The Housatonic spiked at about 500cfs yesterday and was running with a light tea stain. Perfect streamer conditions, wouldn’t you say? I would, so I headed out with surfcaster extraordinaire Toby Lapinski, both of us dedicated to the streamer cause.

We started about 12:30pm, in the northern part of the TMA. I was fishing a Black Ghost soft-hackled streamer, and right away I was into a fish, the sharp tug of the strike and head shake sending an electric current of excitement through my body. The joy was short lived. Moments later, whatever was on came off, and this was to be the pattern fro the afternoon. At this first pool, we had ten (seemingly) quality hits between us, with zero conversions. I can’t remember that ever happening while streamer fishing.

I tried to figure it out. Stocked fish that hadn’t quite figured out how to eat a fleeing baitfish? Maybe, but they’ve been in the water for nearly a month. Streamer too large? I’ve been catching Housy trout for decades on a size 6 streamer hook. Dull hook point? Nope. I was all over that. Bad luck? Maybe, but we had well over a dozen hits each with no conversions.

We fished four marks and confirmed trout in three of them, so we never felt like we were wasting our time. I know where these fish live. And, as a famous cyborg once said, “I’ll be back.”