Today I fished the Isinglas and Cocheco Rivers with my buddy Dick. Last week these rivers were stocked and Dick had fished there a couple days later. Some guys had caught over 100 fish in a few days. Dick had caught a lot. We figured we would catch a lot of fish, but today we only got a few. Even the regulars we talked to wondered where all the fish had gone. I usually get over there at least once in the fall. Great Bay TU used to pay for the stocking, but now it is handled by Three Rivers Stocking Association, a private group that raises funds and stocks the fish. The Isinglas River borders land owned by Waste Management Inc (WMI)and they stock about 500 fish in that river. Too bad Fish and Game doesn't do a better job with fall stocking. Southern NH has a lot of rivers that are open year round, or have an extended season, and they could provide great fall fishing.
Often freshly stocked fish will strike at anything that remotely resembles food. If the "food" turns out to be an erratically stripped woolly-bugger, they soon get conditioned not to strike anything that moves. Today most of the fish were caught either dead-drift or a very slow swing/retrieve. I guess their little pea-brains got programmed to tune out streamers.
Tomorrow, Stan and I are going to hit the Swift River again. I have been tying up some fresh egg patterns, soft hackles and a few Hotspots. We'll see if these fickle critters are on to something different this time.
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