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Overwhelming water in the Blackberry

NORTH CANAAN — Brian Kinney of Bristol was at Beckley Furnace in North Canaan, trying to get his white beadhead Wooly Bugger down into the swollen, discolored Blackberry River.

Kinney said he always comes to the Blackberry for opening day. This year he was poised and ready at 5:30 a.m., waiting for the official kick-off at 6 a.m.

And it was raining.

“River came up about two feet” he said at 9:30 a.m. “Terrible fishing.”

Kinney uses an Orvis seven foot nine inch five weight rod with a sinking line. And he likes Wooly Buggers.

This year, despite everything, he had managed to catch two fair-to-middling rainbow trout.

Elsewhere things were quiet. There was the usual clutch of anglers at the confluence of the Blackberry and Whiting rivers, a little farther east of Beckley Furnace.

The popular spots on the Housatonic River Trout Management Area were deserted. At the boat launch in Amesville in Salisbury, a young man with a spinning rod reported catching a 34 inch pike.

This angler, newsgathering duty accomplished, went up to the Stream That Must Not Be Named and spent a couple of happy hours catching native brook trout.

Lakeville Journal

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Provided

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