Fishing returns to Blackberry River
Bryan VanDerLinden wasn’t the first angler to catch this rainbow trout at Beckley Furnace last week. 
Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

Fishing returns to Blackberry River

NORTH CANAAN — Members of the NorthwestConnecticut chapter of Trout Unlimited gathered along the Blackberry River at Beckley Furnace in East Canaan Saturday, April 15 for conversation, food and a bit of fishing.

Bryan VanDerLinden of Litchfield, a relative newcomer to fly-fishing who attended one of the chapter’s beginner’s classes last year, was working a pheasant tail nymph through a deep hole on the downstream side of the bridge, as Joe Cieslowski and others watched from above.

A large, brightly colored male rainbow trout grabbed the nymph and the fight was on.

By an odd coincidence, this reporter had caught the same fish in the same spot the day before.

Vanderleeven, using a 9 foot 5 weight rod, and the fish appeared to at a standstill. The fish went one way, the angler responded, all in the same general area.

Then the rainbow made the downstream dash for freedom, forcing VanDerLinden to make his way downstream, through tricky  terrain, all the while keeping the rod up and the line tight enough to prevent escape but not enough to break the tippet.

Eventually, the angler got the fish into the net, and released it safely.

Meanwhile TU members wandered back and forth from the stream to the tent set up by Beckley Furnace,  wetting a line here, grabbing a sandwich there, and talking non-stop about fishing, which is standard operating procedure.

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