Escaping the Heat on a Salter Stream

Rhododendrons are blooming

I spent the weekend visiting family in southeastern MA, and I was lucky enough to do a little sea run brook trout fishing while I was there.

Dawn on the stream

Yesterday I met up with Geoff and his friend Justin, a member of the Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition. While temperatures were in the 90s inland, the high on the coast was in the upper 70s. The stream we fished was freezing, as it's fed by springs which keep temperatures cool all season long.

We started near the head of the tide and were into fish right away swinging small streamers downstream. The first few fish were in the 6-7" range, which is respectable in most wild brook trout streams, but somewhat small for this stream. Justin told us that several fat 13-14" trout were found in a recent electroshocking survey. 

Later we walked upstream to the last trail access point and fished back downstream. In this stretch we starting hooking into some nicer fish. I caught this ~10" brookie in the first pool we entered. He came out from under a root wad and smashed my streamer.

As we moved down we all got into fish, landing a few each and hooking many more. The average size in this stretch was probably 8".

This morning I had a couple hours to fish before I needed to leave for home. I woke up with the sun, hitting the road at 5:40  and arriving at the stream around 6:00. As I pulled in to the parking lot I saw a group of teenagers loading up two cars with music equipment, including a guitar and a banjo. They left as I was rigging up my rod, so I'm unsure what I stumbled upon. Maybe they were shooting a folk music video at sunrise? I guess I'll never know. 

The fishing turned out to be great. I got my first fish in a riffle near the road a few minutes after arriving. I moved upstream and began fishing down, hooking into several nice trout. 

After that I moved up to farthest access point to work my way down the same stretch we fished the day before. In the first pool I hooked what I believe was the same 10" fish from yesterday, but I wasn't able to get a photo to compare patterns. 

I hooked into several more nice fish, with the highlight of the day being this beautifully-colored 11-12" brookie. He hit three times as I drifted the fly past the undercut bank he must call home. Each time I thought he would spook, but fortunately I was able to land him on the third. I finished up around 8:30, leaving before anyone else had arrived.