Sea Trout
Over the weekend I decided to try and locate a true Sea trout: the Sea-run Brown. After some research I decided to give the Latimer/Niantic River run a go. It was a fine trip with lots of fish caught, but not exactly what I was looking for.
I began the trip by parking the truck at the Motel 6 on the south side of route 95. There is a commuter lot nearby, but, after checking it out a bit, it seemed as though a fence seperated the lot from where I had to be going. I later found a break in the fence, but still would have had to cross some sort of Public Works facility to get there. So it was the Motel 6 and I signed the cross that the truck wouldn't be towed as I walked away with my tackle bag, two rods, and my waders over my shoulder.
My tackle bag was filled with 2 boxes of spin-flies, 1 knife, 1 measuring tool, 2 apples, 1 can of roasted peanuts, 1/5th of Scottish whiskey, and 24oz of lager. I chose to bring a light bass rod and a medium bass rod rather than my ultra-light which I left behind in the truck. My goal was to be able to have 2 fat, 20+" Sea-run Brown trout on my table for Thanksgiving and I wanted to feel nothing but control when one struck instead of the "holy crap the rod is bending into the water--omigod I gotta get into the water" feeling that a big trout can give a guy with an ultra-light and no net.
I followed a power-line trail for maybe a 1/2 mile before I looked to my left and realized Latimer Brook had been next to me for sometime. The thick wall of Mountain laurel prevented me from seeing it and the highway noise kept me from hearing it. No biggy, I walked in where I was and tied a brown/gold spinner on. My first cast was a simple one, straight in front of me, and when the lure reached mid-river a fish struck and within 10 seconds it was ashore. It was a Brown trout; small; maybe 9". I took it as a good sign.
I headed up stream towards the 95 crossing, away from my goal, for the sake of fishing the entire sea-run span of the river. I hooked 2-3 trout in each pool I stopped. I tried a couple of runs and had some luck in these as well. Eddies didn't seem to produce any more or less. There is a massive pool at the 95 crossing and I stayed long enough to catch a dozen trout out of this spot. Now I was worried. I probably had 30 fish landed and none over 11 inches.
In most rivers I would've been in heaven with my limit, but this run of stream has a creel of 2 fish over 15 inches and I was expecting to get just that. I kept hope, though. It was past mid-November and the big trout could easily (and very likely) have already slid down-river to the Niantic. So I moved down-river at a good pace stopping to catch more 9-10"ers and enjoying the look of the river, apples, peanuts, and scotch.
I got to the end of the trail and then I smelled the salt. I got very excited and thought, "Okay! This is A-game time! Now I'm gonna see some real Sea trout." Nope. In fact immediately after smelling the salt, I did not catch any fish. I was catching no fish and was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the appearance of "Private Property" signs and the appearance of residences as well. WTF! The river gets very deep (almost chest high) right before it goes through a short set of falls and then slows to almost a pond at the route 1 crossing. I didn't catch or see signs of any fish in this entire area so I heaved a sigh and turned back. I gulped a beer at the spot where I began and then packed it in feeling confused about how I should be feeling right now after catching 30+ trout and no fish to take home.
I live at junction of Latimer's Brook, Route 1.
I've seen and caught Sea Runs to 24". Few and far between, last time I had one on was July 2011 (saw two 24"+, but broke hook on the only one I hooked)
sounds a lot like whitford brook. There are tons of clone 9-10 inchers and nothing of real size. they took pins minows quick and were easy to catch.