a campsite. Sure enough, around the next bend revealed a grass riddled sandar. It was the best that we were going to find. Most of the banks on this section of the Housatonic are steep cuts going up to private farms. We set up our tents on our newly acquired waterfront property while Dan split some wood and Kevin got the fire going. A long hot day of floating and fishing called for a bag or two of my favorite lemon Oreos. If you haven’t tried them, don’t hate until you do. The fire got going and we carried on with my birthday dinner, which included some tasty brews, hot dogs cooked on questionable skewers and baked beans warmed in the fire. Nothing fancy. It was never about the food, just the people I got to share it with. Despite most of our hotdogs ending up in the fire, we didn’t go hungry. We all shared a selection of delicious beers from some of our favorite breweries, such as Squarehead Brewery in Long Island, and Suarez Family Brewing in upstate NY, among others.

The next morning we woke up and enjoyed some good coffee made by our river barista, Kevin. The coffee was better than our wake-up call, which happened when Kevin went to toss the used coffee grinds into the river and accidentally chucked the percolator filter in with them. We eventually fished it out with a net after some good belly laughs and got on our way. Unfortunately, the second day didn’t yield much in the way of fish. It seemed even hotter than the day before and the stretch we hoped would produce seemed to hold nothing more than water. Jeff managed to get a small pike off a weed bed and I moved a couple smallmouth, but nothing like we hoped. We did have some good ol’ boys holler at Eric and I from a high bank asking if we wanted some drinks. They tossed down some ginger ciders that they weren’t thrilled about but we assured them we would give them a try. Needless to say, they are still sitting in my fridge untouched.

Eric and Jeff were the only ones on this trip who had never caught a pike on the fly, so for me, that was one of the goals for this trip. It wasn’t until later that afternoon that both of them found their first. Neither of them was huge, but for Eric, the fish gave the aggressive eat we could only hope for. He found this fish in the shadow of an overhanging tree. He felt the classic lightning strike of the pike, but he missed the hookset. Eric quickly swung his 8wt rod and slapped his line right back out there and sure enough, a couple strips later, the fish came back with the same ferocity. This time Eric was ready and made the connection, landing his first on the fly. Being from the Adirondacks, Eric spent a lot of time fishing for pike on spin gear, but after his first on the fly rod, it’s safe to say he was hooked.

The rest of the day was pretty slow until we came to a feeder creek. On a previous trip, I moved a huge smallmouth that swiped at my fly right outside the mouth of this creek. Shortly after that, I caught a 38” pike, my biggest, in water no wider than 15 feet. As we approached that spot, I knew we had a shot at some good fish based on our history. It was Eric’s turn to fish and he covered the mouth of the creek thoroughly.  With the low water we were hoping the fish would be sitting on the drop off at the entrance, but still no takers. He continued to cover every pocket of the creek as we paddled in but it didn’t get interesting until we drifted to the inside of the mouth. With the increase in depth and a good amount of piled up logs, Eric knew exactly where to cast. The big streamer hit the water and with a couple of quick strips, Eric immediately came tight to a fish. Since the water was murky, we couldn’t really get a visual on the size, but I knew it had to be similar to the one I caught on the previous trip. Just as soon as we got excited, the fish popped off and the line went limp.  As Eric pulled in the line we both saw the crinkled mess at the end…a knot failure – a knot that I tied. I was bummed. This was a great lesson learned in locking in your knots and checking them throughout the trip. When tying bite wire make sure you really seat your knots well. The sheer diameter of the wire and well, because it is wire, can become a problem when locking in your knots. Unfortunately, we found that out the hard way. Eric, being the good sport that he is, shrugged it off and joined the rest of the guys taking a break up river for one of Taco Fly Co’s Special Beers prepared by Eddie.

After Eric decided it was the perfect time for a break, I explored a little further up into the creek. I headed right towards another logjam where I moved that big smallmouth the trip before. Once I got my fly swimming after the perfect cast, I knew my chances were high as I closed the distance on the logjam. As anticipated, a smallie came out from the log shadowed depths and took the fly with no questions. I was hootin’ and hollerin’ at the dudes who were just out of sight. Sure enough, Eric came over to take some photos! Like Eric, I determined this was the perfect time to take a break and join the boys for some beers before the portage around the dam.

The portage was another perfect resting spot as we got our canoes around the dam obstruction and relaxed for a bit in the water. Kevin and I had some really nice smallmouth action in this section on a previous trip and after just striking gold up river I figured what the hell. For those who know me, swinging a fly is one of my favorite techniques and with the speed of the water coming around the dam it was the perfect setup. I casted across the run into calm water by the opposite bank and let my pike fly swing through the run in hopes of another monster smallie. I worked my way through as if I was steelheading and once I was at the back of the run, I came tight, mid swing, dead center of the current. With my heavy sink tip, I thought I grabbed a branch at first, but when you’re casting in fast water, you always set the hook – so I did. Just as the line got tension, I buried the rod low and to the inside while I strip set. Sure enough, it was a fish! Big head shakes and what felt like a lot of mass moving through the water, I figured that I had just hooked the smallie of the century! Shortly into the fight it came to the surface and I realized it was actually a solid pike, probably in the 30-32” range! Kevin mentioned a few times that he’d read of pike being in the moving water below dams but we never tested that theory. I guess there is some truth to it!

After the release we relaxed a little longer before we headed downstream to find our camping spot. Kevin and I remember speeding past some sand bars earlier in the spring. We knew they would be our best shot at finding a campsite. Sure enough, around the next bend revealed a grass riddled sandar. It was the best that we were going to find. Most of the banks on this section of the Housatonic are steep cuts going up to private farms. We set up our tents on our newly acquired waterfront property while Dan split some wood and Kevin got the fire going. A long hot day of floating and fishing called for a bag or two of my favorite lemon Oreos. If you haven’t tried them, don’t hate until you do. The fire got going and we carried on with my birthday dinner, which included some tasty brews, hot dogs cooked on questionable skewers and baked beans warmed in the fire. Nothing fancy. It was never about the food, just the people I got to share it with. Despite most of our hotdogs ending up in the fire, we didn’t go hungry. We all shared a selection of delicious beers from some of our favorite breweries, such as Squarehead Brewery in Long Island, and Suarez Family Brewing in upstate NY, among others.

The next morning we woke up and enjoyed some good coffee made by our river barista, Kevin. The coffee was better than our wake-up call, which happened when Kevin went to toss the used coffee grinds into the river and accidentally chucked the percolator filter in with them. We eventually fished it out with a net after some good belly laughs and got on our way. Unfortunately, the second day didn’t yield much in the way of fish. It seemed even hotter than the day before and the stretch we hoped would produce seemed to hold nothing more than water. Jeff managed to get a small pike off a weed bed and I moved a couple smallmouth, but nothing like we hoped. We did have some good ol’ boys holler at Eric and I from a high bank asking if we wanted some drinks. They tossed down some ginger ciders that they weren’t thrilled about but we assured them we would give them a try. Needless to say, they are still sitting in my fridge untouched.