Last weekend, my good friend Jonas and I traded our salmon rods for a trout spey rig and headed to the Deerfield, his home waters. It was cold, brutally cold, and raining like hell. As I said to him, sometimes bad ideas make the best memories. And that it did.

We fished a couple of places along the river, and found trout in each spot. There we some light caddis coming off the water, but they were sparse given the combination of time of day, heavy rain, and cold temperatures. Instead, given I haven’t been able to swing a fly for salmon in over a year, I put on a muddler and tried out my relatively new Beulah G2 trout spey rod. I had a great time swinging flies — there’s just something about that movement that I love. And, despite what people may fear, I found the takes on the trout spey to still be exciting. From one in the mid teens (see below) and one in the low 20 inches, the feedback from the rod made for an enjoyable fight. I even put the low 20s on the reel. The one in the low 20’s I didn’t get a photo of as it was so cold I was shaking and my hand was too cold to reach into my waders and get the phone to take a picture. Alas.

If you go out to fish the Deerfield, be sure to stop in and check out the Deerfield Fly Shop. They have a great map of the river for sale. And, while you can wade it, if you need a guide check out the Harrison Brothers. They’ll get you sorted.

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Conditions:
Water temp: 52-54
Air temp: High 40s, low 50’s with heavy rain