Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Guys night (day) out
I've been (as a guide) a birthday, Father's Day, Christmas, Valentine, and anniversary gift, and this weekend it was a bachelor party. No, there weren't any strippers or bunnies jumping out of a cake, just a couple geezers teaching a bunch of young guys how to fly fish. The wedding is planned for October and I think the groom is changing the honey-moon venue to a place with rising trout. We took them to the Contoocook River, since the night before a gully-washer raised the Pemigewasset River's water level to over 3,000cfs. After going over equipment basics and a casting lesson, we hit the water. The recent heat wave had warmed up the water in excess of 70F, so we thought it would mainly be smallmouth bass and fallfish that were hungry. This was mostly true, but we found a couple trout that were willing to bite, along with their warmwater brethern. There are some spring holes and everybody who has fished the Contooocook River in West Henniker knows that the water gets hyper-aerated from all the rapids and pocket-water. The guys had fun, learned a new skill and enjoyed a common experience. Now that the heat wave has broken, let's hope the earlier high water gave the trout a few refuges to ride out the heat.
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Hoping to hit the Contookcook Friday. I am hoping the water will be down. I see it peaked at 2000 cfs. A mix of trout and samllies would be nice.
ReplyDeleteFished Contookcook Friday Aug 28th. Water was moving (over 500 cfs). Caught (2) browns and a rainbow early in the day (in a deep pool). A few more rainbows in the afternoon. Plenty of fall fish and smallmouth in the western ave section. We also nailed our largest rainbow in this stetch. I was surprised to see rainbos this far down where the water was slower and warm. Is this common?
ReplyDeleteMike, I assume you mean the area across from the police station or down below the second (single lane) iron bridge? In either case, I would expect rainbows to be where there is a source of well-oxygenated water and/or a spring-hole or cold tributary. Congrats on catching some good fish under marginal conditions.
ReplyDeleteI almost forgot - one of my clients last week lost my loaner polarized sunglasses somewhere along the Contoocook. They have the yellowish low-light lenses with the glare-guards on the temples (same yellow tint as the lenses.)And they have a black cord instead of crokies. An ybody find them? Might be a small reward and my undying gratitude for their return :)
ReplyDeleteWe caught the nicer rainbows in the section upstream from the bridge that is out. The area where there is the sand bar. I didn't see any noticiable feeders coming in here. Maybe there are some spring seeps.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be back again soon...when the flows settle down and the water is cooler.
Didn't see any sun glasses but I did see two top sections of some spinning gear. My buddy lost the top section of his fly rod in the big pool upstream from the powerlines.