A deep dive with ‘Connecticut’s weirdest fishing guide’.
Imagine, we’ve had three days of drenching rain. It’s spring and you had planned to fish the Connecticut River for smallmouth. The river is now noticeably higher than normal, mud brown and filled with debris. You own a 16-foot bass boat, with a 60-horsepower outboard for moving up and down the river, along with an electric trolling motor and a GPS/fishfinder with side-scan capability, but you are justifiably concerned about damaging the boat on a log or rock that can’t be seen in the turbid water. Of course, you could use this time to catch up on your household chores, but a better option might be to ask Portland, Connecticut fishing guide, Rowan Lytle, how he would fish these conditions.
Rowan grew up on the Connecticut River and has fished the rivers, streams, ponds and coastal waters of eastern Connecticut and western Rhode Island ever since he first experienced the savage, shallow water ambush of a 22-inch chain pickerel while casting a Daredevil spoon at Boy Scout camp. Intending to borrow his friend’s rod and red-and-white spoon for an hour or so, he borrowed it every day of camp and became fascinated with the habits of fish.
Speaking From Experience
I asked Rowan how he would fish the Connecticut River for smallmouth after three days of spring rain and he gave the following advice. “In those high and dirty water conditions, I would find water that is moving slower and is a natural part of the seasonal migration path that smallmouth bass are going to take in the next month or so,” suggested Rowan. “We are looking for the best available conditions in the general area of where the fish could be. Because of the massive drainage area of the main river, it will generally rise higher than those smaller tributary streams that enter it. The flow from the main river pushes up the tributary, like an incoming tide and acts to slow the water flow coming out of the smaller river. This environmental factor, in addition to the smallmouth’s tendency to stage in the lower reaches of those tributary streams where they will later spawn, sets up a likely location where they will aggregate in these conditions.”
“I generally like to wade fish or fish in a small drift boat”, says Rowan, “because it gives me a vantage point that helps me be more aware of everything going on around me. I would look for tributary water that is 12 to 25 feet wide, still in the flood plain of the main river and probably no more than a mile up from where the smaller river dumps into the main river. All things considered, this is water best fished in waders rather than by boat, and that would be my recommendation.”
“Smallmouth are a hard structure-oriented fish” says Rowan. “From trout fishing, we all look at downed trees as prime fish habitat, but interestingly, I find that smallmouth prefer to position themselves around rock rather than wood. Sometimes several smallmouth will hold 10 feet below a log jam, as the current is slower there, but statistically speaking, focusing on the water around rocks will give you more opportunities with this species”.
“In this turbid water, the fish can’t see very well” notes Rowan, “so I use a black, high contrast fly, one that is rather small and light, perhaps something on the order of an 1/8-ounce marabou jig. I target fishing tight to the bottom in 4 to 12 feet of water and I use a very slow retrieve, just creeping the fly along. This approach has often helped my clients catch fish when high water conditions prevented us from fishing the main river”.
Roots In Fly
Rowan was about 14 years old, when he found that a fly rod was, not only a very effective tool for delivering smaller presentations, but also offered a challenge in understanding environmental conditions and fish behavior well enough to cause fish to take a fly. When your only mode of transportation is a bicycle and the trout streams you want to fish are out of bicycle range, you take your fly rod to the waters that are accessible and you learn to fish. Being limited by the time it took to pedal to his fishing spots, Rowan often practiced his craft on the panfish, largemouth bass and pickerel of his near-home waters. “I still love to fish for big bluegills”, says Rowan. “Their incredible bright coloration, their summertime habits and their slab-sided fight, are as enjoyable to me as almost any fish that I fish for”.
“For me, it is the initial strike, whether it is the explosive attack of a bluefish or the barely perceptible slurp of a 7-inch brookie, the hit excites me most. This may be heresy to some, but I have often thought that in my own fishing I’d like to have the option of pushing a button and quickly releasing a fish, five seconds after they take the fly. It’s funny, but I have found that I seem to enjoy the moment when the fish commits to taking the fly, more than the time that it takes to bring them to net”.
Rowan’s Mom took him fishing when he was in elementary school. She in turn, had learned to love fishing from her Dad, who would also take Rowan from time to time. Rowan’s interest in virtually all fish and their habits is rooted in his early experiences fishing the waters of his hometown of East Hampton, CT for a wide variety of local species. “We often categorize fish as either being ‘a good species’ worthy of our efforts or ‘trash fish’ that have taken up our precious fishing time”, says Rowan. “I find that every fish species has something to teach me as I work to become a better fisherman. Combining the thrill of making the connection with a wild creature as it takes my fly and what that feeding response teaches me about fish feeding behavior, are things that I don’t think I will ever tire of.”
A Multispecies Mindset
To date, Rowan has caught 233 different species on the fly rod. When he guides, virtually all of the fish species in the Connecticut River drainage are available for his clients. Though 90% have some fly fishing experience, his clients come from all walks of life and have varying degrees of casting skill. They also have a wide range of interests; some are looking to catch their first wild brook trout, others want the explosive strike from a pike chasing down a 9-inch streamer and others are open to whatever species Rowan thinks might help them improve their skill.
Eastern Connecticut is home to an incredible variety of fish species and types of water ranging from native brook trout in a quiet woodland stream to giant bluefin which have recently returned to the nearshore waters of Block Island Sound. Having access to a tidal river such as the Connecticut River means having access to a complete array of fresh water species, as well as anadromous fish such as shad and striped bass. What a great place to live if you are obsessed with fishing.
Shared Experience
Rowan has enjoyed the connection with a number of mentors throughout his fishing career. As a teenager, Rowan fished with men in their 60s and 70s because his contemporaries were not fly fishing. Alan Petrucci of Small Stream Reflections fame, helped Rowan improve his fly tying skills. “Alan could consistently catch nice trout in water that other anglers passed up”, says Rowan. “A better description might be that Alan could catch trout in a tall glass of water”.
Another influence in Rowan’s fly fishing skills was/is Mark Alpert who took Rowan fly fishing along the Rhode Island and Connecticut nearshore waters for striped bass, bluefish and false albacore. Rowan is very intentional about the limited amount of equipment he uses in his guiding business, but he does covet a fiberglass skiff like the Amesbury outboard skiff that Mark fishes from.
All good fishermen are very intentional. Like Rowan, they most often keep logbooks, they take good care of their equipment and although fishing is a pleasure, they carefully manage their time and focus. To stay dialed in to such a diverse mix of species, Rowan fishes 6-7 times per week, even in the winter if the weather allows.
Keeping It Simple
Part of that intentional approach to Rowan’s fishing, includes his decision to not let equipment get between him and the fish. He has a low-tech approach to fishing the relatively shallow waters that he does. He doesn’t use an outboard when fishing from the modified canoe he often uses, nor does he use a fishfinder, relying instead on his observations of baitfish, other prey and how his target species responds to his approach. By wading or using a human powered boat, all of his senses are available to read the water and pick up the clues that help him dial in on the fish. Interestingly, while Rowan wears glasses to improve his vision, he is more comfortable seeing a fish’s movement without polarized glasses.
In addition to what he has learned from his mentors and his own personal experience, Rowan covets his library of fishing books, particularly those from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. He still has not read all of the books in his collection, but when he does, he often discovers a solution for a “fish feeding problem” that he has struggled with. A case in point is the book Lunkers Love Nightcrawlers which details a wide variety of approaches for using night crawlers for largemouth bass, including the technique of injecting air into a worm to float it off the bottom. Rowan adapted that inflating approach, injecting air into a worm, and attaching a split shot up the line, to create a very effective presentation for the large carp that inhabit the Connecticut River.
His Wheelhouse
It would be hard to define a ‘typical’ trip fishing with Rowan because the possibilities are just so varied. You might find yourself bushwhacking to a remote section of tributary, searching out native trout, or perhaps sliding down an urban embankment, with cars whizzing by overhead, flipping jigs to smallies, or flicking flies from the bow of his modified canoe, Rowan calling out the positions of giant carp in the flooded woods, or chasing striped bass from the beach while mansion-dwellers sleep on the bluff. The thing that makes a trip with Rowan so intriguing is that you really can’t picture what you might do, until you’re actually doing it and odds are high you’ll be itching to do it again.
Rowan guides because he loves putting people on fish. When you guide, you are actually fishing through someone else’s abilities. It is more of a challenge to guide someone else to success than fishing yourself. “I actually prefer to fish with clients”, he says, noting that, “At times, I can get more excited than my client like when a 10-pound pike first discovers he is hooked or a smallmouth tight to the bank blasts a popper out of the water such that it gets hung up in an overhanging branch.” There’s little doubt that Rowan has found his calling and If you’re interested in tapping into Rowan’s extensive river fishing knowledge you can contact him at brwntroutangler@gmail.com or by following him on Instagram @ct.fly.angler.
