Early Morning Hooky on the Battenkill

Another gorgeous October morning here in Vermont. Only two weeks left of trout season, so Phil Monahan and I got up before light and met at a stretch on the Battenkill that we both like (which does not equate to a stretch where we consistently catch the river’s wild brown trout…there is not such stretch, for us anyway). A cold night in the thirties meant fog on the river first thing. Jumped some wood ducks first thing and thought maybe I should have hung up the rod and gone with the shotgun instead.

IMGP0552
October Morning on The Battenkill
Eric Rickstad

We fished for a good hour. Nothing. Not a big surprise. The browns on the ‘Kill are as wary as any brown trout anywhere.

I tried to catch footage of a mink on the bank using my Flip video camera. Not sure if it came out. If it did, we’ll post.

littlebrown
Little Wild Battenkill Brown
Eric Rickstad

We got to the bridge where we’d left Phil’s rig before driving mine to the top of the stretch. I fished the bridge for the heck of it and caught a nice little brown, only about half again the size of the streamer I was chucking. But this was good to see, since it was a size missing for years before the restoration work that’s been done the past few years.

I landed one nice fish in a second spot downriver. With the sun coming up high and it nearing 10:30 a.m., we thought maybe we should get to the office.

brown
October Brown Trout on the Battenkill
Eric Rickstad

It’s good to live in such a place as this.

forsale
House for Sale…
Eric Rickstad

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *