Fly Fish New England - Fishing Reports

To-do list for 2012

2011-12-27T10:56:00.000-05:00

It isn't too early to plan for the 2012 season - plenty of stuff to get in order. Although Christmas is just passed, it also isn't too early to draw up a list for your "Gift-askers." If you are like me, you are always getting the request of "What do you want for (fill in the blanks: anniversary, birthday, Father's Day, etc.)?" Here is a list you can copy, edit to fit your personal needs and leave where the "Gift-askers" can find it:

2012 Fishing License:
Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire

(In the spirit of full-disclosure, following are a few services I provide ;-)
Intermediate fly fishing class: tune up your cast and learn a few new techniques.
Fishing trip in northern NH: Alder flies in June, foliage and hungry fish in September
Plan a fishing trip: Lots of ideas for all seasons

Here are some ideas to fight the shack-nasties: Winter cabin fever fighters (mostly FREE): Attend a free fly tying class or watch a fly fishing presentation this winter

I'll be heading south to Fort Myers in a couple days, so stay tuned for some inshore saltwater adventures.
Happy 2012!
Gerry

Whatta November!

2011-11-28T17:15:00.001-05:00

Since I got back from the New York trip, I have been out fishing almost every day. This amazing weather has extended the local fishing season beyond belief. Most days I go to the Nissitissit River in Pepperell, which is only about four miles from my house. Today I only got one fish, a surprising 13" brown without a mark on him. It was surprising, because browns have not been stocked there since early June. This one took a bite of my rootbeer BH woolly bugger. I lost about 8 or 10 flies, because the water level is now fairly low and there are lots of limbs and branches in the water from the storms of a couple months ago. The last few times I fished there I got at least 5 or 6 fish - all rainbows, mostly on some variety of egg pattern or a small softhackle.
Yesterday Jim and Dick and I fished the Sugar River in Newport, NH for a couple hours. Nothing. The water is still pretty high there - probably from snow-melt. There is still 8 or 10 inches of snow on the ground there. They were in the heavy snow belt from the storm last week and the warmer weather is melting the snow. The water temp on the Nissitissit River was about 44 today and 40 to 42 most of the last couple weeks. Pretty cold, but trout will still feed if you bounce something right on their nose.
Another presentation is coming up Thursday evening at the United Fly Tyers meeting in Woburn, MA. The topic this time is Fly Fishing NH. Say hi if you make it to the meeting.

Small water - BIG fish

2011-11-18T14:39:00.001-05:00

For three days this week my buddy/guide partner Jim and I fish some small Lake Ontario tribs near Rochester, NY. We have fished the Salmon River before and heard there were other tribs with big fish that are not as crowded. We confirmed that fact!
We did the 6.5 hour driver from So. NH arriving around noon. After checking into the motel, we met up with friend/client/FFNE-blog-follower Matt (hi Matt!) and fished a local spring creek for wild browns. Somewhat similar to the Swift River in MASS, I coaxed a half-dozen beautiful wild fish to net using small soft-hackles and BWO emergers. The next day we met our guide Jason Franz on the river and proceeded to learn a lot about the fishery and about catching these large lake-run browns and rainbows. There were even a few lingering Chinooks around, as well as a few Atlantic salmon. Jason has access to some private water, so we enjoyed targeting some really big fish at fairly close range. The spot we fished was not far from the lake estuary, so the fish had not run the gauntlet prior to hitting this section of riffles and pools. The large male browns (some over 10 pounds!) were fighting for position around the females and putting on quite an aggressive show. Unlike my experience with LL salmon, they weren't territorial in the sense that they would attack a well-placed streamer fly. If they were defending territory they were not interested in eating. But once females started dropping eggs there were plenty of male and female browns and a few rainbows there to gobble them up. I had a couple takes but no good hookups on bunny streamers, and all the hookups and landings were on eggs.

These are a couple of the larger fish we caught with Jason. We each had larger fish on, but they came unbuttoned before we were able to land them. We also fished a few spots on public access water in order to learn more about the river and discover some places we could fish on our own. Jason is an excellent guide and we learned quite a bit about the fishery and the river. He has an uncanny knack for spotting fish and selecting the correct approach to fish to them. It was great for a change to have someone else rigging gear, pointing out holding lies, and untangling snarls, landing fish, etc.

On Thursday morning we fished on our own at a couple spots Jason showed us and also did some exploring based on advice from locals we met on the river. In about 15 minutes I netted three almost identical female browns (two on consecutive casts!) from a very productive pool. Jim is pictured holding one of them. I also had three other larger fish on for a few minutes, including one giant fish that we believe to be a very large female brown. It wasn't dark and scarred like the Chinooks we saw. Wasn't dark and colored-up like the large male browns. And didn't run and/or leap like a steelhead. By process of elimination, probably a large female brown. Who knows? I only know that it was hooked in the mouth; we both saw it close-up and it was much larger than the male browns pictured above. (BTW we both accidentally foul-hooked Chinooks and broke them off, so we know it wasn't one of them.) If you want to sample some great big-fish fly fishing and don't want to put up with the hassle of the Salmon River, contact Jason at Troutnabout Charters - In the summer months he also operates a charter boat on Lake Ontario. Right now through December is a great time to fish for the big browns and steelhead, and again in April and early May before the water warms and they head out to the lake.

This Tuesday 11/22 at 7:00PM I will be presenting my Labrador Trip at the Squann-a-tissit TU chapter meeting in Pepperell, MA. Free admission - come check it out.

Presentation next week

2011-11-04T21:03:00.000-04:00

Next Tuesday at the Merrimack River Valley TU meeting in Manchester,NH I'll present my trip to Labrador this summer. Dealing with the power outage and snow has been a challenge to get the presentation together. Of course, like all things I waited too long to get started on it.If you want to attend, admission is free and it will be at 7pm at the Sweeney American Legion Post 251 Maple St Manchester, NH.
Locally, I went out to the Nissitissit River yesterday with my buddies Jim and Dick. Got a few rainbows to the net on nymphs. The water was a little high but very fishable. Afterwards we stopped into Evening Sun flyshop to stock up on some tying supplies. Charlie got in some new materials that look pretty interesting.
Hope to see a couple of you Tuesday.
Ps still no cable or internet so I am composing this on the Droid tablet I got for my wife. Truly painfull on the tiny screen and touchscreen keyboard.

What happened to fall?

2011-10-27T16:28:00.000-04:00

It seems like we went directly from summer to the edge of winter. The local rivers are still fishing really well. I was on the Nissitissit River quite a few times over the last few weeks and the month of October was a lot of fun. The late foliage and late leaf-fall means that the fishing has been good and the catching has also been good. Find the pocket water and you will find the fish. The Isinglass fished well, too, but not so much the Lamprey, which is usually one of the best for late-season fishing. The Wiswall dam area is closed off, due to work on the dam and abutters posting their land. This meant that area could not be stocked.
Tuesday I stopped in Riverton, CT to check out the Farmington River. Water temp was 60F, but it was windy and the water was loaded with leaves. I only fished about a half hour in a couple different places and caught mostly leaves. It was supposed to rain yesterday, so Stan and I cancelled our plans to fish there, but once again the weather man screwed-up. The weather next week looks pretty reasonable, so maybe the Swift River will be worth the drive. Lots of choices, so let's hope winter holds off a little longer.
BTW, thanks to the Boston TU chapter for hosting our presentation Monday night. We had a great turn-out, lots of questions and lots of interest from the members. Thanks!

Salmon and Rainbow on the Pemi

2011-10-20T20:58:00.002-04:00

Today I took some time away from guiding and treated myself to a couple hours fishing. Saturday I had guided on the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers and found a few fish in the slightly high water. Then Monday and Tuesday it was off to the Isinglass and Cocheco Rivers for some SE NH rainbows (and a brook trout!) My client is from Australia, near Perth, and attended a conference in Ottawa. He loved the foliage, the river and the fish. The trip for today was rescheduled for a couple weeks to let the water settle down and because it was forecasted to be mostly rainy. Well, the water was at a wadable level and 54F (perfect!) I only fished one spot in Bristol and found a salmon and a surprisingly large rainbow trout. The salmon took the Black Ghost streamer and the rainbow fell for the Mickey Finn. Take a look at the rainbow.

Tomorrow we pick up a couple grand-kids (and a grand-dog) in CT, while my oldest daughter and her husband visit Colorado for a week. I hope to be able to sneak away next week for a day of fishing on the Farmington River - stay tuned.
Also, my guiding partner Jim and I will be the featured presenters at the Boston TU meeting next Monday evening at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, MA. Info and directions at:Greater Boston TU We will be doing our Fly Fishing in NH presentation that covers just about the entire state of NH. Hope to see you there.

Autumn splendor

2011-10-05T11:19:00.000-04:00

Last week we had our Autumn all-inclusive Sporting Lodge trip to the Androscoggin River in and around Errol, NH. Nine days in a row with maximum capacity every day have Jim and I ready to take a break. Jim and Duchess (his English setter) are waiting out the rain to go bird hunting. I am busy booking trips for tomorrow, Friday, Sunday and next week! The Androscoggin was running high and warm - 2,710CFS, versus a normal 1,500CFS and 64F to 68F versus 55F to 60F normally. Either because of the real hot summer, or the high water from Irene and other unnamed storms, the fish were spread out. Also due to high water, I couldn't get to all my good wading spots. That being said, we still had a great time and some pretty good fishing. Everybody got some fish and a few (that means you Kevin and George) got a lot of fish and some real nice ones, too! Here is Susan from Pepperell with the largest trout she has caught on a fly, a beautiful 14-inch rainbow caught on a soft-hackle as a dropper behind a Stimulator. She landed a 12-inch rainbow about 10-minutes later - nice job Susan! Earlier in the trip, Kevin and Mike got into some nice fish, including this nice brookie that Mike is holding in the photo above. As usual, we had quite a few beginners and novices
with us and it was gratifying to see the progression in their skill. There were quite a few "first fish on a fly; first on a dry fly; first brookie" so the excitement level was always high. Fun for the clients and fun for Jim and I. We had a few clients that are experienced and have fished out west and around the world. They enjoyed the beautiful river, foliage and NH fish. Here is Shawn having a great time with a NH brook trout.
We caught a lot of fish using soft-hackle droppers off the bend of dries or streamers. Others took the dry or streamer. On the boat, Jim also had quite a few on nymph rigs with indicators. I took dozens of pictures that I will send to the clients, but these should give the flavor of the river, the fish and the foliage.
The MA rivers are receiving their fall stocking this week and the SE NH rivers will get their fall load of trout on Oct 15 and 16. They should also be putting in the broodstock Atlantic salmon soon. NH Fish and Game biologist Matt Carpenter said that since returns of sea-run fish was so good this year, there would probably be extra fish stocked. I can't wait to get one of them on and hear the drag singing! Tight lines!

Now appearing . . .

2011-09-14T13:42:00.000-04:00

Just a quick heads-up - my guiding partner Jim and I will be presenting our "New England Fly Box" presentation at the Central Mass TU meeting tomorrow night in Worcester. Click the blog title to access their website with directions. Hope to see you there!

Also, we had the September session of our Northeast Fly Fishing School this past weekend. On Sunday we did the on-stream instruction portion of the school on the Squannacook River. Guess what? Yes! Some of our students actually caught trout! The river had been as low as about 25CFS this summer and then we had a tropical storm and still there were trout willing to eat a fly. A brookie and rainbow were landed by students and last night I stopped by for an hour and got a nice brown on a dry fly (Royal bomber.) In a couple weeks the fall stocking will top-off the tank with a fresh crop of trout, boding well for fall fishing.

Opportunity Knocks

2011-09-07T20:30:00.001-04:00

Guys, some may be aware that our all-inclusive trip (lodging, meals, gear and guided fishing) to the Androscoggin River in the Great North Woods of NH has been sold out for over a month. Today we had a cancellation, so we now have an opening for three people to arrive September 27 in the afternoon and fish with us all day September 28. This is the only day we have an opening for the last week of September and beginning of October. You can find the details here. The water has cooled and the fish are still there, since the Androscoggin didn't experience the high water from Irene and also fared better over the summer than did a lot of rivers in the hot/dry summer. This is prime time in the north country on one of the premiere rivers of the northeast. Some of the regulars on this blog have fish the Andro with us and none came away disappointed! Here are a couple pictures from last September. NOTE: ALL SPOTS ARE NOW FILLED ! Thanks!

Right before Irene came rolling through I fished the Sugar and the Pemigewasset Rivers and found fish in each. I also found a couple fish in the mainstem Pemi AFTER Irene, but unfortunately, I think most south/central rivers will need a visit from the stocking truck before we see fishing return to optimum conditions.

The proverbial calm after the storm

2011-08-31T11:40:00.001-04:00

Irene came and went. Luckily for NH she stayed to the west over VT. Even so, there was unbelievable flooding of the Pemigewasset, Ellis and Saco Rivers. You can check out some of these YouTube videos to see what happened:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU1I6A1zkM0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3VqsC2HPM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLNTJ7J3KF8&feature=related

Yesterday I made the rounds of some spots on the Pemigewasset River in Franklin, Bristol and North Woodstock. It is still real high, but the further upriver you go, the better current conditions. I am certain the Pemi in North Woodstock is fishable today (don't expect to find a lot of fish though!) I imagine I'll have to learn the new contours of the riverbed, too. At least the ponds were not affected. There were fish rising on Sky Pond, Profile and Echo lakes.
As the nights get short and cooler, the fishing in some of the rivers should pick up. In particular the upper and lower Androscoggin, CT river from Pittsburg down through North Stratford and the Contoocook and Sugar Rivers. Hopefull NH Fish and Game still has a few fish they can put out to sweeten the fall fishing.

Reality sets in

2011-08-06T18:17:00.000-04:00

Since returning from Labrador I have taken out four different beginner clients. One to the Swift River and three to the Saco and Ellis Rivers. Now I know what sports commentators mean when they say, "[insert name of all-time great star]____________ plays a different game than the rest of us." Well, Labrador is different brook trout fishing than anything I have previously experienced. Am I "ruined" for local fishing? I don't think so. It is still fun and rewarding, but definitely different. There are contrasts in the size of fish, the remoteness and "pristineness" of the rivers, but after you get past the scale of things, it is still fly fishing. Still fun. Still connects you to the environment and still done in beautiful places. Also, the folks that learned how to fly fish and caught their first trout on a fly were just as excited (maybe more so!) than I was catching 5+ pound brook trout in Labrador.
And just like I was out of my familiar locale in Labrador, these folks were far from their homes in Frankfurt, Germany, Brooklyn, NY and Cleveland, OH. To them, our New England trout streams are exotic, pristine and beautiful, and their enthusiasm and wonder are contagious. Not a bad version of reality, huh?

Guide Posts

2011-07-25T14:25:00.000-04:00

One of the cool things about fishing out of Three Rivers Lodge was the "Newfie" guides. They ranged from mid-20s to early 50s in age. Some had guided there 7 or 8 years, a couple only 3 or 4 weeks. All were good natured and real outdoorsmen. They had different personalities, but all enjoyed good conversation (mostly about hunting and fishing) and a good quip or joke. All came from Newfoundland and all were professional guides - although most spent more time over the years guiding bear and moose hunts than ferrying brook trout sports. Byron is a guide with minimal experience guiding for large brook trout, but is accomplished in the way of the woods and water. He was pretty quiet until we got him talking about his family, especially his son who is taking up fly fishing. One of my buddies Jerry was guided by Byron and he quipped that he had read that the guides in camp were accomplished outdoorsmen and were capable of carrying out a client on their back if necessary. He asked Byron if he thought he could carry him out. Byron thought for a minute and slowly replied, "I believe I could, but I would have to quarter you first!" A comedian is born.
These are the two fish I caught on consecutive casts at 2nd Rapids about an hour before I got "The Big One."

I spend nearly a hundred days a year on the water and I had a hard time keeping up with our guides. On our last day of fishing at the Fifth Rapids fly-out camp Jerry and Harry were guided by Quinton and Randy and I had Byron. Quinton is a big strapping guy in his 20s - probably 6' 2" and over 200 pounds and he can wade those rivers like a walk on the beach. He thought nothing of quickly wading across the river to help Byron net one of our fish and after weighing, measuring and tagging it, hustle back across to help Jerry or Harry land a fish. Here is Jerry with a nice fish at Fifth Rapids being helped by Quinton.
In addition to being all around great guys, some of the guides had other talents. One of the guides we enjoyed most was young Jordan Locke. He was probably the most accomplished fly fishing guide, hardest working (although all of them worked hard) and best singer. Best singer?!? After dinner on our last night we gathered in the lodge great room for some entertainment.
I guess I'll have to take guitar lessons to keep my clients entertained!

Camp life

2011-07-24T21:41:00.001-04:00

I know, I know - all you want is a little fish porn, but a lot more goes on between actually catching something. Here is a little scene as everybody gets their gear together, loads the boats and heads out for a day of fishing. Note the head-nets. These became our best friend. Don't even think of going to Labrador without one. I wore my total coverage bug shirt, but the $1.97 head net we bought at WalMart was just as effective and easier to see through.

I thought you might also be interested to see something of the cabins, lodge and camp life. Everybody, clients, guides, and staff, ate together in the lodge dining room. In the morning coffee (and the generator) was on at 6AM, breakfast at 7 and planes and boats leave the dock at 8. Return to the lodge around 5 to 6PM, dinner at 7. Sunset (and generator off) was around 10PM and it stayed light until around 11PM- in fact it never got totally pitch dark. We could have fished after dinner, but after a long day on the water, I don't think anybody did. The most impressive thing about the lodge (other than the 8 and 9 lb brook trout adorning the walls) was the fact that everything had to be brought in by plane or snowmobile. The cooks were sisters and one of them matter-of-factly mentioned coming into the camp in winter on a three or four day snowmobile trip of 150 miles from Labrador City. Hardier than most of the gals I hang with!

Well, if you have hung in there through the camp BS, here is a little fish porn. In addition to the giant brook trout, there were white fish (sort of like a fallfish, but with a smaller mouth), lake trout, and northern pike. We caught pike as by-catch a couple times while fishing for brook trout, but there were pike all over the lakes and we targeted them a couple times.

One afternoon Randy and I told our guide Byron that we would knock off the trout fishing a little early and get some pike on the way back to camp. We tied on wire tippet and some big saltwater streamers and fished for pike for an hour or so. We had fast action and caught about a dozen, some to almost 4 feet long. Here is Byron with an average size pike. The pike cull the brook trout and assure that they are not over run with small fish. Many of even the larger trout had evidence of run-ins with predators, most likely pike. I didn't take any pictures of the white fish, but I caught 4 or 5 of them over the course of the week, and a couple weighed in at around 3 pounds. They take the same flies as the brook trout, and give you that same rush when they strike, but not too many folks would make the trek to Labrador for the promise of a strong bite from white fish. H-m-m-m, on second thought I can think of a couple people that would be happy to catch a nice white fish or two as a change from their normal catch of chubs!

More Lab stuff

2011-07-23T10:00:00.001-04:00

Our drive from southern NH to Labrador City took over 20 hours. The first half was pretty uneventful. Then when we headed north from Baie Comeau on the St, Lawrence River things got interesting. We pretty much left civilization behind, other than a blighted landscape of high tension power lines, huge dams destroying entire watersheds and huge mines scraping off mountains and filling lakes with rust-red effluent. All necessary(?), but unfortunate by-products of modern life. Anybody following events in NH has heard of the Northern Pass project that would run high tension towers/cables across northern NH to bring "green" power to the northeast urban corridor. At least 40 additional miles of towers would be built around Pittsburg, NH and additional high towers would be built on existing right-of-ways. This video is a sample of the swath of destruction that would be cut across northern NH. From our float plane you can also see some of the huge mines that have leveled mountains and filled lakes in northern Quebec and southwestern Labrador.

Enough depressing stuff - on to the the fun stuff: In Labrador City we stayed in a nice motel and made our last visit to a WalMart where we wisely bought bug nets - the best $1.97 I ever spent! The 150-mile float plane trip to the lodge showed us that where we were going to fish was unlike any other place I have ever fished. The landscape made Minnesota's Land-of-Lakes look like a desert! Water everywhere and probably fish everywhere, too. In addition to water, we saw patches of snow both on the July 8th flight in and the flight out on the 15th.

The trees were quite a bit smaller, due to lack of nutrients and shorter growing season. And the ground cover was white lichens, or caribou moss. It was soft and fluffy and blanketed the ground, covering boulders. In past years the caribou would migrate through here and we hiked along their trails to reach some of the areas we fished.
Each evening after dinner Kevin, camp manager and head guide, would discuss plans for the following day. We were assigned an area to fish and our guide for the day. Each area was like having your own private river. Some days we would get in a boat with our guide and motor across to an inlet or outlet of the lake. The inlets were rivers and we would fish a few hundred yards or a mile or more of river. Some areas required a hike around lower rapids and then another boat ride and another hike.

My best day of fishing with a lot of fish caught was one of those ride, hike, ride, hike trips. That is where I caught the lake trout pictured in the previous blog and this 5+ pound brook trout. It is also where I stood on a flat boulder and caught 8 brooktrout - smallest 2 pounds and largest a little over 3 pounds. What a rock! These fish were caught on woolybuggers and woodduck orange streamers, but the water was so clear and the pool so deep that I saw the take on almost every fish. In addition to landing 8, a couple others got off the hook. That day I was fishing with Dave from another group of anglers from Maine and guide Anthony. Here is a video of Dave with our guide Anthony landing a fish in the middle of the rapids on the next boulder down from "my rock."

Unlike the rivers in NH and ME and other northeast states, these rivers were not dammed or channelized for log-drive purposes or to harness the water power for industry. It really gave a flavor of what the rivers, lakes and fishing would have been like in New England before our European ancestors "tamed" it. That's it for now. Stay tuned for the next installment of "The BSC goes to Labrador."

Labrador Rocks!

2011-07-18T17:39:00.000-04:00

Just got back Saturday night from a week at Three Rivers Lodge in the wilds of Labrador. Five of us caravaned almost 1,000 miles north, then took a float plane another 150 miles to the lodge on the Wood River system. Short synopsis: wild country, many black flies and mosquitoes and many LARGE brook trout.
Here is a video of my fishing buddy Randy landing a "small one" of about 2 pounds.

A 2-pounder was what we called a "tagger" as a couple of the guides would weigh, measure and tag any untagged fish over about a pound-and-a-half. Most fish over 3 pounds had already been tagged and they would record the tag number in their log. We caught some fish that had been tagged three years ago (this was the third year of a three year tagging effort.) We didn't catch many fish that were too small to tag. Most were probably about three pounds. My biggest brook trout was 25.5 inches long and about eight pounds, caught on a size 12 Royal Wulff.

Quite a few were in the 5 to 6 pound class. About an hour before I landed the one pictured, I caught a five pounder and on the next cast got a six pounder. That was pretty unusual, but very memorable. My biggest fish was a 12-pound lake trout caught on a Woodduck Orange streamer.

I probably caught the most fish on large black woolly-buggers, but also quite a few on Royal Wulff, Royal Bomber, Prince nymph, red brassie, Alder Fly dry, and Woodduck Orange streamer. I hooked and lost what was probably my biggest brook trout on a Wood Special streamer. I had been trying to catch that fish all afternoon and when I finally hooked him he swam to the surface, turned and slowly swam away and when I put pressure on him he came unbuttoned. Drat!! My last fish of the trip was caught on my Black Ghost Clouser fly, that is also deadly on LLS in ME and NH. I'll be adding a few pictures and videos over the next few days. Wow, what a trip!

Hexamania

2011-07-04T20:27:00.005-04:00

Our trip up north wouldn't be complete without sampling the hex hatch on a wild trout pond. This year we not only had a wild time with the Alder Flies, but the hex were popping like popcorn. Nothing like gliding along a beautiful north country pond with the warblers warbling and the plaintive call of the white throated sparrow echoing through the pines interrupted only by the explosive rises of wild brook trout.

If you haven't fished the hexagenia hatch, you are missing a real treat. Tie up some size 8 Stimulators with yellow body and white wing and white hackle. Then head to Echo Lake or Profile Lake in Franconia Notch. Both are easily waded and have real good hatches of these big juicy may flies. Just toss out your fly and give it the occasional twitch and hold on! Better be quick though, since the trout want to get their high-value calories and head back down to cooler water real fast. This time of year, the flies emerge just as the evening starts to cool - about a half hour before dark, so the action can be intense but short-lived. What a way to relax and end the day.

Well. I am off for Labrador for a week. Stay tuned for some (hopefully) giant brook trout.

Alder Fly Bonanza

2011-07-02T23:07:00.003-04:00

Our 14-day Androscoggin Adventure is complete and fishing AND catching was great. We had some epic days at the beginning of the hatch from June 19 through 23 and very good fishing through the end of the trip. In fact, the biggest fish of the trip were caught the last day, July 1. The fish were leaping out of the water at the beginning of the hatch, but were getting a lot more selective as the hatch progressed, so we had to work for them. The hatch came out down-river below Pontook dam on June 18 and got to our HQ on the FFO area in Errol on June 22. Before the hatch got going the fishing was excellent, and at the beginning of the hatch ranged from phenomenal to unbelievable. I don't like hype and maybe some of the folks who were there can back me up on this. FFNE fans, brothers Alan and David had an epic couple days at the beginning of the hatch. Matt and his gang from upstate NY had a great time until some rain put a damper on things. Overall, rain was not a factor, other than keeping the flies in the Alders until the sun peeked through. As always, the big golden stone flies were out along with the caddis and many fish succumbed to the charms of a size 8 Stimulator. We are already booking our September trip when the foliage is bright, the water is cold and the fish are hungry. Next up a report on the hex hatch on the ponds.

Get ready to rumble

2011-06-16T18:02:00.000-04:00

We have had it all this spring - rain, heat, back to cool weather and now almost normal, whatever that is. The rivers have really settled down, so let's hope the stifling heat stays away for a while. The Souhegan River has been fishing really well, which is somewhat a pleasant surprise. It was well-stocked in the DHZ in Greenville and a few days later we got the heat wave. The fish seem to have abandoned the DHZ and settled in some of the deeper pools, such as those downstream of Blood Brook. I have had a few guide trips to the Souhegan in the last 10 days and got plenty on various caddis patterns and small stimulators. It also continues to fish pretty good below the dams in downtown Milford. I wish the same could be said for the Newfound River. I found a few fish there, but not in the quantities or quality that I have seen in past years. Many of our rivers really warm up in summer and it is sad to see stocking delayed so long that the peak conditions of the season are gone before many fish get a chance to play with us fly anglers. At long last I am getting good reports from the Sugar River, while the Contoocook seems to be past prime and will be a late evening destination until it gets too warm for trout fishing.
I have been watching the weather, river flows and stocking reports for the Androscoggin River and it looks like everything is in maximum alignment for an epic trip starting tomorrow. This is our third year running our "virtual fishing lodge" in Errol and we have totally sold-out with a waiting list. We also have a good jump on bookings for September on the Andro. We have a nice mix of beginners and experienced anglers, which keeps things interesting. My good friend Dick was kind enough to tie a bunch of flies for me while I was goofing off in Florida. I can hardly wait to spring those tasty Alder Fly and Woodduck Orange on the big brookies and acrobatic landlocks of the upper Andro. I have all the memory cleared from my Flip video and Olympus Stylus Tough digital camera and will be sure to share some with you guys. Although the zebra caddis is the prime attraction, I expect that plenty of hexagenia mayflies and golden stoneflies will also tempting the trout of the Great Northwoods of NH.

The most glorious month of the year

2011-05-05T22:30:00.001-04:00

Yes, May is the best. Winter is certainly gone and spring is firmly established - at least it is south of the notches. Up around Errol it is still tinged with winter. What to do when you want a little jump-start to the season - head south! No, not Florida - Connecticut! The Farmington River to be precise. Even down there the season is lagging a bit - the Hendricksons usually start to emerge down there by the third week of April. I had a client trip scheduled for Tuesday, so Stan and I did an advance trip on Monday. Not a lot happening in the morning, but by mid-afternoon a few mayflies started popping up. Stan got his nice brown on a Hendrickson nymph just as the hatch started. I succeeded in fooling a fish into striking my dry Hendrickson and then breaking it off on the hookset. Cest la vie! Better to have fooled him and lost, rather than not to have fooled him at all! Tuesday turned out to be an even better day than Monday. Many more fish rising and eating the emerging mayflies. The river is loaded with big browns and feisty 'bows. The hatch should last another week to ten days, so tie up some pink size 12 mayflies and head down to New Hartford!
In addition to some scouting expeditions to the Souhegan, Piscataquog, Nissitissit and Squannacook Rivers, we have run a couple sessions of our Northeast Fly Fishing School. We had our first ever Intermediate/Advanced class last weekend and we had a beginner class earlier in April and have three more beginner classes scheduled from this weekend through early June. All the classes are full except a few open spots in the June 4 & 5 class. We haven't scheduled another Intermediate class yet. but if you are interested, let me know.
Tomorrow I am off to the Contocook River to check things out for a couple trips next week. Tight lines!

Anticipation is high and optimism reigns supreme

2011-04-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

This is the time of year that often is most frustrating - the weather is great; stream levels are great; your gear is in order; and where are the fish? The fun now is in looking for them. Check the old standbys. Check the spots you were meaning to check, but haven't a chance to explore before. Look for some new spots. Chat up the anglers you run into and see what you can learn. But, get out there and enjoy the season!
Last week Dick and I hit the Swift River and found nothing below route 9 and very few above the route 9 bridge. It was great to be out and I hear through the grapevine that it has been stocked. Monday Jim and I hit some spots around Laconia and Alton, NH killing time before the NH Guides Association meeting. We saw a few swirls and talked to some friends fishing there who said one salmon had been hooked there earlier in the day and another landed off the docks behind the Opechee Trading Post in Laconia. We fished a little while on the Merrymeeting River without seeing evidence of any fish. The fish should be up in the river now and the ice is just about ready to go out on the big lake. Things should be popping off the docks and up the Merrymeeting River for a few more days.
Yesterday I made the rounds of a few local spots. Got my first wild brooktrout of the year at my local Wild Trout Stream. The yellow perch should be into the brook any day now, but so far just a few wild brookies. I didn't see many fish or talk to any anglers who had caught any fish in the local rivers. There were still just suckers at the Prescott Street bridge in Pepperell and no trout evident at the usual stocking points at the bridges in Townsend. On the Nissitissit River in Brookline I saw a couple trout near the covered walking bridge near the lake, and another at the bridge at the state line on West Hollis Rd/Brookline St. Not enough to entice me to break out the gear. We have a Northeast Fly Fishing School class this weekend, so I hope we can find some holdovers to keep the students interested, as they develop their fly fishing skills. BTW, we have added an Intermediate class, in case anybody wants to sharpen some skills.

In the news

2011-04-01T05:15:00.000-04:00

As I watched the news from yesterday and predictions for today, I see that I am in the middle of it. Yesterday morning I was driving towards Tampa and Joanne said that the sky seems a lot darker than when we left. This was 5AM when it was pitch dark already. Then the S#*% hit the fan and we were in the middle of rain wind and hail for the next couple hours. Then we got a call from my daughter telling us that we were coming back to the same weather we left in late December - a big snowy nor'easter. All I can say is, it can only help the trout, so I'm good with it. I see that MA has started spring trout stocking and the local streams should be stocked this week or next, depending on water levels. Also, there is new information about the fight against "rock snot" the invasive alga that now threatens the Farmington River, in addition to the current infestations in the CT, White and Mohawk Rivers of VT and NH.
I need to keep telling myself, "Spring is here. Snow is a temporary annoyance. The fish will be biting soon." I guess that is the same thing I tell myself every spring. You would think I would have convinced my self by now. Tight lines and see you on the water.

Snook!

2011-03-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

The weather down here in SW Florida has been fantastic for about a month - over 80F every day. Since they were having Shrimp Festival on Fort Myers Beach today, we decided to go to Barefoot Beach in Bonita Springs. (No, this isn't really a beach report, but a fishing report, so "bare" with me.) Coincidentally, I caught a snook last week at the end of the beach, but that was not part of the decision process - that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Here is a little video of the action.

Hope you enjoy it. I'll be fishing a couple more times before heading north the end of the month.

Hey, I almost forgot: my buddy Jim said some of you stopped by to say hi at the Fly Fish NH Show last weekend. Glad you could make it. What did you think of the show? Any good bargains? See any good presentations?

Winter update and spring preview

2011-02-28T09:10:00.001-05:00

My winter vacation is two/thirds done. This February has been the best month in the years I have been coming to Florida. My wife Joanne enjoys going to the beach and I enjoy it like I enjoy a root-canal - well, maybe not that much fun. It is hard for me to sit still for more than a few minutes, so I take a long walk, sometimes with fishing rod in hand to give some purpose to my efforts. Saturday we went to Barefoot Beach in Bonita Springs. It is often written up as a top-10 US beach. Well, it is now in my top-10, since I caught a nice snook there Saturday morning. When we sit on the beach together in Florida I always tell Joanne to enjoy it while she can, because when we get home it will be my "busy season" and I'll have to get back to "work." She won't see a whole lot of me until late July. I'll be heavily involved in the Northeast Fly Fishing School at Evening Sun Fly Shop on weekends in April and May. I already have some mid-week dates booked in May for the Mayfly hatches and beginning of the caddis hatches. Also, our "virtual fishing lodge" on the Androscoggin River the last two weeks of June is booking nicely.
While I am slaving away at hard labor on the beaches of SE Florida, my partner Jim has been hard at work on the fly fishing show circuit with gigs at the Marlboro Show, and many TU meetings and library seminars. He's also chairman of one the top fly fishing shows in New England and the ONLY fly fishing show in NH - The Fly Fish NH Show this weekend- March 5 and 6 - at Pelham Fish and Game Club. This show is a lot of fun, since it has many local shops and guides. There are bargains to be had, but most importantly, you can rub elbows and swap lies with fellow fly anglers in the area. Be sure to stop by the NH Rivers Guide booth and say hi to Jim. He'll have a lot of pictures of our trips and will be happy to share information about NH fly fishing opportunities.

A winter in paradise fishing expedition

2011-02-20T19:34:00.001-05:00

Stan and I were tired of striking out in our Florida fishing, so we hired a pro to show us the ropes. On the recommendation of some our fishing neighbors we contacted Capt. Shawn. He took us out on his 24ft center console boat. There wasn't any sight fishing to be had, so we switched off between spinning gear to cover water and fly gear when we found a concentration of fish. We did not catch a huge amount of fish, but plenty to keep our interest. We also caught quite a variety - speckled sea trout, Spanish mackerel, bonnet shark, and lady fish. Here is a video of the trip with Stan landing a bonnet shark. In addition to the fish, we saw quite a few dolphins and cormorants that tried to steal our fish.

"Cold" weather fishing

2011-01-30T07:43:00.001-05:00

The cold weather you folks at home in New England have been having has also invaded south Florida. Although "cold" here is a bit different than cold there. In any case, the Gulf water temps are around 60F and the fish are sluggish. They like 70F and above. The best places to fish are the back country shallow water around mangrove islands and water discharge areas of power plants. On Friday Stan and I rented kayaks and fished the inside islands near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers. This is across San Carlos Bay from Sanibel Island. It is the closest place for us to do some fishing and a place we have been wanting to try. It was fun kayaking through narrow mangrove tunnels and looking for fish. We had a few hits in some of the deeper channels between islands, but no hookups. Then on the way back we were fishing the deeper boating channel and Stan had a couple redfish follow to the kayak and take a whack at his fly, but still no hookup. I had the same thing with a good-size snook, but still no hookup. It was a fun trip and we'll be back when the water warms about 10 degrees. Next time we'll try the Orange River near the power plant discharge area.

Marlborough Show

2011-01-14T14:00:00.000-05:00

Anybody going to the Fly Fishing show in Marlborough? My guiding partner Jim Norton is giving our new presentation today at 1:00; Saturday at 2:00 and Sunday at 1:00 in the Destination Theater. If you go to the presentation, be sure to introduce yourself to Jim. (Click the blog title for the show program.)
I always enjoy going to these presentations to hear about both local and remote fly fishing locations. I have planned a lot of trips based on information I got at these shows. Southwest Montana, Delaware River, and Farmington river are some of the places I was inspired to travel after viewing FF show presentations. I also like to see what other people say about places where I have fished. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the "Grip-and-grin" fish-porn. Let me know if you see anything interesting at the show.

Reporting from Florida

2011-01-08T20:10:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day I was able to get out and sample the local fishing. Stan and I departed at 6:30AM for the canals along the Tamiami Trail (US41) in the Everglades. We hit some of our usual spots and a couple new ones. The day started out a little brisk (53F) and warmed up to a little over 70F with a bit of a breeze. We started in the big canal at the end of the Everglades National Park volunteers RV camping area. As we were rigging up I saw a couple snook and some bass cruising around in the shallow end of the canal. My small crab pattern drew some immediate interest and brought in a 12-inch bass. Many follows and some short strikes, but no more hook-ups there. We checked out a new spot I had spotted on the satellite view of one of the online mapping programs. A few follows and short-strikes from bass, but no hook-ups. We then moved down to the maze of canals behind the seagrape visitor center. As always, lots of manatees and a few 'gators. We thought we saw a few tarpon roll. I caught the smallest snook I ever saw and Stan got a small, but respectable, redfish. That is the first redfish I have seen caught in these canals. We hit a couple other places, but the wind picked up and the fish weren't cooperative, so we knocked off early. This week I think we'll rent some kayaks and fish the Orange River. Here is a video of the seagrape canal. Watch for a couple manatees surfacing.

To-do list for 2011

2010-12-24T15:18:00.000-05:00

I have been wrapping up stuff I have been putting off since the "busy-season" ended in October. I cleaned out a lot of ratty-looking flies from my fly boxes. Then I took inventory of what was left and began tying to fill in the blanks. I tied a lot of girdle-bugs, which worked real well for me on the Androscoggin in September. My buddies Jim and Dick spent a couple weeks in Montana in July and swore by the pattern, so I tied up a few and they worked like a charm where ever there are large stone fly nymphs. Then I tied up a bunch of caddis dries (Alder fly pattern) and even a few hex in my favorite parachute pattern with the antron trailing shuck. Then I added a few various colored wooly buggers - a lot of rootbeer, a few olive, a few chartreuse for the early season stockers, and then a couple yellow/olive. Right in the middle of taking inventory and tying, my guiding partner Jim and I began working on our new fly fishing presentation. We usually do presentations about specific rivers and/or areas, such as Large rivers of NH, the Moosehead Lake area, or Rangeley Lakes, Androscoggin, SW Montana, etc. We decided to take a different approach. We looked at a typical season in New England and picked out our "go-to" flies - ones that we seemed to always be successful with. Then we looked at where and when we used them and put together a presentation we call "The New England Fly Box - Fly Patterns and the Hatches they Match." We just finished it yesterday and will probably tweak a bit here and there. This brings up another point about the "To-do list" title of this post. Time to update the calendar for 2011. Jim is going to be giving our new presentation at a few shows/events starting in a couple weeks, including the mega-fly-fishing-show in Marlboro. MA the weekend of January 14-16. Here is a link to our current schedule. (If you have a club looking for speakers let me know.)
While you have your calendar out, take a look at your fishing plans for the year. We are well on our way to booking our Androscoggin River All-inclusive Special Package for the last two weeks of June. If that is something you have been thinking about, better check the open dates. Also, if you start getting a bad case of the shack-nasties this winter, you can go to that page to look at some pictures and videos of previous trips with Alder fly swarms, big brook trout, etc.
Next on the "To-do list" is pack for Florida.
Flats booties - check
8-wt rod - check
saltwater reel - check
saltwater fly box - check
sun block - check
30-pound fluoro leader material - check

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy 2011!

One LAST time

2010-12-13T20:55:00.000-05:00

Well, Dick and I squeezed another day out of the fishing year. The weather was too nice to pass up. We spent most of the morning below route 9 in the area from the USGS gage down past the hatchery pipe. Seemed like fewer fish - George thinks they have gone up the pipe and every now and then come back down to frolic and feed and get caught. They better enjoy their time while they can, because come 1/1/11 they will be fair game to move into the category of food. Speaking of food, after a quick sandwich we fished above route 9 (permanent catch and release area.) Dick has not had much success in the past in that area, but today he landed the nice rainbow pictured here. Congrats Dick! I hit a couple of my usual spots with only a few small brookies to show for it. Then I worked my way downstream a couple hundred yards and picked up a few nice rainbows. One in particular is notable, in that I was fishing a shallow run where I could see some feeding fish. My usual rig of a small BHPT with a softhackle dropper was too heavy. So I took off the nymph and tied on a size 20 parachute BWO as an indicator fly for the size 24 softhackle dropper. After making about 20 drifts over a nice rainbow, he suddenly sipped the dry and the fight was on. A nice way to cap a great season. Stay tuned for news from Florida!

Fly fishing crack

2010-12-12T10:17:00.001-05:00

The Swift River should be a controlled substance. Couldn't resist going again yesterday and might go tomorrow. Air was almost 40F and water was 46F. Didn't see more than a couple tiny insects and very few rises (stray pellets?) but a size 20 BHPT with a size 20 and smaller softhackle dropper did the trick. When they got tired of the red SH I took a couple on the olive and one on a small pink egg. This is one of my small soft hackles. It is nothing more than appropriately colored (red, black, olive, yellow, etc.) thread, thin gold wire and two wraps or less of partridge hackle. The hackle is a little longer than ideal, but on a 20 or smaller fly, it is a challenge to find and wrap a proportionate soft hackle. The fish don't seem to mind.
For a Serendipty, I substitute elk hair tips. For a midge pupa I don't use hackle, just a couple wraps of peacock herl or ostrich herl. A quick tie and effective. I tie the soft hackles in slightly larger sizes (16 and 18) to use as droppers throughout the season.

Lake Ontario tribs - a fishing gold mine!

2010-12-06T20:35:00.000-05:00

Most of us have read about and many New Englanders have made the drive west on I-90 to partake of the fishing in the Lake Ontario tributaries, the Salmon River around Pulaski, NY being one of the the most famous. FFNE regular Matt lives in the Rochester, NY area and sent me an email with commentary and pictures about fishing some of the smaller tribs. Here is an extract of his report. (The name of this tributary is not mentioned to avoid "spot-burning" but there are probably 20 or more rivers that fit this description.

"In years like this one, where there is enough water, the fish disburse throughout the system and will stay in the creek all winter. We will catch them again in the Spring when they drop back to the Lake. It is mostly big brown trout and fall run rainbows, which in the spring will be augmented with steelhead coming in to spawn. The season begins in late October when the Chinook run and spawn, creating an orgy of salmon eggs. The browns and rainbows come in following the salmon eating the eggs. We catch fish on small egg patterns (10-14s) usually under a strike indicator with a little weight added. It is mostly sight fishing to specific fish or pods of fish. The male browns show up first and we see them fighting for territory on gravel. The fishing is best when the females come in to spawn. Spawning is unsuccessful for the salmon and the browns, but the rainbows and steelhead that get up to the cooler headwaters do successfully reproduce. The Atlantics are quite new—seeing more of them each year for the past 4 years. The theory is that they are from Ontario, which is now stocking solely Atlantic salmon on their side of the Lake. The charter captains will never let NY stock only atlantics because their business is dependent upon trolling for big pacific salmon in the Lake in the summer—but we do stock some Atlantics as well.

Once the spawn is over-usually about Thanksgiving—we catch these fish with big streamers either dead drifted or on the swing (much more fun). No subtle takes but a lot more prospecting in deeper pools."
Matt, thanks for the reports and pictures. You might see me out there next November!

A rut? Or tenacity?

2010-12-02T16:30:00.001-05:00

Well, you must be as tired of reading as I am about writing about ventures to the Swift River. Sorry, but I did it again. Tuesday, once again was another of those late fall days that made for an irresistible urge to feel the tug, so off to the Swift again. This time was different in a number of ways. Although I have known him for a number of years and he is a good friend and we have a lot of common interests, I had never fished with Charlie Shadan, owner of the Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell. We decided to fish above route 9 until lunch and then below route 9 in the afternoon. There was only one car at the route 9 bridge when we arrived a little after 9AM. That was quickly remedied, as a number of people showed up as we got rigged up and started the short trek up to the Y-pool and bubbler. We noted a few fish at all the likely spots on our walk upstream. The thought was to start at the top and work down. Since I rigged up a little quicker, I had first choice, so I stepped into the bubbler arm. I stood studying the water for a few minutes, picking out a likely subject for my attention. Then one cast, one fish - must have been beginners luck. I caught 5 more fish out of that spot, before moving downstream a couple hundred yards and picking off a few more nice rainbows. Charlie had quite a few hookups too. After lunch we moved down to the hatchery pipe area and picked up a few more fish, before calling it a day. Last time it was the hatchery pipe that paid off, and this time it was the upper river. Go figure. Once again, it was the red softhackle, size 20 and smaller that was the heavy favorite. Also a few on the size 20 BHPT and olive softhackle. None on eggs this time. I need to sit down at the tying bench and whip out some more softhackles in case I get the urge for another tug before heading south to Florida after Christmas. Overall, it was a great day on the water and I really enjoyed fishing with Charlie. We swapped some fish tales and agreed to do it again ASAP. Drop by Evening Sun and get the straight scoop from Charlie.

The real "last best" day?

2010-11-25T10:19:00.001-05:00

Since the last report I made a couple more trips to the Swift River; each time, figuring it was going to be the last trip of the year before winter conditions set in. The first trip was divided fairly evenly between the below route 9/hatchery pipe run and the above route 9 catch and release area. Plenty of fish were available in both locations, so the fishing was good everywhere, but the catching was better below route 9. The water is a good bit faster there, so the fish have less time to study potential food from all angles and need to make the "food or not-food" decision more quickly. The second (last?) trip was a couple days ago when the temperature peaked over 60F. That day was spent in the hatchery pipe run area. Dick and I got there around 8AM and there were a couple guys in the "prime real estate" location, so Dick and I settled in above the fallen tree. Dick and I both had rigged our rods the night before in the prime visibility environs of our respective man-caves. My green copper john (18) with a red softhackle (24) dropper quickly fooled a nice rainbow, who stayed buttoned to the end of my tippet for all of 5 seconds before coming unbuttoned. Then it was something of a dry spell until some midges started to hatch around 9:30. I switched to a dry set-up and after a few hundred casts, I started to have fish actual come up to inspect my size 22 BWO dry before settling back to take the size 38 naturals. I finally got one on a size 24 olive softhackle that I repeatedly brushed with Frog's Fanny desiccant. After taking a walk upstream and having a bite of lunch, I was able to share the pipe run with George and Don. My supply of sub-20 sized red softhackles began to take their toll on the heavily fished rainbows. I got one fish on the size 20 BHPT I was using to sink the softhackle dropper, but all the rest were on the red softhackle. Every now and then I switched to a black or olive softhackle, but tying on a red one was money in the bank. Other flies that took a fish or two included the white diamond braid egg cluster and a pink egg. Dick caught a few fish from the area below the crib dam down to just above the hatchery intake. Overall, a day that will hold me until I break out the 7-wt down in Florida about a month from now.
One final comment about the fishing at the Swift. I think I have mentioned before about how fish will quickly associate a strike indicator as something to be avoided. They will swim out of their feeding lane to avoid the pink, orange or yellow indicator after a couple of their buddies have been hooked. Dick loaned me his tiny white Thingamabobber and not once did I see a fish swim away from it. I need to stop by Evening Sun and pick up a couple little white indicators for next April when the Swift is the only river at a fishable level during the run-off.
Tight Lines and Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-13T21:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took George for a tour/fishing trip to the Swift River. We got to the gage station parking lot by 8:00AM and there was only one person at the hatchery pipe run. We had a brief chat. He had caught a few fish already and moved down toward the fallen tree pool. We lost count of how many fish George fooled. After losing a few fish on the small flies he was using, George got the hang of setting the hook and then letting the fish run a bit before bringing them in for the release. One of our objectives was to show George the various fishing areas/access points, so after an hour or so we took a walk down to Cady Lane, spotting fish and pointing out some pools and runs to fish on subsequent trips on his own. Then after a streamside lunch at the goose-pen pool we parked near the route 9 bridge and fished the upper river in the afternoon. There were lots of fishermen in the Y-pool, so we fished a couple spots in the bubbler run. George fooled a couple fish and landed this nice rainbow. There were lots of big fish in the run, but with the low water, they were real difficult to approach with any kind of presentation.
The Y-pool continued to be crowded, so we hit a couple other spots on the way downstream back to route 9. George got a nice male brooktrout at the hemlocks and then fooled a few rainbows at Stan's favorite nymphing spot. Overall, the best flies were the soft hackles (red, black, olive.) Other successful flies were the green copper John, and pheasant tail nymph - size 20.
The water was about 53F and the air was over 60F - a really great day. Can't be too many days like this left in 2010!

Veteran's Day Trout on the Squannacook River

2010-11-12T23:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I paid a visit to the Squannacook River in West Groton. I ran into some good friends there and took this video of their fishing exploits. I am sure many of you will recognize their handsome faces. Enjoy!

Today I took George (of broodstock salmon fame - see the earlier report) to the Swift River. He had a fantastic day there. Report and pictures in process.

Next stop: Farmington River

2010-11-10T23:06:00.000-05:00

Today Stan and I made the run down to Riverton/New Hartford, CT to fish the Farmington, one of my (many) favorite rivers in New England. After a few days of rainy, blustery weather, the skies began to clear and it was great to be out on the water. As the day began to warm a bit (air temp 59F and water 50F) we saw a few BWO hatching and one solitary tan caddis in mid-afternoon. Very few rises, and so sporadic that we couldn't target any particular fish. We made the rounds of many of our usual haunts: Beaver pool, Whittemore, Church Pool, Greenwoods, Central Riffle, Boneyard and Ovation. After all that we each had a couple strikes with missed hook-ups and we each landed a fish. Stan got a nice rainbow pictured below and I got about a 15 inch brown. Stan got his on a white sparkle softhackle and I got mine on a white diamond-braid egg cluster.

George called me to have me take him and a friend fishing this Friday. We haven't totally dialed it in yet, but we'll probably do a tour/lesson/fishing of the Swift River. Tomorrow, I'll be somewhere, but haven't decided where yet. Any suggestions or requests?

NH seacoast bonanza

2010-11-04T08:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Stan and I paid a visit to the "Three Rivers" of the NH seacoast area - the Lamprey, Cocheco, and Isinglas. The Three Rivers Stocking Association raises money to buy fish from a private hatchery and stocks the Lamprey and Cocheco rivers in October. Waste Management Inc has large facilities that abut the Isinglas River and they stocked it last week. You won't find a lot (or any!) dry fly action, but a well-drifted nymph or egg pattern, or a skillfully stripped woolly-buggerish pattern can be deadly. We caught fish on each river, with the Lamprey tops in both quantity and quality of fish. Of course, the next time it could be the Cocheco or Isinglas that comes out on top. I think one key is to find a seam, slot, or depression that has not been pounded by anybody else for a few hours or a day or so. At this time of year that often means being first into a pool or run. In summer, it is good to get out early to take advantage of cooler water temps, but at this time of year, cool water (or air) temperature isn't an issue, but fishing pressure is.

Another key tactic is to show them something they haven't seen before. For the first few days after stocking, trout are "testing for food" - meaning that they will bite almost anything to see if it is good to eat. After getting caught by olive woolly-buggers and prince nymphs, they pretty soon take those off their preferred menu. Sometimes something as simple as going smaller or bigger, or using a weird color is enough to arouse curiosity. Trigger colors like red or chartreuse often will bring a strike, when brown and gray flies are ignored. Yesterday I had success with red serendipities and white diamond braid egg clusters, but tomorrow those could be forsaken in favor of yellow softhackles or chartreuse/black woolly buggers. Get creative at the tying bench and you might get lucky on the river.

More salmon - Pictures!

2010-11-01T16:22:00.001-04:00

By popular demand, I have added this post with pictures of the salmon featured in the previous post. George sent me the pictures taken with his camera, which do more justice to the fine salmon he caught than my poorly executed video. I guess after we landed the fish it was easier to focus our attention on taking good pictures, rather than being concerned about losing the big salmon.
Thanks for your patience, I hope you agree it was worth the wait.

George, thanks for sending the pictures and allowing me to post them on the blog!

More salmon!

2010-10-31T14:34:00.000-04:00

My last post said I was going with Stan to fish the Swift River - wrong! Thursday night a new client called about going salmon fishing. George is an experience salt water angler, and does some freshwater fly fishing, but very little in New England. He saw my broodstock Atlantic salmon video on my guiding website and thought that it would be fun. I recommended against it, since the water was a little high from the rain we had last Tuesday/Wednesday. But George really wanted to try it, so I agreed to take him to the Pemi, and depending on the water level, possibly go to the Lamprey or Cocheco Rivers in the afternoon. We started out below the Ayers Island dam in Bristol. It was a little high (about 2300CFS, while I prefer 2,000 or less.) We got one salmon there on a hair-wing Black Ghost streamer. It was his first salmon, and we were both glad not to be skunked. After a little while we moved down river to the Coolidge Woods Road section. The wading was a bit tough and we weren't able to get to some of my favorite spots, but after many casts and many fly changes, we saw a small salmon jump. George cast his fly in that direction and almost immediately he hooked a good fish.

It turned out to be the biggest salmon I have seen in at least 3 years. I estimate 25+ inches and 6 pounds or so. Welcome to fly fishing in NH! (Just don't expect this result every time!) We fished a little longer and then at lunch we discussed options. Since the water was too high to enable us to fish some of my best spots and it was totally unfishable in Franklin (they were releasing about 5,500CFS) we decided to hit one of the rivers in SE NH that have been stocked since the first of October. We only had time to fish one river, so we went to the Lamprey River. We proceeded to hook into about a dozen trout on a variety of nymph patterns - caddis larva, small Zug bugs, copper john, soft hackles, etc. It turned out to be a great day with both quantity and quality of fish exceeding expectations. A day to remember when the snow is flying and our thoughts turn to the fly tying table and fishing next season.
This week I might try the Swift, the SE NH rivers or maybe somewhere else. Stay tuned !

Fishy October

2010-10-28T18:20:00.004-04:00

Since my last update, I have hit the water in quite a few places and have a couple more trips planned. Fished the Pemi a couple times - once with a few salmon to show for it, and once with a couple salmon hooked and one nice rainbow landed - at Bristol and Franklin. Also fished the Lamprey and Cocheco again, with a few average rainbows and browns and one really fat 17+ inch rainbow. Also fished the Swift below the route 9 bridge and at the hatchery pipe.

Got a nice rainbow on a size 20 parachute Adams in the pool below the route 9 bridge and a whole bunch of rainbows and one brown at the pipe - mostly on Shadan softhackles, but also on white sparkle egg clusters, caddis larva and one hit-and-quick-release on the parachute Adams.
I plan to hit the local rivers (Squannacook and Nissitissit) this afternoon and the Swift tomorrow with Stan.

Also, here is a video I recently put up on Youtube from an early October trip on the Androscoggin River and CT rivers.

SE NH trout

2010-10-18T22:23:00.002-04:00

Today Dick and I fished the Lamprey and Cocheco Rivers. They were stocked with small rainbows and browns a couple weeks ago by the NH Fish and Game dept and yesterday by a private stocking group - Three Rivers Stocking Association. We had the Lamprey at Packer Falls to ourselves and some 14-16-inch rainbows and a couple smaller 'bows and browns were given a little exercise. We then went to Wiswall Dam on the Lamprey River and each got a couple smaller rainbows. Hundreds of really big rainbows were recently stocked, but they must still be digesting hatchery pellets, since we only got smaller fish there. We then went to the Cocheco River at Watson Dam and got a couple more feisty rainbows. Great day to be out. Next weekend the Isinglass River is scheduled to be stocked, making this once again one of the few places for late-season fishing in southern NH and handy to the greater Boston fly anglers. If you fish there, be sure to send a check or online donation to Three Rivers, so they can continue their stocking activities.

Also, I saw a strange bird at the Cocheco River. I swear it was a snowy egret! Take a look and tell me what you think! It looked like it was shivering and it was definitely not an albino heron. I think it was a Florida bird that had a hankerin' for trout!

Many choices (In MASS)

2010-10-13T10:38:00.000-04:00

Since the last report I've fished the Pemigewasset in Woodstock. Swift River in a couple different spots, Squannacook, Nissitissit and Millers Rivers. All rivers in MASS have a lot of fish. NH doesn't seem to get with the program. Water temps are perfect, flows are decent and people are anxious to get out and enjoy the nice fall weather. I heard there are some fish in the Lamprey now, but it would be nice if the Piscataquog, Souhegan, Contoocook, Sugar and Pemigewasset Rivers were topped off with a few fish. It seems that the hatchery trucks rolled up to Errol and Pittsburg every week all summer with nothing left for the rest of NH when the waters cooled. Enough whining - get your MASS license and enjoy the good fishing there. I highly recommend the book that MASS TU published that gives info about virtually every trout pond, stream and river in the state. Stop in at Evening Sun fly shop in Pepperell to pick up your copy. Since MASS has no closed season, it is useful for finding where to fish in the early spring, fall, mid-summer and even mid-winter. (Hint: the Swift River fits all those categories, but so do a number of others.) I plan to hit the Pemi tomorrow to sample the broodstock salmon fishing.
Oh yeah, last night at the TU meeting in Manchester there was a real good presentation about renting an RV and fishing/touring around Alaska on your own. Lots of info about costs, locations, fishing, and planning the logistics. In November we will have a similar topic about Wyoming.

Better late than . . .

2010-10-08T12:00:00.001-04:00

Thanks for your concern (a couple of you called and emailed to make sure I could still fog a mirror!) But no worries, I was either too busy or too lazy (go with the latter.) Summer got to be pretty boring. I had a lot of beginners out (that part was exciting) but the only place that had enough water flowing to float a strike-indicator was the Pemi around Woodstock/Lincoln. Every time we fished it, fewer fish wanted to play the game, so it became pretty much an exercise in casting, mending, etc. without a lot of fish-landing practice. Then we opened the house in Errol for our fall trip and all hell broke loose. Fish everywhere! Not copious quantities, but enough to keep things interesting, and some fish with some real girth! That river is so fertile that you can't pick up a rock in the FF-only section without having caddis larva and stoneflies crawling over your hands. That is why the fish are so fat, and it also bodes well for the Alder fly hatch next June! There was not a lot of dry fly action, although we did see a couple October caddis and quite a few Isonychias and we did get a few on Stimulators and Adams dries. When I get around to it, I'll be putting up a webpage with picutres, but these will have to do for now.

Oh, BTW, Mass Wildlife stocked last week, and you can't throw a rock into the Swift, Squannacook or Nissitissit Rivers without hitting a 12+ inch rainbow. Other rivers are also stocked, but these are the ones I can personally attest to.

Too busy fishing to post?

2010-08-06T22:03:00.000-04:00

Sorry, but too much time on the water to post - Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' too it! Here is an update for the last couple weeks: Fished the Swift River three times with diminishing returns. Caught fish each time, but had to work a lot harder for them each time. On two trips I explored the Bondsville section as recommended by Millerbrown on his blog. See link on the side of this page. On one trip I ran into Al, a regular on this blog (hi Al!) He was also checking out the Bondsville section. For Swift River regulars, that area is quite a revelation. (Although the lack of crowds normally seen at the Y-pool, will be a thing of the past if all you guys head out there!) If somebody blindfolded you and took you there without telling you it was the Swift River, you would never guess that is where you are. Mixed pools, pocket-water, fast runs, deep slow pools, etc. Caught some rainbows on dries and also a nice wild brooktrout. Fishing at the usual Swift River haunts was spotty. The hatchery pipe area was like a ghost-town! The only fish in the entire area were tucked in behind the fallen tree about 50 yards below the pipe. A few fish were spread out a couple hundred yards downstream near Cady Lane. Most fish are found from the route 9 bridge and upstream, and so are most of the fly fishers. With this heatwave and drought it is one of the few places to find fish.
I must confess that I have been finding some fish in the Pemigewasset River. Had a few guided trips up there this week and last for beginners and/or out of towners. Here is a video of a family from New Orleans, none of whom had ever fly fished, having a great time learning on the Pemi. And here are some pix/video of a trip I did today, teaching a NHer to fly fish on the Pemi. Practicing indicator nymphing turned up some nice rainbows. The fish were dark, perfect fins and no hook marks. Water temp was 64F in the morning and 66F in late afternoon. Glad some freestone rivers are holding up well.
My partner Jim and friends Dick and Jerry just got back from 12 + days in Montana. They had a great trip and I hope I can report when they will be doing a presentation about the trip at our TU chapter meeting. Jim is up north guiding on the CT and Androscoggin and Saco/Ellis rivers. He reports that water temps are good and plenty of fish have made it through the hot, dry summer (at least so far!)
This bodes well for September and October fishing. Stay tuned for information our September All-inclusive package trip to Errol, fishing the Androscoggin River.

Pemigewasset River mid-Summer adventure

2010-07-26T13:31:00.000-04:00

Had a blast yesterday on the Pemigewasset River in the Woodstock/Thornton area. Two really nice people (Hi Kirk and Zeba!) wanted to learn to fly fish in New Hampshire and the Pemi was the place. Water temp was 68F, a little warm, but still fishable. The rain showers a few days ago charged-up the river and I hope the cooler nights we have been having will keep the water temperatures in the 60s. We found a few fish willing to whack a dry fly and a couple others willing to gobble a woolly-bugger. Skating a stimulator seemed to be the flavor of the day, so we obliged. One of the areas we fished was the "Exit 31 Project" completed last Fall by the Pemigewasset TU chapter. This area of the river had been a long extremely shallow riffle caused by an in-stream gravel operation. There was no holding water, pools or runs and no way for woody debris to accumulate to provide forage for aquatic insects. TU raised grant money to fund the project that involved dredging the channel, installing some weirs to create pools and runs, and doing some plantings of willows that will help stabilize the banks and provide riparian cover. The fish seem to like it and I think it will evolve into some great habitat. Here is a video of the trip.

Androscoggin River Trip - end of June

2010-07-15T10:02:00.001-04:00

Well, I finally got around to uploading, compiling, editing and publishing some of the pictures and videos of our two weeks on the Androscoggin River. The Alder Fly hatch was almost two weeks earlier than the usual emergence, so many of our clients saw only the very end of the hatch. The water level in the river was great and at a perfect temperature and the fish were really active. As the trip went on the fish became more and more selective, but we were able to fool a lot of fish. We mostly caught brook trout, but also got quite a few salmon and some rainbows, too. Here is a video of Rob (a frequent visitor here) and his dad Joe catching some fish and having a great time.

Brothers David and Alan (frequent visitors/participants in this blog) also spent some time with us on their way to Grant's Kennebago Camps. Here is a picture of Alan with a really nice alligator-jaw landlocked salmon he caught on an Alder Fly pattern. They also had a great time fishing the hex hatch, but no pictures from that evening excursion have surfaced.

You often hear/read about the Alder Fly hatch on the Androscoggin, and it is hard to describe what it is like, unless you are there at the beginning of the peak emergence. Here is a video I took on the first day I guided the Androscoggin on this trip (June 18.) It shows the mats of spent caddis floating in an eddy.

This is probably 5+ days into the hatch and the fish have gorged themselves. A couple days earlier the fish would literally be hurtling out of the water, eating zebra caddis, but now tens of thousands of flies are available for them to eat at their leisure. Surprisingly, most of the rises on naturals and our flies was to ovipositing (egg-laying) females as they danced on the water. No way for me to tell for sure, but my theory is that the females with eggs taste better to the fish than the spent flies that are dead on the water. Anybody want to volunteer to eat them and let me know which taste better?

New Fly Fishing Expose' now available

2010-07-04T18:57:00.001-04:00

Yes, I tried to keep it under wraps, but wouldn't you know it - My guiding partner Jim Norton just published a book titled "Granite Lines." He portrays it as over 20 years of articles he has written in the Manchester Union Leader and other rags, but in reality it is over 20 years of secret fishing information about trips we have taken together (and some he took on his own). It is available in local stores like the Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell, MA and on-line, as well. Complete information about the book and where to buy it is found on our website. After you read the book, see me and I will fill in all the juicy details that couldn't be put into print.
I think it is pretty good, but I might be a little biased. Maybe some of you folks that already read it can comment?

Brookie on an Alder Fly Dry Fly

2010-06-21T22:35:00.001-04:00

I had a couple hours off to scout some "fresh water" on Saturday morning. I shot this video of a NH brookie that succumbed to the charms of a skated Alder Fly dry in the FFO section of the Androscoggin River in Errol. This is right across the road from our "virtual fishing lodge" where I will be for the next 10 days.

Perfect timing, for once

2010-06-20T21:05:00.002-04:00

That's what client John A. said about his trip with us to northern NH to fish the Androscoggin River and the trout ponds. He hit the daily double with both the hex hatch on the ponds and the Alder fly hatch on the river at their finest. The warm dry spring weather had the river at a great wadeable level and the caddis were hatching in epic proportions. And the hatch on the ponds was really cranking, too. Here is a video of the second-largest wild brooktrout he caught.
(The biggest one got away as I was netting it.) Every time I net one of these beauties it makes we wonder what it will take to have wild brooktrout like these in ponds and rivers throughout New Hampshire. John also fooled a lot of brooktrout and a few salmon skating Alder fly and Stimulator patterns on the river. When we booked the trip I thought it would be a little early for the Alder flies, but John hit it dead-on. He remarked that when he goes on a fishing trip people usually tell him, "You should have been here last week. The fish were really biting then!" I think the fish will be biting next week too, but it was fun helping John enjoy a special time on one of my favorite rivers. Glad you enjoyed being with us "Last week!"
PS. we still have a few spots open for the Alder fly and hex hatch now until July 1

Newfound Newbies

2010-06-13T08:41:00.000-04:00

Fishing has been holding up on the Newfound River. Lots of people and not a whole lot of fish at the usual spots near the dam, but if you are willing to expand your horizon and fish pocket water and other non-frequented locations, you will find fish. Yesterday I took the old friends of my old friends (what a great bunch of guys!) to teach them to fly fish in anticipation of a trip north to fish the Alder Fly hatch on the Androscoggin River. Everybody caught fish (once again, many "firsts" were experienced.) Fish caught were brookies and rainbows, mostly fooled by skittered caddis and Stimulators in the pocket water - and a few took the every-faithful woolly bugger.With the skills you learned, you guys are well-prepared for your upcoming trip. I look forward to seeing you up there!

Androscoggin Trip Openings and many river reports

2010-06-08T10:48:00.002-04:00

Before getting into the fishing report, I wanted to let you know that we still have some openings for our Androscoggin Special Package Trips starting next Thursday and going through July 1. We are now accepting one-day, as well as two-day trips, and we also have some openings for singles, offering the maximum in flexibility. Details including videos and pictures of past trips are found here. River flow levels are great and the Alder Fly hatch should be epic this year!

Since my last post I have been all over the southern and central part of NH and parts of MA, as well. They say that the definition of insanity is repeating the same action over and over and expecting different results. Well, the Sugar River is driving me insane. I went there again last week with the same results. This time I only wasted an hour there before pulling out. "They MUST have stocked it by now," goes through my mind, but then I get proven wrong each time. Well, I can report that the Mascoma River FFO section held some fish - browns, rainbows and wild brookies - all of which were caught on a Stimulator skated through all the likely looking runs, pools and pocket water. From the Mascoma, I went across route 4 and then 104 to Bristol to fish the Newfound River. This entire trip was a "scouting expedition" to prep for a couple client trips. The Newfound was hard fishing, but I got 3 landlocked salmon, a rainbow and a brookie in the white water run immediately below the dam. (I don't consider this spot-burning, since I fished it hard for two hours and that is all I could dredge-up.) I got nothing in the dam pool or any other spot in the upper river on this trip. When I took the clients out, we also got fish in the runs and pocket water down-river from the upper section. Those fish were caught on green caddis larva under an indicator, woolly bugger, woodduck-orange, and elkhair caddis skated through the plunge-pools in the pocket water. It was tough fishing, but the fish are there if you can get a fly in front of their nose. We also hit the Contoocook River for a couple hours and were able to fool, but not hook a number of rising trout. Then last night I went over the the Bertozzi WMA on the Nissitissit River and got a nice rainbow on a dry. Also tough fishing, since when the water is low they have a lot of time to inspect your fly before biting. I'll be guiding the next couple days in the White Mountains.

One that got away

2010-06-02T08:07:00.000-04:00

Sunday my youngest daughter got married and it is hard to say who was happier - her or her dad. Great reception at Atkinson CC, and then back to work on Tuesday.
Took out another beginner, solo this time - it was a birthday gift from her sister. She finally caught on that you don 't have to overpower the cast to get the fly out to where the fish are. After sending her on her way in between a few raindrops, I checked out the FFO section below the lake dam on the Newfound River. Got two LL salmon, about 10 inches, a brooktrout, rainbow and a smallmouth, all on nymphs. Plenty of caddis, but no rises. Hopefully the rain showers will cool things off and the hatchery truck will pay a visit this week. Water temp was 66F, and should go a little lower with cool nights and rain in the forecast, although the water level is very low.

First among many

2010-05-23T09:47:00.002-04:00

Many times I have remarked (both here and in the "real world") how lucky I am to share so many "firsts." Yesterday was one among many, with each one even more special than the last. Sometimes it is a first fish, or a first trout, other times it is a first brown, etc. Yesterday it was all of those and more - the first fly fishing trip of many, many more to come between old friends. Jeffrey, a long-time follower of this blog, wanted to spend a day on the water with me, but his real motive was to get his friend Matt hooked on fly fishing. Mission accomplished! I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice to say Matt is a convert to the gentle art of the long rod. Way to go, guys!
The Hendrickson hatch is now history. Now we have a few March browns; some BWO; plenty of brown, tan, black and green caddis; and one Eastern drake. Most dry fly action is late afternoon, into the evening. I hit the Farmington River in CT on Friday. Another one where a regular client of mine wanted to indoctrinate his friend in the way of the long rod. Mission accomplished, and after they went their way, it was time for the guide to take a few minutes to fish on his own time.
Nice brown on a dry at dusk. Enjoy!
Now it is off to the Contoocook River with four more converts to indoctrinate! Tight Lines!
PS Here is one of the "converts to the long rod" with his first fish on a fly/first trout/first rainbow caught on a size 18 softhackle cast to a rising fish. Way to go Tom!

Will fortune follow fame?

2010-05-19T20:47:00.001-04:00

A couple days ago I was checking my webstats to see where people were coming from to visit my guiding website and I noticed hits coming from boston.com. I hadn't placed any ads or directory listings there and had no idea why hits should be coming from that site. I clicked the inbound link to see where it led and low and behold, we have been "discovered" as one of the top 20 adventure trips to take this summer in New England. Pretty cool!

Sorry for the gap!

2010-05-18T17:06:00.001-04:00

Gang, the good weather has turned on the early hatches and it seems like everybody has been anxious to get out on the water. Since my last posting in April I have taken more than 30 people out on the streams of northeast MA and southern NH to practice the art of the limber rod. If I count the 44 people we gave a casting lesson to on May 1 at the culmination of TU Learn to FF classes, the tally jumps to almost 80. And this week I start to get busy! So what has been happening?
The bad news first: I went to the Sugar River once on a scouting trip and once (foolishly for about an hour) with a client and did not see evidence of any fish. Beautiful water level, terrific hatch activity and not a fish to be seen. What the hell is NH Fish and Game thinking? They have a beautiful 2.5 mile FFO section in Newport and they don't stock it once as of late May?
Now you might realize why I took so many people to the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers in MA. There have been two stockings of really nice trout in those rivers, while the Sugar is a river waiting for occupants. There is decent insect activity and the FFO section of the Nissitissit should hold fish well into June if we get a little rain in the next week or so. There were Quill Gordons a couple weeks ago and now we have Hendricksons and caddis. Bring your rusty spinners for evening and early morning dry fly fishing. But the meat anglers are out in force, so you better hit the Squannacook while there are still some trout to be had. Over half of the people I had out were via the Northeast Fly Fishing School that we operate in Pepperell, and those anglers had a blast learning to fly fish, identifying the bugs and hooking some fish in the process. Here are links to some of their exploits for May 8-9 and May 15-16.
I have also fished/guided on the Souhegan River and the Piscataquog River in the last couple weeks. We caught fish all over both rivers, except the Delayed Harvest Zone of the Piscataquog River in New Boston. H-m-m-m-m, is there some kind of pattern here? You have two of the best stretches of river with special regulations in southern New Hampshire and neither the FFO section of the Sugar nor the Delayed Harvest Zone of the Piscataquog have been stocked and it is beyond the middle of May. No floods or other lame excuses can be blamed. If this was the first year it happened, you could call it a fluke, but this is a pattern that has repeated itself for the last few years. No, this doesn't appear to be mere incompetence, as you might suspect. Could there be some motive behind it? What do you think it could be? "Stick it to the elitists?" "Save the hatchery fish for the hook-and-cook crowd?" If any of you happen to talk to those that call the shots in NH F&G in Concord, NH, ask them what the devil is going on. Tell them that the sound they hear is the cha-ching of people buying a fishing license in MA to be able to fish for decent fish while the water is still cool and insects are still hatching.
The rest of this week I'll be guiding on local waters and then take a quick trip to the Farmington River. I have been itching to get down there all spring, but other priorities have prevailed until now.

Let me know how you have been doing. Matt gave me a call from Upstate NY with tales of great fishing on the W. Br. of the Delaware, some spring creeks and the Salmon River for resident trout, as well as some spring steelhead. Feel free to email, call, or use the Comments feature of this blog. Tight lines!

Typical spring?

2010-04-29T08:07:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought we were having an early spring (early ice-out on the lakes; no nor'easters, etc) it up and snows almost 2-feet in the Whites! That should help the June fishing up there, maybe delay the May hatches a little. Around here the water levels are great and the bugs are starting to show, and although water temps are still in the 40s, we should see them go into the 50s this weekend.
Last weekend we held the April session of the Northeast Fly Fishing School. On Sunday we did the on-the-water guiding session on the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers. Our students were able to fool a few fish - MANY "firsts" - first fish; first fish on a fly; first trout on a fly, etc. Here is a link to the pictures: Northeast FF School You notice there were four women in the class - three of them landed at least one trout. Also a couple young folks attended, all of which bodes well for the sport. We have two more classes (both full) in May. Now we are booking on-the-water private and semi-private lessons and guide trips.
Monday I took a family to the Contoocook River for lesson/fishing - water still a little high and cold. One fish caught in a couple hours of fishing. Not many insects around (the Squannacook was loaded with Quill Gordons and a few small caddis) but things should begin to pop as the water warms a bit. See you on the water!

Springtime landlocks

2010-04-22T14:36:00.002-04:00

My buddy/guiding partner Jim and I gave a presentation at the Pemigewasset TU chapter meeting in Plymouth, NH Tuesday night and afterward drove north to fish the CT River in Pittsburg, NH. We spent a few hours each at the inlet to First CT Lake and inlet to Lake Francis. We hooked into a few fish at each place. Overall I was 1/5, 5 on and 1 landed. Jim was about the same, but his fish was a real nice (17-18 inch) fish. Here is a video.

Also, we have Jim's drift boat for sale on E-bay. in case anybody is interested. His new low-profile Hyde is a beauty, but the Tatum he has for sale is a sweet ride too, and a good price. eBay listing

Tuesday we stopped by the Contoocook in Henniker where I got a nice brown - the first on the bamboo rod Joanne got me for Christmas. Sweet!

Announcements of interest

2010-04-13T12:14:00.001-04:00

The fly fishing entertainment opportunities continue:
Tonight (Tuesday April 13) at the Merrimack River Valley TU chapter meeting in Manchester, NH, we have Bill Thompson, proprietor of North Country Angler in North Conway and a friend of mine, who will be presenting on fishing the Saco and Ellis Rivers. www.merrimacktu.org

Thursday April 15 I'll be presenting Fly Fishing in New Hampshire at 7PM at the Salem NH Public Library. If you attend, please introduce yourself.

Thursday April 22nd at 7PM, in Concord, NH the NH Guides Association (of which I am a member)will be sponsoring a showing of "The Good Life" by Gray Ghost Productions. This is Gray Ghost Production's third film in as many years. Advanced tickets can be obtain from the Red River Theatre on line at http://www.redrivertheatres.org/ or they can be purchased at the door. Admission will be $10 per person. If you want to look at the trailer you can go to http://www.ggpfilms.com/ and take a look. This film is about fishing on the East Coast from Labrador to the Keys. Come and take a look at some great fishing. This is to benefit the NHGA scholorship fund. Come and enjoy "The Good Life".

The rivers are getting down to a very fishable level. Jim and I scouted a spots yesterday prior to the NHGA general membership meeting. We found a few mayflies hatches and a few sporadically rising trout on the Merrymeeting River in Alton, NH. We had a couple follows, but no hookups.

Passing of a great guy

2010-04-06T09:25:00.000-04:00

It saddens me to have to report the passing of Dan Duggan of Pepperell, MA last Saturday. Dan was a great guy, bamboo rod builder par excellence and a good friend. Dan was River Stix Custom Rods. Email me if you want to know of the viewing/funeral arrangements.

On a happier note, Dick and I made the rounds of the local brooks and rivers yesterday. All are still a little high, very clear and within a day of so of optimum levels. Water temperature was a balmy 55F, which is ideal for trout. In my local wild brook trout stream the honey-hole was full of yellow perch who have ascended from the Nashua River for their spawning run. They probably ate every young of the year brook trout in their path, but will be leaving a load of eggs and fry for the wild brookies to feast on. The Nissitissit and Squannacook Rivers should receive their first visit from the hatchery trucks this week. Stay tuned. I'll soon be out christening the River Stix bamboo rod Joanne got me for Christmas.

Rivers flow and stocking trucks roll

2010-04-01T08:39:00.003-04:00

Well, I got back to sunny New England in time for the rites of spring - floods and stocking trucks. Just as the rivers were starting to warm up and settle down to good flow levels and receive their annual planting of rubber-rainbows the skies have opened and put things on hold for a while. While you are waiting for things to settle down, you might want to check out some of the latest technology to enhance your spring fishing. There's an app for that!

Bottom of the 9th with two outs - Fish!

2010-03-28T13:16:00.005-04:00

Stan and I made one last trip today - to the Orange River, where we rented a couple kayaks. About 6 weeks ago when we last came here we read in the paper that over 900 manatees were counted here. They like the warm water discharge from the power plant. This time there were no manatees - but we found a few fish.

In a couple days we will pack the car and head north, but today we caught some fish.

Better than TV - March 21 Presentation

2010-03-17T20:54:00.003-04:00

This Sunday March 21 at 12PM my guiding partner Jim Norton will be giving a presentation at Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell, MA. The topic is "Fly fishing the Rangeley Lakes area and Androscoggin River." Jim will be spinning yarns about our many trips to fish the salmon runs and wild brook trout on the great rivers of Rangeley: Magalloway, Cupsuptic, Kennebago, Rangeley, and maybe a few tales about the Rapid River. This entire drainage then flows out of Maine and into New Hampshire via the Androscoggin River, one of the great salmon and trout rivers of New Hampshire. Get there early to get a good seat.

New Show in NH

2010-03-14T13:38:00.004-04:00

Just when you thought all the Fly Fishing shows were done, another one comes along. For many years the Country Pond Fish and Game club had put on a FF show. That is until about ten years ago. Well, they are back at it and it sounds like it could be another good one, similar to the FFNH show in Pelham. Next Saturday March 20 from 9AM to 5PM they will hold the show in their Newton, NH clubhouse. The Merrimack River Valley TU chapter will be exhibiting there, as well as my partner Jim at the NH Rivers Guide Service booth. Stop in at both booths and tell them Gerry sent you. They might be willing to share some fishing secrets with you.

Merrimack River Valley TU meeting 3/10

2010-03-08T10:48:00.003-05:00

Tuesday night March 10 the speaker at the TU meeting in Manchester, NH will be fish biologist John Magee talking about stream restoration efforts on Nash Stream and about a project starting up on the Piscataquog River in southern NH.

Also, my buddy Jim said the Fly Fish NH show had good attendance and a lot of people stopped by our booth to talk fishing. Just curious if any of you guys hit the show this weekend.

Fly Fish New Hampshire Show

2010-03-02T17:07:00.003-05:00

It is that time again - the Fly Fish NH Show is this Saturday and Sunday at Pelham Fish and Game club. Jointly sponsored by Merrimack River Valley TU and Pelham Fish and Game, there will be guides, outfitters, fly shops and organizations exhibiting and non-stop seminars on fly fishing topics. Click on the blog title for a link to more information about the show. Be sure to stop by the NH Rivers Guide Service booth and talk to my partner Jim.

Want to go to Montana?

2010-02-04T09:42:00.002-05:00

Next Tuesday night Feb. 9 there will be a little bit of Montana in New England. My buddy Jim is presenting "Fly Fishing Southwestern, Montana around Dillon." The venue is the Merrimack River Valley TU chapter monthly meeting in Manchester, NH at 7:00PM. The location is the Sweeney American Legion Post at 251 Maple St.
The area around Dillon has some of the best fishing in Montana - Beaverhead River, Ruby River, Bighole, numerous tributaries, trout ponds and spring creeks (Poindexter Slough is right in the town of Dillon.) Here is a link to one of our trips (link) Jim has been there a number of times and will be sharing information on where to fish, where to stay, and what to expect in the area. There is no admission charge and you can even enjoy some adult beverages during the meeting from the adjoining Legion bar. Guests are always welcome, so get out and visit Montana next Tuesday.

Free Fly Tying Class

2010-01-31T19:17:00.002-05:00

Next Saturday there will be a free Fly Tying Class at the Manchester, NH public library. To register go to. This will be a great chance to learn how to tie your own flies.
Today Stan and I took a ride down to my favorite canals on the Tamiami Trail looking for tarpon and snook. We got some casting practice but no fish. We saw plenty of gators, but only a few jumping mullet and a couple tarpon rolling and no snook and no manatees. It was breezy and overcast and the fish seem to like flat water that is quite a bit warmer. Stay tuned, we plan to get out again in a few days.

Fly Tying Demo

2010-01-30T11:55:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow my guiding partner Jim Norton will be doing a fly tying demo at Evening sun Fly Shop in Pepperell. He will be tying some of the flies that we use during the Alder fly hatch on the Androscoggin River in June, as well as on other rivers in the area. Click on the Evening Sun Fly shop link on the sidebar for times and other info. If you want to see some of the patterns he will be tying, click here. You will see the Ice Nymph, Alder Fly wet fly, etc.

I hope to be fishing the Charlotte Harbor flats tomorrow, so I won't be able to be at the fly tying demo. ;-)

Slow start to the New Year

2010-01-17T11:45:00.002-05:00

I have been in Florida almost three weeks and still haven't bothered to get my SW fishing license. I won't bore you with tales of woe about how cold it has been here in SW Florida, but suffice to say there has been significant fish kills of bait fish and gamefish, such as snook. The weather has turned for the better and I hope to have something to report in a few days.
In the meantime, some of you have been attending the FF show in Marlborough and my guiding partner Jim Norton tells me some of you have attended his presentations at the show. On a comment on the previous post, Eric mentioned he enjoyed the presentation. Jim and I hope the rest of you who attended also enjoyed it. The show is wrapping up today and from what Jim, Ken and others have said, it is considerably smaller than it was a few years ago. I suppose the economy and all the new onshore and offshore rod companies have been putting pressure on the larger rod makers, which has caused them to cut costs and not attend as many shows. Sometimes you wonder if it is a self-fulfilling prophecy when companies cut deeply into their marketing budget, then complain that the public isn't supporting their efforts. Selling fly rods for $600 to over $800 that are not sufficiently different from $250-$300 rods from their competitors in this poor economy only compounds their problems. Just wait a couple years when the Chinese knock-offs will replicate the current high-end Orvis and Sage products for half the price or less. Sage and Orvis have commanded higher prices based on quality and customer service, but not showing up at shows like Marlborough and supporting their dealers doesn't seem like a formula for success. If they get out of touch with their customers, they will be forced to compete on price alone. But then, what the hell do I know? I am just a poor old fishing guide hiding out in Florida until the first hatches of the new season! I can hardly wait to try out my Christmas gift - a River Stix 4wt bamboo rod in a Paul Young Perfectionist taper. Thanks Joanne!

Calendar Update

2009-12-23T18:19:00.002-05:00

A couple updates for your off-season calendar:

The Fly Fishing Show in Marlborough is coming up on January 15, 16 & 17. My guiding partner Jim Norton is on the program in the "Destination Theater" talking about Fly Fishing in NH. If you go to his pitch, be sure to introduce yourself and tell him you saw it here.
Jim is also presenting at the Nashua Public Library fishing seminars January 7 about fishing the Rangeley Maine area. He is also conducting a free Fly Tying class at the Nashua library on January 23. See the November 4 blog post below for more details.
Also, I'll be presenting at the Salem, NH public library on April 15 about Fly Fishing NH.
And Jim and I will do a show about Fly Fishing the large rivers of NH at the Pemigewasset TU chapter meeting on April 23.

If you have a friend or spouse that would like to learn how to fly fish, the first 2010 session of the Northeast Fly Fishing School will be held April 24 and 25 at Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell. That class is about half full, so don't wait if you have somebody who wants to attend. (The class is also useful for intermediate fly fishers who want some hatch-matching and casting/presentation pointers.)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010!

Hatchery Pipe Tour

2009-12-21T16:21:00.004-05:00

No I didn't decide to hit the Swift for one last time this year. I took a break from tying flies (more on that later) and strung together some video shots of the hatchery pipe area on the Swift. Those that are regulars there will probably not be too impressed, but you other folks who haven't made the pilgrimage yet might find it a little interesting. <YouTube Video>
Oh yeah, fly tying. I have been alternating between three themes: Major hatches for next spring (Alder fly and Hendrickson patterns, mostly); Florida; and Labrador streamers - yes a trip to Three Rivers Lodge is in the planning stages, so Clouser black ghosts and Mickey Finns have started to accumulate. In between I confess to tying some softhackles to use as droppers and also for an April foray to the Swift upon return from Florida. As soon as I finish the Florida flies, I hope to dig into my tackle bag and clean out the ratty looking flies from my fly boxes and started to get organized for next season. I have been mulling over some new ways to organize my fly boxes. Anybody have any special thoughts on that?

Frosting on the cake

2009-12-05T19:40:00.004-05:00

Ok, this is REALLY it! Yesterday Stan and I made a final-final 2009 trip to the Swift River. And what a trip it was! One other car was at the gauge station parking area and there was plenty of room to fish. When we first stepped into the water it only took a couple drifts to hook-up with the first fish of the day. Once again, soft hackles were the hot flies - white, red, olive were top producers. Also got a couple on black BH zebra midge and an egg fly. A few days ago I noticed that after catching a couple fish, the fish started to shy away from the lane the indicator was drifting over. Once I saw that I switched indicators. Using a white indicator was the best, since it blended with the ubiquitous white foam. As the sun got high on the water, the fish headed to the shadows, even if it meant less than foot-deep water. It also got real crowded as the day went on. At noon we left to eat a sandwich and explore the area upstream of route 9. When we crossed the bridge we saw over a dozen cars in the parking areas and promptly made a U-turn and headed back to the relative solitude of the hatchery pipe run. After sharing some of our lunch with an enormous pit bull I dubbed Spike, we went down to the pipe run and caught a few more fish. You can see from this video of Stan landing a fish that we had plenty of company. (YouTube Video) The nice thing about the folks that fish this area is their general good manners and generosity. George and his grandson shared the area with us in the morning and we enjoyed the comradeship and general information (with a little gossip!) that was passed among the anglers. In the afternoon I found myself fishing next to Al, an extremely experienced and adept angler, with whom I shared the dam pool on the Newfound River numerous times this summer. Al has a place on Rattlesnake Island on Winnipesaukee and is a wealth of information about many rivers in the northeast.
Well, that's it for 2009. Be sure to tune in now and then for announcement of upcoming events in the New England area. Also, I'll be reporting on my winter fishing adventures in Florida starting in January. In the mean time I'll be filling my saltwater box with Clousers, Deceivers, shrimp and crab flies.
Tight Lines!

Another great day on the Swift River

2009-12-02T22:02:00.008-05:00

My buddy Dick and I hit the Swift River today. We found only one other angler fishing from the USGS gauge all the way down to Cady Lane. We took up position below the hatchery pipe in the 26F air. The water temp today was about 50F which had the fish feeding actively. Once again the best flies were small soft hackles in red or olive. We lost track of how many fish we fooled in the morning. After lunch we fished above route 9 in the FFO area. I fooled a few more in the riffle/pool just above where the bubbler arm hits the Y-pool.
I'm not going to call this bonus day my "last good day" of the year, but I suspect it is. (Although Friday weather is looking good. H-m-m-m, maybe I need to tie up some more softhackles, just in case!)
I also took some video that I posted on YouTube.

Last "Bonus Day?"

2009-11-24T21:28:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. I had a few obligations to attend to including new grandson Patrick, born November 11. I did make a couple uneventful trips: to the Pemigewasset River (38F water b-r-r-r-r)the Farmington River in CT (no fish landed, a couple strikes on small dries) and a few hours on the Squannacook River in W. Groton (I can still smell the skunk from that trip.) And then today Dick and I went to the Swift River and we loaded up on fly fishing junk food. I don't know how many fish we fooled (I am not a fish-counter) but it was a lot. Most were caught on Shadan soft-hackles, red, size 16 and 18. (Go to the Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell and ask for some tied by Charlie. I think the special dubbing wax he uses has some secret ingredient.) Dick got a hook straightened by one fish and we both had quite a few break off the 6x and 7x tippet. The water temp was a warm and toasty 51F and the fish were real active. A lot of the fish were very dark, had no hook marks and were extremely energetic when hooked. I asked one of the regulars if they were recently stocked and he told me they were "Bondsville fish" that had migrated from a few miles downriver when it started to get cold. They moved upriver until finding the perfect spot to hang out - at the mouth of the hatchery pipe.
Every time I have gone out this fall I say it will probably be the last good day of the year - until the next last good day! I think this was my last bonus day of fishing. The next fishing report I file will probably be from Florida. Can it really be just a month until I point the car south on I-95? Well, who knows, maybe just one more bonus day may be left in the 2009 calendar, we'll see.

Another bonus day!

2009-11-09T18:12:00.003-05:00

Today was another one of those bonus days - unexpectedly warm, river flows at a good level and a few bugs buzzing around. The real bonus was the two rainbows I caught this afternoon on dry flies. Stan and I arrived in Henniker around 12:30PM to fish one of our favorite rivers, the Contoocook. We saw one other fly angler sitting on a log across the river from us studying the water (and probably hoping to see some rises!) Stan and I rigged up and moved down the river to a couple spots that Stan wanted to show me. For years he and I have explored this river and developed our own favorite spots. Out of habit and necessity, I usually hit my old favorite spots. It was a treat to have Stan show me a couple new spots, along with a description of which are the best hatches and where in the pools the fish usually hang out. To that knowledge I added some of my own, such as where in the pools rainbows feed on dries on November 9! Both fish were real dark and their fins were long and flawless - no nubbins rubbed by concrete raceways. One took a size 16 BWO parachute and the other a size 16 Royal Wulff. We saw a few mayflies (probably BWO), a couple caddis and a few yellow stoneflies the size of hummingbirds. Overall, a tremendous couple hours on the water. Better than anything I could hope for until next May. A well-appreciated bonus day!

Mark your calendar

2009-11-04T10:03:00.002-05:00

The Nashua Library will once again be running their Thursday night fishing seminars in January. Always a good take. Here is the announcement information:

Fishing Lectures at Nashua Public Library
Fish 2010, the Nashua Public Library's annual series of fishing lectures, begins on January 7. The Thursday-night lectures are preceded by fishing videos and fly-tying demos by members of local fishing organizations at 6 pm. Each night you attend you'll receive a free raffle ticket for prizes that will be drawn at the last lecture on January 28.

Fishing the Rangeley Region

Come hear about the waters, the flies, and the fish that make the western mountains of Maine a throwback to fishing times of old, where lakes, rivers, and ponds still hold large brook trout as well as salmon. Presented by New Hampshire guide Jim Norton.
Thursday, January 7, at 7 pm

Fishing the Merrimack River and Inshore Waters

Angling for striped bass and bluefish in the Merrimack River estuaries? Get expert advice from Captain Charlie Crue on fly and light spinning tackle as well as the best techniques, flies, and lures.
Thursday, January 14, at 7 pm

Reel People: Fishermen of Plum Island
Filmmaker James Waldron screens and discusses his one-hour documentary exploring the culture of fishing on this barrier island just off the coast of Newburyport, Mass. Meet bait throwers and fly casters, men and women, kids and octogenarians who find their excitement at the end of a piece of string.
Thursday, January 21, at 7 pm

Let’s Go Fishing: Introduction to Fly-Tying

In this workshop you’ll be introduced to the tools, materials, threads, and hooks required for fly-tying. Then, in a hands-on session, you’ll learn to tie nymph, wet, streamer, and dry flies. Tools and materials will be provided, but participants may bring their own if they have them. For adults, and children over twelve if accompanied by an adult. Enrollment is limited. To register, go to www.tinyurl.com/nplfishing after December 1.
Saturday, January 23, from 10 am to 4 pm

Fly Fishing for Bass and Salmon

Tips for fly fishing nearby and in Maine for salmon and bass—yes, bass—courtesy of the Nashua Fly Casters. Plus, learn a bit about the history and activities of this organization for local anglers.
Thursday, January 28, at 7 pm

The library is located at 2 Court Street, Nashua, NH. For more information visit www.nashualibrary.org or call Carol at (603) 589-4610.

Swift redux

2009-10-31T09:14:00.006-04:00

As planned, Stan and I hit the Swift River again from the hatchery pipe to the area below Cady Lane. Short report: crowded; fooled a few; had fun.
The real story is that unlike Monday (see Oct 27 report) all the "good spots" were taken. This proved to be a blessing in disguise. The hatchery pipe is like fly fishing junk food. Fish stack up there and if you are even a marginally competent "bobber" angler, you can clean up with fish after fish falling for your egg pattern or tiny nymph. The further you move from this epicenter of trout gluttony, the tougher the fishing is. Just 30 or 40 feet downstream, the successful anglers usually need to bring their "A-Game" matching the hatch, perfect presentation, etc. When I saw the big crowd huddled around the pipe run, I had to readjust my expectations. On Monday, after being satiated with junk food, I had moved upstream to fish the run from the roll dam to the gauge pool with some success. This time I chose to follow Stan downstream on shanks mare and find some solitude and tough fish - mission accomplished. The trout downstream were highly visible, since the water is clear as air and slick as didymo on a door-knob. Like all trout, when the water temperature is right and food is available, they are compelled to feed, so there was no shortage of opportunities. Conditions like this can either intimidate or inspire the fly angler. Since it was the only game in town, I had no choice but to become inspired. I would like to say that I conquered every fish I targeted, but as often as not, the most I got was a perfunctory glance before being summarily dismissed. But, often enough to keep me interested, I was able to elicit a quick strike, about half of which resulted in a break-off. I always figure that fooling the fish into a strike is 90% of the fun of fly fishing, so I wasn't too disturbed, other than with the loss of a successful fly on a number of occasions. Oddly enough, some of the successful patterns were not hatch-matchers, but the fly fishing equivalents of "Hail Mary" efforts. Who knows why these pea-brained trout Einsteins chose a skated Henryville Special after ignoring a dozen different tiny BWO patterns, but some did. In any case, fish were seen, fish were fooled and fish were caught-and a few were self-released wearing a bushy mustache, a day early for Halloween. None were caught with the benefit of an egg pattern, floated under a bobber. (Not that there is anything wrong with that! See Ken's commentary <Why I hate indicators>)

Great weather and decent flows equals great fishing and mediocre catching

2009-10-29T22:00:00.004-04:00

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.

Postscript to yesterday's post

2009-10-28T09:22:00.002-04:00

One of the hot flies on the Swift River was the Hotspot, a nymph I learned about from Ken Elmer's Miller River Fly Fishing Forum. I don't know if it is taken for a pellet, an egg, a pellet/egg sandwich, or whatever. I just know it works. Thanks, Ken!
Also, I frequently get some off-line email commenting or asking questions. That is fine, but feel free to hit the "Comment" button. This blog is for my fishing reports, but also for sharing information (thanks Eric and Bob) that advances our community of FFers. So get out of lurk mode every now and then and let's hear from you!

Fast action, then skunk-city

2009-10-27T07:28:00.004-04:00

How can one river make you feel like king of the river and then a hopeless fishing chump, all in the same day? The Swift River does it again! Stan and I arrived around 9AM and had the entire hatchery pipe run to ourselves for over an hour. Fish were piled up all over, just waiting in line to get caught. They were all hatchery rainbows, a strain which the biologists have tricked into spawning in the fall, so they can stock them sooner. They were all full of fishy-testosterone and ready for action. Those that weren't trying to spawn were in the chow line behind the unlucky lovers waiting for a free meal. I suspect the hatchery pipe was also delivering a steady dribble of eggs from hatchery hens. Being a long-time proponent of matching the hatch, I matched the eggs. Every time I changed size or color I got a fish or two. Pink, orange, yellow all worked their magic. I also got some on white sparkle softhackles and white midge pupa. After I ran out of tiny single egg colors, I was staring at one of my fly boxes trying to select the next fly and my eyes kept coming back to a sparkle egg-cluster that I had used on the salmon river in NY to fool the steelhead. It looked so big and clunky compared to the little eggs I had used so far. "What the heck, they ate eggs and they ate white sparkle flies, why not a big clump of white sparkle eggs?" Well, three fish on three consecutive drifts had me snipping off the fly and retiring from my perch at the pipe. BTW all the fish were real chunkers - smallest over 12 inches and biggest almost 18 inches and FAT!
Well, I followed Stan downstream, who had tired of catching chunky rainbows at the pipe run. He was agonizing over the brainier cousin rainbows who were turning their nose up at smaller-than-size-20 flies in the gin-clear water downstream towards Cady Lane. I told Stan I would be fishing upstream from the gauge when he tired of bashing his head against the intellect of the pea-brained denizens of the Swift. I didn't see anything at the run/pool at the USGS gage, but landed a very brightly colored rainbow at the roll-dam pool. I also lost another after a brief tussel and fooled another that tried to eat my lime-green strike indicator. It refused to eat anything I tossed at it that had a hook in its tail. After a bite of late-lunch Stan and I retired to the Cady Lane area for another frustrating session trying to fool the trout that were rising to nearly-invisible specks just beneath the surface. Stan got one and I was pleased to miss a strike on another, but surely these must be some super-trout that have escaped from a secret government program, unlike the dunces at the hatchery pipe.
When the flow levels recede, I'll be hitting one of the local rivers later this week - hopefully the Pemi or Contoocook.

What a way to warm-up for the game!

2009-10-25T13:46:00.007-04:00

My buddies at Evening Sun FS have been raving about the hatches/rising fish on the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers. I was going to go this afternoon during the second half after the Pats kick the crap out of the Bucs. Just in case there is a Wembley SNAFU, I decided to go this morning. I started out in W. Groton at the lower end of the Bertozzi WMA area (my favorite spot on the river.) I thought for sure I would be able to "pound-up" a rainbow at the cable pool, but no dice. I switched over to a BH caddis pupa with a white-sparkle softhackle dropper, still in the cable pool, but to no avail. I moved up to the run above and got a brown and a rainbow on the SH. (Thanks for the idea Bob W.) Then I moved a little further up and got another brown on a golden stonefly nymph. Then moved below the cable pool and got my last rainbow on the SH. Time to bail for the Pats game. All-in-all it exceeded my expectations. The fish were beautiful - very dark, indicating they have been there quite a while. The water was at a great flow level - about 70CFS after the recent rain. I bet the risers will be active when the water warms a bit in the afternoon and the insects start moving around. I got mine this morning and will leave the afternoon hatch to the rest of you. Tomorrow my buddy Stan and I plan to hit the Swift River. Report to follow.

Where's the action?

2009-10-18T14:49:00.002-04:00

After my day off fishing the Farmington River with Stan, I got back to work on Friday and Saturday. These are the last two trips I have booked. Both groups wanted to fish for the broodstock Atlantic salmon in the Pemigewasset River. If you have been following these reports, you know that salmon have been hard to get this fall. In fact, the few people I have run into on the river all ask me where the salmon are and say that nobody has been catching them. Well, they are scarce and tough to hook-up even if you do find some, but it is not impossible. I had a couple young men contact me from Virginia wanting some fly fishing instruction and a chance to catch a salmon. Casting in the wind is difficult even for experienced fly fishers, much less beginners. They were motivated and worked hard and we did find some salmon. Then on Saturday I took a couple experienced anglers who had never fished for salmon. Last year I took Ish out to the Contoocook River for a lesson and we fished the Hendrickson hatch and got some nice trout on dries. He has been reading these fishing reports and wanted to take his friend Rob for some salmon as a birthday gift. They had originally booked the trip for Sunday (today), but when I saw the weather forecast, I suggested that we go on Saturday, which turned out to be a great day (which today obviously is not!) In addition to fishing, the other objective was to learn the river for future fishing on their own. We hit all the usual places and a few unusual ones throughout the day. Rob got the first fish in the big pool on Coolidge Woods road in Bristol. Then after eating lunch, we moved down-river a ways and Ish kicked it up a notch with a nice brown trout and some very feisty salmon. We had the entire river to ourselves. We saw one other angler getting into his truck and that was it. Nobody but us on miles of river in Bristol, although there were quite a few fishing below Franklin Falls dam when we stopped by there to finish the day. Here is a link to Ish and Rob's pictures: <salmon pictures> Be sure to check out the video at the bottom of the page to see a serious bend in Ish's 6wt rod.
Don't forget that the Contoocook and Sugar Rivers are now open until November 30. There have been quite a few caddis and tiny BWO hatching on the Contoocook in the afternoon and plenty of browns rising to them. Also the NH seacoast rivers will soon be stocked and should fish well after next weekend. In Massachusetts, many of the rivers were stocked a couple weeks ago and are fishing well, including the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers. The weather should warm up in a few days, so take an afternoon off from work and hunt some fish before the fall rains come.

End of the season Rush

2009-10-15T08:29:00.004-04:00

What a rush - big browns on dry flies! Stan and I hit the Farmington River yesterday in the upper TMA. We hit the usual spots: Hitchcock Chair, Whittemore, Church (just to look and have lunch in the sun), central riffle and Ovation. Stan got a couple nice browns in the run into Whittemore on softhackles, while I had to work hard for a couple salmon parr (big ones about 9-10 inches.) As we moved down river things picked up even more - I think the warming sun had something to do with it, as we saw more insects as the day wore on. There were BWO, a couple different caddis and a few of what looked like Isonychias, although I couldn't catch one to verify. We finished up at my favorite pool and found some large, hungry browns. Some were more interested in spawning than food, but quite a few were willing to take a well-presented dry. I caught most on a gray parachute Adams, about a size 12. Pretty exciting to see a 16+ inch brown slowly suck-in your dry fly and then go berserk when it realizes it is hooked. Probably not too many days like that left in the calendar.
Last weekend and early this week I had clients out wading on some ponds (a few rising brookies); the Newfound River (nice rainbow on a heron fly); the Contocook River (afternoon hatch of black caddis, tan caddis and BWO brought some nice browns to hand.) The biggest disappointment continues to be the broodstock salmon - small, scarce and heavily pounded by anglers.
Get out there and enjoy the end of the season fishing. The water is cool, still some hatches and the foliage is spectacular.

Catching up

2009-10-06T21:00:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday I got back from our week in Errol on the Androscoggin River and didn't get to catch my breath before guiding on Friday, Saturday and Monday on the Contocook and Pemigewasset Rivers. I just now finished downloading some of the pictures and forwarding them to clients. If you want to see some beautiful foliage and beautiful fish, check out the flash files. Every day we were there, the fishing got better and better. On the last day there were fish rising to gray mayflies (Isonychia?) black caddis, pumpkin caddis and who-knows-what-else. The water was cooling down from the low 60s to the mid-50s and the fish loved it. We saw a lot more leaf-peepers than we did fishermen. Only on Saturday September 26 did we see many other anglers. One thing that surprised me was that we didn't see any moose - weird, since we saw at least 2 or 3 every day in June. We saw eagles, fox and grouse, but no moose. Did I mention that the brook trout were resplendent in their spawning colors and that the foliage was spectacular?
I took a father and son fishing for the broodstock salmon on Monday. Fantastic foliage on the Pemigewasset River in Bristol, but the salmon were a disappointment. We caught a 14" rainbow that was as big as the salmon we caught. Also caught a few small browns in Franklin, which was an added bonus. Hopefully my trips on this weekend will produce bigger fish.
Anybody been fishing the Squannacook or Nissitissit Rivers? They have been recently stocked and should be fishing well.

Androscoggin River Trip teed up next

2009-09-22T21:04:00.002-04:00

Got home from Moosehead on Friday; taught 9 new fly fishers the way of the long rod on Saturday and Sunday at the Northeast Fly Fishing School; and now I am packed to head north for a week guiding the Androscoggin River in Errol. My partner Jim and I run our "Virtual fishing lodge" in Errol the last two weeks of June and the last week of September, the best fishing weeks of the season on the Andro. The forecast is super, the flows are great for both wading and the drift boat. H-m-m-m-m what can go wrong now? Let's hope the fish are cooperative. I am hoping for some caddis and isonychia mayflies, but there is always the woolly bugger when all else fails. We still have Saturday and Sunday openings if anybody can get away. No reports until next week.

20th Anniversary trip to Moosehead Lake

2009-09-21T08:30:00.005-04:00

One Big Trip down and one to go. The trip to the Moosehead Lake region was fantastic. I have been there numerous times, but never get tired of it. So much good water: Moose River, East Outlet and Roach River, not counting the huge lake and numerous brooktrout ponds. As always, we stayed at Maynard's of Maine sporting camps on the Moose River near the inlet to Moosehead Lake. What do you usually spend for a night in an average roadside motel? 60, 70, 80 or more bucks a night? We paid $65/night for a comfortable room and three amazing meals a day. The prime rib was almost 2-inches thick and done perfectly. But I digress. . . The fishing was almost as good as the accommodations. We arrived Tuesday around noon and after checking our buddies who were fishing the East Outlet, we checked in and drove about a half mile from Maynards to some good pools on the Moose River. Caught a small salmon and a really nice 17+ inch salmon.
The next day Dick and I fished with Bob Dionne, owner of Aardvark Outfitters. What a nice guy and a really good guide. I have been guided in Maine, the Adirondacks, Catskills, Lee's Ferry Arizona, Florida and a couple trips to Montana. Bob is as good as any guide I have taken. I am not a "fish counter" so I don't know exactly how many salmon and brooktrout I caught, but let's say that there were not many lulls in the action. At one spot we stopped to fish from shore and I got two salmon and a brooktrout in four casts with a Henryville Special dry caddis pattern. Here is a picture of Dick with one of the nice salmon he caught.
On Thursday we took a drive around the lake to Kokadjo and the Roach River. Bob had fished the Roach the day before and told us that they were not releasing water yet from First Roach Pond, but any day now they would start drawing down the pond and the salmon would start their spawning run. When we got there I immediately could see that the gate was open and water was roaring down the river and that the salmon and trout were in the river. We started at the dam pool and I got a beautiful 15+ inch brookie. Dick got a small salmon and then we walked down the trail to the Dump Pool. Our friends Dick (the other Dick) and Mack had fished there while we were on the drift trip and Mack had hooked a VERY large salmon that broke him off and proceeded to make a couple more jumps with Mack's nymph rig still in his mouth. A couple anglers were just leaving as we arrived. We both started tossing nymphs and didn't see a fish. Then we moved along to the Warden's Pool. The lone angler was just getting ready to leave as we arrived. He said he had caught two salmon and two trout on nymphs. I tossed my nymph rig into the current and immediately got a jarring strike and I proceeded to break the fish off with my King Kong hook set. Soon I had two other good strikes, but didn't hook-up. Dick didn't have much luck either, so we headed back to the East Outlet (Kennebec River as it emerges from Moosehead Lake and flows to Indian Pond.) We did pretty well there and Dick caught a lot of fish in the last hour and a half before we had to eat the nightly feast at Maynard's and listen to Dick D's twentieth anniversary telling of "the greatest sea story ever told."

Building up to the big trip(s)

2009-09-14T16:04:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday and Friday I had some beginners wanting to catch the fly fishing bug. Both days we hit the Ellis and Saco. Both rivers have been pounded pretty good lately, so it has been harder and harder to come up with some fish. It took some pocket water for one group and a big pool for the others to score some brook trout. Each got their fish on dries after missing a few hits.
That is something hard to teach - how hard/fast to set the hook on a strike. Some people come by it naturally and others really have to work at it.
On Sunday Jim, Barb, Dick and I checked out the Sugar River. We have been fishing up north a lot and wanted to see how the Sugar had fared over the summer. There are still some nice fish there. The water is just starting to cool to a good level - about 63F mid-morning. The flow is perfect and should get even better over the next couple weeks as the water cools to the 55F range.
The second half of September I have two major trips. Tomorrow I point the car north towards Moosehead Lake, Rockwood, Maine. The 20th anniversary trip of the Bull Salmon Club will be held at Maynard's of Maine (Ain't nuthin' changed 'cept the linens in 90 years!)
Then next week my partner Jim and I host clients at our "virtual fishing lodge" on the banks of the Androscoggin River. This is my second most-favorite time of the year to fish - foliage is fantastic, fish are hungry and the rivers are less crowded. We have relaxed the double occupancy/multiple day requirement, so it is even a better deal than usual. There are even some prime weekend days still available. See details.
My next report won't be until after I get back from Maine. CYA then.

Workin' on Labor Day

2009-09-07T19:01:00.006-04:00

Tough job, but somebody has to do it. Today it was a guy from Philly attending a wedding at the MT Washington Hotel who needed to cure his hangover with a half-day of flinging a fly. I met him in Glen and we fished the Ellis for a couple hours, then moved down to the Saco River. Tally for the morning was three12" brooktrout landed, and an equal number of missed strikes. One on a SSH (Shadan Soft Hackle) and the rest on dries (small para-Adams, elkhair caddis.) We found a pool on the Saco River with a few nice trout swimming around. Very sporadic rises and he was only able to garner a couple strikes with no hook-up, but the sun was high and the fish spooky, so it was still a fun trip. After sending him on his way, I took out my Sage LL 7'11" 4-wt, tied on a beetle pattern and went down and caught one of those finicky trout - a 14" inch brown! Also gave my new Olympus underwater digital a workout.
Here is an underwater video.

Cooling rivers offer angling opportunites

2009-09-06T08:55:00.005-04:00

Yesterday (Saturday) morning I taught a couple more beginners the way of the long rod. We worked on casting technique for a few minutes, then tied on some flies and went at it on the Contoocook River in West Henniker. Water temp is just starting to cool a bit - 64F in the morning and 66F by noon. A few more cool nights and temperate days and the ideal temps in the mid-to-high 50sF will prevail. There will be a few magic weeks of early fall fishing before the leaf-and-needle hatch occurs that makes fly fishing almost impossible for a couple weeks in October.
FYI, We have opened our end-of-September Androscoggin River Special package to single anglers and single days. This would also make a nice getaway for a fly fisher and non-angling partner - foliage and moose-viewing opportunities are both amazing.
Oh yeah, Contoocook River fallfish and brooktrout survived the heat wave and are ready to eat a well-placed fly.

Scouting trip pays off

2009-08-29T10:49:00.003-04:00

This week I went on a "scouting trip" (this is what I tell my wife I am doing when I go fishing) with my buddy Dick and guiding partner Jim. We each had trips scheduled for Friday, so we checked out a few spots on Thursday. We found the flow levels and water temps to be ideal (mid-50F) on the Pemigewasset, Saco and Ellis Rivers. We found the most fish in the Saco and Ellis, but we really didn't spend any time fishing the Pemigewasset. On Friday I started the day on the Pemigewasset in North Woodstock and after an hour of flogging the water in my best spot with no fish seen, I made a quick decision to head across the Kanc and hit the Ellis, which turned out to be a good move. We found plenty of brook trout willing to hit a fly, but they were too quick for my client. Hopefully this rain we are having in the south will not be too heavy up north. A little rain up there is good, but 3 or 4 inches will spoil the fishing for a couple weeks or more. What I am really looking forward to is a real good nor'easter around September 10. I have a trip to Maine planned for the following week and a good soaking rain will get the salmon moving from the lakes up into the rivers in anticipation of their spawning run. There is nothing like hooking into a two or three pound land lock on my 4-wt rod on a fast flowing river like the East Outlet, Moose or Magalloway Rivers. That reminds me, I need to sit down and tie some streamers and blue-wing olives for the late-season fishing in Maine and in Errol on the Androscoggin River. We have our "virtual fishing lodge" going again the last week in September and still have some good slots open, in case anybody wants to sample some great early Fall fishing in the Great North Woods of NH.

Guys night (day) out

2009-08-26T16:41:00.003-04:00

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.

Cool mountain waters

2009-08-19T12:49:00.004-04:00

I took four trips to the north country in the past week. One trip included my four and six-year-old grandkids, who enjoyed their trip to Santa's Village and Storyland in the scorching heat. The others were with clients. Finding cool water and trout was a tough order to fill, but the Ellis River and Pemigewasset River came through once again. Trout were seen, fooled and landed in both rivers. Water temps are climbing towards 70F. The Ellis was 63F and the Pemi in No. Woodstock was 69F. Hopefuly this hot weather will break and we get a little cooling rain before the weekend. I stopped by the Newfound River on the way back from the Pemi and took the water temp at 81F at 4:30PM on August 18. I doubt if there will be anything left in there but SMB after this heat wave. At least the White Mountains tribs run cool enough to holdover fish until the water cools in late August and September. Hopefully the rain we had in July and early August was enough to provide some refuge in the southern tier of rivers. We got the regs changed to keep the Sugar and Contoocook Rivers open until November 30. Maybe there will even be some fish left in them.
We saw some brooktrout in the brook at Sata's Village. Should have smuggled in my 6-ft 2-wt rod. It was nice and shady and would have been a good diversion from the rides and shows. Maybe next time.

The rains left and the fish remain

2009-08-10T22:02:00.005-04:00

The rivers are in great shape! They have settled down to near-normal flows and haven't warmed up yet. Although we are getting a spell of hot weather, hopefully the cool nights will help keep the water at a good temperature. Last Thursday the Sugar River was running about 500CFS, which was a little high, but very wadable. The water temp was 68F and my clients picked up a couple fish - a brown and a rainbow - on a half-day trip. They went back to California with a very good impression of NH fly fishing opportunities. Often we take for granted the resources available to us. It is good to get a reality check now and then to help us remember how lucky we are.
Friday was the day to work on a TU project. I donned swiming mask to place some temperature data loggers in the Piscataquog River in New Boston, NH. Just about every place a device we saw some trout. That was really surprising and encouraging, since that river really warms up most years. Well, we will see exactly how warm and cold it gets, so we can ploan some restoration projects to improve the trout habitat. It's great to have streams nearby, like the Piscataquog and Souhegan, where we'll be placing some temperature data loggers next week.
On Saturday my partner Jim and I took a pair of father-sons from Peru to learn how to fly fish in the Pemigewasset River near Lincoln. One young man caught a rainbow trout on his first cast ever. Nothing short of amazing. He caught another one a little while later, and then a couple more after lunch. Same flies, same river, but the others couldn't seem to fool any fish. I don't think there are any trout in Peru, but if there are, these guys are ready for action. Yesterday it was a father, son and daughter who wanted to learn how to fly fish. The Contoocook River in Henniker has been at near-flood levels for over a month, and is just now getting to a fishable level - 550CFS on Sunday. Since these rivers haven't been fishable, it is like having private water to fish. Well, the Professor's pool had rising fish and we fooled some of them. A few were non-trout natives (fallfish) but there were 4 or 5 rainbows and a smallmouth bass willing to take a Stimulator, hornberg or elk hair caddis. With a little bit of luck, the Contoocook and Sugar Rivers will hold fish well into the extended season. Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, these rivers now stay open until November 30, rather than closing October 15, as in the past. I wonder if there are still fish holding in the Newfound River? The surface of the lake must be warming, so that could be the end of good fishing there for the year. Thursday and Monday I have some more beginners in the que ready to learn the magic of the slender wand. Might take a ride to see how the Ellis and Saco are fishing. Got to be ready with some fresh water and fresh fish for the new fly fishers.

Head south for the fish

2009-08-02T23:09:00.001-04:00

OK already, no more "Bring on the rain." This run of rain every couple days has really messed up my schedule. Two trips were rescheduled last week and hopefully they will be completed this week. Luckily, I had a trip booked for the Farmington River on Friday. That is a dam-controlled tailwater fishery that was not impacted by the rainfall. We dodged a few rain showers, but were able to find rising fish in a few different locations. My clients were from Westchester County, NY and I had guided one of them on two previous occasions. The mission on this trip was to teach his friend to fly fish, which I did. We found some blue wing olives in the afternoon and towards evening a few sulphers and a couple little yellow sally stone flies. We saw quite a few cedar waxwings picking off insects, which was cool to see. Almost all our fishing was done from Riverton up toward the dam. The water temp was about 63F which would be pretty good for local waters, but usually at this time of year the water temp on the Farmington is in the upper 50s. All this rain has caused them to release more water than usual from the reservoir, which is depleting the real cold water. Even though the water is warming, it is still an ideal temperature for trout. If this rain continues, I'll have to keep setting my sights on the Farmington as the only game in (or out of) town.

Keep the rain coming!

2009-07-24T16:17:00.003-04:00

All the rain we have had may be messing up the beach vacations, but it sure is helping the fish. I was guiding the Saco, Ellis, Pemigewasset and Androscoggin Rivers this week and we had late-spring conditions, instead of mid-summer doldrums. The rivers in the White Mountains are running at wadable levels with water temps under 60F. Perfect! There were enough BWO, little yellow sallies and sulphers to keep the trout interested, as well as some caddis. I had both very experienced anglers, as well as beginners and all got some nice fish - almost all on dry flies. I hope the warmer weather in the forecast doesn't spoil the fishing.

Ellis and Saco River Bonanza

2009-07-17T12:04:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I guided a very experienced salt water fly fisher for a little NH trout fishing. He was staying in SW Maine, so we agreed to meet near North Conway, where the water has been dropping after all the rain we had in June and early July. The water on the Ellis was 59F - perfect! We had a mid-day start with a plan to fish until dark. A couple of places I scouted in the morning before we met had rising fish, so I knew it would be a pretty good day. Well, that is an understatement. Apparently they have been emptying the hatcheries and the Ellis and Saco are now home to a good part of the excess trout. There was already a good supply of holdover and previously stocked fish that would rise to a well-fished fly, so when we tired of hauling in the recent stockers, we found some finicky browns, a 14+ inch rainbow and a number of 12+ inch brook trout to test mettle. Here is a really nice brook trout that took a beadhead caddis pupa.
There were not a lot of insects on the water until early evening. There were a few Little Yellow Sallies, a couple BWO spinners and later on, some sulphers. At any given time, we were likely to see a rise or two, but nothing really consistent. We fooled fish on a wide variety of flies, including my favorite chartreuse Usual, some sulpher emergers, soft hackles and comparaduns. We are now reaping the benefits of earlier rainfall, with ideal temperatures and water flows. Get out there while you can before the hot weather takes a toll on the fish.

New Fly Fishers

2009-07-17T11:43:00.002-04:00

Last weekend we had another session of the Northeast Fly Fishing School at Evening Sun Fly Shop in Pepperell, MA. We had 8 students for the classroom portion of the school and added a ninth for the on-the-stream fishing lesson. It was very encouraging to see so many enthusiastic and interested people wanting to get into our sport. My partner Jim and I partnered with Charlie at Evening Sun Fly Shop to offer what we believe to be the most professional and best value fly fishing school in New England. The water level on the Squannacook and Nissitissit Rivers was ideal and a number of fish were fooled and even a few were landed. Here is a look at some of the pictures from the class. <Pictures>

Androscoggin River Alder-mania

2009-07-07T09:41:00.009-04:00

The trip up north to the Androscoggin River in Errol, NH and the 13-Mile Woods wilderness area was fantastic. Our Androscoggin Special Package was booked full for 14 days straight. We had 17 beginners out of 27 anglers and all of them caught fish. One got a fish on his second cast with a fly and another took all of two days, but finally landed a (measured) 18-inch landlocked salmon. (See the picture)
We were really lucky dodging rain and high water. The first week we were there the river flow was low and we only had some occasional drizzle. All of our clients were relieved to find that the heaviest rain fell south of the White Mountains. During the second week we got a little more rain and they released more water from the dam, but we were still able to find quite a few fish. Jim drifted the CT River one day and had his best day this year with client Jerry D. who hooked into a lot of fish there and when I took him to a couple hot spots on the Androscoggin. We had a lot of father-son and husband-wife teams on the trip, which was a lot of fun for us and for them. Obviously, fly fishing is a life-long sport and it is satisfying to know that many of the people we taught on this trip will be fly fishing long after Jim and I are no longer around.
We target this trip for the Alder Fly hatch and this year we hit it good. I was able to get clients into fish on zebra caddis patterns starting around June 22 and continuing through July 3 when we left. Although there were huge swarms of Alder flies, the fish were not really turned on to them. Rarely did we see a fish rise to a natural, although we caught loads of fish on caddis dries. For those that haven't experienced the hatch, here is a video that will give you an idea of what it is all about.

In addition to Alder flies, there were plenty of golden stone flies, and Little yellow Sallies around also. In the evening we fished the hex hatch and our clients caught some beautiful brook trout This one was landed by good friend and client Dick Peterson. Here is a link to more pictures and videos of the trip. That is it for the June 2009 Andro-Adventure, and we are already planning the September trip. We will be offering the same Special Package the last week of September. Last year the September trip was spectacular, with crisp weather, peak foliage and lots of willing fish. Let me know if you want more info.

Northbound

2009-06-18T22:27:00.003-04:00

Monday and Tuesday I guided a couple clients in the White Mountains. The Ellis River fished pretty good, but the Pemi in North Woodstock/Lincoln continues to be a bust for me so far this season. Thank goodness for the Newfound River, even if they have been releasing high volumes of water from the lake. I stayed at the AMC Highland Center in Crawford Notch Monday night. What a deal! For $40 I got a comfortable bunk and a terrific breakfast with a fantastic view of the mist rising on the mountains. One of my clients stayed at the MT. Washington hotel, and I doubt if he slept any better or had a better view than I did. Tomorrow I throw the canoe on the truck and head north for a couple weeks guiding the Androscoggin River in the Thirteen Miles Woods section. Hopefully the river will remain at a fishable level, unlike last year when it was running at near flood levels from mid-June to late July. I have a whole box of Alder Fly patterns and another of hex. The hatches are sure to emerge and I'll be ready when it does. Stay tuned for the report when I get back on the 4th of July.

Mainely Salmon

2009-06-14T07:24:00.004-04:00

Early this week the BSC (Bull Salmon Club - a bunch of guys who have been fishing together for 20 years or more) spent a few days fishing the West Branch of the Penobscot River near Ripogenous Gorge. We actually stayed at Nesourdnehunk Camps on the lake of the same name, alledged to be the home of wild brook trout of prodigous proportions. Well, if you consider eight inches to be prodigous, you would be happy. We weren't, so we took the 18 mile drive to the West Branch every day. In short, the fishing was fantastic. Caddis were everywhere and the fish were feeding on top from morning 'til night. The largest I caught was about 18 inches, but the average was almost 15 inches, and they fought like hell in that fast current. A few Little Yellow Sallies were around and my single most effective fly was a chartreuse Usual, although I caught fish on almost every caddis pattern I threw at them, as well as a couple mayfly patterns. This is a picture of Dick and Randy fishing one of our favorite spots.
After I got back I innoculated a couple beginner clients with the fly fishing bug and they caught a couple brown trout on the Contoocook River (the Usual strikes again!) This continuing cool weather pattern is great for the fish. I hope it holds up, since I'll be guiding in the White Mountains a couple days this week. Then on Friday I'll be heading north with my partner Jim for two weeks guiding on the Androscoggin River in the Thirteen Mile Woods section. We have one spot open for a single angler. If you are interested, here is the link for more info .